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Battle of New Orleans
Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson led a small, poorly equipped force to a decisive American victory against 8,000 British troops in the Battle of New Orleans. The invading British Army, under Gen. Edward Pakenham, hoped to seize New Orleans and the territory that the United States had acquired in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. The battle’s outcome turned Jackson into a national hero and paved the way for his successful presidential candidacy in 1828. -
First Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) was the first major land-based confrontation of the American Civil War. The Union army commander in Washington, Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, gave in to great pressure to begin campaigning before his men’s 90-day enlistments expired, although he did not feel the army was adequately trained yet, leading to a stunning Confederate victory and ending northern hopes of a quick end to the war. -
Battle of Wilson's Creek
The Battle of Wilson's Creek (called Oak Hills by the Southerners) was fought ten miles southwest of Springfield, Missouri on August 10, 1861. Named for the stream that crosses the area where the battle took place, it was a bitter struggle between Union and Southern forces for control of Missouri in the first year of the Civil War. -
Battle of Cold Harbor
The Battle of Cold Harbor occurred just outside of the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Cold Harbor was the final battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign. The main part of the Battle of Cold Harbor was a frontal assault on Confederate lines that ended in nearly 7,000 Union casualties after less than an hour—by some accounts most were lost in as little as 10 minutes. It was one of the most brutal confrontations of the war. -
Battle of Fort Donelson
The Battle of Fort Donelson involved the capture of Ft. Donelson, Tennessee and provided access to the Cumberland River as a means of invading the Confederacy. It was fought from February 11 to February 16, 1862 and established General Ulysses S. Grant as a major figure of The Civil War -
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh (aka Battle of Pittsburg Landing) was fought on April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee not far from Corinth, Mississippi. General Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of Confederate forces in the Western Theater, hoped to defeat Union major general Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee before it could be reinforced by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, which was marching from Nashville. -
Second Battle of Bull Run
he Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Battle of Manassas) was fought August 28–30, 1862, during the American Civil War. It was much larger in scale and in the number of casualties than the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) fought in July 1861 on much of the same ground. -
Battle of Richmond
The Battle of Richmond, Kentucky was fought August 29–30, 1862. The first major battle in the Kentucky Campaign, it was a Confederate victory. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, a.k.a. Battle of Sharpsburg, resulted in not only the bloodiest day of the American Civil War, but the bloodiest single day in all of American history. Fought primarily on September 17, 1862, between the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, it ended Gen. Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of a northern state. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville resulted in a Confederate victory that stopped an attempted flanking movement by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker’s Army of the Potomac against the left of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The Southern victory was diminished by the loss of Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, mortally wounded by his own men who mistook him and his staff for Union cavalry, a loss that would have far-reaching effects on the Civil War. -
Battle of Vicksburg
The Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, also called the Siege of Vicksburg, was the culmination of a long land and naval campaign by Union forces to capture a key strategic position during the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln recognized the significance of the town situated on a bluff above the Mississippi River. Capturing Vicksburg would sever the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy from that east of the Mississippi River and open the river to Northern traffic along its entire length. -
Battle of Donaldsonville
The attack started soon after midnight, and the Confederates quickly surrounded the fort and began passing through the various obstructions. Unfortunately, those troops attacking along the levee came to a ditch, unknown to them, too wide to cross, that saved the day for the Union garrison. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the largest battle of the American Civil War as well as the largest battle ever fought in North America, involving around 85,000 men in the Union’s Army of the Potomac under Major General George Gordon Meade and approximately 75,000 in the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert Edward Lee. Casualties at Gettysburg totaled 23,049 for the Union. Confederate casualties were 28,063, more than a third of Lee’s army. -
Battle of Fort Wagner
After the July 11 assault on Fort Wagner failed, Gillmore reinforced his beachhead on Morris Island. At dusk July 18, Gillmore launched an attack spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment. The unit’s colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, was killed. Members of the brigade scaled the parapet but after brutal hand-to-hand combat were driven out with heavy casualties. The Federals resorted to siege operations to reduce the fort. -
Battle of Chattanooga
The Battle Of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was an important Union victory in the The Civil War. The city was a vital rail hub that, once taken, became the gateway for later campaigns in the Deep South, including the capture of Atlanta and Sherman’s March to the Sea. A Confederate soldier called the Battle of Chattanooga "the death knell of the Confederacy." -
Battle of The Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness began Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign against the Confederate army of Northern Virginia that ultimately, after many weeks and horrendous casualties, forced Gen. Robert E. Lee’s men back to the defenses at Richmond. The fighting took place in an area of Virginia. Close-quarters fighting among the dense woods created high casualties, but the battle proved inconclusive for both sides. -
Battle of Petersburg
Beginning after the unsuccessful attack of the city of Petersburg by Ulysses S. Grant, Grant then construction trenches around the eastern portion of Richmond to the outskirts of Petersburg. The city was a major supply hub to the confederate army led by Robert E. Lee, who finally abandoned the city in 1865 and retreated, which led afterward to his ultimate surrender at Appomattox Court House. The Siege of Petersburg continues to be known as an early example of trench warfare.