Important Battles of the Civil War
Between 1861 and 1865, the Union and the Confederate Armies engaged in about 50 major battles, with nearly 100 other battles, with most taking place across the southern United States.
The Civil War proved to be the deadliest conflict in American history with over 600,000 soldiers killed and about 1.5 million total casualties.
Eventually, the Union Army would be victorious soon after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865.
The first major land battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Bull Run. It took place on July 21, 1861, just outside Washington D.C. in Virginia.
The battle demonstrated just how unprepared the Union and Confederate sides were to fight. Spectators gathered on nearby hills and the Union army expected a quick victory. However, the Confederate army came out victorious after a chaotic morning of fighting.
Over the next few months, however, the Union army saw victories in Kentucky and Tennessee. There, the Confederate army made a surprise attack against Ulysses S. Grant’s Union troops in what became known as the Battle of Shiloh.
The two sides fought on April 6 & 7 of 1862, and two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. The casualties were high on both sides, however, and Grant was criticized for the high loss of life suffered in southwestern Tennessee.
In September in 1862, the Union army won another significant victory in the Battle of Antietam. The battle took place Maryland on Union soil and is remembered as the single deadliest day in U.S. history. Over 22,000 casualties were suffered in one day.
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was hoping to bring the war into the North. However, Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac was able to achieve the victory near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
The devastating battle inspired President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all those held in slavery across the South to be free.
The biggest turning point of the Civil War was the Battle of Gettysburg, waged over three days from July 1-3, 1863, in Pennsylvania. This was yet another Union victory, led by General George Meade, who ended General Lee's attempts to invade the North.
The devastating battle saw more than 40,000 casualties spread over those three days. The smaller Confederate army could not suffer such high casualties and it would be on the defensive for the rest of the conflict.
President Lincoln visited the battlefield five months later and gave his inspiring Gettysburg Address at the ceremony.
Toward the end of 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman led a overwhelming military campaign through the South, now known as Sherman’s March to the Sea.
Sherman led his Union forces through Georgia with a “scorched earth” policy, devastating the land and cities in his path. From November to December, Sherman's troops destroyed military targets, industry, infrastructure, and civilian property to force a Confederate surrender.
On December 22, 1864, Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah..."
The conflict finally came to an end in spring 1865. That April, Grant's Union forces had Lee's Confederate forces surrounded. They met at the Battle of Appomattox Court House.
After a last-ditch attack on Union forces, General Lee formally surrendered his army to General Grant on April 9, 1865. This inspired a series of other surrenders across the South and the war's end.