Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the March and the Southern economy

What the specification asks for

“The impact of the Battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg (1863) and the 'March Through Georgia' (1864). The consequences of the destruction of the Southern economy.” — examined through consequence. Incandio is aligned to specification 4HI1; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson.

1 · Understand it

July 1863

Lee's second invasion of the North ended at Gettysburg on 1 to 3 July 1863 with heavy Confederate losses, including the failure of the assault on the third day. He withdrew into Virginia and never again mounted a strategic offensive; from that point the Confederacy in the east fought a defensive war it could not sustain indefinitely.

On 4 July, the day after Gettysburg ended, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant after a long siege. That gave the Union control of the entire Mississippi, cut Texas, Arkansas and most of Louisiana off from the rest of the Confederacy, and opened the river to northern commerce.

Historians usually rate Vicksburg the more strategically important of the two, because it permanently divided the Confederacy and secured a supply route, while Gettysburg ended an offensive Lee might not have been able to sustain in any case. Gettysburg is better remembered because of the Address delivered four months later.

The march through Georgia

Sherman took Atlanta in September 1864, which had immediate political consequences: Lincoln had expected to lose the November election and instead won comfortably. From November to December Sherman marched about three hundred miles from Atlanta to Savannah, cutting loose from his supply lines and living off the country.

The campaign was directed at the Confederacy's capacity and will rather than at its army. Railways were destroyed by heating and twisting the rails, mills, warehouses and public buildings were burned, livestock and food were taken or destroyed, and a corridor of Georgia was made incapable of supplying anything to the Confederate war effort.

The intention was explicitly psychological as well as material: to demonstrate to the southern population that its government could not protect it. Judgements on the campaign vary sharply, and a candidate should know that this is where the modern argument about the war's character — whether it prefigures the total wars of the twentieth century — is usually located.

The wreck the war left

The Confederacy's defeat left the South economically ruined in ways that shaped the next century. Something in the order of a quarter of the South's white men of military age were dead; the currency was worthless; banks had failed; railways, bridges, mills and much of the housing stock were destroyed.

The largest single loss was the emancipation of about four million people, which removed at a stroke the asset in which most southern wealth had been held. That is the economic meaning of emancipation: not a transfer but a cancellation, and it is why the region's per-capita income fell far below the national average and stayed there for generations.

The consequence for key topic 5 is direct. Reconstruction had to be attempted in a region with no capital, a destroyed infrastructure, four million people who owned nothing, and a white population that had lost both the war and its wealth. Sharecropping emerged because it required no cash from either party, and it is a system that keeps people poor without owning them, which is a distinction the next key topic depends on.

The alternative was tried briefly and withdrawn, which is why the question of land matters so much here. In January 1865 Sherman issued a field order setting aside a strip of confiscated coastal land in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida for settlement by freed families in plots of up to forty acres, and some four hundred thousand acres were distributed under it. Later that year President Johnson revoked the order and restored the land to pardoned former owners. Emancipation without land is what produced sharecropping, and the land had been in freed people's hands before it was taken back.

2 · Learn it — the notes

The dates that earn marks

1–3 July 1863

Lee's invasion is defeated at Gettysburg; he never mounts another strategic offensive. Why this date: It ended the Confederacy's capacity to threaten the North.

4 July 1863

Vicksburg surrenders, giving the Union the whole Mississippi. Why this date: It divided the Confederacy permanently and is usually rated the more strategically important victory.

September 1864

Sherman takes Atlanta, securing Lincoln's re-election. Why this date: The Union's political survival was the necessary condition for its material advantage to tell.

November–December 1864

Sherman marches about three hundred miles to Savannah, destroying the region's capacity to supply the war. Why this date: It attacked an economy and a population's will rather than an army.

The figures, and how far to trust them

• 1–4 July 1863 — Gettysburg and Vicksburg concluding within a day of each other.
• About 300 miles — The distance of Sherman's march from Atlanta to Savannah.
• About a quarter — The share of southern white men of military age who died in the war. (Estimates vary with the age band used; all are very high.)
• About four million — People emancipated, which cancelled the asset holding most southern wealth.

