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Home , Battle of Fort Sumter, Grace Bedell

Civil War Important People & Events Research Abraham • 16th elected President of the U.S. in 1860 & re-elected in 1864 • Issued the Emancipation Proclamation • Wrote the • Assassinated after the Civil War was over on April 14, 1865 by

It was the fall of 1860. was the Republican nominee for president of the . Election Day was less than a month away. Mr. Lincoln, a lifelong beardless man, received a letter written by Grace Bedell, an 11-year-old girl from Westfield, . Written October 15th, 1860, the letter urged him to grow a beard. Unedited, Miss Bedell's letter read: Honorable A. Lincoln...

Dear Sir My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chatauque County New York. I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye

Grace Bedell

Abraham Lincolns response to her letter Miss Grace Bedell

My dear little Miss

Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received - I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters - I have three sons - one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age - They, with their mother, constitute my whole family - As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?

Your very sincere well wisher A. Lincoln

• How many Southern states supported Lincoln? • How many electoral votes did Lincoln get? • How much of the popular vote did Lincoln get? Emancipation Proclamation Emancipation- the process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions; liberation (freedom) Proclamation-an official announcement, especially one dealing with a matter of great importance. • Issued by Abraham Lincoln • Took effect January 1, 1863 • Freed all slaves in Confederate states • Difficult to enforce in rebelling states. Most Southerners wouldn’t free their slaves. • Allowed African-American men to join the U.S. Army • When he was 20 he escaped from slavery • Became a world famous abolitionists • His autobiographies are considered important works of the slave narrative tradition • For 16 years he edited an influential black newspaper- The North Star • He used his speaking and writing skills throughout his life to communicate his desire to free African American slaves which led to the Emancipation Proclamation brought by President Abraham Lincoln. • Helped convince leaders that African-Americans should be allowed to fight in the U.S. Army. "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." -Frederick Douglass

180,000 blacks serve. $10.00 a month/ whites $13.00 40,000 died (30,000 from disease/infections Ulysses S. Grant • Had many successful battles • Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the to victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War. • Robert E. Lee surrendered to him to end the Civil War, April 1865

Grant will become the 18th President of the United States (1869–77) He is commemorated on the $50 bill Sam Houston • Governor of Texas at the beginning of the Civil War. • Warned the people of Texas that the South would not be able to win a fight against the Union (North). • Removed from the office of governor because he refused to sign an oath of in 1861 • Retires to Huntsville, Texas • Developed pneumonia. He died on July 1863

Jefferson Davis • Fought in the U.S.-Mexican War • Politician; a U.S. Representative and Senator from Mississippi & later appointed as U.S. Secretary of War • President of the Confederate States of America

Robert E. Lee • Robert E. Lee was Abraham Lincoln’s first choice to command the U.S. forces. Lee’s loyalty was to his home state of not Union. When Virginia seceded, Lee commanded the Confederate forces. • Eventually surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse (Virginia) to end the Civil War. Arlington National Cemetery The national cemetery was established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, which had been the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The government acquired Arlington at a tax sale in 1864 for $26,800, equal to $410,000 today.

Notable People Buried at Arlington • William Howard Taft (1857-1930) President • Robert F. Kennedy (1925-68) Attorney General • John F. Kennedy (1917-63) President • Robert Peary (1856-1920) Explorer • Audie Murphy (1925-1971) Most decorated soldier

• Fought in 3 different armies in his lifetime. (1) The Republic of Texas Army (2) U.S. Army (3) Confederate Army • Considered by Confederate President to be the finest general officer in the Confederacy before the emergence of Robert E. Lee, he was killed early in the Civil War at the in . At Shiloh he was shot in the leg that severed a artery causing him to bleed to death. • Johnston was the highest-ranking officer, Union or Confederate, killed during the entire war. Gravesite of Albert Sydney Johnston Battle of ()

• List 6 details about the Battle of Fort Sumter Battle of Fort Sumter (South Carolina)

• Following declarations of secession by 7 Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon all forts & leave the state • -14, 1861 • The Civil War started when Fort Sumter in South Carolina was bombarded by Confederate forces • The Union Army surrenders Fort Sumter to Confederate forces & Battle of Vicksburg (Mississippi)

• May 18- July 4, 1863 • General Grant leads the Union to a victory against one of the last Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River • Last major battle that split the Confederacy in two. Union would maintain control of the Mississippi River for the remainder of the war. (Pennsylvania)

• General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army invaded the North all the way to Pennsylvania • July 1-3 1863 • Gettysburg was the deadliest battle & had the largest number of casualties for the entire Civil War with approximately 51,000 • Major turning point of the war for the Union • The Confederacy would never invade the North again after Gettysburg Gettysburg National Cemetery

The Gettysburg National Cemetery is a Civil War cemetery created for Union casualties of the Battle of Gettysburg

• Gettysburg National Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, a Union victory often cited as a turning point in the Civil War. Numerous monuments stand in both the cemetery and battlefield to commemorate the Union and Confederate troops who fought there. • At the cemetery’s dedication on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln rose to deliver “a few appropriate remarks,” now known as the Gettysburg Address. His two- minute speech served as a reminder of the sacrifices of war and the necessity of holding the Union together. • It was on June 19th 1865 that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. General Order Number 3

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer." On a sheet of notebook paper Question (Choose 1) -Must be at least 4 complete sentences -Must be historically accurate with facts

• How was Frederick • How did the election of Douglass significant 1860 influence the in the advancement beginning of the Civil of African- War? Americans during the Civil War?