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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. -
First Bull Run
By July 1861, two months after Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter to begin the Civil War, the northern press and public were eager for the Union Army to make an advance on Richmond ahead of the planned meeting of the Confederate Congress there on July 20.McDowell's Union force struck on July 21, shelling the enemy across Bull Run while more troops crossed the river at Sudley Ford in an attempt to hit the Confederate left flank.The Union troops won and are known as the Army of Potomac. -
Hampton Roads
March 8, 1862 to March 9, 1862 The North built Merrimack. This was a conventional steam frigate, that had been salvaged by the Confederates from the Norfolk navy yard and rechristened the Virginia. Virginia's success marked an end to the day of wooden navies and also excited the South and brought the untrue hope that the Union blockade might be broken. -
Shiloh
Also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, the Battle of Shiloh was the second great engagement of the American Civil War. On April 6, 1862, Confederate generals launched a surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant's forces in southwestern Tennessee.In February, Union General Ulysses S. Grant had taken Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland.Although both sides claimed victory, it was a Confederate failure. -
Siege of Vicksburg
From the spring of 1862 until July 1863, Union forces waged a campaign to take the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi.After the spring of 1862, when the Confederates lost Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Memphis in Tennessee and New Orleans in Louisiana, Vicksburg became the key remaining point of their defense of the Mississippi River.Union naval expedition did an attempt to take the city by land from the north.Also an attempt by Grant to cut a canal around Vicksburg.Rebels give up. -
Antietam
September 17, 1862 to September 18, 1862This battle was fought along Antietam Creek, at Sharpsburg, Maryland. This battle is said to be America's bloodiest day. Lee withdrew suffering with 10,318 casualties. The Union claimed this as a victory and this gave Lincoln enough justification to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. -
Fredericksburg
December 11,1862 to December 13, 1862
December 11, when Burnside crossed the Rappahannock with over 120,000 Union troops, Lee offered only a little resistance in order to give Stonewall Jackson's corps time to connect with Longstreet's. This stretched out the Confederate line by three miles. In the rush of political recriminations that followed, a majority of Republican senators voted to remove Secretary of State William Seward. -
Chancellorsville
April 30, 1863 to May 6, 1863Lee’s enemy forces was twice the size of Lee’s army. It was fought in the Wilderness region of Virginia. Union Gen. Joseph Hooker lost 17,278 casualties while Lee lost 12,826, including the irreplaceable Jackson. This was conspired to be Gen. Lee’s greatest victory. -
Gettysburg
July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863
Lee planned to assemble his army in Gettysburg, south of Harrisburg, PA.
Longstreet had orders to attack as early as possible; he didn’t get his troops into position until 4 pm where they opened fire on the Union corps lead by Daniel Sickles.
Union casualties from the battle were about 23,000 and the Confederates lost some 28,000 men. -
Chickamauga
Late summer and autumn of 1863, in the western theater of the Civil War Unions and Rebel forces struggled for control over the key railroad center of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Tennessee. Mid- September Union General William Rosecrans had pused Bragg's Army of Tennessee out of Chattanooga. Longstreet advanced around 11:30 am on September 20. Finally the rebels advance just at the point when Rosecrans was shifting his troops. This made the Union meet up. The Union took over the Confederates and won. -
Wilderness
In February 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as commander in chief of all Union armies in the Civil War.May 4 the Confederates march through the Wilderness, along the river's southern bank.May 5 is when the battle actually started.The Confederate corps clashed with the Unions 5th corps near the Orange Turnpike.About 2 a.m., May 6 the Union 2nd Corps attached along the Plank Road.Advancing the battle line more than a mile long.May 7 Union is done because of deaths. -
Spotsylvania
A village of northeast Virginia southwest of Fredericksburg was the site of a major but inconclusive Civil War battle. The Confederate Army won this battle. Lee repealed the attack of Ulysses Grant. -
Siege of Petersburg
The Peters Campaign went on from 1864- 1865. The Petersburg Campaign was a series of military operations in southern Virginia during the final months of the American Civil War that culminated in the defeat of the South. Grant had crossed the Petersburg- Weldon Railroad, he captured Fort Harrison on September 29.The Confederates were ill-fed to the point of physical exhaustion. After one of Lee's plans to join with General Joseph E. Johnston was thwarted, he surrenedered to General Grant. -
Lincoln's Assassination
March 20,1865 to April 15, 1865.
Lincoln failed to be at the spot on March 20th where John Wilkes Booth and his associates planned to kidnap him. On April 14th, Lincoln went to Ford’s Theatre to see “Our American Cousin.” John Wilkes Booth went into Lincoln’s box and shot the back of Lincoln’s head. Lincoln was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. on April 15th. Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated. Andrew Johnson became president and became the least popular president. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
September 2, 1864 to April 1865
After the Confederate army lost Atlanta, they headed west into Alabama and Tennessee, and they attacked Union supply lines as they went. Sherman thought that the Confederacy got its strength from the material and moral support of the Southern whites sympathy. The “total war” in Georgia was tough and destroying, but it hurt the Southern morale, the Confederates couldn’t fight at full capacity. Therefore, it hastened the end to the war.
