-The erosion of Lincoln's support
-Chancellorsville
-Gettysburg
-Control of the Mississippi
-Grant, Sherman, and Total War
-Lincoln's re-election
-The end of the war

[SLIDE 1]

As the war dragged on, public support for Lincoln's war declined. Losses in Virginia and the failure to pursue Lee at Antietam had soured opinion. With the presidential election of 1864 approaching, there was a good deal of discontent within the Union. In particular, the Democrats attracted many Northerners disaffected with the war and willing to negotiate peace even if it meant giving in to slavery. In fact Lincoln was negotiating—with the vice president of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, but the negotiations went nowhere, with each side committed to its position.

[SLIDE 2]

Following the disaster at Fredericksburg, Burnside was replaced by Hooker, who in turn was out-performed by Lee at the bloody Battle of Chancellorsville. At that battle, although the South won a major victory, it lost Lee's right-hand man, Stonewall Jackson. Jackson had his left arm amputated but died of pneumonia eight days later. This was a terrific loss for the Confederacy. Hooker, for his part, was replaced by George Meade. 

[SLIDE 3]

Lee's Army of Northern Virginia marched from Chancellorsville northward, crossing the Potomac and invading Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

[SLIDE 4]

The bloodbath known as the Battle of Gettysburg finally provided the North with a major, unequivocal victory, but it was a very costly one. George Meade was appointed to command the Army of the Potomac just three days before the Battle of Gettysburg, and he only arrived on the field after the first day's action on July 1. Meade organized his army on favorable ground to fight a defensive battle against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, repelling a series of massive assaults during the next two days. Lee was forced to retreat to Virginia, ending any hope of his winning the war through a successful invasion of the North. 

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address a few months later would refocus the war on the principle that "all men are created equal." At the outset of the war, Lincoln had said his purpose was to defend the Constitution; here, he cites the Declaration of Independence, providing a different purpose to the war and elevating Jefferson's Enlightenment declaration of human equality as the core principle of the United States. The Constitution would subsequently be modified by the Fourteenth Amendment to reflect that fact

[SLIDE 5]

Immediately after the victory at Gettysburg came word that Vicksburg had fallen to Grant. Shortly thereafter, the Mississippi was cleared of Confederate control with the surrender of the last Confederate garrison at Port Hudson. Nevertheless, no end to the war emerged because Meade failed to pursue Lee as Lincoln would have expected and wished.

[SLIDE 6]

Meade remained in charge of the Army of the Potomac, but it was Grant and Sherman who finally gave Lincoln the decisive leaders he had been seeking. 

[SLIDE 7]

Grant and Sherman created a new style of warfare known as total war. Sherman is known for his march through Georgia to the sea decimating the countryside. The order came from Grant, who instructed Sherman to inflict all the damage he could to Southern war resources. For his part, Grant immediately suspended prisoner exchanges that could serve to replenish the Confederate army. This act doomed thousands of Union soldiers in Confederate prisons to slow death by starvation.

[SLIDE 8]

At Cold Harbor, Grant ordered troops that knew they would die to assault an impossibly entrenched position. One Confederate officer questioned whether Grant "cares not if he loses his whole army." Indeed, Grant was willing to lose large numbers of lives to win his objective. 

[SLIDE 9]

Lee managed to evade Grant by occupying Petersburg, just south of the Confederate capitol of Richmond. Joseph Johnston moved to intercept Sherman's army and try to prevent it from joining Grant to oppose Lee.

[SLIDE 10]

Lee had intended to continue to fight. He planned to regroup at the village of Appomattox Court House, but Grant's army got ahead of him. Realizing he had little choice, Lee arranged for a surrender accord allowing his troops to return home. As a sign of respect, Lee was allowed to keep his sword and his horse.

[SLIDE 11]

On April 12 in North Carolina, Johnston and his men received news of Lee's surrender. The next day, Gen. William T. Sherman's Union cavalry captured Raleigh, pushing Johnston's forces westward. Under relentless pressure from Sherman, Johnston reached out to discuss peace terms, but he wanted a political agreement protecting the states and not just a military one protecting his soldiers. After the newly sworn-in President Johnson and his cabinet rejected an initial accord giving generous political concessions to the South, Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to resume fighting. Johnston refused and agreed to a military surrender similar to the one between Grant and Lee, in which the soldiers would be treated as paroled prisoners and permitted to return home.

[SLIDE 12]

On the verge of victory, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a Southern sympathizer. The complete plot included an accomplice of Booth attacking Secretary of State Seward in his home, and another accomplice who was supposed to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson but who failed to carry out his assignment.

[SLIDE 13]

As the war ended, the promise of reconciliation seemed far away. Lincoln was gone. Andrew Johnson was now in charge.