Civil War Battles

It's 1862, and the war wracking your country has persisted longer than anyone expected. You get the letter; you've been conscripted into mandatory military service in upcoming Civil War battles. Your parents aren't happy, nor are you, but your wealthy neighbor dodges the draft by paying the government an expensive fee. Soon, you'll be marching side by side with tens of thousands of men, skirting from the battlefields of Antietam to Fredericksburg to Appomattox Courthouse. You'll make friends who shrug off bullet wounds but die of infection weeks later, and you'll hear the beat of war drums as you face the enemy formation charging at your position. Civil War battles were costly and characterized by ambitious (often incompetent) generals, artillery barrages, infantry charges, and valor.

Civil War Battles Timeline

American Civil War Battles persisted from April 1861 to May 1865, over four years of tense conflict between the United States Union and the Confederate States of America. During the early years of the war, the Confederacy and Union were closely matched in general warfare strategy, each side winning its fair share of battles. Still, the tide largely shifted in favor of the Union in 1863 after the Battle of Gettysburg. The timeline below provides a brief progression of important events and significant US Civil War Battles:

• March 4th, 1861: Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States of America, a president whose parties opposed the spread of slavery into new states.
• April 12th, 1861: Fort Sumter is fired upon by Confederate cannons, marking the official beginning of Civil War hostilities.
• July 21st, 1861: The First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia.
• April 16th, 1862: The Confederacy issues full conscription of men aged 18 to 35.
• May 31st to June 1st, 1862: After the Battle of Seven Pines, Robert E. Lee assumes command of the powerful "Army of Northern Virginia".
• September 17th, 1862: Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
• January 1st, 1863: The Union issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
• March 3rd, 1863: The Union declares full conscription of all men aged 20 to 45.
• July 1st to July 3rd, 1863: The Battle of Gettysburg rages in Pennsylvania.
• March 3rd, 1864: Ulysses S. Grant assumes command of all Union armies.
• April 9th, 1865: The Battle at Appomattox Courthouse and General Lee's later surrender, effectively ending the US Civil War.

Civil War Battles Map

The map below depicts the northern United States Union and southern Confederacy territorial divisions. Most US Civil War Battles occurred on the frontlines of these territorial divisions, in states such as Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, with Virginia hosting the most battles of the entire Civil War. Not to be forgotten, many battles were fought along and west of the Mississippi River in states such as New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.

Fig. 1- The territorial divisions of the Union (blue) and Confederacy (red) during the US Civil War.

The following map depicts battles in the more western theatre of the US Civil War. While the most significant and excellent Civil War Battles took place further east, the map highlights the importance of the Mississippi River to Confederate strategy, which will be discussed later.

Fig. 2- Map of US Civil War Battles fought along and west of the Mississippi River.

First Battle of the Civil War

After the War of 1812, the United States set out to fortify its shores with a network of sea-side fortifications just fifty years before. Constructed off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, on a man-made island, Fort Sumter was to act as the first line of defense against foreign invasion. Little did the United States government know that Fort Sumter would not be assaulted by a foreign nation but by its people.

Following the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln to office in March 1861, the burgeoning Confederacy felt mounting pressure against their secession. Seven states had already seceded by February of 1861, their futures unsure. Threatened by the dominating presence of a nearby Union garrison, Confederate guns opened fire on Union-controlled Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861.

The first bullets of the war were shot; eventually, the Union garrison retreated from Fort Sumter, allowing the Confederacy to claim it for their own. Three days later, on April 15th, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln announced a call for 75,000 volunteer troops³ to combat the hostile Confederacy and reform the Union. Virginia seceded two days later, followed by Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The nation was officially divided, and the war was on the horizon.

Major Battles of the Civil War

Not even the soldiers at the Battle of Fort Sumter could have imagined what future Civil War Battles would look like. In the following years, Civil War Battles raged from South Carolina to New Mexico, along the Mississippi River and between the slight stretch of land that separated the two capitals of Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. Hundreds of thousands of Americans would die between 1861 and 1865 in the deadliest war in US history.

The chart below displays just eight major Civil War Battles of hundreds of hostile engagements that took place during the American Civil War.

The Strategies of the Civil War

As an undercurrent to all Civil War Battles, the general strategy for the Union and Confederacy explains why many battles happened, how they happened, and where they happened. Often, the most brilliant strategic maneuvers were a counter to the opponent's strategy.

The Union's strategic goals were to destabilize the southern economy, overpower the south through attrition, and pressure southern states into submission. Conversely, the south wanted to stabilize its economy by controlling the Mississippi River and cotton exportation, legitimize its status as an independent nation to foreign powers, and inevitably press into the north to end the war on their terms.

Last Battle of the Civil War

After four years of tense conflict and brutal Civil War Battles, the Confederate capital of Richmond fell to besieging Union forces. General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia fled west, attempting to rendezvous with other Confederate forces. Still, he was soon intercepted by a Union army commanded by Ulysses S. Grant. In Appomattox, Virginia, Lee made his last push through Union lines but soon realized the futility of his efforts. General Lee surrendered his army on April 9th, 1865.

Fig. 4- General Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.

The Battle of Appomattox Courthouse was not the last engagement of the war, but it was the last significant effort by Confederate forces to recoup from the loss of Richmond. With General Lee and his army as the figurehead of the Confederate resistance, his surrender marked a definitive end to the war and the Confederate States of America.