The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April sixth to April seventh in 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. The Union Generals were Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell, the Confederate General was Albert Sidney Johnston. The Battle of Shiloh was considered the bloodiest battle of the Civil War with around 23,700 deaths in all. This was one of the first successful outcomes for the Union and sparked a light of hope for the fighting soldiers. The battle begins with Confederate General Johnston initiating a surprise attack on General Grant’s base around the Shiloh Church.…
After the battle, Robert E. Lee, retreated to Virginia on July 4th, 1863. His army was severely weakened, with about 28,000 captured, wounded, or killed. The Union army also suffered about 23,000 similar losses (Benson). Lee’s army withdrew to the southwest through a driving rain in a wagon train stretching 17 miles (Aines). During the retreat, Lee repeated his remarks at the failure of Pickett’s Charge: “It is all my fault, I thought my men were invincible.”…
Rebuttal: If Grant had not captured Vicksburg, situated on the banks of the Mississippi river, which gave Union forces complete control of the Mississippi river, the Confederacy would have been able to use the Mississippi river to transport supplies, would not have split the South into two and stopped Southerners from getting much needed supplies coming in from the west. “A Yankee captain wrote home to his wife “The backbone of the Rebellion is this day broken. The Confederacy is divided…Vicksburg is ours. The Mississippi River is opened, and Gen. Grant is to be our next President.” (P. 407 Roark)…
Grant, and his role for the rest of the war. Because of his genius battle tactics throughout the battle, along with his great leadership and heroism, Grant was made the Commanding General of the entire U.S. army, a position that he would serve well in. From this position Grant would go on to claim many more victories for the Union. The biggest of these victories would happen at the Appomattox Court House, on May 9th, 1865, when General Grant was successful in making General Robert E. Lee surrender, which ultimately led to the end of the Civil…
Territorial Issues and Compromises On April 12, 1861 the legendary American Civil War broke out. This was a war that would decide the fate of the United States of America. A major problem within the government back then was deciding on whether or not the government had power to outlaw slavery in unmarked U.S. territories. As more territory was acquired, the greater the tension grew between the free and slave states.…
After years of conflict the South seceded. The War broke out after the shelling of Fort Sumter. When Confederate soldiers told the fort commander to surrender, he refused which was the final breaking point of the war. In the Battle of Gettysburg there were many casualties.…
How did the Confederate States of America lose the Civil War? Though a stimulating question that deserves contemporary debate, many historians claim the reason the Confederacy lost the war is based on southern resources, military strategy, civilian leadership or the institution of slavery. However, while all explanations can be classified as valid reasons as to why the Union won and the Confederacy lost, the case can be made that all four reasons were significant causes to the final result of the American Civil War. To start, the resources used by the Confederacy can be, more or less, attributed to the presence of slavery. At the beginning of the war, one third of the Confederate population consisted of slaves (Barney 148), and it can be…
Could secession and racism be so intimately connected? Had white supremacy also form a critical element in the secessionist cause? Through the book Apostles of Disunion, the historian Charles Dew attempts to respond to these questions examining the speeches and letters from the secession commissioners who were in charge of convincing the Southern States to secede from the Union in 1860 – 1861. This essay will present the aspects of culture, society and politics the people from the South were trying to protect, the real reasons they had to secede from the Union, and how these reasons have been changed by some groups since the civil war. It is evident that racial issues and protection of slavery were the central concern on the reasons presented by the commissioners, rather than the consternation for the economy or the defense of the States Rights.…
Once the brutal and devastating Civil War was over General Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox and he made a statement begging the South to stop fighting and move peacefully into reconstruction. Some southerners obeyed Lee’s request while other acted like the war never ended making the transition into reconstruction arduous. However, the federal government did not help anything by having a difficult time deciding on how to deal with the South. Once the Radical Republicans finally took control of Congress a strict and harsh reconstruction began that southern democrats adamantly spoke out and rebelled against. Reconstruction was quickly becoming a challenging task for congress, but the republicans held tight to their beliefs and visions for…
The Battle of Gettysburg: Why Was It a Turning Point? The Battle of Gettysburg was a major battle of the Civil War that took place between July 1st and July 3rd, 1863. This battle happened in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, after the Confederate troops began invading Union territory. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point because morale and momentum shifted.…
Introduction The American civil started purely as a military effort with limited political objectives especially for the white community. By early 1861 white citizen’s main aim of the fight was to preserve the union and as well maintain a democratic republic. The north fought for reunification whereas the south fought for independence during the initial stages of the civil war. However, the war changed between 1862 and 1863 as a result of emancipation.…
On April 26, 1865, nearly 90,000 soldiers had surrendered under Joseph E. Johnston in The Army of Tennessee; they had surrendered to Major General William T. Sherman. It became the largest surrender of the Confederate forces in the war, thus, essentially bringing the American Civil War to an end (Macpherson 1). So, how did the Civil War change America? The Civil War is an important and vital piece of American History that everyone should know about, also become aware on how it changed the way we live our lives today in America.…
Two Parts of a Greater Whole The American Civil War did not have an inevitable outcome during it 's first few stages of development. Nevertheless, the Battle of Gettysburg and Vicksburg became a turning point for the Civil War. Both of these battles ended in favor for the Federal Government also known as the Union, North, or Yankees. There were many casualties from both the Union and the Confederates.…
Grant, in his report to congress at the conclusion of the war, he praised the general for his gracious surrender but felt he had “unnecessarily and tragically prolonged the war” (Fahs, page 13). Still, the veterans of the war remembered this time as a positive end on both sides. A few generations later, however, this was not the case. The descendants of these veterans began tontine matters into their own hands when it came to the remembrance of Appomattox. in 1932, United Daughters of the Confederacy member Mary Davidson Carter was outraged to hear a memorial was being planned for the disassembled McLean house where the surrender took place.…
What led to the American Civil War is a topic of debate which lacks a simple answer. There is heated debate whether the war was fought for emancipation or to preserve the Union. Historians can advocate for either argument since both sides have ample evidence to support their respective standpoint. Both Hollywood and scholarship agree that the Civil War is a war to preserve the Union. While the issue of slavery was a massive factor in the war, it was not the defining factor.…