The Turning Point 1863

Seige of Vicksburg and Capture of Mississpii

  • VIcksburg surrenders to Grant
    • Key to the Mississippi
  • City laid seige to for weeks before surrender

Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania

  • Confederacy is in the north and they might be able to go further but they can’t
  • Battle of Gettysburg is the bloodiest battle of the war
  • Located in a crossroads town and the Union wins
  • Popular opinion turns in favor of war
  • Lee flees the north
  • Lincoln gives Gettysburg address at a ceremony for the soldiers killed in the battle

Grant Takes Command

  • Lincoln chooses Ulysses S Grant to be the commander of all Union forces
    • His reasoning was that he fights
  • Lincoln engaged in a strategy of total war that mobilized all of society’s resources towards winning
    • Also destroyed everything the enemy could use to their advantage in order to gain an advantage
  • War of Attrition: fight until your enemy gets tired
    • Union has more supplies, more soldiers, etc
  • Overland Campaign
    • Lee held strong defensive positions and only attacked when he had the advantage
  • Seige of Petersburg
    • brutal fighting and put lincoln out of favor