Battles of the Civil War
Brady Knippa
Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run was fought in Virginia on July 21, 1861 and is known as First Manassas. The Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured, and the Confederate casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing. This battle was the first major engagement of the war and was won by the Confederates.
The Second Battle of Bull Run or Second Manassas was fought on August 28-30, 1862 and was a battle of much larger scale than the first one. The battle occurred due to the offensive campaign by Confederate Robert E. Lee’s army of Northern Virginia against Union John Pope’s Army of Virginia. Union casualties were 10,000 killed and wounded out of 62,000, and the Confederates lost about 1,300 and had 7,000 wounded out of 50,000. The Confederacy won.
Gettysburg
The battle of Gettysburg was 3 days long and occurred on July 1-3, 1863. There were 28,000 Confederate casualties and 23,000 Union casualties, and the Union won. It was a very bloody war and Robert E. Lee (Confederate general) lost ⅓ of his army in this battle. This battle was a major turning part in the war, for up until that point, the South had been winning. The North was able to cut off the South’s supplies and forced them to move north, causing them to have to abandon their plans.
Fredericksburg (Virginia)
General Burnside (Union) vs. General Lee (Confederate)
The Union had approximately 114,000 soldiers while the Confederate approximately 72,500 soldiers
Union casualties: 12,653 (1,284 killed, 9,600 wounded, 1,769 captured/missing)
Confederate casualties: 5,377 (608 killed, 4,116 wounded, 653 captured/missing)
The battle was a Confederate Victory.
- This is remembered as one of the most one sided battles and Union casualties doubled Confederate casualties.
Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg)
General George McLellan (Union) vs Robert E. Lee (Confederate).
The Union had over 75,000 soldiers while the Confederate had 38,000.
Union casualties: 12,401 (2,108 killed, 9,540 wounded, 753 captured/missing)
Confederate casualties: 10,316 (1,546 killed, 7,752 wounded, 1,018 captured/missing)
This battle ended in a stalemate.
- It is the single deadliest battle ever fought by any American army. Actual death tolls have never been fully counted because of the great numbers that died later from wounds and infections received in that clash.
Vicksburg
Ulysses S. Grant (Union) vs John C. Pemberton (Confederate)
The Union had over 77,000 soldiers while the Confederate had 33,000.
Union casualties: 4,835
Confederate casualties 3,202 killed or wounded, 29,495 surrendered
This battle was a Union victory.
- The importance of Vicksburg to the Confederacy was that it was the last major fort on the Mississippi still in Confederate hands and thus still remaining an obstacle for Union supply shipments.
The Surrender at Appomatox Courthouse
Ulysses S. Grant (Union) vs Robert E. Lee (Confederate)
The Union had over 100,000 soldiers while the Confederate had 28,000
Union casualties: 164 killed
- Confederate casualties: 500 killed and wounded; 27,805 surrendered and paroled.
- It represented the largest of the Confederate armies surrendering, essentially ending the Civil War.