CivilWar

[|Civil War Encyclopedia] >> [|Battles]
 * Important Battles of the Civil War**

Important Battles of the Civil War
These battles represent significant events in the American Civil War. The important event(s) of the battle or its aftermath follow the name of the battle in text.

1. [|First Bull Run (First Manassas)] First significant action of [|The American Civil War], Bull Run shocked the North into the realization that it would not be a three-month war. The battle falsely buoyed the South's hopes of negotiating an end to the war.

2. [|Shiloh] (Pittsburg Landing) [|April 6], [|1862] - [|April 7], [|1862] At the time, Shiloh was both the bloodiest single day and bloodiest two-day battle in American history. It served as America's introduction to the "total warfare" of the rest of the Civil War. Until Grant's advance down the Tennessee River, engagements in the Civil War had been relatively small.

3. [|Antietam] [|September 17], [|1862] Bloodiest day of the Civil War, this battle gave [|Abraham Lincoln] the perceived victory he desire to release the [|Emancipation Proclamation]. The costly battle also ended [|Robert E. Lee]'s advance into [|Maryland].

4. Vicksburg (surrendered [|July 4], [|1863]) Lincoln realized early in the war that control of the Mississippi was a major goal of the Western forces. [|Ulysses S. Grant] delivered the city when the Army of Mississippi surrendered after a prolonged siege. In response Lincoln proclaimed "I have found the man who can win this war."

5. [|Seven Days Retreat] {[|June 25], [|1862] to [|July 1], [|1862] With the success of George McClellan's [|Peninsula Campaign], Lincoln and [|Edwin Stanton] agreed on closing the recruitment offices in the north. Then Lee replaced [|Joe Johnston] as commander of the [|Army of Northern Virginia] and aggressively pursued the [|Army of the Potomac] as it retreated down Virginia's Lower Peninsula. Lincoln and Stanton had to admit they were wrong and re-open the offices.

6. Gettysburg [|July 1], [|1863] to [|July 3], [|1863] [|George Meade] won the largest and most costly battle in American history fought on the farms and hillsides of southern Pennsylvania. The Union victory ended Lee's belief that a single massive victory would defeat the [|Army of the Potomac].

7. Chattanooga [|November 23], [|1863] to [|November 25], [|1863] Following the worst defeat of any United States army at [|Chickamauga] Lincoln dispatched three of his best generals (Grant, [|William Tecumseh Sherman], and [|Joseph Hooker]) to Chattanooga. Six weeks later Grant broke out of the city, drove the Confederate Army into Georgia, and began preparing for the Spring campaigns.

8. [|Fort Sumter] [|April 12], [|1861] to [|April 13], [|1861] First action between United States and Confederate forces, this artillery duel resulted in the surrender of the bastion of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor but no casualties. It served as an indication that the South was willing to fight for property it considered to be its own.