chapter 17 section 3

battle of Gettysburg

1863-most disastrous event of civil war and perhaps U.S. history. Over 50,000 soldiers from north and south lost their lives. After 5 years of fighting and thousands of lives lost, in 1865 Confederate commander Robert E. Lee, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces.

Ulysses S. grant

18th President of the US; he received a field promotion to lieutenant general in charge of all Union forces. He accepted General Robert E Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse ending the Civil War

Pickett's charge

3rd day of Gettysburg, Lee asked Pickett to lead troops on a mile and a half run where they were then slaughtered by the union army 12,000 soldiers

Robert E. Lee

A General for the confederates. Fought Peninsular Campaign, 2nd battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (with Jackson), and Gettysburg. Fought in revolutionary war, didn't believe in slavery but stayed loyal to Virginia

William Tecumseh Sherman

A native of Lancaster, OH, he fought in the Vicksburg and Chatanooga campaigns and he undertook the Atlanta Campaign. He burned Atlanta and set off, with a force of 60,000, on his famous march to the sea, devastating the country. After capturing Savannah, he turned north through S. Carolina, and received the surrender of General Johnston.

siege of vicksburg

Because Vicksburg was on a 200 foot high cliff, Farraguts ships guns could not reach them. General Grants troops on land began the siege of Vicksburg in mid May 1863 cutting off the city from food and supplies and shelling it repeatedly. On July 4, Confederate General Pemberton surrendered. Pemberton later said the fate of the Confederacy was sealed when Vicksburg fell.

Appomattox Court house

Famous as the site of the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse, where the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee To Ulysses S. Grant took place on April 9, 1865