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Period: to
Civil War
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Fort Sumter
April 12, 1861 to April 14, 1861
President Lincoln sends a ship to resupply the federal fort.
Believing the ship had troops and weapons, the Confederacy fired on the fort. Due to the attack on the fort, Lincoln calls up 75,000 troops and some of the border states, such as Virginia, secede. -
Battle Of Bull Run
The union struck first, on July 21 Mcdowell’s force began shelling the enemy across Bull Run while more troops crossed the Sadley Ford to hit the left Confederate flank. After a long all day battle the confederates finally won, but lost about 1,750 as compared to the Unions 3,000. -
Battle Of Hampton
March 8, 1862- March 9, 1862
Battle between Monitor and Merrimack on March 9, 1862. It was part of a confederate effort to break the Union blockade of southern ports. The battle was inconclusive, it began a new era of warfare. -
Battle Of Shiloh
April 6, 1862- April 7, 1862
The battle of Shiloh was the second great engagement of the American Civil War. The confederates were unable to hold their positions and were defeated by the Union. Both sides suffered many deaths, over 23,000 casualties. -
Battle Of Antietam
On September 17, 1862 Robert E Lee’s confederate troops and George McClellan’s Union troops faced off for the first battle of the Civil War. The first 4 hours of fighting were very indecisive, but at the end it came out to be a confederate victory. The union had lost about 12,400 people as compared to the South’s 10,318. This day is known as the bloodiest single day battle in American history. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
December 11-15 1862
The battle of Fredericksburg was a crushing defeat for the Union army. On December 11, Burnside crossed the Rappahannock with more than 120,000 Union troops. Confident in a victory, the union fell to the confederates. The Union had suffered nearly 13,000 casualties, most of them in front of Marye's Heights, while the Confederates counted fewer than 5,000. -
Battle Of Chancellorsville
April 30, 1863- May 6, 1863 The battle of Chancellorsville is thought to be General Robert E. Lee’s finest victory. He was facing an enemy force about twice the size of his own, very daringly he put on a surprise attack on the Union’s General Joseph Hooker. Hooker was forced to retreat back across Rappahannock River as the Union had fallen once again to the Confederates. -
Battle Of Gettysburg
July 1-3 1863
After the last battle, Lee was bustling with confidence and decided to invade the North for a second time. Lincoln named Major General Meade to succeed Hooker. Meade ordered the pursuit of Lee's army of 75,000, which by then had crossed the Potomac River into Maryland. Robert E. Lee’s hopes of a victorious invasion of the North soon diminished, and the battle ended in Union victory. Union casualties in the battle numbered 23,000, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men. -
Vicksburg
May 18, 1863 to July 4, 1863
Vicksburg’s fall split the South. General Ulysses S. Grant became a military genius. It was the South’s main defense of the Mississippi River. Naval, land attacks, cutting a canal around the city failed. Grant put 40,000 men to higher ground, trying to defeat the Confederates’ batteries on the bluffs. May 2-3, he stopped a small army from joining Vicksburg. May 18, he isolated 30,000 men, July 4, Vicksburg fell a day after Gettysburg, and the war turned. -
Chickamauga
September 19, 1863 to September 20, 1863
Control over a crucial railroad center in Chattanooga, Tenn. was vital for both sides. On Sept. 19, 125,000 total men met on the creek banks of Chickamauga. At 11:30 a.m., Sept. 20th, the South advanced a gap in the Union Line. The Union took a stand where Commander Thomas was called “Rock of Chickamauga.” Confederates lost 20,000 men; the Union lost 16,000, a costly battle of the war. Grant won a key victory at Chattanooga that changed the results. -
Wilderness
May 5, 1864 to May 7, 1864
General Ulysses S. Grant wanted to cross through Wilderness swiftly to get behind Lee’s right side. Lee wanted to encounter the Union forces in a known area of Wilderness. The battle started when Richard Ewell’s Confederate Corps confronted the Union’s 5th Corps near the Orange Turnpike. At the end of the battle there were 27,500 casualties total, ending inconclusively, but this battle showed that Lincoln finally found his general in Grant, who refused to retreat. -
Spotsylvania
May 8, 1864 to May 21, 1864
After Wilderness, Confederate forces hurried to build a network of defensives that included trenches and artillery emplacements, at Spotsylvania. In spite of high casualties, Grant’s restless advance continued, General Lee was forced to move his army in between Richmond and the Union again. This battle was one of the most costly, since there were 18,000 Union casualties, and 11,000 Confederate casualties. It was also one of the most inconclusive in its outcome. -
Sherman's March
September 2, 1864 to December 21, 1864
General Sherman’s men took Atlanta on Sept. 2, 1864. The South suffered a huge economic blow. After Atlanta, he split his men into two groups. Major General George Thomas led 60,000 men, 62,000 went with Sherman from Georgia to Savannah, destroying things all the way to the sea. There were 650 Confederate and 62 Union casualties. His tactic of “total war” achieved what was needed; hurt Southern morale. The South wouldn’t be able to fight at full strength. -
Petersburg
June 9, 1864 to April 9, 1865
This campaign occurred in the last months of the war. It ended with defeating the Confederacy. General Lee held Richmond and Petersburg, but due to poor handling, Southern railroads were run down. After Grant beat General George E. Pickett and General Fitzhugh Lee, the two cities could no longer be held. City evacuations were carried out that night. Lee’s last attempt to unite with more troops was stopped, so he had to surrender at Appomattox Court House, April 9. -
Lincoln's Assassination
April 14, 1865 to April 15, 1865
Abraham Lincoln, first President of the U.S. to be assassinated, by John Wilkes Booth, who wanted to save the Confederacy. After a failed kidnap, Booth succeeded the second time by shooting him in the back of the head at Ford’s Theatre, in Lincoln’s private booth, Washington, D.C. at 10:15 p.m., April 14, 1865. He was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m., on April 15, 1865. Booth was killed on April 26, 1865, in Virginia. VP Andrew Johnson became an unpopular President.
