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Battles: Make sure you pick Union victories

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Battles: Make sure you pick Union victories

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https://www.thoughtco.com/ten-bloodiest-civil-war-battles-104527

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https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/pastimes-1860s

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To fill the long hours between marches and battles, soldiers on both sides of the conflict found ways to amuse themselves. Reading was a popular way to pass the time. Soldiers read letters, newspapers, novels, the Bible, and any other printed material they could find. In fact, when stationed not far from enemy lines, they would occasionally trade newspapers with their opponents. Milton Barrett, a soldier in the 18th Georgia Volunteers, wrote in 1863:

Soldiers who had not brought their own Bible could obtain a free copy from the U.S. Christian Commission. When they had no reading matter they wrote it themselves, sometimes even publishing their own camp or hospital newspapers. These newspapers often contained accounts of battles, poetry and essays, or propagandistic messages for the enemy. Some enterprising soldiers established literary or debating societies. Music was a popular diversion, as well-from informal singing around the fire to staged balls.

Gambling prevailed in every conceivable form-from horse races to louse races. Games like cards, chess, checkers, and dominoes could be played for money or simply for fun, were quiet, and easily carried in a knapsack. Card games such as poker, twenty-one, keno, and euchre were played on both sides of the line, but by the last years of battle decks of cards were hard to come by in the Southern ranks. Confederate soldiers obtained more from Union prisoners, fallen soldiers, or by trade with their Federal counterparts.

More athletic activities included wrestling, boxing, leapfrog, racing on foot or horseback, cricket, and-in at least one instance-bowling using cannon balls to knock down rough wooden pins. Baseball, played differently than it is today, was another popular sport. (The ball was soft and the field could contain either two or four bases. Runners were only considered "out" when the pitcher hit them with the ball.)

Semi-permanent winter quarters meant that soldiers had time to develop more ambitious ways to pass the time. Occasionally, they would establish their own theater companies, such as the "Essayons" of the Union's 50th New York Engineers or the drama club of the Confederacy's 9th Kentucky Infantry. Winter, with its attendant cold weather, also brought a new range of activities such as ice skating, sledding, and building "snow effigies."

One of the more violent winter games was the snowball battle. Whole brigades would form up in lines, develop plans of attack, and set out to pummel the other side with hard missiles of snow and ice. Even officers joined in the battles, which often resulted in black eyes, bruises, and an occasional broken limb.

- Sources include The Life of Billy Yank and The Life of Johnny Reb by Bell Irvin Wiley (Louisiana State University Press, 1943 and 1952), The Fighting Men of the Civil War by William C. Davis (SMITHMARK Publishers, Inc., 1991) and The Confederacy is on Her Way Up the Spout: Letters to South Carolina, 1861-1864 by J. Roderick Heller, III and Carolynn Ayres Heller (The University of Georgia Press, 1992).

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To fill the long hours between marches and battles, soldiers on both sides of the conflict found ways to amuse themselves. Reading was a popular way to pass the time. Soldiers read letters, newspapers, novels, the Bible, and any other printed material they could find.

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https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/music/music-of-the-civil-war/

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Exploring the conflict’s varied soundtrack, from patriotic marches to haunting ballads, offers a window to the spirit, story, and emotion of a traumatic time in American history.

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https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/what-does-a-soldier-eat?locale=en_us

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Do you get tired of eating the same thing over and over? I am sure you've had to eat leftovers that weren't too exciting. During the Civil War, Union and Confederate Soldiers didn't have a lot of options. They had to make do with the food they were given, called rations. Food was not always easy to get because of the war. Most soldiers were just happy to get food, even if it was the same thing, again and again.

The most common food given to soldiers was bread, coffee, and salt pork. The typical ration for every Union soldier was about a pound of meat and a pound of bread or flour. The Confederacy started out following the same rules. As the war went on, they weren't able to keep up. Before trucks and highways, it was very hard to get food to other places. The war made it harder, especially for the south. The Union blocked southern ports and railroads, which made getting food to Confederate soldiers difficult.
Tintype of soldiers posed eating hardtack and coffee rations,Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Confederate soldiers were more likely to get cornbread or cornmeal than flour or bread. Corn was a local crop and easier to get. The main bread for most Union troops was hardtack. It is made of only flour and water and looks much like a cracker. It does not spoil easily. It was said that some of the hardtack used during the Civil War was left over from the Mexican American War. Sometimes the hardtack might have worms or weevils in it. Does that sound like a good meal? Do you think the soldiers threw their food away? No way! The soldiers made do by boiling it in coffee. The weevils floated to the top and the soldiers scraped them off. This made hardtack tastier and solved the bug problem.
Hardtack from the Civil War, Tennessee State Museum Collection.
Do your parents drink coffee in the morning? Coffee was very important to troops. It gave the soldiers energy after long days of working or marching. It was also the safest thing to drink. Bad drinking water made many people sick. More soldiers actually died from disease than battle. Boiling the water to make coffee killed the bacteria that made them sick. Most soldiers didn't know about germs and bacteria, but they did see that drinking coffee was both delicious and safe. Because the Union blocked imports to the Confederacy, they didn't always have coffee. Confederate soldiers made do by boiling a flower root called chicory and other plants they could find to make a warm drink.
Coffee Beans issued to a Confederate Soldier. This was one of the last rations issued to the Army of the Tennessee, Tennessee Historical Society Collection at the Tennessee State Museum.
Salt pork was the most common meat ration. It was similar to bacon and preserved by using a lot of salt. It was not very tasty. Have you ever had country ham? Salt pork was even saltier. They had to scrape the salt off and soak it in water or partially boil it first to make it edible. The leftover salt could be saved for later to season another meal. Troops sometimes received other additional rations like beans, rice, sugar, and dried vegetables or fruit. Troops on both sides foraged for fresh food from homes and farms. Some officers also bought food for their company if they were able. But mostly living on hardtack, coffee, and pork was not very nutritious. Many soldiers got scurvy, an illness caused by not getting enough vitamins.
List of Rations sold to an Officer to be given to troops, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Despite this, soldiers got pretty creative. They came up with different recipes that used the same ingredients. A number of recipes were published in military handbooks to help soldiers find variety. They made stews with hardtack, which would thicken the soup. If they had it, flour was used to make a number of things. They made gravy with leftover grease from cooking meat. One drummer boy wrote about wrapping dough made of flour and water around his bayonet and cooking it over the fire!

It is interesting to think about how a few ingredients can make many different things. Civil War soldiers didn't have access to the best food. But, there were many things the soldiers did to spice up what they had. Next time I have leftovers, I am going to think about how I can use them in a new way. What are some things you can do to experiment with leftovers at your home?

Union -Another name for the United States, the states that did not separate during the Civil War.

Confederacy - The states in the American South that separated from the United States during the Civil War.

Forage - To hunt or search for things and take them

Imports - Items brought in from another country or place

Scurvy - An illness caused by not getting enough vitamin C

Salt Pork - A cut pork preserved using salt

What were three common rations?

What foods did Confederate soldiers not have often? Why?

Why was drinking coffee the safest drink?

What were some of the things soldiers made with their rations?

Why do you think food was important during the Civil War?

How do you think food impacted soldiers during the war?

Follow the link and read about John Billing's memories of hardtack. Then follow the recipe and make your own hardtack at home.
https://www.americantable.org/2013/06/civil-war-recipe-hardtack-1861/
Watch this video about Civil War Rations
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/videos/civil-war-rations Further Reading: http://www.lincolnlogcabin.org/education-kits/Civil-War-Soldier-Lesson-Plans/Lesson-2.pdf https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/civil-war-cooking-what-the-union-soldiers-ate/
Primary Source Reading: John Billing's Memoire Hardtack and Coffee
https://archive.org/details/hardtackcoffee00bill/page/108/mode/2up
Primary Source Reading: Camp Fires and Camp Cooking by James Sanderson Printed by U.S. Government
https://books.google.com/books?id=QiBXAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false Videos: Grace Allen is an Educator at the Tennessee State Museum.

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Do you get tired of eating the same thing over and over? I am sure you've had to eat leftovers that weren't too exciting. During the Civil War, Union and Confederate Soldiers didn't have a lot of options. They had to make do with the food they were given, called rations.

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https://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_war/union_blockade.php#:~:text=The%20plan%20was%20called%20the,control%20of%20the%20Mississippi%20River.&text=The%20South%20did%20not%20have%20a%20lot%20of%20industry%20at%20the%20time.

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https://www.middlecreek.org/civil-war-weapons/

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When the Civil War started in 1861, there wasn't a huge selection of weapons used other than canons, rifles, and swords (mainly for command). This was before airplanes, tanks, and advanced boats, so the weapons produced were those created for on the ground soldiers.

Springfield Model 1861 Rifle

This was the most popular gun during the Civil War. The Springfield was a .58 caliber with a 40-inch long barrel. It was loaded through the tip of the barrel with gun powder to shoot a Minié ball. An experienced soldier could shoot up to 3 rounds per minute at an aimed distance of 500 yards. In 1861, it cost about $20 to produce one (that's about $570.70 in today's equivalent).

Because Confederate and Union soldiers were not highly trained on this rifle nor in proper marksmanship, they fired and reloaded in a line at the same time to maintain accuracy and focused firing. Roughly a million of these were produced during the Civil War.
RELATED: The 13 Civil War battles fought in Kentucky [a short overview of each]
Henry Repeating Rifle

Similar to the rifle above, the Henry Repeating Rifle can shoot 2-4 shots per minute and has 16 shots in one magazine. Rather than manually filling the rifle with gun powder and bullets, it used a single bullet and black powder encased in a single metallic cylinder, like bullets today. It uses a lever-action system to fire bullets repeatedly.

It later became the gun that "won the west." Click to see the more advances gun in action:

Model 1840 Cavalry Saber

Swords like these were more of a status symbol than a weapon. Sure, it could be used if needed, but soldiers died more often from rifle shots and cannon blasts than from swords.

Bayonet

The bayonet wasn't used very often during the Civil War. In fact, it was used to kill only about 1 percent of soldiers. With the advancement of weapons such as the rifle and cannon, it didn't prove itself effective in most battles.

LeMat Pistol

This is the most lethal handgun of the Civil war. It was a .42 caliber and could hold 9 bullets at once. The LeMat was actually two guns in one because it could fire a single shotgun round with a flip of the switch on the side. It was a heavy gun and not the best for carrying, but it still was a deadly weapon during the Civil War.

Model 1857 12-Pounder "Napoleon" Gun

Named after Napoleon III of France, this gun - more like a cannon - was a muzzle-loaded smoothbore gun that fired 12-pound rounds. It could shoot up to 4 shots per minute. It was used by both sides during the war and could shoot solid metal shots, explosive shells, and grape and canister rounds with a range of 1,619 yards (or 16 football fields). The barrel was 66 inches long and the entire cannon (wheels included) weighed 2,350 pounds - that's the weight of a small car.

Gatling Gun

Although it wasn't used much, it's considered to be the most lethal gun in the Civil War. It was a .58 caliber, six-barrel gun that worked by turning the hand crank that rotated the barrels. It could be used by one soldier, but it was at its best when used by two - one to crank and aim while the other loaded more bullets at the top. It could shoot up to 600 rounds a minute.

The Battle of Middle Creek was a tragic example of the fratricidal, neighbor-against-neighbor warfare that characterized the struggle for Kentucky. Read about the history of this battle, see reenactments, and the preservation of this site.

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Weapons used during the Civil War [with photos] - Middle Creek

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When the Civil War started in 1861 , there wasn't a huge selection of weapons used other than canons, rifles, and swords (mainly for command). This was before airplanes, tanks, and advanced boats, so the weapons produced were those created for on the ground soldiers. This was the most popular gun during the Civil War.

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https://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_war/weapons_and_technology.php

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https://naval-encyclopedia.com/industrial-era/union-navy-1861-65.php

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Naval Encyclopedia

Ships studied

Unadilla class gunboats (1861)
USS Alligator (1862)
USS Keokuk (1862)
USS New Ironsides (1862) The goal of this chapter is not to portray every single ship featured during the American Civil War (1861-1865), on the union side - it would be useless and time consuming. But rather we will try here to show the main classes and most important ship, of military or historical value, and the events they were involved in.

The Battle of Hampton Roads between the Monitor and the Merrimack, the first clash of ironclads in history.

The Union fleet through the territorial distribution of the states at war, and compared to the Confederacy, had the bulk of the industrial power of the continent, as well as major ports and arsenals of the East Coast. On paper, naval superiority of the Union was just overwhelming. A blocus, to deprive any exports from the Confederacy was a safe option, and indeed proved to be not a war winning strategy, but a crucial element to help achieve the Union's goal.

So let's see its composition: The U.S. Navy was born from a few ships built just after the American revolution, and still revered, like the famous frigates of the constitution class. During the second british-american war of 1812, this "fleet" was no match for the mighty Royal navy. Nevertheless, Fulton gave the congress a modern ship which was launched too late to be seen in action: The Demologos.

This revolutionary ship was a steam-only, heavily protected gunboat. Only an unconventional warfare could be used against the might of the empire. So the congress let some privateers free hands against british shipping, using fast Baltimore schooners, with good successes, atlhough it was a Goliath against David fight. The war was won at land, eventually. But the lessons were learned by those who, in the confederacy, fifty years later, built the confederate fleet.

Between 1820 and 1861, hundred of gun armed steamships were built, and at the starting of the war, the bulk of the fleet was in Union hands, largely constituted of steam frigates and corvettes, and some ships of the line.

USS Constellation - Inner harbor Baltimore. These early 1797-1799 frigates became legendary.

Sailing vessels :

Ships of the line :

The most powerful ship of the fleet was the four-decker, first rate ship of the line USS Pennsylvania (1837), with 120 guns. USS Columbus followed (launched 1819) with 92 guns, then USS Delaware (1820) of 90 guns, and also New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio, all of the same class (the 90 guns or third rate was the common ship of the line at this time). Other three-deckers were ordered but never completed, New Orleans, New York, Vermont and Virginia.

Model of the USS Delaware

Frigates and corvettes :

Amongst the numerous ships in service in 1860 the most famous were undoubtedly the USS Constitution and United States, dating from 1797 and 1798. These veterans of the 1812 war against the British carried the Stars and Stripes form the Mediterranean to China, and the Constitution ended as a legendary icon, so dear to the hearts of Americans than the Victory of the British, and naturally preserved in sea going conditions.

USS Brandywine 1831

Frigates

Most frigates built from 1820 were of a standard that could be almost dubbed as a "class": The "50 guns, 1726 tons." There were 6 in which the first one, USS Potomac, was launched in 1822 and the last, USS Santee, was being completed in 1861. There was also the USS Congress (50 guns) and the corvette USS Constellation (24). Three others were deprived of their masts, transformed into pontoons to serve as headquarters of the fleet: The USS Independence, and Cumberland and Macedonian, both of which are corvettes.

