8th Grade US History Notes

Chapter 18: The Civil War

Section 1: The Two Sides
• As the Civil War got underway, each side had strengths and weaknesses. The Union’s strengths included more resources and people. The Confederacy had strong military leaders and knowledge of the terrain on which most of the battles would be fought.
• The decision of the border states —Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri—to remain loyal to the Union was vital to the Union war effort. Maryland was especially important because Washington, D.C., was located along the state’s border.
• The North wanted to preserve the Union while the South wanted to be an independent nation. At the start of the Civil War, ending slavery was not the Union’s goal.
Section 2: Early Years of the War
• At the start of the war, both sides were hopeful the war would end quickly—and in their favor.
• The First Battle of Bull Run was the first major battle of the Civil War. The Confederates won this battle, surprising the Union.
• The North established a blockade of all Confederate ports. The South tried to defeat the Union navy with an ironclad ship, but the North also had an ironclad ship. Both ironclads were eventually destroyed, and the North kept a naval advantage.
• In the war’s early years, the North won key battles in the West, including at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Corinth. After a series of victories in the East, Lee moved his troops into Maryland with the goal of invading the North. After losing the battle of Antietam, he retreated back to Virginia.
• At first, Lincoln had not wanted to make the war about slavery because he was afraid to lose support of the border states. Abolitionists argued that the war should be a fight to end slavery. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people in Rebel territory on January 1, 1863.
Section 3: Life During the Civil War
• During the war, many children stopped going to school so they could help out at home. Women took on new roles as nurses, factory workers, teachers, and even as spies.
• Hunger and disease were major threats to the health of soldiers at military camps, hospitals, and prisons during the war. As hardships mounted, many people in both the North and the South began to oppose the war.
• Both Union President Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis suspended habeas corpus to deal with opposition to the war. Both sides also passed a draft, which required able-bodied men to enlist.
Section 4: The Strain of War
• In Virginia, Confederate military leaders Lee and Jackson led troops to a series of stunning victories, such as at Chancellorsville, Virginia.
• African Americans were not allowed to enlist in the Confederacy, but they were eventually invited to join the Union army. The best-known African American regiment was the 54th Massachusetts.
• In 1863, the Union won key battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. These battles helped turn the war decidedly in the Union’s favor. On November 19, 1863, the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg was dedicated. At the dedication ceremony, Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.
Section 5 The War’s Final Stages
• President Lincoln put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union army. In May and June of 1864, Grant pressured the Lee and the Confederates in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. Union forces suffered terrible losses—but so did the Confederates.
• General Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and Union navy leader David Farragut succeeded in setting a blockade at Mobile Bay in Alabama. General Sherman burned Atlanta and waged total war throughout the South as part of a strategy to break the Confederates’ will to fight.
• President Lincoln won reelection in 1864. On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery in the United States.
• Lee’s army finally gave way under Grant’s attacks. By April 1865, Richmond, Virginia, had fallen to the Union. The Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, ending the Civil War.
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