Important Battles of The Civil War
Dec 23, 2015
Fort Sumter (1861)
• A Confederate victory!• Considered the 1st battle of the Civil War • Confederates attack a Federal Fort in South
Carolina• Union troops surrender due to lack of supplies
1st Battle of Bull Run (1861)
• A Confederate victory!• Also called “First Battle of Manassas”• Both sides expect a short war• Citizens picnicked at this battle• Confederates stood firm, led by
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (C)
Shiloh (1862)
• A Confederate victory!
• The 1st day is a HUGE defeat for Grant (U)
• Union reinforcements come, but Confederates still win
Antietam (1862)
• A Union victory! • Union finds Lee’s (C) plans but, McClellan
(U) fails to react quickly & Lincoln fires him• Lincoln uses this victory to announce his
Emancipation Proclamation• Highest number of American deaths in 1 day
•Freed slaves could now join the Union Army & Navy • Their bravery helped to convince whites that black men would make good soldiers• Officers of the 54th were wealthy, white abolitionists
Fredericksburg (1863)
• A Confederate victory!
• Burnside (U) begins with a much larger army, but . . .
• After the Union army charges the Rebels 6 TIMES, it becomes one of the Union’s worst defeats
Chancellorsville (1863)
• A Confederate victory!
• The good news: Lee’s (C) skill as a general produces a big win for the South
• The bad news: Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (C) is shot & killed by his own men
Gettysburg (1863)
• A Union victory!
• Lasting 3 days, the most memorable battle in North
• The South had 3 Goals: 1. Get supplies 2. Cut off Northern railroad transport 3. Gain a win in the North
Perhaps the biggest mistake of Lee’s career:
Lee (C) sends Pickett (C) on a suicide mission to the center of the Union troops - known as “Pickett’s Charge”
Gettysburg (Cont.)
The Gettysburg Address
• Lincoln’s most famous speech • Its purpose: to honor the dead soldiers of both North & South
William Tecumseh Sherman
•Attack both military & civilian resources in the South •Ruin Southern economy by destroying railroads & industries•Union army’s “March to the Sea” left a path of destruction 250 miles long.
“Total War” strategy:
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell
• First woman to earn a medical license• Formed U.S. Sanitary Commission to provide bandages, medicine & food
• Volunteer leader of over 3,000 paid nurses • Provided health care in Union army hospitals
Dorothea Dix