major battles of the civil war
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Major Battles of the Civil War. April 1861 -- Attack on Fort Sumter. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Major Battles of the Civil War
• April 1861 -- Attack on Fort Sumter.• When President Lincoln planned to send
supplies to Fort Sumter, he alerted the state in advance, in an attempt to avoid hostilities. South Carolina, however, feared a trick; the commander of the fort, Robert Anderson, was asked to surrender immediately. Anderson offered to surrender, but only after he had exhausted his supplies. His offer was rejected, and on April 12, the Civil War began with shots fired on the fort. Fort Sumter eventually was surrendered to South Carolina.
• July 1861 -- First Battle of Bull Run.• Public demand pushed General-in-Chief
Winfield Scott to advance on the South before adequately training his untried troops. Scott ordered General Irvin McDowell to advance on Confederate troops stationed at Manassas Junction, Virginia. McDowell attacked on July 21, and was initially successful, but the introduction of Confederate reinforcements resulted in a Southern victory and a chaotic retreat toward Washington by federal troops.
• April 1862 -- The Battle of Shiloh.• On April 6, Confederate forces attacked Union
forces under General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee. By the end of the day, the federal troops were almost defeated. Yet, during the night, reinforcements arrived, and by the next morning the Union commanded the field. When Confederate forces retreated, the exhausted federal forces did not follow. Casualties were heavy -- 13,000 out of 63,000 Union soldiers died, and 11,000 of 40,000 Confederate troops were killed
The Battle of Shiloh Mini Site
side of him
Island No. 10 and New Orleans
• The Battle of Island Number Ten was a military engagement on the Mississippi River during the Civil War. Union land and naval forces besieged and captured the island in early 1862, further opening the river.
The Battle of Second Manassas: August 28-30, 1862
In August 1862, Union and Confederate armies converged for a second time on the plains of Manassas. The naive enthusiasm that preceded the earlier encounter was gone. War was not the holiday
outing or grand adventure envisioned by the young recruits of 1861. The contending forces, now made up of seasoned veterans, knew well the realities of war. The Battle of Second Manassas, covering three days, produced far greater carnage-3,300 killed-and brought the Confederacy to the height of its power. Still the battle did not
weaken Northern resolve. The war's final outcome was yet unknown, and it would be left to other battles to decide whether the sacrifice at Manassas was part of the high price of Southern independence, or the cost of one country again united under the national standard.
• GRAND TOTAL - 9,420 (South)
• GRAND TOTAL - 14,449 (North)
• September 1862 -- Antietam.• On September 17, Confederate forces under General
Lee were caught by General McClellan near Sharpsburg, Maryland. This battle proved to be the bloodiest day of the war; 2,108 Union soldiers were killed and 9,549 wounded -- 2,700 Confederates were killed and 9,029 wounded. The battle had no clear winner, but because General Lee withdrew to Virginia, McClellan was considered the victor. The battle convinced the British and French -- who were contemplating official recognition of the Confederacy -- to reserve action, and gave Lincoln the opportunity to announce his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation (September 22), which would free all slaves in areas rebelling against the United States, effective January 1, 1863.
• June-July 1863 -- The Gettysburg Campaign.• Gettysburg, Pa.
June 1863 Confederate General Lee decided to take the war to the enemy. On June 13, he defeated Union forces at Winchester, Virginia, and continued north to Pennsylvania. General Hooker, who had been planning to attack Richmond, was instead forced to follow Lee. Hooker, never comfortable with his commander, General Halleck, resigned on June 28, and General George Meade replaced him as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
• On July 1, a chance encounter between Union and Confederate forces began the Battle of Gettysburg. In the fighting that followed, Meade had greater numbers and better defensive positions. He won the battle, but failed to follow Lee as he retreated back to Virginia. Militarily, the Battle of Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the Confederacy; it is also significant because it ended Confederate hopes of formal recognition by foreign governments. On November 19, President Lincoln dedicated a portion of the Gettysburg battlefield as a national cemetery, and delivered his memorable "Gettysburg Address."
Little Round Top
Dead Confederate Soldier in Devil’ Den
“The Harvest of Death”
November 1864 -- General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea.
General Sherman continued his march through Georgia to the sea. In the course of the march, he cut himself off from his source of supplies, planning for his troops to live off
the land. His men cut a path 300 miles in length and 60 miles wide as they passed
through Georgia, destroying factories,
bridges, railroads, and public buildings.
