1. THE EXPERIMENT IS
TESTED
Essential Questions:
1. How did the Civil War start?
2. What was the tone of Lincoln’s Inaugural
address?
3. Why was the Fort Sumter attack significant?
4. Why did Virginia Secede from the Union?
5. What happened at the Battle of Bull Run
(Manassas)?
6. Who were George McClellan and Ulysses
Grant?
7. Why is the Battle of Shiloh important?

2. The First Domino February – March
1860
 Lincoln's victory in the 1860
election triggered South
Carolina's declaration of
secession
 By February 1861, six more
Southern states made similar
declarations
 The seven states adopted a
constitution for the
Confederate States of
America
 President Buchanan did nothing
but voice his disapproval
 A February Peace Conference
met but failed at resolving the

3. Inaugural Address March 1860
 March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was
sworn in
 In his inaugural address, he argued
the Constitution was a more perfect
union
 Said it was a binding
contract, and called any
secession quot;legally void”
 Said he had no intent to:
 Invade the South
 End slavery where it existed
 Closed with a plea for restoration of
the union
 Lincoln rejected confederate
negotiations
 Confederacy was not a legitimate
government

4. Fort Sumter April 1861
 Five days after South Carolina
seceded U.S. Army Major Robert
Anderson moved to Fort Sumter
 The Confederacy called for the
United States to evacuate Fort
Sumter
 Requests were ignored by the
Union
 Fort Sumter would soon run out of
supplies
 Buchanan and Lincoln began
ordering supply ships to resupply
the fort
 Again the Confederacy demanded
the surrender of Fort Sumter

5. Fort Sumter April 1861
 After debating what to do the
Confederate officer in charge
decided it was “manifestly
futile…” to attempt
negotiations
 On April 12, 1861, at
4:30am, Confederate
batteries opened fire
 They fired on the fort for 34
straight hours
 On April 13, the fort was
surrendered and evacuated
 The Civil War had begun

6. Virginia Secedes April 17, 1861
 Fall of Fort Sumter united the
North
 Lincoln called for volunteers to
serve for three months
 Response was overwhelming
 Lincoln’s call received a different
reaction in the South
 On April 17, Virginia, unwilling to
fight against the Southern
states, seceded from the Union
 Virginia was the most populous
state in the South and the most
industrialized
 In May
Arkansas, Tennessee, and North
Carolina followed Virginia

7. West Virginia
 However, the western
counties of Virginia were
anti-slavery
 They ceded from Virginia
and were admitted into the
Union as West Virginia in
1863
 The four remaining slave
states Maryland,
Delaware, Kentucky and
Missouri remained in the
Union
 But many of their citizens
fought for the Confederacy

8. Battle of Bull Run July 1861
 Fought on July 21, 1861, near
Manassas, Virginia (known as
Battle of Manassas)
 McDowell was harassed by
impatient politicians and citizens
in Washington
 On July 16, 1861, the general
departed Washington with 35,000
men
 Largest army gathered on North
America
 McDowell's plan was to move
westward in three columns
 With two columns he would attack
the Confederate line
 Third column would move around
Confederates' right flank to the
south

9. Battle of Bull Run July 1861
 McDowell had arrived at a
theoretically sound plan, but it
had one major flaws
 Required synchronized
execution of troop movements
and attacks
 July 19-20, significant
reinforcements bolstered the
Confederate lines
 McDowell was getting
contradictory information from
intelligence agents
 He called for the balloon
Enterprise,
 Demonstrated by Thaddeus
Lowe
 Used it to perform aerial

10. Bull Run: On The Battlefield July 1861
 Union army gained the upper hand in
the morning
 But the Confederate army was inspired
by General Thomas Jackson
 Was standing on the battlefield like
a “stonewall”
 Received nickname “Stonewall
Jackson”
 Confederate reinforcements arrived in
the afternoon and turned the tide of the
battle
 Confederates won first battle of Civil
War
 Union troops began a retreat to the

11. Bull Run: The Aftermath July 1861
 Casualties:
 Union - 460 killed
 Confederate - 387 killed
 Union forces and civilians feared
Confederate would advance on
Washington, D.C.
 Prof. Lowe ascended in Enterprise
to observe the Confederates
 The Confederates were too
exhausted to mount an attack on
Washington
 Name of battle has caused
controversy since 1861
 Union named battles after rivers &
creeks
 Confederates used names of
towns & farms

12. McClellan and Grant February 1862
 Lincoln responded to the defeat at
Bull Run by calling for the enlistment
of 500,000 men to serve for three
years
 Appointed General George McClellan
to lead the new Union army
 In 1862 General Ulysses S. Grant led
an army to invade western
Tennessee
 In 11 days Grant had captured two
confederate forts that were
positioned on important rivers
 Fort Henry on the Tennessee
River
 Fort Donelson on the Cumberland

13. Shiloh April 1862
 In March Grant gathered his forces near a
small Tennessee church named Shiloh
 In April the Confederate forces surprised
Grant and the Union troops
 Many Union troops were shot while
making coffee
 Grant reorganized, called in
reinforcements, and attacked at dawn the
next day
 By afternoon the Confederates were
retreating
 Shiloh taught both sides:
 You have to send out scouts
 You need to dig trenches and
fortifications
 Showed how bloody the war would be
 24,000 troops died at Shiloh