Non-Military Events of Civil War

1. Non-Military Events of Civil War

2. Political • Creation of black military units • Segregated units with white officers in the army. • The navy had integrated units

3. Economic • Homestead Act (1862)—encouraged settlement of the West; gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would agree to farm it for 5 years. • Morrill Land Grant Act (1862)—gave each state thousands of acres of land to sell; at least one public university had to be funded from the money made; the foundation of the public university system.

4. Cultural • Draft Opposition—both sides had a military draft; Confederacy started it first; in the North there was great opposition to the draft and several horrible riots over it; poor people resented the draft because you had to serve in the army or pay $300 for a substitute, which poor people could not afford. • Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863)—issued by President Lincoln, freed only slaves in the Confederate States, which actually meant it freed no slaves; after this was issued, many black soldiers joined the Union Army.

5. Legal • Lincoln suspended the right to a writ of habeas corpus (guarantee that a person could not be imprisoned without appearing in court) and declared martial (military) law in Maryland. • He then had Confederate supporters in Maryland jailed to keep Maryland in the Union. • If Maryland had joined the Confederacy, Washington, D.C. would have been surrounded by Confederate Territory.

6. Civil War (1861-1865)

7. Civil War (1861-1865) • First Shots Fired: Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina (April 1861) • First Major Battle: First Battle of Bull Run, south of Washington, D.C. in Virginia (July 1861) • Bloodiest Battle: Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee (April 1862) • Bloodiest One Day Battle: Battle of Antietim, Maryland (September 1862)

8. Civil War (1861-1865) • Vicksburg, Mississippi (May-July 1863)—the last Southern stronghold on the Mississippi River; General Ulysses S. Grant led a successful Union siege to give the Union control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy. • Turning Point: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (July 1-3 1863) Union Victory; Lincoln will give his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a cemetery here in November 1863.

9. Civil War (1861-1865) • Sherman’s March to the Sea (May-December 1864)—Union general William T. Sherman led 60,000 Union troops from Chattanooga, Tennessee, through Atlanta, Georgia, to Savannah, Georgia, then northward into South Carolina and North Carolina; his troops destroyed everything in a 60-mile wide path; this created much bitterness in the South. • Surrender—General Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865. • President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford’s Theater. • Vice-President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee becomes President.

10. Costs of War • North • 360,000 killed • Union debt grew from $63 million to $1.3 billion; resulted in inflation. • Industrial production for the war reached record levels. • Return of soldiers to work led to a brief recession—economic downturn with higher unemployment • Union Saved • South • 258,000 killed • Slavery ended • South was destroyed; railroads, factories, banks, farms • 2/3’s of Southern wealth was destroyed, much when slaves were freed • For both regions, over ½ the soldiers did not die of wounds, but of disease.