Burning of a Railroad Station
Map of Sherman's March to the Sea imposed on a map of Georgia showing railroads of 1864
Allatoona Pass, shortly after the battle. Note the Clayton (now Mooney) House to the left of the picture (still standing). Also the artillery stables at the top of the hill on right. Part of the fort can been seen on the top of the ridge to the left of the pass.
• April 1865 -- Fallen Richmond.
• On March 25, General Lee attacked General Grant's forces near Petersburg, but was defeated -- attacking and losing again on April 1. On April 2, Lee evacuated Richmond, the Confederate capital, and headed west to join with other forces.
Shells of the buildings of Richmond, silhouetted against a dark sky after the destruction by Confederates fleeing advancing Union forces, 1865.
• April 1865 -- Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
• General Lee's troops were soon surrounded, and on April 7, Grant called upon Lee to surrender. On April 9, the two commanders met at Appomattox Courthouse, and agreed on the terms of surrender. Lee's men were sent home on parole -- soldiers with their horses, and officers with their side arms. All other equipment was surrendered.
Large Easy to Read Map | Printable PDF
"The Surrender" by Keith Rocco is based upon research by National Park Service Historians and Curators.
On April 9, 1865 after four years of Civil War, approximately 630,000 deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
April 14, 1865 -- The Assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater
Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé Clara Harris with the President
The Conspirators
Hanging Preparations
From left: John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, and Junius Booth
End of Battles Slideshow
New Military Technology
• Ironclads “Ironsides”• Artillery (Many different improved types)• Ammunition• Move away from musket towards repeating rifles• Use of Cavalry• Use of Signal Corps• Hot Air Balloons• Medical techniques
The First Ironclad built in America-USS St. Louis
USS Merrimac to CSS Virginia
• Battle of the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac" -- March 1862
• In an attempt to reduce the North's great naval advantage, Confederate engineers converted a scuttled Union frigate, the U.S.S. Merrimac, into an iron-sided vessel rechristened the C.S.S. Virginia. On March 9, in the first naval engagement between ironclad ships, the Monitor fought the Virginia to a draw, but not before the Virginia had sunk two wooden Union warships off Norfolk, Virginia.
Basic TerminologyThis is a schematic of a Napoleon, with the addition of a chamber purely for illustrative purposes.
(From Dean S. Thomas, Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery)
a - knob b - neck c - vent d - trunnion e - muzzle swell f - muzzle face
g - muzzle h - rimbase i - cascable j - breech k - chamber l - bore
NameTubeLength
TubeWeight
BoreDiameter
Range1 Material
GUNS
Six-Pounder, M184160 inches
884 pounds
3.67 inches
1520 yards
Bronze
Light 12-pounder, M18572
66 inches
1227 pounds
4.62 inches
1620 yards
Bronze
10-pounder Parrott, M1861
78 inches
890 pounds
2.9 inches
2000 yards
Cast Iron
20-Pounder Parrott89 inches
1750 pounds
3.67 inches
2100 yards
Cast Iron
3-inch ordnance rifle73 inches
816 pounds
3.0 inches
1850 yards
Wrought Iron
HOWITZERS
12-Pounder53 inches
778 pounds
4.62 inches
1100 yards
Bronze
24-pounder65 inches
1318 pounds
5.82 inches
1325 yards
Bronze
Mountain Howitzer37 inches
220 pounds
4.62 inches
900 yards
Bronze
Artillery (Indirect Fire)
• Cannons
• Guns
• Howitzer
• Mortar
• Muzzle Loader Vs. Breechloader
13-inch seacoast mortarScan courtesy Dave Smith
Rampart
In both temporary and permanent fortifications a rampart was a mound of
earth that enclosed the fortified ground. Its basic purpose was to shield the interior of a fortification from horizontal artillery fire and increase the relief of the work to protect it against assault by storming or escalade. In most cases the exterior side of the rampart formed the scarp wall which was retained with at a slope of 1 base for 24 of height by a masonry wall buttressed by internal counterforts. The interior side could either be revetted or allowed to fall with a gentle slope to form the ramp of the terre-plein of the rampart. Ramparts were rarely included in the profile of field fortifications, but were employed on occasion to increase the relief of an important and provide the artillery armament with a better command of the surrounding country than it would otherwise have. In sea-coast field fortifications ramparts were sometimes used to provide the artillery armament with a better angle to fire down on warships engaging the fortification.
