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Civil War: A Means to an End
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The Battle of Fort Sumter: The Start of War
The Battle of Fort Sumter, which began at 4:30 a.m. on April 12th, 1861 and only lasted 34 hours, marked the beginning of the Civil War. By the end of the battle on April 13th, 1861, the Confederate army had complete control of this Union base located in Charleston, South Carolina. There was only 1 soldier death, and it was due to a gun explosion during the surrender ceremonies. This battle caused Lincoln to call for 75,000 volunteers to begin to prepare to fight the Confederate army. -
The First Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run was fought on July 21st, 1861 near Manassas, Virginia. The Union's Irvin McDowell General was told by Lincoln to attack now in order to open a path to Richmond. McDowell's 35,000 soldiers attacked the 20,000 rebel soldiers under command of General P.G.T at the river called Bull Run. The Confederates won, but were not organized enough to press onwards. Lincoln removed McDowell and his army and replaced them with the Army of Potomac under George B. McClellean. -
The Battle of Hampton Roads
On March 9th, 1862 the Confederate ship CSS Virginia and Union ship Monitor fought, marking the first duel between two ironclad warships. The day prior to this, the CSS Virginia had destroyed a Union fleet of warships near Newport News, Virginia. Union's Monitor warship then arrived that night. Beginning at 8:00 a.m. on the 9th, the two began to fight. The battle ended at 12:30 noun, with the CSS Virginia retreating. The Union had won. This battle marked the end of wooden navies. -
The Battle of Shiloh
On April 6, 1862 Confederate soldiers did a surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant’s forces in southwestern Tennessee. In February, Grant had captured the Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson in Cumberland. The Confederate’s armies under the control of General A.S. Johnston and General P.G.T. Beauregard attacked the fort. The Union still had control of these forts once the battle ended the next day on the 7th. This battle immobilized the involved armies for three weeks. -
The Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, a Union victory fought in the Antietam Creek and Sharpsburg, Maryland, turned the tides of the war in favor of the Union. This battle had 22,000 casualties, with 12,401 being Union casualties and 10,316 being Confederate casualties. This battle allowed Abraham Lincoln to pass the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves and give them equal rights. The Union's George B. McClellan and Ambrose Burnside had ordered an attack on Lee's men, outnumbering them two-to-one. -
The Battle of Fredericksburg
On December 13th, 1862, the new commander of the Union's Army of Potomac, Ambrose Burnside, ordered an attack on Lee's army that was defending Falmouth, Virginia, at the Rappahannock River. The Confederate army won, with only 5,000 causalities versus 13,000 causalities of Union soldiers. This battle restored Confederate Morale, and almost caused a collapse of Lincoln's cabinet. -
The Battle of Chancellorsville
This battle that began on April 30th, 1863 was a confederate victory with 17,278 Union soldier causalities versus 12,826 Confederate soldier’s causalities. This battle was fought in the wilderness region of Virginia. Lee’s men fought Union general Joseph Hooker’s men. Once Lee won this battle, he felt that he had earned the strategic initiative to attack even harder, and he began marching north towards Gettysburg. -
Battle of Gettysburg: Bloodiest Battle
The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1st, 1863 and ended on July 3rd. Major General George Gordon Meade was put in charge of the Union's Army of Potomac. This army went to attack Lee and his men. Lee ordered an attack on Cemetery Hill. Union corps arrived to defend the Cemetery on Little Round Top Hill. The Union won, with 23,000 Union soldier causalities versus 28,000 Confederate soldier causalities. Any hopes the Confederate army had of invading the North were soon gone due to this lost. -
The Siege of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg, which began on May 18th, 1863 and ended on July 4th of that year, was a Union victory that divided the South and raised the hopes of the Union. Vicksburg was the Confederacy's remaining defense on the Mississippi River. This battle was one day after Gettysburg, and showed the genius of Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
The Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauge was fought by the Union's General William Rosecrans and the Confederate's Braxton Bragg's and James Longstreet's Army of Tennessee over the railroad center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Longstreet was able to push William’s army back to Chickamauge, due to a lucky attack at 11:30 AM, when Rosecrans was shifting his troops. In the end, the Union won the battle with 16,000 casualties compared to 20,000 Confederate causalities. The Confederates then attacked the city. -
The Battle of the Wilderness: Grant's Refusal to Run
The Battle of the Wilderness began on May 5h and ended 48 hours later on the morning of May 7th. The battle began when Confederate soldiers, led by Richard Ewell, collided with Union soldiers, led by Ulysses S. Grant, at Orange Turnpike, Virginia. The battle was a draw, though the Union suffered 7,000 more causalities than the Confederacy. Grant refused to retreat even though he lost more soldiers than the Confederacy, and his men began to march south. -
The Battle of Spotsylvania
Ulysses S. Grant, general of all Union armies, wanted to attack the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. After fighting the enemies in the woods, Grant ordered his men to march to the Spotsylvania Court House, a crossroads that was in-between Lee’s army and Richmond. However, Lee got there first. The battle began on May 8th, 1864, and in the end 18,000 Union and 11,000 Confederate soldiers had been injured or killed. With no winner, Grant and his men began to march to Richmond on May 21st. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
On September 2nd 1864, General Sherman of the Union captured Atlanta. The South retaliated by attacking Union supply lines in Tennessee and Alabama. Sherman split his army into two groups, one group going to Nashville and the other to Savannah. Both Confederate and Union armies destroyed towns and supply lines while marching through these areas. Once Savannah was captured, it ruined Southern morale and cut off their supplies. During the march, there were 650 Confederate and 62 Union causalities. -
Siege of Petersburg
Petersburg was an important rail center south of Richmond that was raided by Ulysses S. Grant on June 9th, 1864. After the raid, Grant had claimed Fort Harrison on September 29th, but the Confederate's Lee still had both Petersburg and Gettysburg. However, most of the southern railroads had broken down. Lee's men began to starve, and they had to retreat to at the Battle of Fort Stedman. This caused Lee to surrender on April 9th, after losing another battle on April 1st. -
The Death of a Hero: Assassination of Lincoln
Maryland native John Wilkes Booth planned to kidnap Lincoln on March 20, 1865. However, Lincoln didn’t show up at the spot where John and his companions were waiting. Booth heard that Lincoln was to watch a performance of “Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14. Booth slipped into Lincoln’s booth and shot him in the head using his .44 caliber rifle at 10:15. This marked the end of the war.
