CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 282

II. The Civil War: Causes, Conflicts, Consequences

had a highly successful military career. He served with distinction in the Mexican- American War, was superintendent of West Point for a period in the 1850s, and was in command of the troops at Harpers Ferry that captured John Brown. At the beginning of the war, Lincoln asked Lee to assume command of the Union forces, but Lee refused out of loyalty to his home state, . He instead accepted a command in the Confederate army. Lee scored a number of important victories, but faced with dwindling resources, his army was unable to withstand the larger, better-equipped . General Cross-curricular General Thomas Jackson was given the nickname “Stonewall” because of his Teaching Idea actions in the . During the battle, a Confederate soldier “Stonewall” Jackson is described in noted that Jackson and his men were “standing like a stone wall.” The nickname “Barbara Freitchie,” listed in the poetry stuck: for the rest of the war Jackson was known as “Stonewall Jackson.” selections for this grade. You may wish Considered by many to be General Lee’s most able general, Jackson orches- to teach this poem in conjunction with trated Confederate victories in the campaign. He led his forces your discussion of Jackson and the bat- brilliantly at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and at the battles at Antietam and tles in the east. Fredericksburg. He was wounded in 1863 during the battle of Chancellorsville and died eight days later. Battle of the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia The Union had a great advantage in the naval war and used its advantage to blockade Confederate ports. But in March 1862, the Confederacy struck back. The CSS Virginia steamed out of its port at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and attacked and sunk several Union ships. The Virginia was no ordinary ship. It had original- ly been a Union ship called the Merrimack, but the Confederates had plated its sides with iron. Now Union cannonballs bounced harmlessly off its sides. The Confederates hoped to sail their ironclad ship up the Potomac, sinking Union ships, and possibly even shelling Washington, D.C. The Confederate hopes were short lived, however. The next day a Union ironclad ship called the Monitor battle between the Monitor and the Virginia steamed out to meet the Virginia. The Monitor had a distinctive design, with a small, rotating turret on top of the main body of the ship. The battle between the two ironclads was a draw, as neither ship was able to harm its adversary. But the Teaching Idea Southern threat had been countered, and the era of wooden warships had come to a sudden end. 60 Share pictures of the Monitor and the Virginia with students. Point out the Monitor’s design, with the rotating gun Battle of turret. Note that the idea of a rotating In September 1862, Lee started to move his troops north toward Washington. gun turret would be important in the In a fierce battle, Lee’s forces were driven back at Antietam Creek, , by development of both ships and tanks. a Union army under General George B. McClellan. Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle of the war—almost 23,000 men were killed or wounded. More than 8,000 died in a single cornfield. When the day began, the field was full of tall, ripe corn. By the end of the day, cannons, rifles, and charging troops had decimated the corn so that “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife.”

282 Grade 5 Handbook CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 282

II. The Civil War: Causes, Conflicts, Consequences

had a highly successful military career. He served with distinction in the Mexican- American War, was superintendent of West Point for a period in the 1850s, and was in command of the troops at Harpers Ferry that captured John Brown. At the beginning of the war, Lincoln asked Lee to assume command of the Union forces, but Lee refused out of loyalty to his home state, Virginia. He instead accepted a command in the Confederate army. Lee scored a number of important victories, but faced with dwindling resources, his army was unable to withstand the larger, better-equipped Union army. General Stonewall Jackson Cross-curricular General Thomas Jackson was given the nickname “Stonewall” because of his Teaching Idea actions in the First Battle of Bull Run. During the battle, a Confederate soldier “Stonewall” Jackson is described in noted that Jackson and his men were “standing like a stone wall.” The nickname “Barbara Freitchie,” listed in the poetry stuck: for the rest of the war Jackson was known as “Stonewall Jackson.” selections for this grade. You may wish Considered by many to be General Lee’s most able general, Jackson orches- to teach this poem in conjunction with trated Confederate victories in the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He led his forces your discussion of Jackson and the bat- brilliantly at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and at the battles at Antietam and tles in the east. Fredericksburg. He was wounded in 1863 during the battle of Chancellorsville and died eight days later. Battle of the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia The Union had a great advantage in the naval war and used its advantage to blockade Confederate ports. But in March 1862, the Confederacy struck back. The CSS Virginia steamed out of its port at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and attacked and sunk several Union ships. The Virginia was no ordinary ship. It had original- ly been a Union ship called the Merrimack, but the Confederates had plated its sides with iron. Now Union cannonballs bounced harmlessly off its sides. The Confederates hoped to sail their ironclad ship up the Potomac, sinking Union ships, and possibly even shelling Washington, D.C. The Confederate hopes were short lived, however. The next day a Union ironclad ship called the Monitor battle between the Monitor and the Virginia steamed out to meet the Virginia. The Monitor had a distinctive design, with a small, rotating turret on top of the main body of the ship. The battle between the two ironclads was a draw, as neither ship was able to harm its adversary. But the Teaching Idea Southern threat had been countered, and the era of wooden warships had come to a sudden end. 60 Share pictures of the Monitor and the Virginia with students. Point out the Monitor’s design, with the rotating gun Creek turret. Note that the idea of a rotating In September 1862, Lee started to move his troops north toward Washington. gun turret would be important in the In a fierce battle, Lee’s forces were driven back at Antietam Creek, Maryland, by development of both ships and tanks. a Union army under General George B. McClellan. Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle of the war—almost 23,000 men were killed or wounded. More than 8,000 died in a single cornfield. When the day began, the field was full of tall, ripe corn. By the end of the day, cannons, rifles, and charging troops had decimated the corn so that “every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife.”

282 Grade 5 Handbook CK_5_TH_HG_P231_324.QXD 2/13/06 1:56 PM Page 283

Although the Union forces suffered higher casualties, Antietam was consid- ered a victory for the Union because it halted Lee’s invasion of the North. The war Teaching Idea in the east had been going badly for the Union up to this point, and this victory Use the Internet to locate photo- was important for several reasons. First, it saved Washington, D.C., the capital of graphs and other images of key bat- the Union. Second, it kept Great Britain and France from recognizing or assisting tles as well as soldiers’ recollec- the Confederacy, and, third, it provided the opportunity that Lincoln had been tions. These can be found using looking for to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He had not wanted to issue search engines. it while the Union had been losing and have it appear an act of desperation. The Emancipation Proclamation During the early years of the Civil War, Lincoln was eager to issue an Teaching Idea Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, but he hesitated to do so for fear that You will want to use an overhead of his action might harm the Union cause. Emancipating the slaves was an idea Instructional Master 36, The Civil opposed by many Northern workers who feared competition from newly freed— War 1861–1865, frequently in this sec- and jobless—slaves. Lincoln was also concerned that the border states would tion to help students visualize where leave the Union if slave owners there were deprived of their slaves. On the plus the action was taking place. You may side, however, Lincoln believed that an Emancipation Proclamation would win also want to keep a graphic organizer over Europeans who had already abolished , especially the British. It was or time line that lists names, dates, important to Lincoln that the British not trade with the South. If the South could and outcomes of key events. sell its cotton to the British, it could gain money and buy supplies to help with the war effort. Abolitionists had lobbied for the end of slavery since the early 1800s, and as the war continued, more Northerners began to see the need for emancipation. In addition to humanitarian concerns, they were moved by a desire to punish the South for secession. Finally, in September 1862, after Lee was stopped at Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation was to go into effect on January 1, 1863. There is often confusion about what the Emancipation Proclamation actually did. The document promised to free all slaves in those states or parts of states still under the control of the Confederacy on January 1, 1863. Since the Union did not control most areas of the Confederacy, there was no practical effect on the lives of slaves in those states. The document also did not affect slaves in border states or in states or areas of states under the control of the Union army. (Lincoln did not want to drive the border states into an alliance with the South.) In those areas, slaves were still enslaved. Therefore, the Emancipation Proclamation actually set no one free. The importance of the Emancipation Proclamation was symbolic. It changed Teaching Idea and broadened the goals of the Civil War. What had begun as merely a struggle Have the class brainstorm a list of the to preserve the Union was now also a quest to free the slaves. In 1865, enslaved symbols of America, as these have African Americans were finally freed through passage and ratification of the been studied in Core Knowledge Thirteenth Amendment (see p. 290). schools since Kindergarten. Expand the list to include symbolic docu- Gettysburg ments such as the Emancipation In the summer of 1863, Lee invaded the North again, for what would be the Proclamation. Continue adding to the last time. Lee began to move northward in June in the hope that a successful inva- list throughout the school year. sion of the North would convince the Union to end the war. He reached Pennsylvania by July 1 and met Union forces under General George S. Meade near the of Gettysburg.

History and Geography: American 283