US1 Unit 7 - Civil War Notes - Unit 7 The Civil War I. From...

Unit 7 – The Civil War
I. From Bull Run to Antietam
A. The First Battle of Bull Run - July 1861 (In Virginia)
 General Irwin McDowell, commander of the Union troops, said he needed more time to get his 90-day
volunteers ready but Lincoln ordered him into action.
 What was his objective? March to Richmond, Virginia (Confederate Capitol).
 General P.G.T Beauregard commanded a smaller force of Confederate soldiers and was positioned
along Bull Run, a stream 4 miles north of a Manassas.
 The Union troops attacked on July 21 and drove the Southerners back, but who stopped the Union
advance? The 22,000 Confederate troops lead by “Stonewall” Jackson
 The Union troops retreated for the safety of Washington and the Confederates were too disorganized
and exhausted to pursue the Union Army.
 The 1
st
major battle of the Civil War was over (1
st
Battle of Bull Run) = Union had 2900 casualties,
2000 for the Confederacy. DEFINE casualties. Someone who is injured, goes M.I.A. or is killed
B. Preparing for War
 Bull Run caused some Americans on both sides to suspect that winning the war might not be so easy.
1. Strengths of the North and the South
 North = 2X more railroad and factories, better economy with more money in the bank, 2/3 of
the nation’s population and a navy.
 South = majority of military officers from the South, fighting a defensive war and were
fighting to preserve their way of life.
2. Union Military Strategies
 Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of the seceded states to block cotton from leaving and
manufactured goods from entering.
 General Winfield Scott strategy was to cut the Confederacy in 2 by controlling the Mississippi
River and getting the South to seek peace,

Why was this plan (nicknamed Anaconda) scorned in the North?
It was going to take a long time and the North (Union) wanted a short war
3. Confederate War Strategies
 “All we ask is to be left alone” Jefferson Davis, Confederate President.
 Southern Strategy called for a war of attrition. DEFINE Wearing out the other side

The South also planned to withhold cotton from England and France so those European
countries would put pressure on the Union.


Why did this strategy fail? England and France found new markets in the Pacific
4. Tactics and Technology

Most Civil War general had been trained to concentrate forces, attack the enemy and drive
them away.
 The muskets and canons were ineffective because they were inaccurate.
 How did bullets and rifling change this?
Bullets drifted less, rifles were accurate up to 500 yards
 Shells (devices that exploded in the air or when they hit something) and canister (shell filled
with bullets) made traditional tactics obsolete.
C. War in the West
 After the disaster at Bull Run, Lincoln named General George McClellan to build and command a
new army (The Army of Potomac)
 Meanwhile, Union forces in the West invaded the Confederacy (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Tennessee) and this became the “war in the west”.