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Coordinated Campaign
The beginning of a massive, coordinated campaign involving all the Union Armies. In Virginia, Grant with an Army of 120,000 begins advancing toward Richmond to engage Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, now numbering 64,000, beginning a war of attrition that will include major battles at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. In the west, Sherman, with 100,000 men begins an advance toward Atlanta to engage Joseph E. Johnston's 60,000 strong Army of Tennessee. -
Battle of the Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness marked the first stage of a major Union offensive toward the Confederate capital of Richmond, ordered by the newly named Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant. As the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River on May 4, Confederate General Robert E. Lee determined that his Army of Northern Virginia would confront the enemy in the Virginia woods known as the Wilderness. Two days of bloody and chaotic combat followed, ended in a successful campaign for Gen. Grant. -
Battle of Cold Harbor
The Battle of Cold Harbor occurred May 31–June 12, 1864, just outside of the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia. Cold Harbor was the final battle of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, which began in early May 1864 with the Battle of the Wilderness. 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. It was one of the most brutal confrontations of the war. -
Siege of Atlanta
This battle was fought just southeast of Atlanta. Union forces commanded by William T. Sherman, wanting to neutralize the important rail and supply hub, defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood. After ordering the evacuation of the city, Sherman burned most of the buildings in the city, military or not. -
Battle of Cedar Creek
After an audacious night march, Jubal Early’s Confederates surprised Union troops near CedarCreek and drove first one, then another, then a third Union Corps from the field. As Early paused to reorganize, Union General Phil Sheridan arrived from headquarters in Winchester just in time to rally his troops and launch a crushing counterattack in which Early’s forces could not recover. Sheridan’s victory at Cedar Creek extinguished any hope of further Confederate offensives in the Shenandoah Valley. -
Sherman's march to sea
Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman’s soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. The Yankees were “not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people,” Sherman explained; a -
Surrender at Appomatox Courthouse
Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his approximately 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean's home in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. Days earlier, Lee had abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond and city of Petersburg, hoping to escape with the remnants of his Army of Northern Virginia. When Union forces cut off his final retreat, Lee was forced to surrender. -
Assassination of President Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. -
Victory at Palmito Ranch
This was the last major clash of arms in the American Civil war. John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was the last man killed at the Battle at Palmito Ranch, and probably the last combat casualty of the war. All remaining Confederate forces surrender -
Ratification of the 13th amendment
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States, the 13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865.