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Battle of Fort Sumter
This battle was the start of the Civil War. The Confederates bombarded the Union from Charleston South Carolina. The Union lost this battle. -
Battle of Antietam
General Robert E. Lee led the Confederate Army in this epic battle. This was the first attack on Union soil. He was going against General McClellan. This battle was the deadliest battle in American military history. McClellan let General Robert E. Lee survive. President Lincoln handed McClellan his resignation for letting Lee go. -
Battle of Gettysburg
General Lee and General Grant were fighting each other again. General Lee thought that a battle north of the Mason Dixon Line would demoralize the North and panic people in the cities of Philadelphia and New York. The first day of the battle over 16,000 people died. The Confederate army lost over the three days of fighting. -
The Gettysburg Address
President Abraham Lincoln delivered this moving address. He wrote the famous speech on the way to the event. He said he didn't know how to adequately express his feelings for the great suffering and loss that was sustained during this battle. His famous speech was originally claimed a "bad speech because Edward Everett gave a two hour oration before Lincoln's address. Today this address is know as one of the greatest speeches in American History -
The Battle of Crater
Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee fighting in Petersburg Virginia. The Union soldiers were surrounded by the Confederate troops in a crater. The Union was trying to capture a railroad. The Union army was severely defeated. -
Lee Surrenders
Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865 in an Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. Lee surrendered 28,000 troops. This surrender ended the Civil War. The war actually ended 16 months after Lee's surrender. He attended in full military dress, while Grant wore a dirty uniform. Lee wrote down the terms of surrender quickly on a piece of paper.