Section 16.3:The Civil War Begins

• Union General Irvin McDowell led 35,000 inexperienced soldiers 25 miles to Manassas Junction near a stream called Bull Run in northern Virginia

• Camped on the banks of Bull Run, the Confederates were ready for the attack– On July 21, 1861, the battle

began• Confederate troops under

General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson defeated the Union Army at Bull Run

Irvin McDowell

Stonewall Jackson

Western Campaign• In February of 1862, General

Ulysses S. Grant, leader of theUnion army, and the navy’sgunboats, captured Fort Henry– Gunboat – armed ship used

for battle• Under the direction of

Admiral David G. Farragut,the Union also gained controlof most of the Mississippi Valley

Ulysses S. Grant

David G. Farragut

Monitor and Merrimac• On March 8, 1862, the Confederates raised a sunken

Union ship, the U.S.S. Merrimac and renamed it Virginia– The Confederates then covered the vessel with iron

plates so it could not be damaged by cannonballs– This kind of ship was called an ironclad

• The North also had an ironclad called the Monitor

• The two ships had a battle in March of 1862 because the Confederates wanted to break the northern blockade– Neither ship won the battle

• Confederates later destroyed the Merrimac to keep it from falling into the hands of the North

• The Monitor sank off the coast of North Carolina

• The Merrimac and the Monitor were the first ironclad ships to be used in battle

Seven Days Battle• General George B.

McClellan led his troops

toward Virginia

• Generals Robert E. Lee

and Stonewall Jackson

were ready for the attacks on Richmond

• Knowing his army was outnumbered, McClellan retreated after the seven days

Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg

• In late August of 1862, a second battle was fought at Manassas (Bull Run)

• The Confederate army again defeated the Union soldiers

• General Lee then changed his plan from defense to offense; He prepared to attack Maryland

• On Sept 17, 1862, General McClellan and his Union army of the Potomac blocked Lee at Sharpsburg, Maryland, on Antietam Creek

• The Battle of Antietamturned out to be the one ofthe bloodiest battles of thewar

• At the end of the fighting,Lee was forced to retreat

• McClellan did not follow Leeinto Virginia– For this reason Lincoln removed McClellan as a

Union leader, replacing him with General Ambrose Burnside

16.3 PowerPoint Questions (True/False: If the statement is false, replace the

underlined word to make the sentence true)

1.) The Union army won the second Battle of Manassas.

2.) General Grant captured Fort Henry.3.) The Confederates destroyed the Merrimac.4.) The Union won the Seven Days Battles.5.) General Lee and the Confederate army

attacked Maryland.C.T.) How does the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac show that the Civil War was a different kind of war from wars in the past?