Civil War
By: Jordan Easter
Gettysburg
- Battle begins on July 1st.
- Lee planned to assemble his army in the prosperous crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
- Two Union cavalry brigades had arrived the previous day
- On July 2nd, the Union established strong positions from Culp's Hill to Cemetery Ridge
- The casualty total after two days of fighting was 35,000
- The Confederacy lost the battle
Chancellorsville
- Lasted from April 30-May 6, 1863.
- Known as "Lee's perfect battle"
- Jackson, with 30,000 Confederates, would follow a circuitous route to the Union right and from there conduct an attack on that exposed flank.
- The May 2, 1863 flank attack stunned the Union XI corps and threatened Hooker’s position, but the victorious Confederate attack ended with the mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson.
- Lee divided his army into two, because his army was smaller
- Confederate victory
Fredricksburg
- December 11-15, 1862.
- On Dec. 11, Union engineers laid five pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock under fire.
- On the 12, Federal army crossed over,
- On the 13, Burnside mounted a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye's Heights that resulted in significant casualties
- Confederate victory
Emancipation Proclamation
- Issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863
- Abolished slavery in states still in rebellion
- Changed focus of the war to not only preserve the union, but to end slavery
- Battle of Antietam provided the necessary Union victory to issue the Emancipation Proclamation
- The Emancipation Proclamation helped prevent the involvement of foreign nations in the Civil War