Page 382 - American Stories, A History of the United States

The Confederate army that had opposed Meade Gettysburg
him at Atlanta moved into Tennessee, OHIO PA. July 1–3, 1863 15.1
where Union forces almost destroyed it Stuart
at Nashville in mid-December. Sherman Lee Hooker Washington, D.C.
The Wilderness
WEST
captured Savannah on December 25. He VIRGINIA Brandy Station Fredericksburg 15.2
May 5–6, 1864
June 9, 1863
then carried his scorched-earth policy into Chancellorsville Lee Grant Spotsylvania
Courthouse
May 1–4, 1863
May 8–19, 1864
South Carolina with the aim of continuing James R. Richmond Cold Harbor
June 3, 1864
through North Carolina and joining up armistice Apr. 9, 1865 Petersburg 15.3
Appomattox
with Grant at Petersburg. VIRGINIA Five Forks besieged
June 1864–Apr. 1865
Apr. 1, 1865
While Sherman was invading the Raleigh PENNSYLVANIA
Carolinas, Grant finally forced the starv- NORTH CAROLINA OHIO Washington, D.C. 15.4
armistice Apr. 18, 1865
ing and exhausted Confederates to aban- Bentonville Ohio R. WEST Fredericksburg
don Petersburg and Richmond on April Mar. 19, 1865 J.E. Johnston VIRGINIA
2, 1865. Grant then pursued them west James R. Appomattox Richmond
for 100 miles, and cut off their line of MISSOURI KENTUCKY armistice Apr. 9, 1865
VIRGINIA
retreat to the south. Recognizing the armistice Apr. 18, 1865
Raleigh
TENNESSEE
Nashville
hopelessness of further resistance, Lee Dec. 15–16, 1864 Murfreesboro NORTH CAROLINA
surrendered his army at Appomattox Chattanooga
Nov. 23–25, 1863
Courthouse on April 9 (See Map 15.2). ARKANSAS Hood CAROLINA
SOUTH
But the joy of the victorious North MISSISSIPPI Sept. 19–20, 1863 Atlanta
July 20, 22, 28, 1864
Chickamauga
occupied Sept. 2, 1864
turned to sorrow and anger when John Mississippi R. Champion's Hill
Wilkes Booth, a pro-Confederate actor, Siege of Vicksburg May 16, 1863 ALABAMA Sherman
Jackson
May 14, 1863
assassinated Abraham Lincoln as the May 22–July 4, 1863 Grant J.E. Johnston Savannah
president watched a play at Ford’s The- Grand Gulf Grant GEORGIA captured Dec. 22, 1864
Pemberton
ater in Washington on April 14. Although Port Gibson
May 1, 1863
Booth had a few accomplices, popular LOUISIANA Mobile Bay ATLANTIC
Aug. 5, 1864
OCEAN
theories that the assassination was the
result of a vast conspiracy involving Con-
federate leaders or Radical Republicans 0 100 200 miles Gulf of Me xic o FLORIDA
have never been substantiated. 0 100 200 kilometers
The man who had spoken of the Union troop movements Confederate troop movements
need to sacrifice for the Union cause at Union blockade Confederate troop retreat
Confederate victories
Union victories
Gettysburg had himself given “the last
full measure of devotion” to the cause MAP 15.2 CIVIL WAR, 1863–1865 In the western theater of war, Grant’s victories at Port Gibson,
of “government of the people, by the Jackson, and Champion’s Hill cleared the way for his siege of Vicksburg. In the east, after the hard-won
Union victory at Gettysburg, the South never again invaded the North. In 1864 and 1865, Union armies
people, for the people.” Four days after gradually closed in on Lee’s Confederate forces in Virginia. Leaving Atlanta in flames, Sherman marched
Lincoln’s death, the only remaining to the Georgia coast, took Savannah, then moved his troops north through the Carolinas. Grant’s army,
though suffering enormous losses, moved on toward Richmond, marching into the Confederate capital
Confederate force of any significance on April 3, 1865, and forcing surrender.
laid down its arms in North Carolina.
The Union was saved.
Effects of The War Quick Check
How did Generals Grant and
Sherman affect the election of
15.4 How did the outcome of the war affect America socially and politically? 1864?
T he nation that emerged from four years of total war was not the same America
that had split apart in 1861. The 618,000 young men who were in their graves,
victims of enemy fire or the diseases that spread rapidly in military encamp-
ments in this era before modern medicine and sanitation, would otherwise
have married, raised families, and contributed their talents to building the country (See
Figure 15.2). The widows and sweethearts they left behind temporarily increased the
proportion of unmarried women in the population. Some members of this generation of
involuntary “spinsters” sought new opportunities for making a living or serving the com-
munity that went beyond the purely domestic roles previously prescribed for women.
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