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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
July 21, 1861-July 22, 1861
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. Despite their victory, Confederate troops were far too disorganized to press their advantage and pursue the retreating Yankees, who reached Washington by July 22. -
Hampton Roads
March 9, 1862- May 9, 1862
The March 9, 1862, battle between the Monitor and Merrimack during the American Civil War (1861-65) was history's first duel between ironclad warships. Soon after 8:00 AM the Virginia opened fire on the Minnesota, and the Monitor appeared. On May 9, 1862, following the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk, the Virginia was destroyed by its crew. -
Shiloh
April 6, 1862- April 7, 1862
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. Both sides were immobilized for the next three weeks because of the heavy casualties about 10,000 men on each side. -
Antietam
September 17, 1862- September 18, 1862
On September 17, 1862, Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan faced off near Antietam creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Though the result of the battle was inconclusive, it remains the bloodiest single day in American history, with more than 22,000 casualties. Lee withdrew across the river on September 18, suffering 10,318 casualties (of 38,000 engaged) to McClellan's 12,401. -
Battle of Fredricksburg
December 11, 1862- December 13, 1862
On November 7 he removed McClellan from command and appointed the reluctant Burnside to his post. On December 11, as Burnside crossed the Rappahannock with more than 120,000 Union troops, Lee offered only a token resistance in order to give Stonewall Jackson's corps time to connect with Longstreet's, stretching out the Confederate line by some three miles. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
April 30, 1863- May 6, 1863
The Battle of Chancellorsville, fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, is widely considered to be Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's greatest victory during the American Civil War. On May 6, Hooker recrossed the Rappahannock, having lost 17,278 casualties to Lee's 12,826, including the irreplaceable Jackson. -
Battle of Gettysburg
July 1, 1863 – July 3, 1863
Upon learning that the Army of the Potomac was on its way, Lee planned to assemble his army in the crossroads town of Gettysburg, 35 miles southwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Union casualties in the battle numbered 23,000, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men more than a third of Lee's army. The North rejoiced while the South mourned its hopes for foreign recognition of the Confederacy erased. -
Siege of Vicksburg
May 18, 1862-July 4, 1863
From the spring of 1862 until July 1863, Union forces waged a campaign to take the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which lay on the east bank of the Mississippi River, halfway between Memphis to the north and New Orleans to the south. The surrender of Vicksburg, with the victory at the Battle of Gettysburg the previous day (July 3), greatly heartened the North and in fact marked the turning point of the war. -
Chickamauga
September 19, 1863-November 1863
In the western theater of the Civil War, during the late summer and autumn of 1863, Union and Confederate forces were struggling over control of the key railroad center. Confederates subsequently put that city under siege, but in October General Ulysses S. Grant arrived with reinforcements and took over the Union command in the region. -
Battle of Spotsylvania
May 5, 1864-May 21, 1864
Having observed the Army of the Potomac's crossing of the Rapidan River on May 4, Lee moved his army into position to confront the enemy in the dense woodland known as the Wilderness, where the first engagement of the Union campaign occurred on May 5-7. For the next 12 days, Spotsylvania Court House saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War, with some 18,000 Union and 11,000 Confederate casualties. -
Wilderness
May 5, 1864- May 8, 1864
The Battle of the Wilderness began in earnest on the morning of May 5, when Confederate corps led by Richard Ewell clashed with the Union's 5th Corps near the Orange Turnpike. Shortly after 5 a.m. on May 6, the Union 2nd Corps, led by Winfield Scott Hancock, attacked along the Plank Road. Advancing in a battle line more than a mile long, the Federals were able to drive back. -
Siege of Petersburg
June 9, 1864-March 25, 1865
The Petersburg Campaign (1864–65), 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. On June 9, 1864 the Union army began a siege of the two cities, with both sides rapidly constructing fortifications 35 miles (56 km) long. On March 25, 1865 the Confederates were driven back at the Battle of Fort Stedman, leaving Lee with 50,000 troops as opposed to Grant's 120,000. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
September 2, 1864- Early April 1865
General Sherman’s troops captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. Major General George Thomas took some 60,000 men to meet the Confederates in Nashville, while Sherman took the remaining 62,000 on an offensive march through Georgia to Savannah. To that end, Sherman’s troops marched south toward Savannah in two wings, about 30 miles apart. -
Lincoln's Assassination
April 14, 1865 at 10:15
Abraham Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth, was a Maryland native born in 1838 who remained in the North during the Civil War. At 10:15, Booth slipped into the box and fired his .44-caliber single-shot derringer into the back of Lincoln's head.