USS Columbus Master Sailmaker Plan

USS Congress 1841

USS Cumberland

Eventually, the fleet also included the corvettes USS Cyane, Dale, Decatur, Germantown, and 12 other units, as well as bricks USS Bainbridge, Dolphin and Perry. They were fast, but lightly armed, more suited for dispatches and scouting or attacking British trade, than to be thrown in a classic naval battle. Most of them were used to blockade the confederacy ports and trade lines.

USS Dale 1839

Wartime shipbuilding (1861-65):

Officers on the bridge of USS Castkill

Ironclads and monitors :

The retooling of the Union Navy in specific units really began in 1862 with the USS Monitor, the first revolutionary steam ironclad. It gave rise to a family of riverine typically American ships, which northerners and southerners made great use on the Mississippi River and the James River, up to massive confrontations, real river battles of wooden ironclads.

The famous challenger of the USS Monitor, the CSS Virginia (Merrimack), was also a metal armoured ship, but not as revolutionary with its classical border, fixed artillery.

The only sailing ironclad built for the U.S. Navy at Cramp navy yard between 1861 and 1862 was the USS New Ironsides, comparable to European standards. The later USS Dunderberg was larger and better armed, the result of the experience of war, but came too late to participate in the conflict, and was sold to France two years later.

USS Dunderberg in construction at the end of the war. She integrated many lessons of the civil war at sea (cc)

But the real revolution was the commissioning of a very critical ship concept, inherited from radical idea of the swedish engineer Ericsson, but nonetheless strongly supported by Lincoln himself: The Monitor. It was designed to counter the threat of Confederate ironclad Merrimack, at this point without rival in the union fleet, and a powerful threat by itself. The monitor differed in their choices much more innovative approach, including a turret, an idea taken and perfected by the English Coles, and seen as bright future of guns handling.

The USS Monitor, operational in 1862, was followed by those of the Passaic class (1862-1863), 9 units strong. The tenth, USS Camanche, was completed too late to participate in naval operations. The following class, Monadnock, entered service too late to participate in the conflict, except the first in the series.

Launch of USS Dictator - Press illustration (cc)

Two large sea-going monitors were also built in 1863 and 1864, the USS Roanoke and Dictator. The Puritan, in the same class as that was never completed. Close to the Passaic, of the 9 Canonicus class, 5 became operational in 1864. The construction of large Kalamazoo, or Monadnock class monitors, which began in 1863, was never completed. Eventually, four cheaper monitors of the Milwaukee class enterd current service in 1864, as well as nine other monitors of a cheap, prefabricated mass production of the Casco Class.

At the end, the sheer industrial capacities of the north prevailed. A a concept of a heavy-guns relatively small and riverine ship, the monitor lasted until 1914 in US navy service. The Royal navy built some sea-going modern equivalents to deal with specific objectives of the western, coastal front like the german defences in belgium, from the north sea. Two of them, modernised, were still in service in 1945.

The riverine first battle of Memphis on the Tennessee, June 6, 1862, which was seen first hand by the inhabitants, fought be even forces od rams and protected paddle-wheelers and won by the Union

In fact, the "old navy" as it was called later, in 1890, was the product of the aging, if not completely obsolete collections of ships left of the Secession war. After the secession war, there was no need for a powerful fleet, and it was slowly reduced or forgotten by successive presidents, to the point that in 1885, the situation was a disaster.

Compared to, for example, the spanish fleet, at least on the paper, the US Navy was almost non-existent, a dull force. A new start was given in 1890, in order to adjust the fleet to the level of wealthiness and industrial resources of USA. Then, the "old navy" has ceased to exist, and in 1918, the US navy was rocketed to the second world rank, very close behind its arch rival, the Royal navy...

Paddle corvette USS Harriet Lane (1857). This ship became CSS Harriet Lane after being captured by the Confederates in 1863 during the Battle of Galveston and used for trade, until recaptured by the Union in 1865.

Nomenclature of Union Ships

As seen before, the union dwarfed easily the confederacy in terms of naval and industrial might. Union ships were mostly used to blockade the southern harbours and trade lines, notably to forbid all exports of cotton, many ships beeing given also the task to intercept cotton-loaded steamers and chasing condeferate corsairs along the war.

Until the end, the union built an amazing force of riverine gunboats, ironclads, and wheeled or screw patrol boats (like the "90 days schooners"), not to mention the revolutionary Monitor and its successors.

USS PENNSYLVANIA (1837)

In January 1860, she was placed in "reserve", serving as flagship in Norfolk, but never went out for years and was becoming a dismasted poontoon. She did not played any substantial part in the whole conflict, as the confederacy never required such a ship to deal with its forces. She became a floating hulk after the war and survived well until the beginning of the next century.

The Pennsylvania was one of the classic tall ships of the line still in commission for the Union navy in 1860. This impressive ship was launched in 1837 to meet the equivalent units of the Royal Navy with which a conflict was still highly potent after 1812 war. She was the largest ship of the line ever commissioned on the American continent, since it was a 3105 tons, 120 guns, four deckers, even though the other ships were 90 guns (92 to Columbus).

Weight & dimensions : 3105 t ; 72 x 17,20 x 10.30 m
Propulsion : Sail only - 10-12 knots.
Blindage : 20-30 inches oak, teck
Armament : 120 guns of 25 to 50 pdr.
Crew : 850

USS MONITOR (1862)

She was sent to fought the CSS Virginia off Hampton Roads in March 1863, during what became the first naval battle of ironclads. The Hampton road battle was one heavily commented by the press, as beeing the chief naval duel between the two enemies in all the war. Despite the heavyer armament of the Merrimack, the small and cramped monitor just turned around, remaining harmless.

The Merrimack at the same time, sustained no hits, the projectiles, fired at point-blank range, simply bounced off upon its metallic sloped flanks. Despite the success of the concept, the monitor was cramped, very bad seaboat, slow, and the turret could not fire too long as the detonation sound inside quickly rendered the guncrew deaf, and the smoke was just unbearable. The battle ended as a draw. However, the Monitor was never defeated. It simply capsized in port during a storm, the night of New Year 1863.

First in a long line, the revolutionary ship of John Ericsson was nicknamed "the cheese box on a raft." The latter has had a hard time convincing the traditionalists Chiefs of Staff of the fleet of the merits of his riverine ironclad, the first with a unique Coles turret and two guns to bear. Built on the classic basis of the Mississippi packet boats, was ready in 1862, and commissioned after successful trials.

Weight & dimensions : 987 t ; 52,42 x 12,64 x 3.20 m
Propulsion : Steam only, 2 Martin Boiler, 320 hp, 1 Ericsson screw - 6 knots.
Armour : 6 inches Iron riveted steel plates on oak framework
Armament : two 11 inches Dalghren RMLs guns.
Crew : 49

USS PASSAIC (1862)

The USS Camanche was carried in parts by USS Aquila, which sank in 1863. Refloated and assembled, she entered too late in commission (May 1865) that it was transported in pieces by the USS Aquila, which sank in 1863. Transportation salvaged, reassembled, so it was put into operation later.

The USS Patapsco hit a mine in January 1865. The USS Wheekhaven sank due to an accidental filling of the purges in 1863. The survivors will be briefly reactivated as coastal monitors during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

This were ten improved "monitors"; lenghtened, widened, but with the same draught, and bearing one light and one heavyer guns, the first beeing used to help to targeting the first. The Passaic was the lead of file, they were launched between November 1862 and February 1863. They were heavily used for coastal and riverine operations until the end of the war.

Weight & dimensions : 1875 t ; 60,96 x 14 x 3.20 m
Propulsion : Steam only - 1 Ericsson screw, 4 Martin Boilers, 6 knots.
Armour : max 6 inches of iron plates on oak framework
Armament : Two Dalghren RMLs 15 and 8 inches guns.
Crew : 75

USS ROANOKE (1863)

The ship was the first attempt to make a seagoing monitor. But it was overgunned. In fact the sheer topweight of the guns and turrets alike, combined with a too narrow, light hull, was a practical disaster, although the high freeboard was well suited for the moderate gale of the north atlantic.

The USS Roanoke was a great seagoing monitor, converted from the frigate of the same name, and bearing no less than three turrets. But the weight of the towers made it fairly unstable and therefore it was not used in operation, but remained at anchor as a coastal battery during her entire was commission and well after. It was hulked and and demolished in 1883.

Weight & dimensions : 4395 t ; 80,77 x 16,15 x 6,70 m
Propulsion : Steam only - 1 Penn trunk screw, 4 Martin Boilers, 6 knots.
Armour : Max 12 inches of iron plates on oak framework
Armament : Two 15 in, two 12 in, two 8 in Dalghren RMLs
Crew : 85

USS DICTATOR (1864)

This seagoing monitor was built by Delamater Iron Works, New York, NY and commissioned in november, 11, 1864. She arrived too late to make a difference during the conflict, although her capacity to serve offshore gave her a distinct advantage for the years to come.

However, she has unrelentless machinery problems and was subsequently put out of commission for years, at League Island yard. In 1871 she was re-engineered and served with the north atlantic fleet at New York, before beeing decommissioned in 1883 and scrapped ten years later.

The largest monitor ever put into commission during the war, first named USS Protector, was a seagoing monster of nearly 5000 tons of wood and iron. As suggested by Ericsson, she was to be named Dictator, as a feared "republic sea monarch" of the united states. As designed, she has to carry two giant smoothbore 20 inches guns (510 mm), but the war urged a more standard gunnery, and stability was a concern.

Weight & dimensions : 4438 t ; 95 x 15 x 6,25 m
Propulsion : Steam only - 1 Penn trunk screw, 4 Martin Boilers, 10 knots.
Armour : Max 15 inches of iron plates on oak framework
Armament : Two 15 in Dalghren smoothbore RMLs
Crew : 174

USS MIANTONOMOH (1864)

"Miantonomoh" was actually the name of the Narrangansett chief and son of the famous grand Sachem, Canonicus, also honored by another Monitor. These twin-screw ships were built at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, launched in 1863-64 and commissioned in 1865 for the North Atlantic squadron.

Seagoing and fast, as evidenced by the Miantonomoh cruise across the Atlantic in 1866, they were however decommissioned in 1874 after nine short years of service, but soon after beeing broken up, their scrap material was used to construct other monitors that were named after them, part of the Amphitrite class (1890).

The last monitors to be built during the war, the Miantonomoh class (from indian tribal names), were also the most costier ever. The Monadnock was in fact the only one to be commissioned soon enough to see then end of the war. The others were accepted into service between May and October 1865. The class of twin turrets, twin screws ships had four units, the Miantonomoh the Tonawanda, the Agamenticus and Monadnock.

Weight & dimensions : 3450 t ; 78,80 x 16 x 3,40 m
Propulsion : Steam only - 2 Ericsson screws, 4 Martin Boilers, 1400 hp, 10 knots.
Armour : Max 11 inches of iron plates on oak framework
Armament : Four 15 in Dalghren smoothbore RMLs (2x2)
Crew : 150

USS SPUYTEN DUYVIL(1864)

Built by SM Pook in june 1864, she was commissioned in november of the very same year. The Spuyten Duyvil (under the original name of USS Stromboli) had a partially armoured wooden hull, from 3in (decks) to 5in (sides), and 9in later on. On 25 november, she began to test its charges delivery system succesfully. She was put on action on the James River, blowing up obstruction ships under heavy enemy fire. However she never succeed to sunk any confederate ship, and after the war, used for various experiments until 1880.

This unusual ship was an experimental semi-submersible spar torpedo vessel. It was designd by William Hood, the chief engineer of the USN. It was an amazing ship with a nearly ten tons semi automatic watertight torpedo charge delivery system, with 12 charges in stores.

Weight & dimensions : 207 t ; 25,66 x 6,30 x 2,26 m
Propulsion : Steam only - 1 Ericsson screw, 1 Boiler, approx. 200 hp, 8 knots.
Armour : Max 9 inches of iron plates on wooden framework
Armament : 12 torpedo charges
Crew : 22

USS HARTFORD (1858)

Launched in 1858 at Boston, she was the flasghip of the east indian squadron from 1858 to 1861 and came to Philadelphia in december when the war broke up. Then she was posted, under command of admiral Farragut between Ship Island and Mobile, trying to clean up the Mississippi mouth of Confederate ships.

Along with Porter's mortar schooners she succesfully cut the chains protected the entrance of the mouth and silenced many southerner guns positions during the night of april, 16, 1862. She dodged and fought back successfully CSS Manassas and bombed the unfinished CSS Louisiana.

Later she ended the confederate batteries, and threaten to surrender Baton Rouge and Natchez, and in june 1863 she was one of the ship shelling the city of Vicksburg. She distinguished herself in august 1864 at the battle of Mobile Bay and 12 sailor of her crew earned the Congress Medal of Honor for exceptional gallantry.

After the war she undertook a long career in the pacific and was ultimately unlisted in 1926. She was to be undertaken for refitting and be shown as musem ship, but left instead in Norfolk to rot until 1956 when what left of her sank and had to be dismantled.

The USS Hartford was one of the six screw corvettes of war of the Union Navy in 1861, and became the most famous. This 24 gun ships earned fame during the battle of Mobile bay, New Orleans battle and Vicksburg siege.

Weight & dimensions : 2250 t ; 69 x 13 x 5,23 m
Propulsion : 1 lifting screw, 9,5 knots and 13.5 under sail.
Armour : Extra planking on Wooden framework
Armament : 20x9in Dalghren SB guns, 2x20pdr Parrots Rifles, 2x12pdr.
Crew : 302

USS TICONDEROGA (1862)

There were two classes of barque-rigged sloops, Sacramento and Ticonderoga commissioned in early 1963. The Sacramento class (Sacramento, Monongahela, Canandaigua, Shenandoah, laid down in 1861 and completed from august 1862 to june 1863) and Ticonderoga class (Ticonderoga and Lackawanna, completed in january and march 1863).

The first were essentially a lnghtened version of the ossipee, while the latter were lenghtened versions of the Sacramento (and 420 tons heavyer). All were barque-rigged, one-funneled with same arrangement, but considerable variation in gunnery.

Most of them fought at Mobile bay, all survived the war, Sacramento beeing wrecked on uncharted reefs o the indian coast in 1867 and the others sold in 1884-1887, although Monongahela, which attempted to pass Port Hudson, was converted to a sailing supply, training and storage in 1883, surviving until 1908 were she was burnt at Guantanamo bay.

The USS Ticonderoga was a wooden screw sloop of war, along with USS Lackawanna were similar to a six ships class (Sacramento class), most of them fightning at Mobile bay.

