The Civil War 1860-1865 - Union Advances

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Civil War, 1860–1865 Union Advances In 1863, the western conflict went on in the North's advantage. A large portion of the Mississippi River was under Union control at the beginning of the year. They had taken Memphis and New Orleans in the spring and summer of 1862. New Orleans was the Confederacy's most significant port and served as the export hub for cotton gathered in all the Southern states. At that point, Grant made an effort to take control of Vicksburg, Mississippi, a commercial hub situated on the Mississippi River's cliffs. The Union would have had total control of the river if Vicksburg fell. That summer, a military bombardment did not succeed in compelling a Confederate surrender. In December 1862, an attempt by ground forces to attack likewise failed. The Union launched its last assault to seize Vicksburg in April 1863. Grant eventually succeeded on July 3, following a Union siege that lasted more than a month and during which the people of Vicksburg ate their pets to survive and sought shelter in caverns from the shelling. The Confederate forces that were trapped gave up. The Confederacy had been broken up and Vicksburg had been taken by the Union. The Southern war effort suffered a severe setback as a result of this triumph. Confederate strategists, encouraged by General Lee, who had routed a bigger Union army at Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863, came up with a daring plan to invade the North as Grant and his soldiers pummeled Vicksburg. The idea behind this invasion was to diminish the Union's dominance over the Mississippi by forcing them to move soldiers involved in the Vicksburg fight east. They also believed that the Union's will to fight would be weakened by their forceful drive north. Lee also believed that if the Confederates were to win a large victory in the North, France and Great Britain would be persuaded to back Jefferson Davis's administration and push for peace talks. General Lee started to advance the Army of Northern Virginia across Maryland toward the north in June 1863. The Army of the Potomac, the Union army, moved eastward and eventually joined the Confederate forces. Confederate soldiers had gone to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to obtain supplies, and here is where the two armies came together. The ensuing combat, which took place on July 1–3, 2015, lasted three days and is still the largest and most expensive conflict to have taken place in North America. The third day of the Battle of Gettysburg had its peak. One of the Union's defensive positions, Culp's Hill, was the target of a Confederate attack that was repulsed by Union soldiers in the morning after an hourslong battle. Lee gave the order for a direct attack against the Union lines in the middle of Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge (after Confederate officer George Pickett), in an attempt to reclaim the upper hand and win the war. They moved about a mile across an open field to confront the entrenched Union forces; of the approximately fifteen thousand Confederate men, over half perished. All told, the Army of Northern Virginia had lost almost thirty percent of its strength, and on July 4th evening, Lee and his soldiers disappeared into the storm. George Meade, the general, chose not to chase them. Both teams lost terribly. The Confederates suffered around twenty-eight thousand casualties, while the Union suffered about twenty-three thousand. The Confederacy lost steam after losing on the same day at both Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Both in the east and the west, the tide had shifted in favor of the Union. The bodies of the fallen were hurriedly buried after the Gettysburg battle. Gettysburg native and attorney David Wills advocated for the establishment of a national cemetery on the battlefield site, and Pennsylvania's governor assigned him the job of doing so. The dedication of the cemetery was open to President Lincoln. Following the two-hour speech by the main orator, Lincoln spoke to the assembly for a few minutes. Lincoln spoke to the Founding Fathers and the spirit of the American Revolution in his address, which is known as the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln had completed writing it the day before the dedication while staying at David Wills' house. He declared that the Union troops' deaths at Gettysburg had guaranteed equality and freedom for all, in addition to preserving the Union.