Battle of Fredricksburg, Union Maj. General Ambrose Burnside suffers 12,000 casualties in frontal assaults against Robert E. Lee's entrenched Confederate Army
Emancipation Proclamation - Following the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, essentially freeing the Slaves in the Conderacy as a "military necessity".
Battle/Siege of Atlanta - Union Gen. Wm. T. Sherman besieges the City of Atlanta, eventually captures it, burns it to the ground and embarks on his "March to the Sea", eventually capturing the Port of Savanah