Weight & dimensions : 2526 t ; 71,43 x 11,63 x 4,95 m
Propulsion : 1 lifting screw, 10,5 knots.
Armour : Extra planking on Wooden framework
Armament : 1x4.2in Parrott RML, 12x9in SB, 2x7in Parrots Rifles.
Crew : 270

USS HOUSATONIC (1861)

The USS Housatonic was launched in november 1861 at Boston naval yard. She was part of the four Ossipee class wooden screw sloops, also with USS Adirondack (wrecked on the little Bahama bank), Ossipee and Juniata. Ossipee fought at Mobile bay. Both Ossipee and Juniata served until 1891, beeing modernised and rearmed in 1887.

USS Housatonic was sunk by a spar torpedo manned by the crew of the HL HUNLEY, a confederate submarine. It was the very first submarine victory in history.

The USS Housatonic was a wooden screw sloop, part of the Ossipee class of four ships. Housatonic was the very first ship ever to be sunk by a submarine, the HL Hunley in august 1862.
Weight & dimensions : 1934 t; 62,48 x 11,58 x 5,02 m
Propulsion : 1 screw, 10 knots.
Armour : Extra planking on Wooden framework
Armament : 1x6.4in Parrott RML, 3x4,2in Parrott RML, 1x11in SB, 2x32pdr SB.
Crew : 214

USS New Ironsides (1862)

The first USN sea-going ironclad was launched in may 1862 at Philadelphia. She fought at Hampton roads, successfully repelled confederates attacks, in the North and South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, bombarded forts and confederates positions taking many hits without fatalities.

She was torpedoed twice, the first time in april 1863, and later with CSS David i, december. After rebuilding, she took part in many other engagements but never encountered a real opponent. She took fire in 1866 while on moorings at Philadelphia and was lost.

The USS New ironsides was the first seagoing ironclad of the US Navy, designed to deal with Virginia and other confederate ironclads. She was torpedeoed by CSS David in december 1863 and entirely rebuilt (picture).

Weight & dimensions : 4120-4190 t; 70,10 x 17,5 x 4,8 m
Propulsion : 1 screw, 1800 hp, 7 knots.
Armour : Wooden hull-iron plating from 1in to 4,5in
Armament : 14x11in Dalghren RML, 2x150 pdr Parrott rifles, 2x60 pdr Dalghren rifles.
Crew : 449

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Naval Encyclopedia Ships studied Unadilla class gunboats (1861) USS Alligator (1862) USS Keokuk (1862) USS New Ironsides (1862) The goal of this chapter is not to portray every single ship featured during the American Civil War (1861-1865), on the union side - it would be useless and time consuming.

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https://www.civilwarmed.org/explore/digexhibits/wore/

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http://americancenturies.mass.edu/activities/dressup/notflash/civil_war_soldier.html

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New Technology: Make sure you do it from a Union perspective

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New Technology: Make sure you do it from a Union perspective

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https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/civil-war-innovations/

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New Technology: Make sure you do it from a Union perspective

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New Technology: Make sure you do it from a Union perspective

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https://www.thoughtco.com/innovations-in-technology-during-the-civil-war-1773744#:~:text=The%20Civil%20War%20was%20fought,telegraphic%20communication%2C%20changed%20warfare%20forever.

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The Civil War was fought at a time of great technological innovation and new inventions, including the telegraph, the railroad, and even balloons, became part of the conflict. Some of these new inventions, such as ironclads and telegraphic communication, changed warfare forever. Others, like the use of reconnaissance balloons, were unappreciated at the time but would inspire military innovations in later conflicts.

The first battle between ironclad warships occurred during the Civil War when USS Monitor met CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads, in Virginia.

The USS Monitor, which had been built in Brooklyn, New York in an amazingly short time, was one of the most magnificent machines of its time. Made of iron plates riveted together, it had a revolving turret and represented the future of naval warfare.

The Confederate ironclad had been built on the hull of an abandoned and captured Union warship, USS Merrimac. It lacked the Monitor's revolving turret, but its heavy iron plating made it nearly impervious to cannonballs.

A self-taught scientist and showman, Prof. Thaddeus Lowe, had been experimenting by ascending in balloons just before the Civil War broke out. He offered his services to the government and impressed President Lincoln by going up in a balloon tethered to the White House lawn.

Lowe was directed to set up the U.S. Army Balloon Corps, which accompanied the Army of the Potomac on the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia in the late spring and summer of 1862. Observers in balloons relayed information to officers on the ground via telegraph, which marked the first time aerial reconnaissance was used in warfare.

The balloons were an object of fascination, but the information they yielded was never used to its potential. By the fall of 1862, the government decided that the balloon project would be discontinued. It's interesting to think how later battles in the war, such as Antietam or Gettysburg, might have proceeded differently if the Union Army had the benefit of balloon reconnaissance.

The Minié Ball

The Minié ball was a newly designed bullet which came into widespread use during the Civil War. The bullet was much more efficient than earlier musket balls, and it was feared for its awesome destructive power.

The Minié ball, which gave off a terrifying whistling sound as it moved through the air, struck soldiers with tremendous force. It was known to shatter bones, and it is the primary reason why the amputation of limbs became so common in Civil War field hospitals.

The Telegraph

The telegraph had been revolutionizing society for nearly two decades when the Civil War began. News of the attack on Fort Sumter moved quickly via telegraph, and the ability to communicate over great distances nearly instantly was quickly adapted for military purposes.

The press made extensive use of the telegraph system during the war. Correspondents traveling with the Union armies quickly sent dispatches to the New York Tribune, New York Times, New York Herald, and other major newspapers.

President Abraham Lincoln, who was very interested in new technology, recognized the utility of the telegraph. He would often walk from the White House to a telegraph office in the War Department, where he would spend hours communicating by telegraph with his generals.

The news of Lincoln's assassination in April 1865 also moved quickly via the telegraph. The first word that he was wounded at Ford's Theatre reached New York City late on the night of April 14, 1865. The following morning the city's newspapers were publishing special editions announcing his death.

The Railroad

Railroads had been spreading throughout the nation since the 1830s, and its value to the military was obvious during the first major battle of the Civil War, Bull Run. Confederate reinforcements traveled by train to get to the battlefield and engage Union troops who had marched in the hot summer sun.

While most Civil War armies would move as soldiers had for centuries, by marching countless miles between battles, there were times when the railroad proved important. Supplies were often moved hundreds of miles to troops in the field. And when Union troops invaded the South during the final year of the war, destruction of railroad tracks became a high priority.

At the end of the war, Abraham Lincoln's funeral traveled to major cities in the North by rail. A special train carried Lincoln's body home to Illinois, a trip that took nearly two weeks with many stops along the way.

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Inventions Which Changed the Course of the Civil War

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The Civil War was fought at a time of great technological innovation and new inventions, including the telegraph, the railroad, and even balloons, became part of the conflict. Some of these new inventions, such as ironclads and telegraphic communication, changed warfare forever.

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https://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/blogs/mercy-street-revealed/i-wanted-to-do-my-part-women-as-soldiers-in-civil-war-america/

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'I Wanted to Do My Part': Women as Soldiers in Civil War America | Mercy Street Revealed

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Last Updated by Anya Jabour on
Anya Jabour, Ph.D., has been teaching and researching the history of women, families and children in the 19th-century South for more than 20 years. She is Regents Professor of History at the University of Montana, where she is affiliated with Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and African-American Studies and has received several awards for teaching and research. In this blog post, Jabour explores the multitude of women who dressed as men to fight-and die-in all the major battles of the Civil War.
After discovering that Private Ames is a woman, Dr. Foster demands, "Why did you join the army?" Ames responds: "I wanted to do my part, same as you."

The case of Private Ames featured in Episode 204 of Mercy Street is based in fact. Historians estimate that as many as 1,000 women may have disguised themselves as men and served in the Confederate and Union armies. Among the best-known and well-documented cases are those of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, a.k.a. Pvt. Lyons Wakeman; Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a.k.a. Lt. Harry T. Buford; Sarah Emma Edmonds, a.k.a. Pvt. Franklin Thompson; and Jennie Hodgers, a.k.a. Albert D. J. Cashier.

Military records reveal that women fought-and died-in all the major battles of the Civil War, participating in clashes in Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, among many others. Dressed as men, women took on a wide range of military roles in the Civil War. Sarah Edmonds participated in the Peninsula Campaign as a soldier, spy, and courier-and even ended up working as a (male) nurse at Mansion House Hospital!

Female combatants faced the same dangers as their male counterparts, of course, but they also confronted unique dangers. In particular, they lived in fear of discovery, which might lead to expulsion or imprisonment. Fortunately for the women who disguised themselves as men, enlistment physical examinations were extremely cursory. Moreover, many women soldiers, who usually came from working-class backgrounds, had adopted men's clothing and male personas in their teens, most frequently in order to obtain better pay and greater independence than " women's work " in domestic service or the "needle trades" could provide. Their familiarity with "men's work" as "hired men" and "stableboys" eased their transition to army life and helped them to evade detection.

Military records reveal that women fought-and died-in all the major battles of the Civil War, participating in clashes in Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, among many others.

The presence of many underage soldiers in both armies also facilitated their deception; young women in uniform easily "passed" as beardless boys. The conditions of camp life-most soldiers slept fully clothed, rarely bathed, and relieved themselves in the woods-also made it possible to avoid scrutiny.

Thus, most cross-dressing soldiers were discovered only when injury or illness brought them under the closer inspection of doctors and nurses, as was the case for Private Ames on Mercy Street. One especially instructive case of belated discovery involved an unnamed New Jersey woman, whose "military bearing" and "gallant conduct" in battle so impressed her senior officers that she was promoted from corporal to sergeant-shortly before she gave birth!

Most women soldiers not only evaded discovery, but also served with distinction. Official reports praised the military record of Pvt. Franklin Thompson (Sarah Edmonds), asserting that the young recruit was devoted to the regiment, "sharing in all its toils and privations, marching and fighting in the various engagements in which it participated ... never absent from duty, obeying all orders with intelligence and alacrity, his whole aim and desire to render zealous and efficient aid to the Union cause."

Thompson's dedication was typical. Fully 15 percent of women soldiers sustained battle wounds; 18 percent were taken prisoner of war; and 11 percent died while serving. Overall, women soldiers had a combined casualty rate of 44 percent, compared to 30 percent for their male counterparts. These figures, combined with women's 14 percent promotion rate-4 percentage points higher than men's-all suggest that female soldiers were especially dedicated members of the Civil War military.

An unnamed New Jersey woman, whose "military bearing" and "gallant conduct" in battle so impressed her senior officers that she was promoted from corporal to sergeant-shortly before she gave birth!

After the war, Sarah Edmonds doffed her uniform and resumed life as a woman, marrying and raising several children before successfully applying for a military pension in 1884. Other cross-dressing soldiers, however, lived the majority of their lives as men.

Several years after adopting male attire in order to seek more remunerative employment, Irish immigrant Jennie Hodgers-thereafter known as Albert D. J. Cashier-enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 at the age of 19. After being honorably discharged in 1865, Cashier returned to Illinois and resumed life as a male laborer. Cashier successfully maintained a male identity, even joining the Grand Army of the Republic (a Union veterans' organization), until a broken leg required hospitalization at the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Illinois, in 1911.

Friends and physicians managed to keep Cashier's secret until 1914, when Hodgers was declared insane and transferred to a mental hospital, dying the following year. While scholars of LGBTIQ history often describe Cashier as an example of a transgender individual, most women soldiers of the era embraced gender nonconformity only for the duration of the conflict. However, whether for a few years or for a lifetime, women who dressed as men in 19th century America clearly rejected the strictures of Victorian femininity and demonstrated women's capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.

Although the experiences of women in the military were in many ways exceptional, women soldiers, like other groups of women in the Civil War era, sought-and found-ways to increase their independence and expand their horizons.
Sources

Amy Benck, "Albert D. J. Cashier: Woman Warrior, Insane Civil War Veteran, or Transman?"

DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002), New Jersey soldier quotations p. 15.

Lauren Cook Burgess, ed., An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, Alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864 (Pasadena, Md.: Minerva Center, 1994).

Sarah Emma Edmonds, Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse, and Spy: A Woman's Adventures in the Union Army, ed. By Elizabeth D. Leonard (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1999).

Elizabeth D. Leonard, All The Daring of a Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1999), Edmonds/Thompson quotation pp. 172-173.

C. J. Worthington, ed., The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez (1876: rpt., New York: Arno Press, 1972).

Anya Jabour, M.A., Ph.D., has been teaching and researching the history of women, families, and children in the nineteenth-century South for more than twenty years. She is Regents Professor of History at the University of Montana, where she is affiliated with Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and African-American Studies and has received several awards for teaching and research. She is excited to be sharing her love for the Civil War-era South with PBS.
Read Full Bio | Read All Posts

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'I Wanted to Do My Part': Women as Soldiers in Civil War America | Mercy Street Revealed

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Last Updated by Anya Jabour on Anya Jabour, Ph.D., has been teaching and researching the history of women, families and children in the 19th-century South for more than 20 years. She is Regents Professor of History at the University of Montana, where she is affiliated with Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and African-American Studies and has received several awards for teaching and research.

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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https://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_war/women_in_the_civil_war.php

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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https://www.remedialherstory.com/9-women-in-the-civil-war.html#/

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The role of women throughout the American Civil War was diverse and widespread. No matter wether one was black or white, southern or northern, women were vital in the war efforts. Some were soldiers,…

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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https://blueandgrayeducation.org/2020/03/civil-war-women/

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The Civil War wasn't just a man's war. For the first time in American history, women played a significant role in the wartime effort. Women took on jobs beyond their society-mandated ones inside the home, including spy, nurse, and soldier. Clara Barton once claimed that the four-year war advanced the social position of women by 50 years. Here are some of the war's most amazing women who made a difference, and related sites to visit to learn more about them.
Clara Barton

One of the Civil War's most famous women, Clara Barton risked her life distributing supplies to soldiers. She started off assisting the wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. From then on throughout the war, she could be found on battlefields, tending the wounded on both sides. One patient told her: "This is the second time you saved my life." He went on to explain she had been his teacher in New Jersey (she became a teacher at the age of 16 and, at the age of 30, opened a free school in Bordentown, New Jersey). She escaped death several times, including during the Battle of Antietam, when a bullet whizzed through her sleeve only to kill the man behind her. After the war, Barton went on to found the American Red Cross. A little known fact about her is that, after leaving the free school (they hired a man to be principal rather than her and she wasn't happy), she worked at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C.; she may have been the federal government's first female employee. Some of the men resented her presence, even spitting tobacco on her skirt.
Clara Barton sites:

Clara Barton National Historic Site, Glen Echo, MD: Clara Barton lived in this house, just outside Washington, D.C., for the last 15 years of her life. It served as the first headquarters of the American Red Cross.

Clara Barton Soldiers Missing Soldiers Office Museum, Washington, DC: This is where Barton lived as she struck out for Civil War battlefields, and where she orchestrated the searching for missing soldiers after the war. It's been beautifully preserved as it appeared in her day.

