6A Social Studies

6A Social Studies

What are we going to learn in this unit?

Topic:

The Civil War Begins 1861-1865

Essential Question:

In what ways did the Civil War transform the nation?

You will learn that:

Southern states seceded from the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860;
after more Southern states joined the Confederacy, fighting began on Confederate territory;
army life and new technology brought unexpected hardships to millions of soldiers;
the Union defeat at the Battle of Bull Run shocked the North;
both the Union and the Confederacy won important victories in the first years of the war;
abolitionists had been fighting to end slavery for many decades before the Civil War began;
the Emancipation Proclamation promised freedom to slaves in the Confederacy and allowed African Americans to join the Union army;
the Civil War took millions of men from their homes, disrupting life in both North and South;
as the war dragged on, social, economic, and political change affected both the Union and the Confederacy;
General Robert E. Lee caused the Union many difficulties in the east;
after a series of Southern victories, the North began winning battles that led to the defeat of the Confederacy;
during the Civil War, important social, economic, and political changes took place; and
the Civil War transformed the nation.