The End of the Unforeseen Leland Culver David

The End of the Unforeseen Leland Culver, David Libes, Jason Tothy, Julian Skosky-La. Londe (Group 4)

Ulysses S. Grant ● Hiram Ulysses Grant is born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio ● His father, believing that he is hopelessly impractical, enrolls him at West Point Military Academy, where a clerk mistakenly registers him as Ulysses S. Grant ● After graduating, Grant marries Julia Dent, who bears him four children ● In 1854, he leaves the army and goes East to see his family ● Grant then tries and fails several other jobs in an attempt to support his family ● Grant re-enters the army at the beginning of the war

Robert E. Lee ● Lee is born on January 19, 1807 at Stratford in Virginia ● Lee marries Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Mary Custis in 1831, two years after he graduates from West Point ● Custis bears seven children to Lee ● Lee is promoted three times for bravery during the Mexican war where he meets a young Grant and is the Nation’s most promising soldier at the beginning of the Civil War ● Lee hates slavery but loves Virginia, so he refuses command of the Union army and leaves the Union

Union Objectives ● Ulysses S. Grant designs a four-point strike plan to bring the Confederacy to its knees ● George Gordon Meade to lead the army of the Potomac against Lee ● General Benjamin Butler to come up the James river towards Richmond ● General William Tecumseh Sherman to capture Atlanta ● General Franz Sigel to capture the Shenandoah Valley

Petersburg ● Grant wished to capture Petersburg because it protects the south edge of Richmond ● The army of the Potomac out guesses Lee, who thought that they would go for Richmond, and General William F. Smith leads the attack on June 15 ● Smith waits too long into the night, so he lost his advantage and Lee arrived with reinforcements ● This forced the Union to engage in a 9 -month siege that would result in countless casualties for both sides

The Darkest Hour ● All of Grant’s plans end in stalemates ● The Army of the Potomac is stuck outside Petersburg ● Sherman’s army is being waylaid by General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee ● Siegal’s army is stopped in the Shenandoah ● Lincoln needs a Union victory if he wants to win the Election of 1864

The Election of 1864 “After four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, we demand that immediate effort be made for a cessation of hostilities at the earliest practicable moment” -Democratic national platform ● The war Democrats and Republicans join to form the National Union party, whose goal was to finish the war and move on to reconstruction ● The new National Union party nominates Lincoln ● The Democrats nominate former General of the Army of the Potomac George B. Mc. Clellan ● Lincoln had to be reelected in the midst of Civil war, when no president since Andrew Jackson had been reelected, but he said he had to maintain the election, or then rebellion “might fairly be claimed to have already conquered and ruined us” Lincoln

Lincoln’s Running Mate ● Lincoln ran with Andrew Johnson in the election of 1864 instead of Hannibal Hamlin ● During his first election, Maine-born Hamlin made sense as a running mate, as Maine was really the first state to embrace Republicanism ● The Democratic governor of Union-occupied Tennessee made sense as a running mate for the 1864 election as it would help Hamlin Johnson

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address ● On March 4 1865 Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address to a broken nation. ● It was a cold and windy day, just like his last address, but just before Lincoln begins to speak, the clouds part and he is revealed by a ray of sunlight ● During his speech Lincoln revealed some of his goals to reconstruct America

William T. Sherman “War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it, the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over” -William Tecumseh Sherman ● Born february 18, 1820 -february 14, 1891 (aged 71 but four days away from age 72) ● Lancaster, Ohio ● One of eleven children ● When William was 9 years old, his father died suddenly, and left him with very little amounts of money ● Sherman attended West Point an orphan, and forged a friendship with Grant in Kentucky during the early days of the war ● Hates the newspapers, regarding them as worse than spies, and is ruthless in ● Joined army and appointed second lieutenant in the third artillery ● Fought in the mexican american war ● Led the 1, 000 mile march in the south also known as sherman's march war

Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign

Sherman’s March ● Gives birth to the modern war tactic of Total War ● Before leaving, Sherman destroys Atlanta ● 62, 000 soldiers with a supply chain of 25 miles march in two great columns towards the Ocean ● Sherman’s men eat better on their march than ever before, living off the land ● Looting, burning, pillaging, seriously disheartens the already dying Confederacy ● Sherman’s march wreaked 100 million dollars of havoc ● 25, 000 Slaves fled to Sherman’s lines ● Sherman gives siege to Savannah on December 11, taking it on December 20 ● Sherman’s men were much harder on South Carolina than they were on Georgia, because it was the first state to Secede ● Feb 19 1865 - Fort Sumter and Charleston are abandoned

Hood’s Diversion ● John Bell Hood tries to divert Sherman’s troops by heading North to join with Nathan Bedford Forrest, Sherman ignores him ● An army a third again as large as Hood’s lies in wait for Hood commanded by George Thomas ● At Franklin Hood orders 13 hopeless charges, in which 12 Confederate Generals and 7000 soldiers are lost ● George Thomas then attacks the remainder of Hood’s army at Nashville

Southern Desperation ● The Confederacy begins to “live a Greek tragedy” (Shelby Foote) ● Confederate political leaders say that the Confederacy is fighting a second American Revolution, and that times are bound to be tough ● “Not the fall of Richmond, nor Wilmington, nor Charleston nor Savannah nor Mobile, nor all combined can save the enemy from the constant and exhaustive drain of blood and treasure which must continue until he shall discover that no peace is attainable unless based on the recognition of our indefeasible rights. ” -Jefferson Davis, giving official birth to the lost cause

The Union takes Richmond ● On January 31, 1865 the US Congress votes 119 to 56 to abolish slavery, and 11 months later, it is ratified by the States ● In 9 months, Grant slowly extends his trenches around embattled Petersburg ● Grant’s Armies rout Petersburg on April 2 ● Lee flees Petersburg across the Appomattox river, and tells Davis to evacuate Richmond ● April 2, evening, Davis evacuates Richmond, moving his government 140 miles south to Danville, Virginia ● The Union seizes Richmond on April 3

Battle of Appomattox ● On April 8, 1865 the last battle of the Civil War occurred. ● The Union seized Appomattox Station where the Confederate supplies were arriving. ● The Confederates started to shell the station which started the battle ● Lee retreats to Appomattox Courthouse, flanked on three sides by troops outnumbering him nearly 5 to one ● On April 9, palm Sunday, Lee tries to break out of the flanking maneuver ● Gordon drives cavalry from their positions and mounts a hill to see the entire Union army of the James bearing down upon him, a solid wall of blue

Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox ● On April 9, 1865 ● General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union. ● Lee had surrendered because of the battle of the previous day that exhausted his army ● Although the South had not fully surrendered Lee was the South’s best commander and commanded the largest army. ● Lee signed a Document that said that his soldiers would be put on parole and observed by the government ● Grant, however, allows Confederate Officers to keep their sidearms and personal effects, people could also keep their own horses, Grant gives 25, 000 rations

1863 -4 Timeline May 31 June 12 Cold Harbour 1863 July 22 - Battle of Atlanta 1864 Oct 18 Grant is given command of all Union armies May 8 -12 Wilderness, Spotsylvania June 15 -18 Unsuccessful assault on Petersburg, siege begins Nov 8 Sept 1 Sherman takes Lincoln reelected Atlanta July 30 Battle of the Crater Oct 19 - Battle of Cedar Creek, Union takes Shenandoah Dec 11 Siege of Savannah Nov 12 Beginning of Sherman’s March Dec 20 surrender of Savannah

1865 Timeline February 17 Columbia, South Carolina surrenders Feb 22 Wilmington, North Carolina is abandoned April 3 Union marches into Richmond 1865 Jan 31 - 13 th amendment is passed by Congress Feb 19 Charleston and Fort Sumter are abandoned March 4 Lincoln gives his Second Inaugural Address April 9 Surrender at Appomattox Dec 6 - 13 th Amendment is ratified by the states

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