Clara Barton Birthplace Museum, North Oxford, MA: Barton's childhood home is now a museum.

Rose O'Neal Greenhow

Washington socialite Rose O'Neal Greenhow was beautiful, educated, and refined-her nickname Wild Rose came from her olive skin and complexion. Given her social connections to powerful men, she was recruited as a Confederate spy soon after the outbreak of the war. In fact, she warned General Beauregard about General Irvin McDowell's movements toward Manassas Junction before Bull Run-helping to sway a Confederate victory. She was thrown in prison for a year (sometimes flying the Confederate flag from her window), then deported to Richmond. Jefferson Davis rewarded her generously, then sent her to France and England to use her guile and charms to earn support for the Confederacy. Upon her return, while attempting to run the federal blockade at Wilmington, her small boat ran aground, and, weighted down by gold sovereigns, she drowned.
Rose O'Neal Greenhow sites:

Home of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Washington, D.C.: Her house at 398 16th Street, N.W., no longer stands. LOOK AT CIVIL WAR BOOK

Home of Rose O'Neal Greenhow, London: The house at 34 Sackville Street is where the famous Confederate spy resided as she strove to gain English support for the Confederacy.

Harriet Tubman

Born on Maryland's Eastern Shore, legendary abolitionist Harriet Tubman (ca 1821-1913) escaped from slavery in 1849, going on to help many others find their way to freedom along the Underground Railroad. While her courage and acumen as a "conductor" is well known, her work as a nurse, cook-and spy-during the Civil War is lesser so. Her intimate knowledge of the landscape gleaned along the Underground Railroad, her skills in arranging secret meetings and scouting without notice, along with her ability to think on her feet all proved valuable assets in hunting for rebel camps and reporting on Confederate movements. In one operation, she provided info regarding the location of Confederate mines in the Combahee River, so that Union boats carrying black troops proceeded unharmed. This action made her the first and only woman to organize a military operation during the Civil War. To top it off, she told local enslaved people that these ships cold carry them to freedom, so when she gave the word, hundreds rushed forward to be rescued; more than 700 would be freed, a hundred of which went on to serve the Union army.
Harriet Tubman sites:
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman

Private Lyons Wakeman served for nearly two years for the Union in the Civil War. Even after becoming ill during the Red River Campaign and dying in a New Orleans hospital of chronic diarrhea, his secret was not discovered-the fact that "he" was a "she." In fact, no one knew her secret until 1976, when her letters were discovered. And that's what makes her different from the hundreds of other women who fought as soldiers-her letters were preserved to tell her story. In one letter she wrote: "I don't know how long before I shall have to go into the field of battle. For my part I don't care. I don't feel afraid to go." She is buried in Chalmette National Cemetery near New Orleans under the name Private Lyons Wakeman.
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman sites:
Belle Boyd

A beautiful debutante from Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), known as the "Siren of the Shenandoah," Isabella "Belle" Boyd started off as a nurse. But when Union troops came to her hometown, she unleashed her charms, snagging info from them about troop movements and passing what she learned along to Confederate officers. Her most famous mission involved riding through enemy lines to alert Gen. Stonewall Jackson that Union troops planned to blow up bridges in Martinsburg. Thanks to her, General Jackson successfully routed Union troops out of the Shenandoah Valley. Later on, she carried documents to England for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. When her ship was intercepted by Union troops, she fell in love with Union officer Lt. Samuel Wylde, whom she later married in England. The church still looks exactly as it did on the day they said "I do."
Belle Boyd sites:

Belle Boyd House and Civil War Museum and Archives, Martinsburg, West Virginia: The ballroom is decorated in Victorian style, as Boyd would have known it. The rest of the house showcases Civil War artifacts from Berkeley County.

James Church, London: The church at 197 Piccadilly where Belle Boyd married Union officer Lt. Samuel Wylde.

Elizabeth Van Lew

A wealthy socialite from Richmond, Virginia, born of northern parents, Elizabeth Van Lew opposed slavery and secession. When the Libby Prison was established in an old tobacco warehouse on the edge of town, she and her mother brought supplies to Union prisoners-and helped them escape. As the war continued, her mission turned into a full-on intelligence gathering operation, gleaning information from recently captured prisoners about Confederate troop movements, which she passed along to Union officers. In 1863 Gen. Benjamin Butler recruited her as a spy, and she developed a ring of 12 people, both black and white, to collect info from Confederates for the Union; she often smuggled messages in hollowed eggs. One of her spies was "Mary Jane," formerly enslaved by the Van Lews. She never recovered her social status, labeled a traitor and spy by her former friends, though after the war, President Grant appointed her postmaster of Richmond. After a lifetime of giving and caring for her family's former slaves, she died penniless. The family of a Union soldier she had helped paid for her funeral.
Elizabeth Van Lew sites:
Shockoe Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia: Elizabeth Van Lew is buried in this somewhat overlook cemetery, along with Chief Justice John Marshall, Edgar Allan Poe's adoptive parents, and activist Nora Houston.

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The Civil War wasn't just a man's war. For the first time in American history, women played a significant role in the wartime effort. Women took on jobs beyond their society-mandated ones inside the home, including spy, nurse, and soldier. Clara Barton once claimed that the four-year war advanced the social position of women by 50 years.

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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Women: Make sure you choose a Union woman

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https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/female-soldiers-civil-war

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The American Battlefield Trust’s Untold Story of female soldiers in the Civil War.

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https://time.com/5781480/three-cornered-war-excerpt/

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The Civil War Wasn't Just About the Union and the Confederacy. Native Americans Played a Role Too

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As the Civil War began, the Union wanted to control New Mexico as a way to access the gold in the mountains of the West and California's deep-water ports. The Confederates wanted these same resources, of course.

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https://www.cowboysindians.com/2017/11/native-americans-in-the-civil-war/

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In 1861 it seemed that America was coming apart. Secession, Confederate nationhood, the firing on Fort Sumter, and a mesmeric rush to combat engulfed the nation. The realities of the crisis differed for everyone as individuals examined family, community, state, and national allegiances. One hundred and fifty years after the cataclysm of the American Civil War, we still tend to think of it in terms of black-and-white: the majority white soldiers and civilians, the minority African-American slaves. But what of the indigenous peoples of America?

For many American Indians, the impending conflict created no less of a crisis than it did for the dominant society. But their experience would be primarily defined by their location in the country. Geography was everything. As the tide of non-Indian settlement swept from East to West, indigenous people became minorities within settled regions. They remained Native, but adapted various political, economic, and cultural aspects of their lives to better coexist with their new neighbors. By the time the Civil War started, Indians in settled regions experienced the conflict as members of larger communities whose movements they did not control. Indians living on the edge of incorporated states were better able to retain tribal autonomy, yet they were still strongly influenced by national and state political discourse. Those groups well beyond the white frontier in "Indian Country," however, generally lived with little concern for U.S. politics.

As the nation became consumed by war, few Anglos on either side of the Great Divide considered the Native Americans living among them. East of the Mississippi, tribal lands had been so diminished that most of the 30,000 Indians in the Union did not live in powerful tribal units. Thus, as the country headed for dissolution, Eastern Indians were left to make individual choices about whether or not to engage in the conflict. The Indian minority was concerned less about the divisive issues of slavery and the preservation of the American Constitution than about their ongoing struggle to hold on to their remaining land and culture. If fighting for the Union cause brought the respect and perhaps gratitude of those in power, then it was a means to an end. Army service also brought regular pay and food, adventure, and the continuation of an honorable tradition of Native warriors.

Indians all over the North took up arms for the Union cause. Company K of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters enlisted more than 150 Ottawa, Chippewa, Delaware, Huron, Oneida, and Potawatomi Indians. Sharpshooters received extra training, enjoyed high morale, and used their Sharps breechloaders to devastating effect. But they also experienced discrimination. Fellow soldiers often made uncomplimentary remarks, generally sticking to well-worn stereotypes of "desperate" or drunken men. Yet the Indian sharpshooters proved themselves time and time again in the grueling Virginia battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg. After the ill-fated Battle of the Crater during the seige of Petersburg, survivors recounted how a group of mortally wounded Indian soldiers chanted a traditional death song before finally succumbing, inspiring others with their valor.

Native Americans living on the ever-shifting Western frontier confronted a different situation. Most Indian nations on the periphery of the organized states sought to avoid involvement in national issues that did not seem to affect their lives. However, neutrality was not an option for those in strategic locations. Indeed, recently settled areas just west of the Mississippi would bear the full brunt of the conflict. Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) lay directly between Confederate and Union territory. Both the United States and the Confederacy eventually realized that this important buffer area between Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas would play a critical role in the war. But before the national governments organized diplomatic missions, citizens in states adjoining Indian Territory clamored for Indian involvement. They were determined to recruit the thousands of Native people on their borders for their side in the war. Arkansas offered weapons, while Texas readied men to occupy former federal forts. The Native nations found themselves facing mounting pressure to take sides.

The Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations could still be considered newcomers in Indian Territory in 1861, having arrived there at the end of the arduous journey known to history as Indian Removal two decades before. They were still putting their societies back together when the war came. Native leaders consumed with economic progress, political infighting, and societal disarray now had to choose sides in the conflict dividing the larger nation. The choice was not an easy one as the federal government provided the annuities owed to the nations for surrendering land in the East, while tribal members had strong economic, social, and religious ties to the surrounding Southern culture.

Each of the five southeastern Indian nations decided independently which side to support, and each chose the Confederacy. The United States' complete disengagement with the region and the Confederacy's proactive diplomatic overtures helped to sway the Indian leaders. The Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations all signed treaties of alliance with the Confederate States of America in 1861. Official lines were drawn, but the outcome was far from simple.

Native soldiers were mustered into Confederate units comprised of their own members - including officers, a privilege the Union never afforded to either Indians or African-Americans in its service. At least one of the Indian officers, Cherokee Brig. Gen. Stand Watie, rose to prominence and is remembered as the highest-ranking Indian in the Confederate army.

Military service quickly became complicated for the Cherokees as they were ordered to attack neighboring Creeks loyal to the Union. This demand, which ran counter to ideas of Native kinship and values, caused unrest among Cherokee troops, and many left Confederate service. Soon their chief, John Ross, took advantage of the belated arrival of Union support in the territory and pledged his allegiance to the United States for the remainder of the war. The Cherokees were now sending men to don both blue and gray, causing an internal civil war within their nation.

The loyal Creeks suffered terribly as refugees in Kansas territory, awaiting federal support to allow them to return home unmolested by their Confederate kin. Seminoles, too, were split by mid-war and fought for both sides. However, the Choctaw and Chickasaw entered the war more united politically. Because they were heavily engaged in a slave-based, cash crop market economy, these two nations decided for Southern allegiance and remained committed.

Fighting raged in Indian Territory for most of the war. Regular troops from both armies, as well as countless guerrillas and raiders, swept back and forth through the region. Except for a few notable battles, like Honey Springs in July 1863, most of the fighting was characterized by skirmishes and raids. These small but destructive engagements took a terrible toll on soldiers and civilians. Homes and businesses burned, farmland lay fallow, mills ceased operation, livestock disappeared. Poverty, disease, and dislocation threatened to destroy Native society. The region suffered both military engagements and enemy occupation unlike any area of the Union and most of the Confederacy.

As the federal government became consumed with war, Indian relations fell off the radar screen in Washington. But on the Western fringe, the drumbeat of nationalism combined with the lack of federal oversight created a perfect storm for the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people.

In 1862, Colorado was still a territory with a new and ambitious governor, John Evans. A railroad and real estate investor, Evans presided over a territory facing increasing tensions between white settlers and Plains Indian tribes. Evans began to fear that the tribes were uniting and amassing arms as troops were being pulled out of Colorado to fight in the Civil War, so in the summer of 1864 he obtained authorization from President Lincoln to temporarily form the 3rd Colorado Infantry for the sole purpose of fighting "hostile" Indians.

Commanded by Methodist minister Col. John Chivington, the 3rd Colorado found itself with no one to fight after chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope met with Evans and Chivington in Denver and accepted the governor's entreaty to make peace. The chiefs agreed to bring any Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who didn't want to fight to Fort Lyon for protection, where they camped nearby alongside Big Sandy Creek.

But when Evans left for Washington to personally advocate for statehood, Chivington created his own conflict. On November 29, 1864, Chivington led his men in a surprise attack on the encampment of 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. This was an Indian village - not a raiding party - and at daybreak the still sleepy community was entirely unprepared for attack.

Surviving witnesses described the morning as a frenzied bloodlust of torture and killing. Seven hundred troops of the 1st and 3rd Colorado Cavalries committed atrocities upon 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho, most of whom were unarmed women and children, leaving 160 to 200 dead and many more raped and severely injured. Congressional investigations into the Sand Creek Massacre revealed that Chivington launched the gruesome attack without authorization and found that he should be removed from office and punished, but no charges were ever brought. In response, many Cheyenne and Arapaho joined the militaristic Dog Soldiers, seeking revenge on settlers throughout the southern Plains.

For many Native Americans, the irony of the Civil War was that they were inexorably involved, whether they chose to take sides or not. The repercussions of the enormous conflict entangled Native peoples living both within and without the borders of the Union and Confederate states. Not desired as participants at the start, their value as recruits grew as the war dragged on, as more and more white men died. By the end, a Native American - Ely S. Parker - would stand side by side with Ulysses S. Grant for the signing of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House, forever immortalized in that historic moment. But military involvement, whether sought or forced, did not substantially benefit Native peoples. Instead, the war of brother against brother, tribe against tribe, would cost them a great deal.

Dr. Clarissa W. Confer is an assistant professor of history at California University of Pennsylvania and the author of The Cherokee Nation in the Civil War (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007) and Daily Life During the Indian Wars (Greenwood, 2010).
From the January 2012 issue.

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Native Americans in the Civil War - C&I Magazine

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In 1861 it seemed that America was coming apart. Secession, Confederate nationhood, the firing on Fort Sumter, and a mesmeric rush to combat engulfed the nation. The realities of the crisis differed for everyone as individuals examined family, community, state, and national allegiances.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV5FQoWdvwQ

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Choosing Sides: Native Americans and the Civil War

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https://www.history.com/news/civil-war-native-american-indian-territory-cherokee-home-guard

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Historian Hari Jones summarizes the experience of African American Civil War soldiers, from emancipation, to the authorization of United States Colored Troops, to their experiences on the battlefield.

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The Civil War in Four Minutes: Black Soldiers. Historian Hari Jones summarizes the experience of African American Civil War soldiers, from emancipation to the authorization of United States Colored Troops, to their experiences on the battlefield. This video is part of the American Battlefield Trust's In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics.

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https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lincolns-soldiers/

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Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided | Timeline

African Americans in the Civil War

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, specifically called upon freed slaves to enlist in the Union cause. They would be welcomed, the Proclamation declared, "into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service." As President Lincoln himself said, "The colored population is the great available and yet unavailed-of force for restoring the Union."

