General Grant creates a master plan for the Union to destroy the Confederacy. All Union forces will work together for victory

General Grant creates a master plan for the Union to destroy the Confederacy. All Union forces will work together for victory.

• General Grant creates a master plan for the Union to destroy the Confederacy. All Union forces will work together for victory.

• Union industrial strength and population advantages will be maximized.

• The Union will break the back of the Confederacy by destroying the home front.

Grant moves into the Wilderness

• Grant moves into the Wilderness

• Terrible and bloody fighting

• The Union forces are stopped

• Grant does not retreat but rather moves south to get around Lee’s army

Twelve days of butchery

• Twelve days of butchery

• General Sedgwick is killed by sharpshooter

• The Bloody Angle fighting lasts 18 hours

• Grant moves south

• Bloody disaster for the North

• “Not war but murder.”

The Federals almost took the town in June 1864, but since they did not take the town, both sides were condemned to a long siege.

• The Federals almost took the town in June 1864, but since they did not take the town, both sides were condemned to a long siege.

• Federals try to blow up the Confederate lines at “The Crater”- a terrible failure.

• Petersburg controlled the railroad line into Richmond. If Petersburg fell, then Richmond fell.

The trenches were hot, dusty, muddy, cold and miserable.

• The trenches were hot, dusty, muddy, cold and miserable.

• If men raised their head above the trench line they were killed by snipers.

• As the months rolled on, the Confederates starved and froze.

• The Union kept trying to cut off the rail lines, so eventually the trenches stretched over 25 miles.

Jubal Early, C.S.A., tries to clear the Shenandoah Valley of Federals.

• Jubal Early, C.S.A., tries to clear the Shenandoah Valley of Federals.

• The Confederates actually get to the outskirts of Washington, D.C.

• Phil Sheridan, U.S., routs the Southerners on October, 1864.

• The loss of the Valley is a fatal blow to the Confederacy.

Scorched earth policy

• Scorched earth policy

• Little organized Confederate resistance

• Guerilla warfare and bushwhacking

The Confederate army starves in the trenches of Petersburg over the winter

• The Confederate army starves in the trenches of Petersburg over the winter

• Lee tries to break out but the Union forces are too strong

• Grant counter attacks and breaks the Southern defenses

• Lee evacuates Petersburg and Richmond

• Richmond burns

• Confederates try to escape

April 9, 1865 Grant and Sheridan cut off the Confederates

• April 9, 1865 Grant and Sheridan cut off the Confederates

• Southerners attack but fail to break Union lines

• Lee knows that it is hopeless and he asks for terms

• Lee and Grant meet at the home of Wilbur McLean in Appomattox Village

• Confederates will be paroled

• Lee surrenders

April 14, 1865

• April 14, 1865

• Ford’s Theatre

• “Our American Cousin”

• John Wilkes Booth

• Conspiracy

• Lincoln’s dreams

• “Now he belongs to the ages”

• ….