The Balloons With The Army Of The Potomac
THE MILITARY-TELEGRAPH SERVICE
Telegraph battery-wagon near Petersburg, June 1864
War on Horseback
Springfield Rifle MusketThe most frequently used rifle of the Civil War was the American-made Springfield rifle musket (above)--a single-shot, muzzle-loading gun detonated with a percussion cap. Not only did it have the rifled barrel, which dramatically increased accuracy over a smoothbore musket, but it also was the first rifle to fire the famous .58 cal. Minié ball--an inch-long, bullet-shaped projectile, rather than a round ball as used in older muskets. The 39-inch-long rifled barrel made it possible to hit a target with a Minié ball as far away as 500 yards. By the end of the war, approximately 1.5 million Springfield rifle muskets had been produced by the Springfield Armory and 20 subcontractors. Since the South lacked sufficient manufacturing capability, most of the Springfields in Southern hands were captured on the battlefields during the early part of the war.
Spencer repeating rifleThe Spencer repeating rifle was a manually operated lever-action, repeating rifle fed from a tube magazine with cartridges. It was adopted by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil War, but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled muskets in use at the time. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and lighter version.
As many as 50 of the .52 calibre breech-loading Billinghurst-Requa batteries, as they were called, were produced for the Union. Some were used in battles, though with limited effect. This gun used a light carriage to mount 25 rifled barrels side by side. When loaded and primed, the gun was set off by use of a lanyard -- firing the barrels in sequence with a rippling sound. Several different types of rapid-firing weapons were designed and produced during the war, although few saw much actual service.
The first machine-gun type weapon ever
used in combat was built for the Confederate War Dept in Sept 1861. The Williams breech-loading rapid-fire gun was first used at the Battle of Seven Pines and worked so well that the War Dept ordered 42 more of them. The gun was actually a crank-operated, very light artillery piece that fired a one-pound (1.57 calibre) projectile with a range of 2,000 yards. It was operated by a crew of three and could fire at a rate of 65 rounds per minute. One operator aimed and fired the weapon by turning the crank, the second placed a paper cartridge into the breech, and the third placed the percussion cap. The major problem with this gun was overheating, which made the breech jam due to heat expansion.
In 1848 Morgan
James of Utica, N.Y. invented the long-tube telescopic sight that would be used by Civil War marksmen just 13 years later. Priced at about $20, these telescopes were no more than four power. But in the hands of a skilled soldier with a sharp wit and keen eye, these devices offered sufficient magnification for aiming a rifle with deadly, long-distance accuracy
Caring for the Men The History of Civil War Medicine
Fig. 459. The "TRIPLER" Ambulance Wagon
Rear View Fig. 453. The "MOSES" Ambulance Wagon
Rear View
Civil War Nurses"The Angels of the Battlefield"
Approximately two thousand women, North and South, served as volunteer nurses in military hospitals during the American Civil War. Seeking convention and direct involvement in the national struggle rather than the domestic support roles to which social minimum career opportunity had traditionally confined the majority of their sex, they experienced at first hand the grim constants of war -- amputated limbs, mutilated bodies, disease and death -- and provided invaluable aid to the sick and wounded soldiers and medical authorities on either side.
Amputations "Saved By The Saw" The trademark of Civil War surgery, amputations accounted for 75
percent of all operations performed by Civil War doctors. More arms and legs were chopped off in this war than in any other fought by this
country. Three out of every four wounded soldiers were hit in the extremities, and at that time, amputation was the only proper medical
treatment for a compound fracture or severe laceration of a limb.
Union Amputations
Cases Deaths % Fatal
Fingers 7,902 198 2.5
Forearms 1,761 245 13.9
Upper Arms
5,540 1,273 23.0
Toes 1,519 81 5.3
Shins 5,523 1,790 32.4
Thighs 6,369 3,411 53.6
Knee Joints
195 111 56.9
Hip Joints 66 55 83.3
Ankle Joints
161 119 73.9
TABLE XV.
Summarizing the Records of the Hospital at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia.
Cases admitted into hospital
Died Percentage of fatal cases
All diseases and injuries
17,875 12,541 70.2
Continued Fevers 283 241 85.8
Malarial Fevers 254 163 67.6
Diarrhea and Dysentery
7,352 5,605 80.3
Consumption 35 26 74.3
Rheumatism 202 83 48.2
Scurvy 5,662 3,614 68.4
Bronchitis 205 141 70.1
Pneumonia 553 322 65.8
Totals 33,421 22,736 70.2
Summary of Military Technology
• Ironclads “Ironsides”• Artillery (Many different improved types)• Ammunition• Move away from musket towards repeating rifles• Use of Cavalry• Use of Signal Corps• Hot Air Balloons• Medical techniques