User:Atcovi/VA and US History/page 4

54th Massachusetts Infantry
Blacks got...
 * Regiment was raised in the North,
 * Led by 25 year old, Col. Robert Gould Shaw (son of a prominent abolitionist Boston family).
 * Accepted assignment to attack Ft. Wagner in Charleston Harbor (July 18, 1863). This was the most fatal and fruitless campaign of the war.
 * Racism
 * 3$ less than their white counterparts.
 * Lower ranks (can only go up to Seargent).

Battle of Gettysburg - July 1-3, 1863
TURNING POINT! The US makes a fish-hook known as Cemetery Ridge while the CSA makes a fish hook known as the Seminary Ridge. Flanks. Running up the hill. Joshua Chamberlain commands the Union army in this battle. When his men run out of ammunition, he orders them to fix the bayonet. He lines them up and allows them to charge down the hill. The ones further out push in.
 * Lee attacked North to relieve pressure on Richmond.
 * Last-ditch effort to secure a Northern victory.
 * Several fatal mistakes were made by the South. Union General George Meade wins.
 * Ended any hope of Southern advance.
 * Day 1
 * Day 2
 * Day 3

A lot of night-time fighting. CSA is unable to break the Union line as their cannon trajectory was incorrect. 50% of casualties from CSA. Lee sneaks back to VA.

Significance

 * Lee's 2nd invasion of the North was stopped.
 * The South could never replace the manpower lost at Gettysburg.
 * Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July, 1863 mark turning point in the War.
 * Gettysburg Address - November 19, 1863.

Gettysburg Address

 * 1) Lincoln wants to focus on the fundamental ideas which brought up this country: "All men are created equal". This is why he starts with "four score and seven years ago".
 * 2) His great task is that he wants to end the war and unite the country.
 * 3) He says that we can only achieve the goal of the slain soldiers.

Vicksburg, Mississippi

 * Vicksburg was fortified and there were 32,000 CSA soldiers inside.
 * May 19-22, 1863: Grant and Sherman attempt a direct attack. Fail both times.
 * May 25-July 4: Grant besieges Vicksburg.
 * Significance
 * Successful for the US
 * The US controls the Mississippi River
 * Falls the day after Union victory at Gettysburg

The Wilderness

 * US Commander: Grant
 * CS Commander: Robert E. Lee

Lee initiates the first attack
 * Significance
 * The battle was a tactical draw but costly. Grant lost a lot more men compared to Lee but Grant could replace his men.

Capture of Atlanta

 * Major General William T. Sherman
 * Confederate forces abandoned the city on Sep. 1. It was occupied on Sep. 2. War is cruel, according to Sherman.

Election of 1864

 * Lincoln
 * National Union
 * Emancipate slaves and re-establish the Union
 * George McClellan
 * Democrat
 * Former commander of the Union Army.
 * Use diplomacy to end war.
 * John C. Fremont
 * Radical Democracy
 * Sought constitutional amendments for civil rights.

Lincoln wins by a small margin due to the US capture of Atlanta.

Sherman's Fiery March to the Sea

 * November 11: Ordered everything of military significance in Atlanta is burned. Evacuates Atlanta - November 16.
 * Sherman heads to Savannah with his 60,000 troops.
 * Tactic
 * Christmas Gift for Lincoln
 * Significance
 * Atlanta's fall devastated the South's morale.
 * Atlanta's fall hurt the South because the city was a communication and industrial center.

Cold Harbor

 * Grant and Meade with 114,000 troops.
 * Lee with 56,000 troops.
 * June 1-2: Direct assault on CSA line. Union lost 5,000 people.
 * Significance
 * Lee's last major victory in the field.
 * Grant's last formal attack on a huge position.
 * Casualties: More deaths by the Union.

Petersburg (1864-65)

 * If Petersburg falls, Richmond will fall because of the loss of supplies.
 * Grant does a siege of Petersburg. On July 30, 1864, craters come in and propose that they dig a tunnel all the way to the Confederate line and packet the small room under the tunnel and lit up the TNT. The goal is to blow a hole in the Confederate nation. The TNT is fused this day. The bombing is a success, but the Unions charging the Confederates couldn't see anything and fell right into a 24-foot depression... which caused the CSA soldiers to fire into the trapped Union soldiers and they met their death. Overall, it was a failure.

Five Forks, VA
April 1, 1865
 * The Union rushed and attacked CSA soldiers for 20 minutes. This forces Lee to retreat to the mountains. If Lee went to the mountains and reconnected with other CSA armies, the war would continue for a lot longer. Grant, this time, chases after him. The capital is relocated to Danville, VA. Out of hand fires are set on Richmond and the Union put the fires out.

Lee Surrenders at Appomattox
April 9, 1865
 * Lee's troops, pursued by Grant, are unable to make it to the mountains.
 * Lee surrenders to Grant to end the war.

Terms
Lincoln's terms:
 * Confederate officers could keep their weapons and return home.
 * Confederate soldiers could keep personal possessions and return home.

Lee is detained for a year and is released with no charges of treasons.

Modern Weapons

 * Lever Action Rifles
 * Henry Rifle: 16 shots before reloading
 * Gatling Guns
 * Hand-cranked gun
 * Submarines
 * CSS Hunley
 * Sank USS Housatonic
 * Ironclads
 * Monitor v Merrimac
 * Minie Balls
 * More accurate and faster
 * 58 calibers (1/2" diameter)

Medicine

 * Head/Abdominal Wounds
 * Leg/Arm Wounds
 * If a shot took place in a bone, they couldn't reconstruct it... so they amputated it. Infection was a possible side-effect of amputation.

Medical care improves and sanitation is increased.

Embalming increases.

Modern war in terms of weapons, but medieval in medicine. Cleanliness was lost in field hospitals.

Diseases will kill more men than bullets in this war.

Louisa May Alcott

 * December, 1862- January, 1863
 * Her book, Hospital Sketches, about her nursing experiences launched her writing career.

Dorothea Dix

 * Appointed US superintendent of Female Nurses.

Clara Barton

 * "Angel of the Battlefield"
 * Barton worked outside the US Sanitary Commission
 * June, 1864: Started working in field hospitals
 * 1865: Set up an office to reconnect soldiers with families and to identify unmarked graves at Andersonville, GA.
 * Organized the American Red Cross, 1881.

Major Prisons of the Confederacy

 * Belle Isle, 1862-64
 * Libby Prison, 1862-65
 * "Officer's Prison"
 * Andersonville, 1864-65
 * "Camp Sumter"
 * Gangs and the "Dead Line"
 * Henry Wirz charged with war crimes and executed.