KEY CIVIL WAR BATTLES

PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN

PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN
Union casualties 15,000 Confederate casualties 19,000 Gen McClellan believed huge rebel armies lurked in northern Virginia To avoid advancing through them McClellan proposed to ship 121,500-man Army to the YorkJames Peninsula and fight his way to the Confederate capitalRichmond, VA The Peninsular Campaign began in March 1862

BATTLE OF SHILOH

BATTLE OF SHILOH
Union casualties: 13,047 Confederate casualties: 10,699 On April 6, 1862, Confederates commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston invaded Grants encampment around Pittsburg Landing Bloodiest battle of the war Name after a church around which some of the fiercest early fighting swirled

Shiloh, a Hebrew word meaning "place of peace."

STONEWALL JACKSONS VALLEY CAMPAIGN

STONEWALL JACKSONS VALLEY CAMPAIGN

Union casualties: 5,735 Confederate casualties: 2,441 Mission was to keep Union forces from reinforcing McClellan on the Peninsula Jackson and the fast-moving infantrymen he called his "foot cavalry" ranged (traveled over a wide area) up and down the Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia Despite the best efforts of three Federal commanders to stop him - John Charles Frmont, Nathaniel Banks and Irvin McDowell Banks lost so many supplies to Jackson's lightning raiders that Confederates took to calling him "Commissary Banks."

SEVEN DAYS

SEVEN DAYS

Union Casualties

15,849 20,135

Confederate Casualties

Sequence of battles around Richmond began on June 26, 1862 Lee attacked McClennan again and again to back him away from the Confederate capital

Mechanicsville Gaines' Mill Savage's Station Frayser's Farm Malvern Hill

McClellan won four out of the five battles, but proved as fearful in victory as he was in defeat, backing steadily away until he reached Harrison's Landing on the James. The Peninsula Campaign, begun with such bright hope, had ended in defeat.

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM
Union casualties: 12,401 Confederate casualties: 10,318 The bloodiest single day of the war On September 17, 1862, Union troops under General Joseph Hooker attacked the Confederates near the Dunker church Later, the fighting moved to the Sunken Road, and then to a bridge over Antietam Creek Union troops under General Ambrose Burnside fought their way across Antietam Creek Ultimately withdrew when rebel reinforcements arrived at the end of the day

BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG

BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG
Union casualties: 12,653 Confederate casualties: 4,201 On December 13, almost three months after Robert E. Lee began his withdrawal from Sharpsburg, McClellans successor, Ambrose Burnside, brought him to battle again, at Fredericksburg, Virginia From the top of Marye's Heights, east of town, Lee could see the Chatham Mansion

30 years prior he had courted his wife at the mansion It was now Burnside's headquarters

Burnside ordered his men to assault the impregnable center of Lee's line

BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE

BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE DAY 1

Union casualties: 18,400 Confederate casualties: 11,400 Seeing Hooker coming, Lee defied all military convention and divided his outnumbered force Lee rushed most of his men west to halt the Federal advance on May 1, 1863

BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE DAY 2

BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE DAY 2

Dividing his army yet again, Lee sent Jackson and 28,000 men through dense Wilderness

Guided by a local civilian who knew the way

Jackson marched around Hookers lines to attack the Union right on the morning of May 2.

BATTLE OF VICKSBURG

BATTLE OF VICKSBURG
Union casualties: 10,142 Confederate casualties: 9,091 After crossing the Mississippi and leaving behind his supply lines, Grant struck at the rebels five times Grant captured Jackson, the state capital, and came up on the Confederate stronghold from behind

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG
Union casualties: 22,807 Confederate casualties: 28,000 On July 1, 1863, Confederate troops ran into Union horsemen on the Chambersburg Pike, northwest of town Each side sent for reinforcements The rebels got there first, and by afternoon had driven the Federals south of town Union rallied into defensive positions on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG DAY 2

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG DAY 2

By the morning of July 2, 1863, 150,000 Union and Confederate troops had converged on the little Pennsylvania town Confederates occupied a line west of the Emmitsburg Road, along the Seminary Ridge. Union troops waited along Cemetery Ridge

slightly more elevated crest that ran south toward two hills, Big and Little Round Top.

Lees plan called for an assault on the left, or the southernmost end of the Union line.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG DAY 3

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG DAY 3

At about three in the afternoon of July 3, 1863, Lee ordered the most fateful assault of the war, against the center of the Union line.

FROM WILDERNESS TO PETERSBURG

FROM WILDERNESS TO PETERSBURG

Began on May 5, 1864, on the old Chancellorsville battlefield Continued without a break for the six bloodiest weeks of the war Grant tried again and again to get around the right flank of Lees army, destroy it, then move on Richmond and end the war Again and again, Lee saw what he was trying to do and managed to thwart him. The struggle continued along a 100-mile crescent before two exhausted armies settled in for a siege at Petersburg, southeast of the Confederate capital

MARCH ON ATLANTA

MARCH ON ATLANTA
Union casualties: 13,607 Confederate casualties: 13,096 Starting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on May 6, 1864, William T. Sherman moved southeastward Forced the Confederates under Johnston out of one position after another Confederate was pushed back to Atlanta Taking the heavily fortified city would present more of a challenge

BATTLE FOR ATLANTA

BATTLE FOR ATLANTA

Union casualties: 3,641 Confederate casualties: 8,449 Between July 20 and 28, 1864, the new Confederate commander, John B. Hood, hit Shermans advancing army three times

Peachtree Creek to the north Just west of Decatur

Sherman's friend and fellow Ohioan James B. McPherson had been sent there to sever rail lines

Ezra Church to the west

Hood lost all three battles but the city remained in Confederate hands.

SHERMANS SAVANNAH & CAROLINAS CAMPAIGN

SHERMANS SAVANNAH & CAROLINAS CAMPAIGN

Union casualties: 4,800 Confederate casualties: 7,188 Having seized Savannah, Sherman ordered his Union armies to move into South Carolina on January 17 They fought through the state where the rebellion began and reached its capital, Columbia, in less than a month Southerners blamed Sherman for setting Columbia ablaze

Fire seems to have begun among cotton bales lit by retreating rebel cavalry before his army ever reached the city

Sherman said, "Though I never ordered it, and never wished it, I have never shed any tears over the event, because I believe that it hastened what we all fought for, the end of the war."

TRENCH WARFARE AT PETERSBURG

TRENCH WARFARE AT PETERSBURG

Union casualties: 61,000 Confederate casualties: 38,000 By the spring of 1865, the lines at Petersburg ran for fifty-three miles

Grant said, "I mean to end the business

The efficient Union war machine kept its army fed, supplied, and reinforced from its constantly restocked depots at City Point The Confederate army - ill fed, ill clothed, and hopelessly outnumbered - steadily melted away.

LEES LAST CAMPAIGN - APPOMATTOX

LEES LAST CAMPAIGN - APPOMATTOX

Union casualties: 10,780 Confederate casualties: 6,000

27,805 captured and paroled

Forced from his trenches at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, the Confederate commander led the remnant of his army westward in a desperate quest for food Grants huge force followed eagerly along behind