A solider, National Archives

What Lincoln didn't know was whether the North was ready to accept white and black men fighting side by side, inching toward an equality many deeply opposed. Two years into the Civil War, black soldiers prepared for battle. At the same time, the nation reacted to a conscription law Congress had passed in March, instituting a draft for the first time. The law allowed draftees to hire replacements to fight for them. However, immigrants and working class men, who could not afford substitutes, felt unfairly targeted. Many were furious about being forced to fight to free slaves, who would challenge them for their jobs once they were freed. The tense atmosphere would explode that summer in New York City, in the worst riots in American history.

May 21-July 9, 1863: Port Hudson, Louisiana
The May 1, 1863 New York Tribune summed up many Northerners' feelings about African American soldiers when it declared, "Loyal Whites have generally become willing that they should fight, but the great majority have no faith that they will really do so. Many hope they will prove cowards and sneaks -- others greatly fear it." In their first major battle, at Port Hudson, Louisiana on May 27, 1863, African Americans proved their courage beyond a doubt.

Port Hudson served as the linchpin of Confederate control over the Lower Mississippi. Among the Union regiments attacking the well-fortified position were two African American units: the First Louisiana - which was one of the few units commanded by African American officers -- and the Third Louisiana. Although they did not inflict a single casualty on the enemy, the units showed conspicuous bravery, charging repeatedly against blistering artillery and rifle fire. All told, the two regiments sustained nearly 200 casualties. Among those impressed that day was Union general Nathaniel P. Banks, who reported, "The severe test to which they were subjected, and the determined manner in which they encountered the enemy, leaves upon my mind no doubt of their ultimate success."

June 7, 1863: Milliken's Bend, Louisiana
In one of the bloodiest battles of the war, African American troops from the 9th Louisiana Infantry, the 1st Mississippi Infantry, and the 13th Louisiana Infantry fought alongside white troops from the 10th Illinois Cavalry and the 23rd Iowa Infantry. The most seasoned of the black troops had been soldiers for only about a month. But they engaged attacking Confederates in fierce hand-to-hand combat, fighting with bayonets, fists, and rifle butts, or firing their weapons at extremely close range. Finally, with their backs to the Mississippi, they received the support of a Navy gunboat, and their line held.

Brigadier General Henry McCullough, who commanded the Confederate forces, later noted that his "charge was resisted by the negro portion of the enemy's force with considerable obstinacy, while the white or true Yankee position ran like whipped curs almost as soon as the charge was ordered." The African American troops paid dearly for their bravery. Heaviest hit was the 9th Louisiana Infantry. Almost 45 percent of the unit's men were killed or mortally wounded -- the highest percentage of a regiment killed in a single battle in the entire war.

July 18, 1863: Fort Wagner, South Carolina
African American soldiers and white officers from across the North comprised the celebrated Massachusetts 54th Regiment. Like most African American units, the 54th was led by a white man, a blue-blood named Robert Gould Shaw, who had years of military experience but little of it in battle. Two sons of abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass also joined the regiment, as did a grandson of Sojourner Truth.

Fort Wagner, an island stronghold that protected the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, presented a significant obstacle to Union forces. Defended by the sea, a marshy shoreline, Confederate artillery batteries on nearby islands, and a three-foot moat, it was close to impregnable. A first Union assault, on July 10th and 11th, had ended in failure. Shaw volunteered his men to lead the second attack on Wagner, and on the night of July 18, in complete darkness, they started across the sand in the face of rebel artillery. Shell blasts tore huge holes in the ranks, but the men closed them and marched on, eventually breaking into a charge. Deadly Confederate fire raked the attackers from three sides, but a number of troops breached the fort's outer walls before being driven back. Wounded numerous times, Shaw fell dead just outside.

Owing to his association with black soldiers, Confederates denied Shaw an officer's burial, declaring "We have buried him with his niggers." When Shaw's father was told that his son had been buried in a common grave with the African American soldiers he had led, he replied that there was no better place for his son to rest than on the field of battle.

April 12, 1864: Fort Pillow, Tennessee
In late 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis declared that African Americans fighting for the Union were guilty of insurrection, a crime punishable by death. The following spring, the Confederate Congress passed a law that allowed the death penalty for white officers of black units and provided for captured black soldiers to be returned to slavery. Both of these declarations violated international law, and the Confederates did not enforce them. But the sentiment the new laws aroused -- along with the ingrained hostility of many Confederate soldiers -- set the stage for wartime atrocities. The most notorious incident occurred at a small Federal outpost north of Memphis, Tennessee.

On April 12, 1864, some 1,500 Confederate cavalrymen under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Fort Pillow, which was garrisoned by about 500 troops. More than half of the soldiers were black. The superior Confederate force overwhelmed the fort's defenders; Union casualties were high. But after the Federals surrendered, Forrest's men shot and killed a number of unarmed soldiers and officers, both black and white. If the Confederates hoped such executions would have a chilling effect, the opposite was true. After the "Fort Pillow Massacre," many African American troops fought with extra vigor, to avoid capture and avenge their murdered comrades. "Remember Fort Pillow" became a popular battle cry.

July 30, 1864: Battle of the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia
In a bold attempt to break the siege of Petersburg, General Ulysses S. Grant decided to tunnel beneath the Confederate lines, blow a hole through the breastworks with gunpowder, and send troops charging through the gap. General Ambrose Burnside chose black troops from the Fourth Division of the Ninth Army Corps to lead the assault. But Major General George Meade overruled him, fearing that if a slaughter ensued, he would be blamed for using black troops as cannon fodder.

When ignited, the gunpowder blew a huge gap through the Confederate line, creating a huge crater in the earth, but almost nothing else went as planned. Union officers had failed to create a plan for getting troops over the physical barricades that existed beyond the breastworks. The Confederate defenders quickly reorganized and directed heavy fire into the crater, which had now become a deathtrap. Union commanders then sent in the African Americans of the Fourth Division. They fought valiantly, moving beyond the trapped soldiers and nearly breaking through the line before being forced to retreat.

The bravery of many African American soldiers was anchored in a deep faith in God and dedication to the cause of liberty. In a letter to a friend, one black sergeant wrote "If I fall in the battle anticipated, remember I fall in defense of my race and my country."

September 29-30, 1864: Chaffin's Farm, Virginia
Positioned to block Confederate efforts to resupply Petersburg, Virginia with men and material, soldiers from the 4th and 6th U.S. Colored Infantry joined white soldiers in an attack on Confederate fortifications at Chaffin's Farm, also known as New Market Heights. Although one arm of the assault succeeded, the rest was repulsed. Casualties were extremely heavy. Out of an initial force of 1,300 men, African Americans suffered 455 casualties.

High casualty rates were common for African American units -- usually for two reasons. First, since blacks had not previously served in the U.S. Army, they were inexperienced fighters. Second, feeling social pressure to prove themselves as men, they often took risks on the battlefield that their white counterparts would not. Of the 180,000 African Americans who fought for the Union, 37,300 died. More than 20 African Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's most prestigious military decoration. Fourteen of those men earned their medals at Chaffin's Farm.

October 2, 1864: Saltville, Virginia
On the march toward Saltville, white troops verbally harassed the African Americans who would soon be fighting beside them. Such day-to-day prejudice was a common experience for black soldiers -- at least until whites saw them perform under fire.

Among the troops who attacked Southern positions at Saltville on October 2 were soldiers of the 5th United States Colored Cavalry. Fighting with white soldiers from the 11th Michigan and 12th Ohio Cavalries, the colored cavalry charged, overran, and held the Confederate left. After holding their position for some time without receiving essential support, they were forced to withdraw.

At Saltville, Confederate soldiers executed unarmed black prisoners, even raiding a hospital on two separate occasions and murdering wounded blacks in their sickbeds. But behind Union lines, the African American soldiers would no longer be taunted by their white comrades. They had proven themselves the equal of any Union soldier.

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African Americans in the Civil War | American Experience | PBS

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Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided | Timeline The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, specifically called upon freed slaves to enlist in the Union cause. They would be welcomed, the Proclamation declared, "into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service."

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https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teaching-resource/historical-context-black-soldiers-civil-war

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By early 1863, voluntary enlistments in the Union army had fallen so sharply that the federal government instituted an unpopular military draft and decided to enroll black, as well as white, troops. Indeed, it seems likely that it was the availability of large numbers of African American soldiers that allowed President Lincoln to resist demands for a negotiated peace that might have including the retention of slavery in the United States. Altogether, 186,000 black soldiers served in the Union Army and another 29,000 served in the Navy, accounting for nearly 10 percent of all Union forces and 68,178 of the Union dead or missing. Twenty-four African Americans received the Congressional Medal of Honor for extraordinary bravery in battle.

Three-fifths of all black troops were former slaves. The active participation of black troops in the fighting made it far less likely that African Americans would remain in slavery after the Civil War.

While some white officers, like Robert Gould Shaw (1837-1863), who commanded the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, were proud to lead black troops in battle, others exhibited a deep resistance.

Black soldiers participated in the war at great threat to their lives. The Confederate government threatened to summarily execute or sell into slavery any captured black Union soldiers--and did sometimes carry out those threats. Lincoln responded by threatening to retaliate against Confederate prisoners whenever black soldiers were killed or enslaved.

In July 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first black regiment raised in the North, led an assault against Fort Wagner, which guarded Charleston, South Carolina's harbor. Two of Frederick Douglass's sons were members of the regiment. Over forty percent of the regiment's members were killed or wounded in the unsuccessful attack, including Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a member of a prominent antislavery family, who was shot dead in the charge.

During the war, African American troops also faced a different kind of battle: a battle against discrimination in pay, promotions, and medical care. Despite promises of equal treatment, blacks were relegated to separate regiments commanded by white officers. Black soldiers received less pay than white soldiers, inferior benefits, and poorer food and equipment. While a white private was paid $13 a month plus a $3.50 clothing allowance, blacks received just $10 a month, out of which $3 was deducted for clothing. Furthermore, black soldiers were not provided with the enlistment bonuses commonly given to white soldiers, and, until the end of the war, the federal government refused to commission black officers.

Within the ranks, black troops faced repeated humiliations; most were employed in menial assignments and kept in rear-echelon, fatigue jobs. They were punished by whipping or by being tied by their thumbs; if captured by the Confederates, they faced execution. But despite these trials, African American soldiers won their fight for equal pay (in 1864) and in 1865 they were allowed to serve as line officers. Drawing upon the education and training they received in the military, many former troops became community leaders during Reconstruction.

One Union captain explained the significance of black military participation on the attitudes of many white soldiers. "A great many [white people]," he wrote, "have the idea that the entire Negro race are vastly their inferiors. A few weeks of calm unprejudiced life here would disabuse them, I think. I have a more elevated opinion of their abilities than I ever had before. I know that many of them are vastly the superiors of those...who would condemn them to a life of brutal degradation."

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historical context: black soldiers in the civil war | by early 1863

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voluntary enlistments in the union army had fallen so sharply that the federal government instituted an unpopular military draft and decided to enroll black

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it seems likely that it was the availability of large numbers of african american soldiers that allowed president lincoln to resist demands for a negotiated peace that might have including the retention of slavery in the united states. | by early 1863

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voluntary enlistments in the union army had fallen so sharply that the federal government instituted an unpopular military draft and decided to enroll black

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it seems likely that it was the availability of large numbers of african american soldiers that allowed president lincoln to resist demands for a negotiated peace that might have including the retention of slavery in the united states. altogether

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000 black soldiers served in the union army and another 29

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accounting for nearly 10 percent of all union forces and 68

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178 of the union dead or missing. twenty-four african americans received the congressional medal of honor for extraordinary bravery in battle. three-fifths of all black troops were former slaves. the active participation of black troops in the fighting made it far less likely that african americans would remain in slavery after the civil war. while some white officers

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who commanded the 54th massachusetts regiment

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were proud to lead black troops in battle

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others exhibited a deep resistance. black soldiers participated in the war at great threat to their lives. the confederate government threatened to summarily execute or sell into slavery any captured black union soldiers--and did sometimes carry out those threats. lincoln responded by threatening to retaliate against confederate prisoners whenever black soldiers were killed or enslaved. in july 1863

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the first black regiment raised in the north

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south carolina's harbor. two of frederick douglass's sons were members of the regiment. over forty percent of the regiment's members were killed or wounded in the unsuccessful attack

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a member of a prominent antislavery family

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who was shot dead in the charge. during the war

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african american troops also faced a different kind of battle: a battle against discrimination in pay

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and medical care. despite promises of equal treatment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
blacks were relegated to separate regiments commanded by white officers. black soldiers received less pay than white soldiers

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and poorer food and equipment. while a white private was paid $13 a month plus a $3.50 clothing allowance

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out of which $3 was deducted for clothing. furthermore

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black soldiers were not provided with the enlistment bonuses commonly given to white soldiers

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the federal government refused to commission black officers. within the ranks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
black troops faced repeated humiliations; most were employed in menial assignments and kept in rear-echelon

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fatigue jobs. they were punished by whipping or by being tied by their thumbs; if captured by the confederates

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they faced execution. but despite these trials

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african american soldiers won their fight for equal pay (in 1864) and in 1865 they were allowed to serve as line officers. drawing upon the education and training they received in the military

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many former troops became community leaders during reconstruction. one union captain explained the significance of black military participation on the attitudes of many white soldiers. "a great many [white people]

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"have the idea that the entire negro race are vastly their inferiors. a few weeks of calm unprejudiced life here would disabuse them

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i think. i have a more elevated opinion of their abilities than i ever had before. i know that many of them are vastly the superiors of those...who would condemn them to a life of brutal degradation."

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Historical Context: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

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Historical Context: Black Soldiers in the Civil War | By early 1863, voluntary enlistments in the Union army had fallen so sharply that the federal government instituted an unpopular military draft and decided to enroll black, as well as white, troops.

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 Battles: Make sure you pick Union victories

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 Battles: Make sure you pick Union victories

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https://www.history.com/news/key-civil-war-battles

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When Southern rebels bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861, it was the start of a war between the Union and the secessionist Confederate States of America that would stretch on for four bloody years.

The war took a brutal toll. According to statistics compiled by the National Park Service,110,100 men on the Union side lost their lives in combat and another 275,174 were wounded in action, while 94,000 Confederates were killed and another 194,026 were wounded. Still more soldiers died of disease, starvation and accidents, so that the total death toll may have been as high as 850,000, according to a 2011 analysis.

Today, when we think of the Civil War, the names of a few hallowed battlefields, such as Gettysburg and Shiloh, come to mind. But the conflict was far bigger and bloodier in scope. Union and Confederate forces met in more than 10,000 armed confrontations across the nation, ranging from small clashes to full-scale battles involving tens of thousands of soldiers, in locations from Vermont to Arizona.

