Civil War Battles Mini Project
by: Luke Stroud
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The Battle of Antietam took place on September 16-18, 1862. In the Battle of Antietam there were 131,000 troops involved in this war. This turned out to be one of the bloodiest days in the Civil War. The Army of the Potomac, under the command of George McClellan, mounted a series of powerful assaults against Robert E. Lee’s forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862. During the night, both armies tended to their wounded and consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan on the 18th, while removing his wounded south of the Potomac. While the Battle of Antietam is considered a draw from a military point of view, Abraham Lincoln and the Union claimed victory.
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The Battle of Fort Sumter occurred on April 12, 1861. General P.G.T. Beauregard was in command of the Confederate forces around Charleston Harbor. Confederate forces opened fire on the Union holding Fort Sumter at 2:30pm on April 13. United States Maj. Robert Anderson and his force of 85 soldiers were positioned at Fort Moultrie near the mouth of Charleston Harbor. He feared for them so he moved them to Fort Sumter. Just after President Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration Anderson had reported that he only had six weeks of food left.
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The Battle of Gettysburg occurred on July 1-3, 1863. Led by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. General Sherman’s troops captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. On November 22, 3,500 Confederate cavalry started a skirmish with the Union soldiers at Griswoldville, but that ended so badly–650 Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded, compared to 62 Yankee casualties–that Southern troops initiated no more battles.= From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. After the Confederate lost Atlanta, the Confederate army headed west into Tennessee and Alabama, attacking Union supply lines as they went. Major General George Thomas took some 60,000 men to meet the Confederates in Nashville, while Sherman took the remaining 62,000 on an offensive march through Georgia to Savannah.
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In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. The Federals assailed the Rebel stronghold on May 19 and 22, but were repulsed with such great loss that Grant determined to lay siege to the city to avoid further loss of life. The Battle of Vicksburg occurred on May 18 - July 4, 1863. There were 110,00 troops were involved in this war. It is one of the more remarkable campaigns of the American Civil War. Soldiers and civilians alike endured the privations of siege warfare for 47 days before the surrender of Pemberton’s forces on July 4, 1863. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations.
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The Appomattox Court House battle occurred on April 9, 1865. There were 89,285 troops were involved in this battle. Approximately 9,000 men under Gordon and Fitzhugh Lee deployed in the fields west of the village before dawn and waited. The attack, launched before 8:00 a.m. and led by General Bryan Grimes of North Carolina were successful. The Confederates were cut off once again and nearly surrounded by Union troops near the small village of Appomattox Court House. Despite a final desperate attempt to escape, Lee’s army was trapped. Small pockets of resistance continued until flags of truce were sent out from the Confederate lines between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. General Lee surrendered his remaining troops to General Grant at the McLean House on the afternoon of April 9.
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The Battle of Fort Fisher occurred on January 13-15, 1865. After the failure of his December expedition against Fort Fisher, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler was relieved of command. After a preliminary bombardment directed by Rear Adm. David D. Porter on January 13, Union forces landed and prepared an attack on Maj. Gen. Robert Hoke's infantry line. On the 15th, a select force moved on the fort from the rear. The Confederate garrison surrendered, opening the way for a Federal thrust against Wilmington, the South's last open seaport on the Atlantic coast.