Unit 2: The Early Years (1861-1862)

Unit Overview:

This unit covers the beginning of the war through January of 1863. Important themes in this unit:

Unit Essay: The Emancipation Proclamation

In order to get credit for this project you must write an essay on the following topic:

The Emancipation Proclamation:

By the end of 1862, no American had any illusions about the war ending quickly. On September 22, 1862, five days after the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as an executive order, quietly using the words, "For my Maker...". The order didn't go into effect until January 1st, 1863, and the Southern States could have bypassed it by ceasing hostilities, but they didn't do that. The Proclamation immediately granted the freedom of only 50,000 slaves but it proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nations' 4 million slaves at the time, to be freed as the Union Army advanced through the Confederacy. Lincoln struggled greatly with the issue of slavery throughout his life, and when he issued the proclamation he claimed it was because of a covenant he had made with God. He had finally touched the South's sacred "institution" and wholly championed the cause of African-Americans in a deeply racist society. Was he mad or a mad genius? Write a detailed and well-researched essay of no less than 600 words explaining how the Emancipation Proclamation can be seen as a strategic move to help the North win the Civil War. 

Need some help with this essay?                               

Civil War Unit 2 Essay Class and Video

       

Helpful links for this essay:           

The Emancipation Proclamation (transcript)

The Emancipation Proclamation (article)

Economy of the Southern States of America

International Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation

Military History of African Americans in the Civil War

Civil War Unit 2 Key Terms

For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance. 

Unit 1 Key Terms:

Confederate States of America

Robert E Lee

The Anaconda Plan

General George McClellan

1st Battle of Bull Run

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

The Battle of Shiloh

Colonel Ulysses S. Grant

The Army of Northern Virginia

The Army of the Potomac

The Peninsula Campaign

2nd Battle of Bull Run

General Jeb Stuart

Southern Bushwhackers and Northern Jayhawks

Battle of Antietam

The Emancipation Proclamation

General Ambrose Burnside

Battle of Fredericksburg

General Joseph Hooker

Battle of Chancellorsville

Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:

William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)

Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)