The people to place

• Ulysses S. Grant — Took Vicksburg on 4 July 1863, giving the Union the Mississippi.
• William T. Sherman — Took Atlanta and marched to Savannah, attacking the South's capacity and will.

How historians disagree

Attributed interpretations, never voiced — the AO4 seam.

• The 'Vicksburg mattered more' reading: Vicksburg permanently divided the Confederacy and secured the Mississippi, while Gettysburg ended an offensive Lee could probably not have sustained, so the western victory was the more strategically decisive of the two. Contested by The reading that Gettysburg destroyed the Army of Northern Virginia's offensive capacity and, with the Address that followed, the Confederacy's remaining hope of a negotiated peace, so its effect on morale and politics was the greater..

What students say — and what is actually the case

Not this: Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War.

This: Vicksburg the following day is usually rated more strategically important because it split the Confederacy and secured the Mississippi. Gettysburg is better remembered partly because of the Address.

Not this: Sherman's march was indiscriminate destruction.

This: It was directed at war-making capacity and at demonstrating that the Confederate government could not protect its population. The character of the campaign is debated, but it had a stated military purpose.

Two things students merge

Blurred: Attacking an army and attacking an economy.

The distinction: Grant in Virginia did the first; Sherman in Georgia did the second. The distinction is where the argument about the war's modernity is located.

Blurred: War damage and emancipation as economic losses.

The distinction: Destroyed railways can be rebuilt; the cancellation of four million people's value as property could not be and was not meant to be. The second is the larger fact for Reconstruction.

What a Grade 9 answer holds here

A Grade 9 answer knows that the more important victory happened the next day. Vicksburg gave the Union the whole Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in two permanently, while Gettysburg ended an offensive Lee could probably not have sustained anyway — and Gettysburg is the one everybody remembers because of two hundred and seventy words delivered four months later.

3 · How it is examined

This strand is genuinely set through: Paper 2 Section B (a) (6 marks — “Explain TWO ways in which … was different from ….”); Paper 2 Section B (b) (8 marks — “Explain TWO causes of ….”); Paper 2 Section B (c)(i) or (c)(ii) (16 marks — “How significant was … in …, in the years …? / How far were … responsible for …, in the years …? You may use the following in your answer: • [prompt] • [prompt]. You must also use information of your own.”).

What earns marks: Vicksburg rated against Gettysburg with a reason. It shows a candidate judging significance rather than repeating the famous name.

The cap that bites here: The 6-mark question is capped at 3 marks for one explained difference.

4 · Prove it — the questions

Answered inside Incandio, where a marker checks what a correct answer must contain and tells you which half was missing. The marking stays in the app; the questions are here.

1. Explain TWO ways in which Sherman's march through Georgia was different from Grant's campaign in Virginia. [6 marks · Paper 2 Section B (a)]
2. Explain TWO consequences of the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. [8 marks · Paper 2 Section B (b)]
3. Explain TWO consequences of the destruction of the southern economy. [8 marks · Paper 2 Section B (b)]
4. How significant was the year 1863 in the American Civil War? [16 marks · Paper 2 Section B (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]
5. How significant was the Civil War in changing the American South? [16 marks · Paper 2 Section B (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]

Carry on through the option

• Previous lesson: Lincoln, Davis, the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg
• Next lesson, in key topic 5: Johnson, the Reconstruction Act and Black Reconstruction
• Also in this key topic: Reasons for Union victory and military leadership
• Key topic 4 · Civil War and the end of slavery, 1861–65 · America: from new nation to divided union, 1783–1877 · the option's timeline · Incandio History
• The other key topics of America: Building a new nation, 1783–1809 · Westward expansion and Native American removal, 1803–49 · Slavery, the South and the causes of secession, 1850–61 · A More Perfect Union? 1865–77