"Evaluating the importance of a battle can be a tricky business," explains Jim Campi, a spokesman for the American Battlefield Trust, an organization that works to preserve historic battles sites across the nation and highlight their importance. "Battles are best assessed by their overall impact on the larger conflict-did it extend the war, or bring it closer to its conclusion; did it achieve a strategic objective, eliminate an enemy force or enable a combatant to bring more force to bear at a decisive point?"

Here are seven battles that proved pivotal in the American Civil War.

First Bull Run

July 21, 1861: Union Gen. Irvin McDowell marched out of Washington, D.C. into Virginia, intent on seizing the Confederate capital of Richmond and putting an end to the war. But most of McDowell's men were inexperienced, 90-day volunteers, who'd joined in expectation of a brief conflict and had little idea what was in store for them. They came up against a force commanded by Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard, which was defending a critical railroad junction at Manassas, Virginia. When McDowell's forces attacked, the Confederates initially were driven back, but reinforcements soon arrived, including a brigade led by then-Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" for his tenacity in holding ground.

In the war's first major battle, Union forces were routed, with an estimated 2,896 killed, wounded, missing or captured. The victorious Confederates suffered 1,982 casualties of their own. As each side counted their dead, it became evident that the struggle ahead would be longer and more grisly than Americans had expected.

Fort Donelson

February 11-16, 1862: One of the first major Union victories was then-Brig. Gen Ulysses S. Grant's capture of Fort Donelson, located along the Cumberland River in Tennessee. The Confederates initially repulsed an attack by union gunboats, and planned a bold counterattack against the Union troops to clear a path for escape. The Confederates seemed on the verge of success when they halted and retreated to their fortifications. That gave Grant time to figure out a weak point in the Confederate line-and attack it.

Confederate generals Gideon Pillow and John B. Floyd fled, leaving behind 13,000 soldiers, who waved a white flag above their fortifications. When the rebels asked for terms of surrender, Grant replied that no terms "except unconditional and immediate surrender" would be acceptable. This earned him the nickname " Unconditional Surrender."

The victory, along with the capture of nearby Fort Henry, opened up the state of Tennessee to Union invasion, and helped turn Grant into a national hero.
EXPLORE: Ulysses S. Grant: An Interactive Map of His Key Civil War Battles
Antietam

September 17, 1862: Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia invaded Maryland in an attempt to knock the Union back on its heels. President Abraham Lincoln sent Maj. Gen. George McClellan and his Army of the Potomac to stop him.

The two forces initially collided at dawn in a cornfield in Sharpsburg, Maryland, where their movements were obscured by the tall corn stalks as they fired upon one another. The battle eventually shifted to a stone bridge along Antietam Creek, where Union troops had to storm a Confederate position three times before finally capturing it. An estimated 22,717 men on both sides were killed, wounded, captured or went missing.

Though the battle ended in a stalemate, the Union had stymied Lee's invasion. That gave Lincoln enough confidence to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which redefined the Civil War from a struggle to preserve the Union to one focused on ending slavery. Meanwhile, photographs by Alexander Gardner of bodies strewn on the battlefield, displayed in Matthew Brady 's gallery in New York, brought home to northerners the brutal cost of the war.
READ MORE: How Photographer Mathew Brady Highlighted Gruesome Realities of the Civil War
Chancellorsville

May 1-6, 1863: Lee achieved one of his greatest triumphs at Chancellorsville, Virginia, where he divided his forces and sent Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to force his way through a rough forest to outflank units led by Union Gen. Joseph Hooker. After several days of fighting, the Union troops were forced to retreat. By the end, Hooker had suffered more than 17,000 casualties to Lee's nearly 13,000.

It was a decisive victory for Lee and the South-but it came at a high cost. Among Lee's casualties was Jackson, one of the most capable Confederate officers. Jackson was wounded by friendly fire and died four days after the battle.
READ MORE: 7 Things You May Not Know About the Battle of Chancellorsville
Vicksburg

May 18-July 4, 1863: Confederate President Jefferson Davis saw Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress port and railroad hub along the Mississippi River, as "the nail head that holds the South's two halves together." That made it imperative for the Union to take what was known as the Gibraltar of the Confederacy.

In mid-May, Grant sent his forces to attack the city several times, but they were unable to penetrate the Confederates' defenses. That forced him to settle into a long siege, in which he bombarded Vicksburg with artillery and fire from Union gunboats, and forced Confederate defenders and the civilian population to endure hunger and illness. Many hid in man-made caves dug under the city.

In June, Grant tried one last assault, deploying miners to tunnel under the Confederate fortifications and plant explosives that carved out a 12-foot-deep crater. But the Union forces were unable to advance out of it and had to retreat. By July, Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton and his 29,000 men couldn't hold out any longer, and had to surrender to Grant.

The victory gave the Union control of the critical supply line of the entire Mississippi River. And the Confederacy was split.
READ MORE: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Help Win the Civil War
Gettysburg

July 1-3, 1863: Lee again invaded the Union in the summer of 1863 in hopes that he could beat the Union on its own soil, threaten Washington, D.C., and force Lincoln to agree to a peace treaty.

With Virginia devastated by the war, he also desperately needed supplies for his soldiers. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was pursued by Union forces led by Maj. Gen. George Meade, who caught up with them in Pennsylvania and confronted the Confederates at Gettysburg, in what was one of the most fateful battles in history.

Initially, the Confederates drove Union troops from fields west and north of the town, but they failed on the second day to break the Union line. On July 3, Lee attacked the center of the Union forces at Cemetery Ridge, south of Gettysburg. After two hours of shelling, Confederate Gen. George Pickett led two brigades in an assault on the Union position. Pickett's Charge, as it became known, turned into a disaster, with the Confederates suffering 60 percent casualties. Lee was forced to retreat and abandon his invasion.

The battle was a crushing defeat for the Confederacy, and losses were devastating on both sides. Union casualties numbered 23,000, while the Confederates lost some 28,000 men. The South's hopes for foreign recognition of the Confederacy were erased. Demoralized, Lee offered his resignation to President Jefferson Davis, but was refused.

The Battle of Gettysburg took on even more significance in November 1863, when President Lincoln traveled to the site and delivered the Gettysburg Address. In the famously short but powerful speech, Lincoln honored the sacrifice of the soldiers who died there and redefined the war as a struggle for the nation.
READ MORE: How the Battle of Gettysburg Turned the Tide of the Civil War
Atlanta

July 22, 1864: Near the end of the war, a trio of Union armies, led by Gen. William T. Sherman converged upon Atlanta, where they were met outside the city by a desperate Confederate counterattack that failed.

The Battle of Atlanta was the bloodiest part of Sherman's March through Georgia, costing the Union 3,700 casualties, while the Confederates lost 5,500 men. Sherman's forces continued their advance and finally surrounded the city, besieging it for the entire month of August.

Finally, on September 1, Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood, a veteran of Antietam and Gettysburg who had lost his leg at the Battle of Chickamauga, gave up and abandoned the city, allowing Sherman's forces to enter.

The capture of Atlanta crippled the Confederate war effort. For Lincoln, who faced a difficult election in 1864 against one of his former generals, George B. McClellan, the victory provided a lift at the polls, helping him win and pursue the war to its conclusion.
WATCH: America: The Story of Us: Civil War on HISTORY Vault

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When Southern rebels bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861, it was the start of a war between the Union and the secessionist Confederate States of America that would stretch on for four bloody years. The war took a brutal toll.

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https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm

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The Union included the states of Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Nevada, and Oregon. Abraham Lincoln was their President.

The Confederacy included the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Jefferson Davis was their President.

Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri were called Border States.

HOMEFRONT Finance
On the homefront, the Union had $234,000,000 in bank deposit and coined money or specie while the Confederacy had $74,000,000 and the Border States had $29,000,000.
Populations
The population of the Union was 18.5 million. In the Confederacy, the population was listed as 5.5 million free and 3.5 million enslaved. In the Border States there were 2.5 million free inhabitants and 500,000 enslaved people.
Agriculture
With the exception of rice and tobacco, the Union had a clear agricultural advantage. Particularly horses: the Union had twice that of the Confederacy, 3.4 million to the CSA's 1.7.

The Union led corn production with 400 million bushels compared to the 250 million bushels in the Confederacy and 150 million bushels in the Border States.

The Confederacy produced nearly all of the nation's rice which amounted to 225 million bushels.

The Confederacy led tobacco production with 225 million pounds compared to 110 million pounds produced in the Border States and 50 million pounds produced in the Union.

The Union led wheat production with 100 million bushels produced in comparison to 35 million bushels in the Confederacy and 20 million bushels in the Border States.

The Union was attributed with having 40 million heads of livestock compared to 35 million in the Confederacy and only 10 million in the Border States.
Industry
The Union had 101,000 factories, while the Confederacy had 21,000 and the Border States had 9,000.

The Union had 1.1 million factory workers, while the Confederacy had 111,000 and the Border States had 70,000.

The Union had 20,000 miles of railroad compared to 9,000 in the Confederacy and 1,700 in the Border States.
MILITARY Enlistment Strength
Enlistment strength for the Union Army is 2,672,341 which can be broken down as:

Enlistment strength for the Confederate Army ranges from 750,000 to 1,227,890. Soldier demographics for the Confederate Army are not available due to incomplete and destroyed enlistment records.
Civilian Occupations
Farmers comprised 48 percent of the civilian occupations in the Union. Others included mechanics, 24 percent; laborers, 16 percent; commercial, 5 percent; miscellaneous, 4 percent; and professional occupations, 3 percent.

Farmers comprised 69 percent of the civilian occupations in the Confederacy. Others included laborers, 9 percent; mechanics, 5.3 percent; commercial, 5 percent; professional occupations, 2.1 percent; and miscellaneous, 1.6 percent.
Bloodiest Battles
The bloodiest battles of the Civil War were:

Note: Antietam had the greatest number of casualties of any single-day battle.
Troop Strength
In July 1861, the two armies were nearly equal in strength with less than 200,000 soldiers on each side; however at the peak of troop strength in 1863, Union soldiers outnumbered Confederate soldiers by a ratio of 2 to 1. The size of Union forces in January 1863 totaled over 600,000. Two years later, that number had not changed dramatically for the Union Army but had dropped to about 200,000 for the Confederate Army.
Casualties
The 642,427 total Union casualties have been divided accordingly:

The 483,026 total Confederate casualties have been divided accordingly:
Prisoners
Of the 211,411 Union soldiers captured 16,668 were paroled on the field and 30,218 died in prison. Of the 462,634 Confederate soldiers captured 247,769 were paroled on the field and 25,976 died in prison. The mortality rate for prisoners of war was 15.5 percent for Union soldiers and 12 percent for Confederate soldiers.

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Facts - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)

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The Union included the states of Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Nevada, and Oregon. Abraham Lincoln was their President. The Confederacy included the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

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https://www.thoughtco.com/selected-civil-war-union-generals-4063156

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Selected Union Generals of the Civil War

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This gallery provides an overview of several of the key Union generals who contributed to the Union's cause and helped guide its armies to victory.

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https://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/c.php?g=288398&p=4496619

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJA7PV3wAoE

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The Civil War in Four Minutse: Union Leaders

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Learn more at: http://www.civilwar.org/education/in4/ Historian Jared Frederick discusses the generals who commanded Union forces during the war, and President Lincoln's struggle to find the right man to win the war. This video is part of the Civil War Trust's In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics.

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https://www.thoughtco.com/civil-war-4133348

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The bloodiest conflict in American history, the Civil War pitted brother against brother. Use these resources to better understand how this conflict tore the nation apart and how both sides struggled to achieve victory.

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The bloodiest conflict in American history, the Civil War pitted brother against brother. Use these resources to better understand how this conflict tore the nation apart and how both sides struggled to achieve victory.

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https://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_war/civil_war_generals.php

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https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/American-Civil-War/273689

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At 4:30 am on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery in Charleston, South Carolina, opened fire on Fort Sumter, which was held by the United States Army. The bombardment set off a savage four-year war between two great geographic sections of the United States. One section was the North-23 Northern and Western states that supported the federal government. The other section was the South-11 Southern states that had seceded (withdrawn) from the Union and formed an independent government called the Confederate States of America. The struggle between these two combatants is generally known as the American Civil War, though it is also referred to as the War Between the States or the War of the Rebellion.

The Civil War came as a climax to a long series of quarrels between the North and South over the interpretation of the United States Constitution. In general, the North favored a loose interpretation that would grant the federal government expanded powers. The South wanted to reserve all undefined powers to the individual states.

This difference of opinion sprang primarily from economic considerations. The North, as well as the West, wanted internal improvements sponsored by the federal government-roads, railroads, and canals. The South, however, had little desire for these projects. Another source of conflict was the opening of public lands in the West. The distribution of such lands in small lots speeded the development of this section; but it was opposed in the South because it aided the free farmer rather than the slaveholding plantation owner. A similar quarrel developed over the tariff, a tax on goods imported from other countries. A high tariff protected the Northern manufacturers. The South wanted a low tariff in order to trade its cotton to Great Britain and other countries for cheap foreign goods.

One issue, however, overshadowed all others-the right of the federal government to prohibit slavery in the Western territories. Such legislation would severely limit the number of slave states in the Union. At the same time the number of free states would keep multiplying. Many Southerners feared that a government increasingly dominated by free states might eventually endanger existing slaveholdings. Thus the South strongly opposed all efforts to block the expansion of slavery. If the federal government did succeed in exercising this power, many Southern political leaders threatened secession as a means of protecting states' rights.

After the war, slavery became more and more unpopular. By 1804 seven of the northernmost states had abolished slavery, and emancipation (the freeing of enslaved people) was common even in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.

Just as slavery seemed to be dying out, it was revived by an agricultural rebirth in the South. A new demand for cotton and the introduction of improved machinery such as the cotton gin transformed the Southern states into the greatest cotton-growing region in the world. Cotton production jumped from 178,000 bales in 1810 to 3,841,000 bales in 1860. This tremendous increase in production required an army of new workers, chiefly enslaved Black people. Within 50 years the number of slaves rose from about 1,190,000 to almost 4,000,000.

At the same time that slavery became highly profitable in the South, a wave of democratic reform swept the North and West. There were demands for political equality and social and economic advances. The goals were free public education, rights for women, better wages and working conditions for laborers, and humane treatment for criminals and the insane.

This crusading ardor soon led to an all-out attack on the slavery system in the South, coupled with a strong opposition to its spread into new territories. It charged that such an institution nullified the greatest human right-that of being a free person. Reformers now called for the complete abolition of slavery.

The first abolitionist to gain national attention was William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, in 1831. Within a few years, orators were giving antislavery speeches throughout the North, and abolitionist newspapers and societies sprang up. Some of the abolitionists even denounced the federal Constitution because it legalized and condoned slavery. Such a radical was Wendell Phillips, one of New England's ablest orators. In 1836 he gave up his law practice because his conscience would not allow him to take the oath to support the Constitution.

