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April 12, 1861. Confederates open fire on Fort Sumter. Officially starts war.
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The Union Army under Gen. Irvin McDowell is defeated at Bull Run 25 miles southwest of Washington. Confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall," as his brigade resists Union attacks. Union troops retreat to Washington.
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Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates.
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75,000 Federals under Gen. John Pope are defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. James Longstreet at the second battle of Bull Run in northern Virginia. Union retreats to Washington.
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The bloodiest day in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall 26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then retreats to Virginia.
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Army of the Potomac under Gen. Burnside is defeated at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men.
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The Union Army under Gen. Hooker is defeated by Lee's much smaller army at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson is wounded by his own soldiers. Hooker retreats. Union losses are 17,000 killed, wounded and missing out of 130,000. The Confederates, 13, 000 out of 60,000.
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The momentum of war changes against the South as the Confederates are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
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After destroying Atlanta's warehouses and railroads, Sherman, with 62,000 men begins a March to the Sea.
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Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia.