1. The Battle of Antietam
On September 17th, 1862, US President Abraham Lincoln got the great victory he had desired ever since the outbreak of the American Civil War over a year before. Declaring victory would give him the political breathing space he needed to do something that he had been…
2. The Battle of Atlanta
Atlanta was the linchpin of the South’s hopes and the North’s determination, and the city became the epicenter of a battle that would change the course of history forever. The Union Army moved in to capture the city, but the Confederates defended it. Each army employed…
3. The Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville took place in 1863. One hundred fifty-seven years later, what Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson did on that battlefield in Virginia is still being taught at the United States Military Academy, also known as West Point, and other military…
4. The Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga claimed more casualties (dead, wounded, captured, and missing) than any other Civil War battle except Gettysburg, yet it is not well known. Chickamauga did not change the tide of the war. Though it was a Union defeat, it did not really slow…
5. The Battle of Fort Sumter
The heart of the Southern secessionist movement was in Charleston, South Carolina. This bustling harbor town on the southeastern coast of America was home to politicians, civilians, and militia loyal to the newly formed Confederate States of America. These “Rebels,” as they were known to the…
6. The Battle of Pea Ridge
The Pea Ridge campaign is considered the most important series of events in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. The Battle of Pea Ridge, which took place from March 6th to March 8th, 1862, was the climax of the campaign, in which the Union Army was ultimately victorious. The…
7. The Battle of Second Manassas
The Battle of Second Manassas was part of the northern Virginia campaign under Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s leadership and unfolded during the summer of the second year of the American Civil War. The battle played out on the same ground as the Battle of First…
8. The Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was fought along the Tennessee River near the border with Mississippi when the Confederates attempted to prevent the Union forces, who were led by future US president Ulysses S. Grant, from seizing the vital railroad junction at Corinth, Mississippi. When the battle…
9. The First Battle of Manassas
The causes of the American Civil War, which lasted from April 1861 to May 1865, were many and complex. At the heart of the disagreement, however, was slavery. The Southern states of the newly formed but illegal Confederacy were prepared to fight the US federal government…
10. The Siege of Vicksburg
Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg campaign was the most outlandish maneuver of the American Civil War and included the largest amphibious military approach until the advent of the Second World War. Grant is widely heralded as the first amongst the leaders of modern warfare, and…