Robert E. Lee
- Member of a wealthy Virginia family – was a slaveholder
- distinguished himself as a leader during the Mexican-American War
- Commander of the Confederate Army
- Greatest victories = Seven Days Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Chancellorsville, but both of his campaigns to invade the North ended in failure.
- Also served as a senior military advisor to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.
- During which war did Robert E. Lee rise to military prominence?
- Which army did Lee command during the Civil War?
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
- Respected leader of the Confederacy
- Earned his nickname during the Battle of Bull Run when he seemed to stand like a stone among the fighting.
- Was wounded during Battle of Bull Run died from complications in 1863.
- Death = a devastating blow to both military expertise and morale of the Confederate Army.
- Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in United States history. His campaigns and military strategies are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership.
3. Describe Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
Ulysses S. Grant
- A northern abolitionist
- Chosen by Lincoln to lead the Union Army
- Served two terms as President of the United States, from 1869 to 1877.
- Grant first reached prominence by taking Forts Henry and Donelson in 1862 in the first major Union victories of the war.
- Turned the tide of the war in favor of the North when he secured Union control of the Mississippi by capturing Vicksburg
- Elected to the Presidency as a Republican
- Led radical reconstruction in the South. Tried to reduce violence by groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
4.Which army did Ulysses S. Grant command?
5. Describe Grant’s political career.
William T. Sherman
- A Union general during the American Civil War
- Praised for his outstanding command ofmilitary strategy
- Criticized for the harshness of his "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conductingtotal waragainst theConfederate States.
- In 1864, Sherman captured of the city of Atlanta, a military success that contributed to there-electionofPresidentAbraham Lincoln.
- Sherman'smarch through Georgiaand theCarolinasfurther undermined the Confederacy's ability to continue fighting.
- Accepted the surrender of all the Confederate armies in the Carolinas, Georgia, andFloridain April 1865.
6. Why was Sherman’s capture of Atlanta and his march through Georgia and the Carolinas regarded as an important victory for the Union?
President Abraham Lincoln
- Elected President in 1860 after a controversial election (he was also the 1st Republican President – Southern states almost immediately began to secede.
- Issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which freed slaves in the Confederate states that had not rejoined the Union-could not be enforced, but it did allow freed slaves to join the Union Army. He hoped to give the war a moral focus beyond saving the Union.
- He used the emergency power of suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which allowed the government to hold individuals in defiance in prison indefinitely. (Later deemed unconstitutional).
- In 1865, he was reelected and in his inauguration speech, encouraged the country to come together and to not punish the South for the war.
- Assassinated on April 15, 1865
7. Why was the Emancipation Proclamation limited in its scope?
8. Did it seem through his actions that Lincoln did everything he could to preserve the Union/get it back together again?