Despite their noisy campaign, the abolitionists remained a small minority. They were generally condemned by their neighbors and were often the victims of ruthless persecution. Some antislavery printing offices were mobbed and burned. One abolitionist editor, Elijah Lovejoy of Alton, Illinois, was murdered.

White abolitionists, especially, had no firsthand knowledge of slavery, and their criticisms were often wide of the mark. Southerners who might have doubted the wisdom of slavery now began to defend it with great earnestness. They said it was not a necessary evil but a righteous and benevolent institution. They compared it with the "wage-slave" system of the North and claimed that the slaves were better cared for than the free factory workers. Southern preachers proclaimed that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible. Differences over the slavery issue prompted some Southern churches to break away from the parent group and form sectional denominations.

In the House of Representatives, Southerners fought back in 1836 by requiring all antislavery petitions to be tabled without reading or discussion. John Quincy Adams, the former president and now a member of the House, finally won repeal of the rule in 1844.

More and more Northerners became convinced that slavery should not be allowed to spread to new territories. At the same time Southerners were becoming equally determined to create new slave states. For 40 years this issue created an ever-widening breach between the South and the rest of the country. The slave states had long been a separate section economically. Now they began to regard themselves as a separate social and political unit as well.

The first clear evidence of political sectionalism came in 1819 when Missouri asked to be admitted to the Union as a slave state. Some Northerners in Congress objected to the expansion of slavery, and Congress could not come to an agreement. At the time, there were 22 states, half of them free states and half of them slave states. In the Senate, where each state had two members, the senators from slave and free states were equal in number. A way to break the deadlock finally came in late 1819, when Maine applied to become a state. After months of wrangling, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. It allowed Missouri to become a slave state and Maine to become a free state, thereby preserving the balance of slave and free states and the balance of power in the Senate. The Missouri Compromise also banned slavery from any future territories or states north of Missouri's southern border.

The most disputed part of the agreement was the Fugitive Slave Act. Under the new law, Black people who were caught running away from slavery could not testify on their own behalf or have a trial by jury. Severe penalties were set for federal marshals who refused to enforce the law and for anyone who helped an enslaved person escape. Nevertheless, many antislavery advocates openly flouted this law. In fact, its harshness led many abolitionists to work harder to help enslaved people, including through the Underground Railroad. This organized system aided runaway enslaved people by providing places where they might hide and receive food and be directed to the next "stop" on the way to Canada and freedom. Some Northern states passed "personal liberty laws," in an effort to prevent enforcement of this fugitive slave act.

Meanwhile, a new political party, the Republican Party, had been formed in 1854 to combat the extension of slavery. This party gained strength so rapidly that Southern leaders threatened to secede from the Union if the "Black Republicans" came to power. When the new party did win the elections of 1860 and Lincoln was chosen president, the Southern states carried out their threat. They were led by South Carolina, which withdrew from the Union on December 20, 1860. By February 1861, six other states of the lower South- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas-had seceded. The states that seceded set up a new government, the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy, and made Jefferson Davis president.

Many efforts were made to preserve the Union and to prevent bloodshed. The outgoing president, James Buchanan, was devoted to the Union but believed that the Constitution forbade his taking any action against the South. For several weeks Lincoln also followed a wait-and-see course.

Political factions in Congress, however, sought a solution. A Senate committee, headed by John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, prepared an amendment to the Constitution. It provided that the Missouri Compromise line would be extended to the Pacific Ocean and that Congress would be prohibited from interfering with slavery in territories below this line of 36°30′. It also provided that the federal government would pay for enslaved people who escaped to the North. The proposal died, however, when President-elect Lincoln refused his support because it left open the way for the expansion of slavery.

Another effort for peace was made by the Virginia legislature, which called a conference of the states at Washington, D.C., on February 4, 1861. Seven slave and 14 free states sent representatives. The conference recommended various concessions to the South. Congress ignored these suggestions, however, and instead passed an amendment to the Constitution offered by Senator Douglas. This provided that Congress should never interfere with slavery in the states. It was not ratified by the necessary number of states and was forgotten when the fighting began.

When Lincoln became president, he took care to avoid all threats of force, but he promised to protect "the property and places" in the South belonging to the federal government. One of those places was Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Disregarding Lincoln's vow, Charleston land batteries opened fire on the fort on April 12, 1861. The small federal garrison surrendered the next day. The Civil War had begun.

Until the bombardment of Fort Sumter, many people in the North and South had been determined to prevent war. Some Northerners had argued to "let the erring sisters go in peace." Many Southerners had opposed secession, and in some of the rebelling states the decision to leave the Union was made only after a close popular vote. The attack on Fort Sumter, however, ended all hope of peace. Lincoln at once called upon the loyal states to furnish 75,000 state militia, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis asked for 100,000 volunteers from the Southern states. Both sections were eager for battle. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas now joined the Confederacy. The four border states- Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri-stayed with the North. In Virginia some of the western counties broke away from the Old Dominion and set up a separate government that later joined the Union as West Virginia.

In the division of the country's resources, the North fared far better than the South. Only 11 states left the Union, and 23 (24 with West Virginia) remained loyal. The population of the loyal states was about 23 million; that of the seceding states, less than 10 million, of whom more than a third were enslaved people.

The wealth of the North was estimated at more than twice that of the South (excluding slave property). The North had every type of industry, including about 90 percent of the total manufacturing of the entire country and most of its mineral resources. The South was chiefly agricultural, with a heavy dependence upon cotton production.

The North had more than twice as many miles of railroads as the South. It also possessed the means of maintaining effective railroad operation, whereas the South did not. This was militarily important because the Civil War was the first major war in which railroads furnished the chief means of transportation of troops and supplies. On the seas the North retained most of the United States Navy and most of the privately owned merchant vessels. The two main assets of the South were its armies fought on interior lines, thus lessening transportation and communication problems; and it had expert military leaders, notably in the East.

In the beginning both sides tried to raise troops only on a volunteer basis, but they soon found it necessary to adopt a military draft. The South resorted to conscription in 1862, and the North did the following year. Both sides also had great difficulty in equipping their troops. It was many months before Northern factories were producing enough goods for the Union armies. The South, with few industrial resources, had to import much of its equipment from Europe, running it through the naval blockade imposed by Union vessels.

By the end of 1861 two major battlefronts had developed. One was in the East where Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania suffered the bulk of the fighting. The other front was in the West, at first along the Mississippi River.

On the Eastern front each side tried to capture the opposing capital. The Union capital was Washington, D.C., and the Confederate capital was Richmond, Virginia. General McClellan, the first Union commander there, was a great drillmaster but a timid warrior. He was repeatedly outmaneuvered by the Confederate commander, General Robert E. Lee, who proved to be one of the greatest military leaders of all time.

In the spring of 1862 McClellan brought his Army of the Potomac by water as far as Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He planned to take Richmond by moving up the narrow peninsula between the York and James rivers. McDowell's troops, held at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in defense of Washington, D.C., were to be kept in reserve. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign got off to a slow start. The Army of the Potomac was delayed a month besieging weakly held Yorktown, Virginia, and was halted again at the Battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines) on May 31 and June 1. When McClellan was almost ready to attack Richmond, McDowell was ordered away to the Shenandoah Valley.

In the Shenandoah Valley, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson had routed Northern troops in a lightning advance on Harpers Ferry. From this point his "foot cavalry" seemed to threaten Washington itself. Jackson then slipped away and hurried his men by train to Richmond. Here Lee had sent General J.E.B. ("Jeb") Stuart on a cavalry raid that brilliantly encircled McClellan's forces. Lee then took the offensive. He drove McClellan back in the Seven Days' Battles, ending at Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862.

Lee now crossed the Potomac River to invade Maryland. He wanted to transfer the fighting to Northern soil and at the same time to influence the coming Congressional elections against Lincoln. To protect his rear, Lee sent Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry. Meanwhile, McClellan, who had succeeded Pope, accidentally obtained a copy of Lee's general orders. He advanced to meet Lee along Antietam Creek at Sharpsburg. While McClellan hesitated for a whole day, Jackson with three divisions made a forced march up from Harpers Ferry. When the Union troops finally did attack on September 17, in the Battle of Antietam, they met most of Lee's reunited forces. Late that afternoon Confederate General A.P. Hill's division arrived from Harpers Ferry just in time to prevent a possible decisive Union victory. Nevertheless, Union troops halted the Confederate advance on Maryland.

The Union victory at Antietam, slight though it was, gave President Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This order decreed the freedom of all enslaved people in territory still in rebellion on January 1, 1863. The president took this momentous step to introduce a new moral aim in the war and to prevent foreign intervention.

Then Lincoln began a long search for a general to cope with the brilliant Lee. McClellan was relieved. He was replaced by General Ambrose Burnside, who led the Army of the Potomac to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862.

It was not until more than a year later, however, that the Mississippi River was completely open. On July 4, 1863, as Lee was retreating from his defeat at Gettysburg, Vicksburg fell to General Grant after a desperate siege. Five days later Port Hudson, the last Confederate river fort, surrendered. With the Mississippi River now under Union control, the Confederacy was geographically divided into two parts.

To the East, Confederate General John H. Morgan led a raiding party into Kentucky in July 1862. The following summer he swept into Indiana and Ohio before his force was defeated and captured. Other raiders under General Nathan B. Forrest destroyed Federal stores and lines of communication in Tennessee. The Southern Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg invaded Kentucky in September 1862 but was turned back by General D.C. Buell's Union army at Perryville on October 8.

General Bragg withdrew to central Tennessee, pursued by the Union army now commanded by General W.S. Rosecrans. At Murfreesboro, in the Battle of Stones River on December 31-January 2, Bragg was defeated again. He retreated to Chattanooga. Six months later General Bragg gave up Chattanooga without a struggle. He was then reinforced by Longstreet's corps from Virginia. At the Battle of Chickamauga Creek in Georgia on September 19-20, 1863, the combined Confederate forces lashed back at the Union troops. The battle might have been a major Federal disaster but for the firm stand taken by General George H. Thomas and his men.

In March 1864, Grant became commander in chief of all Federal armies and moved his headquarters to Virginia. Seeing that the long fighting had severely weakened Lee's forces, Grant began a relentless campaign of increased attrition. He forced bloody but inconclusive battles at the Wilderness, May 5-6; Spotsylvania, May 8-12; and Cold Harbor, June 1-3. He then circled Richmond and laid siege to the important railroad junction of Petersburg, Virginia.

In July 1864, Lee sent General Jubal Early raiding in Shenandoah Valley, hoping to repeat Jackson's successes of 1862. General Early, however, was routed by General Philip Sheridan 's cavalry, who then ravaged the valley, destroying Confederate food supplies.

In Georgia, Sherman's Army of the West captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. The army then marched on to the sea, leaving behind a swath of waste and destruction 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide. Sherman reached Savannah on December 20. Meanwhile Confederate General Hood, attempting a counterattack in Tennessee, was decisively defeated at Franklin on November 30 and at Nashville on December 15-16.

From Savannah, Sherman turned northward to join forces with Grant. This pincer movement against Lee proved unnecessary, however. A Federal victory at Five Forks, Virginia, on April 1, 1865, forced Lee to abandon both Petersburg and Richmond and flee westward. Finally, with his army depleted and his supplies exhausted, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9. Sherman took the surrender of Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina on April 26. On May 4 General Richard Taylor surrendered the Confederate forces in Mississippi and Alabama. Three weeks later General E. Kirby-Smith surrendered the trans-Mississippi forces in Texas. The American Civil War was over.

Early in the war, President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the entire Southern coastline and, by pressing all kinds of ships into use, severely curtailed Confederate shipping. Efforts to break the blockade were in vain. In the first battle between ironclad ships, the South's Merrimack ( Virginia) could get no better than a draw in its famous battle with the North's Monitor.

Several commerce destroyers were built in England for the Confederacy. They did much damage to Northern shipping, but they could not defeat the blockade. Gradually the Union tightened its grip on the seas by capturing the Southern ports through which blockade runners smuggled supplies. New Orleans fell first, in 1862. In 1864 Farragut's warships took Mobile harbor. The next year Fort Fisher, guarding Wilmington's harbor, was stormed by Commander David Dixon Porter's fleet, in cooperation with land forces under General Alfred H. Terry. A little more than a month later, Sherman's capture of Charleston sealed off the last major port.

At the beginning of the war the South counted heavily on foreign intervention. It believed that European countries must have Southern cotton for their industries and that if necessary they would fight the North to get it. In 1861 the Confederacy dispatched two agents to England and France, but Federal warships took them off a British ship as prisoners of war. This incident nearly involved the United States and Great Britain in war.

The Union protested to Great Britain about the commerce destroyers that the British government permitted to be built in local shipyards. The most famous of these vessels was the Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes. Other difficulties arose from the enforcement of the Federal blockade. Fortunately neither Britain nor the United States wanted war. When British workingmen learned that the Union was fighting for the cause of free labor, their sympathies were all with the North. England found other sources of supply for cotton and profited from trade as a neutral.

One of the big problems on the home front was the large group of Northerners who opposed the war. These " Copperheads," as they were called, organized secret societies such as the Knights of the Golden Circle. They sought to embarrass the government by discouraging enlistments, opposing the draft, and even helping Confederate prisoners to escape. Copperheads became influential in the Democratic Party and in the elections of 1862 scored important victories in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa.

President Lincoln served only six weeks of his second term. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and died the following day.

The victory of the Federal forces established that no state could secede from the Union or even nullify a national law. The war paved the way for the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbade the use of slave labor in the United States. After the war the United States faced grave problems of readjustment and reconstruction. The economic, social, and political outgrowths of the war are discussed in the article covering the Reconstruction period. ( See also Black Americans.)

Although the Civil War preserved the Union, the physical, psychological, and economic costs were enormous. While there were some desertions on both sides, the personal valor and the very heavy casualties have not yet ceased to astound scholars and military historians. Based on the three-year standard of enlistment, about 1,556,000 soldiers served in the Federal armies. They suffered a total of 634,703 casualties, with 359,528 dead and 275,175 wounded. Probably about 800,000 men served in the Confederate forces. The South sustained approximately 483,000 casualties, with about 258,000 dead and perhaps 225,000 wounded. Many of the casualties on both sides died of disease.

It is often said that the American Civil War tragically pitted "brother against brother." This image works as a metaphor for the terrible divisiveness of the conflict, representing the country as a family. It was also literally true. In many American families-especially in the upper South, or border states-some family members openly sympathized with the South, while other members publicly sided with the North. In some cases, brothers or other family members actually fought on opposing sides in the war. President Lincoln himself had brothers-in-law who fought for the Confederacy.

The war was also very costly economically. Faced with a shortage of funds, both governments were obliged to print large amounts of paper money. As a result, both sides experienced runaway inflation. Inflation was much more drastic in the South, where, by the end of the war, flour sold at $1,000 a barrel. While separate Confederate figures are lacking, the war finally cost the United States more than $15 billion. The South, especially, where most of the war was fought and which lost its labor system, was physically and economically devastated. Some spiritual wounds caused by the war still have not been healed.

The American Civil War had a profound impact on the development of modern weapons and techniques. There were many innovations. It was the first war in history in which the telegraph and the railroad played significant roles. It was also the first war in which ironclad warships clashed. It was the first war in which machine guns were employed and the first in which rifled ordnance (equipment) and shell guns were used extensively. The American Civil War was also the first to have widespread newspaper coverage and the first to be recorded by photography. The medical care of troops was organized systematically for the first time. Land and water mines were used for the first time in a war. The American Civil War was the first to employ a submarine that could sink a warship. It was also the first war in which armies widely employed aerial reconnaissance (by means of observation balloons).

The first shots of the long-feared civil war were fired by the South on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The fort was named for a Revolutionary War hero, Thomas Sumter. The federal government had begun building it on a small island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1829. The country was at peace, and construction lagged. The fort was still not finished when South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. South Carolina claimed that secession entitled it to all government property within its boundaries. President James Buchanan refused to give up forts in seceded states but promised not to send reinforcements.

When the dispute began, Fort Sumter was unoccupied. But Major Robert Anderson soon moved his small force into Sumter from Fort Moultrie, a weaker position on the north side of the harbor. Fort Sumter was besieged until the outbreak of the war. On April 11, 1861, General Pierre Beauregard, commanding the Confederate forces, demanded the surrender of the fort. Anderson refused. On April 12 the bombardment began. Faced with overwhelming odds, Anderson was forced to surrender on April 13. He sent the following dispatch to Washington:

Having defended Fort Sumter for 34 hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed, the powder-magazine surrounded by flames, and no provisions but port remaining, I accepted the terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard, and marched out of the fort with colors flying and drums beating, saluting my flag with 50 guns.

People of the North who had calmly been saying, "Let the South go," were now aroused to fever heat. Many enlisted in response to Lincoln's call for 75,000 men. The North gained much in unity of action by the loss of Fort Sumter; the South gained only the fort. When the Confederate forces abandoned Charleston in 1865, Fort Sumter again passed to the North but as a battered ruin of no military value. It became a national monument in 1948.

Battles of Bull Run (Manassas)
Two battles of the Civil War were fought in northern Virginia near a small river called Bull Run and a town called Manassas Junction. First Bull Run was the first major battle of the war. Both the North and the South thought it might be the last.

First Battles of the Ironclads
On the afternoon of March 8, 1862, five vessels of the United States Navy lay at anchor in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Suddenly a strange-looking object moved through the water toward the U.S. vessel Cumberland from the Confederate stronghold in Norfolk, Virginia. It was a reconstructed U.S. ship, the Merrimack (renamed the Virginia). The vessel had been sunk when the Norfolk navy yard was abandoned at the beginning of the war. The Confederates had raised the vessel, cut off the sides, and covered what was left with iron plates. This was one of the earliest practical applications of armor to a warship.

The ironclad steered straight for the Cumberland. It was met by heavy fire, but, when it reached the Cumberland, its iron beak cut through the side of the wooden vessel "as a knife goes through cheese." The Merrimack next set fire to the Congress with red-hot shot from its guns. Then the vessel steamed away to prepare for its next victory.

By the next morning, however, the situation was entirely changed. When the Merrimack started toward the Minnesota, preparing to dispose of it as quickly as the two victims of the previous day, there suddenly appeared in the ironclad's path an odd object, about one-fourth the Merrimack's size and resembling a "cheese-box on a raft." This was the famous Monitor, a Union ironclad designed by John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer.

The fight between the two ships began at once and lasted for nearly four hours. The Monitor was more easily handled than the Merrimack, but its shots could not do much harm to the other's iron sides. On the other hand, the Monitor's single revolving turret offered a hopeless target for its opponent. Thousands of people stood on the shore and breathlessly watched the combat. The distance between the vessels varied from half a mile to a few yards. The Monitor's commander was wounded, and the Merrimack, badly damaged, steamed back to Norfolk.

This fight between the Merrimack and Monitor was one of the most important naval battles ever fought, for it made the warships of all the old navies useless. All countries had to discard their wooden vessels and to begin building ironclads. During the Civil War the Union was able to build more iron ships faster than the Confederacy could.

Battle of Shiloh
On a Sunday morning in southwestern Tennessee, on April 6, 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant sat enjoying a leisurely breakfast below Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, while his army cooked breakfast in the camps grouped about Shiloh church not far away. Nobody expected trouble from the retreating Confederate forces under General Albert S. Johnston that were supposed to be camped at Corinth, Mississippi, 20 miles away. Grant had not kept cavalry watching the Confederates, nor had he posted outposts sufficiently far in front.

Suddenly the crack of rifles and roar of battle broke the calm. When Grant reached his troops, his situation looked disastrous. The Confederates in full force had burst from covering woods and were driving the desperately resisting bands of Union soldiers from their camps. All day the battle raged with terrific losses. Practically no control could be exercised by either commander over his raw troops. By night the Union troops had been driven almost to the river.

The situation changed overnight. General D.C. Buell arrived with 25,000 Union troops, and Johnston of the Confederates died of a wound he had suffered while leading a charge. His successor, General Beauregard, was driven from the field the next day and retired to Corinth. The Union armies of some 70,000 lost about 13,000 killed and wounded. The Confederate loss was 10,000 out of some 40,000.

Shiloh was the second great battle of the war and the most bitterly fought engagement of the whole struggle. Bitter criticism was heaped upon Grant for his heavy losses. But President Lincoln refused to remove him, and Grant soon justified the president's faith. The Confederates, on the other hand, lost almost as heavily and missed their chance to break up the Union advance in the west.

Battle of Antietam
For weeks the tide of the Civil War ran in favor of the Confederacy. The morale of the North had been lowered by General George B. McClellan's disastrous Peninsular Campaign in Virginia in 1862. As a result, President Lincoln was forced to postpone issuing his Emancipation Proclamation for fear of seeming to appeal to Blacks for aid in a losing cause. When he laid aside the proclamation, he vowed he would give it to the world after the first Union victory.

Instead of victory came more setbacks. General Lee crossed the Potomac River, carrying the war into the North and striking terror into the hearts of the people of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Finally, on September 17, 1862, his troops met the numerically superior forces of McClellan at the little creek of Antietam in Maryland. All day long the Battle of Antietam raged. The loss of men either killed or wounded on each side was about 11,000.

No decisive results were obtained from the fierce conflict of that day. On the next day, however, Lee felt that it was wiser to withdraw from the field. Thus the victory seemed to be left with McClellan. Lee had not obtained the aid from the people of Maryland that he had expected, and so he recrossed the Potomac into Virginia. McClellan made no attempt for a while to follow him, and so little military advantage was gained. Nevertheless, the people of the North were encouraged, and Lincoln had the opportunity to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. For these two reasons the Battle of Antietam was one of the important battles of the Civil War.

Battle of Fredericksburg
One of the costliest defeats suffered by the Union forces in the war was at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862. At that time Lee had retreated from the North as a result of his defeat at Antietam. With about 78,000 men he had established himself on the high bluffs of the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg.

The Army of the Potomac, led by Union General Ambrose E. Burnside, held the north bank of the river at Falmouth. There were about 120,000 men under his command. With many difficulties he transported them across the river on pontoon bridges to attack the strongly entrenched Confederates.

After six assaults with great losses, Burnside was persuaded by his officers not to renew the attack. Two nights later, under the cover of a storm on December 15, the discouraged remainder of the Union army was brought back to Falmouth.

The Union army had lost about 12,500 men, while the Confederate loss was more than 5,000 men. As a result of his tragic defeat, Burnside was replaced a week later by General Joseph ("Fighting Joe") Hooker.

The gloom that this disaster brought to the people in the North was changed to rejoicing a few weeks later. Then news came of the Union victory in the Battle of Murfreesboro, or Stones River, Tennessee, fought from December 31 to January 2.

At Murfreesboro the Confederate forces under General Braxton Bragg were repulsed by the Union army under General William S. Rosecrans. This victory opened the way for the Union advance to Chattanooga and finally to "Atlanta and the sea."

Campaign for Vicksburg
A primary objective of the Union forces in the Civil War was to cut the Confederacy in two by winning control of the Mississippi River. To do this it was necessary to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. As long as Vicksburg was held by the South, Union vessels could not operate freely on the river. The city also served as an important transportation point for the Confederacy. Supplies, arms, and men from the southwestern states were assembled at Vicksburg and then transported eastward by rail.

On January 29, 1863, General Grant was put in command of the Army of the West, with orders to capture Vicksburg. It was a difficult assignment because the city, located east of the Mississippi, was on a high bluff overlooking a hairpin bend in the river. All earlier attacks against Vicksburg had failed. Grant now set his men to work with pick and shovel rather than with guns. They tried to dig a canal across the neck of land opposite the city and thus bypass Vicksburg by turning the river from its old bed. Despite their most strenuous efforts, Grant's troops failed to change the course of the river. Another way to reach the city had to be found. Grant saw that Vicksburg could be approached only from the south and east.

The west bank of the Mississippi became dry enough for the men to travel over, but how were they to recross to the east bank after getting below the city? This could be done in only one way: The Union fleet would have to face the Confederate batteries and go down the stream as the men marched along the west shore. One dark night the attempt was made. The Confederates learned of the plan and sent troops across the river in skiffs. They set fire to houses on the shore so that Confederate gunners might have light to see the Union ships. Nevertheless, all but one of the Union's vessels ran by the batteries in safety and transported Grant's men to the eastern bank.

This was all accomplished by the end of April 1863. Now began the task of pushing the Confederate troops back into the city. Seven times Grant met and defeated them before he reached Vicksburg. Failing to take the town by storm, he settled down to starve it into surrender. For seven weeks the town held out.

A Confederate woman who was shut up in the city gave this description of life during that time: "So constantly dropped the shells around the city that the inhabitants made preparations to live under the ground during the siege. We seized the opportunity one evening, when the gunners were probably at their supper, for we had a few moments of quiet, to take possession of our cave. Our dining, breakfasting, and supper hours were quite irregular. When the shells were falling fast, the servants came in for safety, and our meals waited; again they would fall slowly . . . and out would start the cooks to do their work."

Supplies ran low and were rationed. Horses and mules were killed for meat. Men died of disease and starvation. When General John Pemberton finally asked what terms would be given them, Grant replied: "Unconditional surrender." Pemberton was forced to accept these hard terms on July 4, 1863. Vicksburg had fallen; the Confederacy was divided.

Battle of Chancellorsville
Before the Union finally took over Vicksburg, the South won one of its greatest victories in the Civil War in May 1863 at Chancellorsville, Virginia. General Lee achieved perhaps his most brilliant success in this battle. At the start of the battle, Lee had about 60,000 men in a region east of Chancellorsville and south of Fredericksburg.

The newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, General Hooker, had moved his forces during April to an area north of Chancellorsville and west of Fredericksburg. By April 30 the Union army of about 130,000 men was well entrenched. Hooker sent a detachment under General John Sedgwick to attack Fredericksburg. He then prepared to advance and engage Lee's army in a major battle.

Lee's cavalry leaders had told him of the movements of Hooker's troops, including some actions that were meant to be deceptive. Quickly Lee decided to attack.

On the morning of May 1 Lee sent a division under General Jubal Early to pin down Sedgwick's forces at Fredericksburg. With the remainder of his army Lee marched west to meet Hooker's advancing troops. By midafternoon the armies were in combat. Under heavy Confederate pressure the Union soldiers slowly withdrew to their strongly fortified defensive positions. Fighting came to a halt at nightfall.

During the night Lee decided to attempt an encircling movement. He ordered Stonewall Jackson to lead 30,000 men around the southern flank of the Union army. General Jackson began the long march after midnight. In the morning the Confederates were seen by the Federals guarding the southern flank of the Union army. The Federals attacked but did not seriously hamper Jackson's march.

Jackson moved west, then north. He entered the tangled forest called The Wilderness, and soon his forces were in the rear of the Union army. Jackson then turned eastward and attacked. His Confederates drove into the Union lines, which faltered and fell back. When the Federals reached their defenses near Chancellorsville, they held their ground.

During the night Jackson rode ahead of his lines to scout the situation around United States Ford. On returning he was mistaken for a Federal officer and was fired upon by a Confederate sentry. The wound proved to be mortal. He died eight days later.

On the morning of May 3 the Confederates seized Hazel Grove, a hill near Chancellorsville. They mounted 50 cannons on it. Fire from this artillery killed large numbers of Union men. Fierce fighting raged throughout the day, and losses were heavy on both sides. Hooker himself was a casualty of the day. A cannon shell wrecked the porch of the two-story brick house that was Hooker's headquarters. A falling pillar struck Hooker on the head. When the general regained consciousness he was dazed and in pain, yet refused to turn over full authority to the officer next in command. This decision has been blamed for much of the uncertainty and confusion that led to the defeat of the huge Union army.

At Fredericksburg, Sedgwick defeated Early and routed his troops. Sedgwick then marched westward to join the battle around Chancellorsville. He attacked Lee's rear guard, which was larger than he had expected. When darkness stopped the fighting on all fronts, Sedgwick had trenches dug and other defenses prepared.

In the afternoon of May 4 Lee attacked Sedgwick's well-entrenched corps. Its lines held firm for the most part, and Lee made little progress. Federal forces repelled attempts to take United States Ford and other key points. Sedgwick maintained his position throughout the day.

There were only unimportant skirmishes on May 5. That night Hooker decided on a total withdrawal. Early on May 6 the first Federal units began crossing the Rappahannock River at United States Ford. By the evening of May 6 most of the Union army was safely across the river. Lee, with his badly battered army, did not attempt to pursue the Federals. Meanwhile Sedgwick's detachment succeeded in crossing at Scott's Ford.

Union losses in killed, wounded, and missing amounted to some 17,000 men, or about 13 percent of the total force. The Confederates lost about 13,000 men, or more than 21 percent of the Army of Northern Virginia, and in Stonewall Jackson they lost an irreplaceable leader. The South's victory was its costliest as well as one of its greatest.

Battle of Gettysburg
The North won three of the most important battles of the Civil War in 1863. Two of these Union victories occurred in early July in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and, after a long siege, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In the fall the third crucial engagement was staged in the area around Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The Battle of Gettysburg was a crushing defeat for the South. After the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, Lee began his second invasion of the North on June 5, 1863. He hoped to further discourage the Union and to possibly get European countries to recognize the Confederacy. Lee's invasion army consisted of 75,000 troops organized into three corps, commanded by Generals James Longstreet, R.S. Ewell, and A.P. Hill. The advance elements moved down the Shenandoah Valley toward Harpers Ferry. Marching through Maryland into Pennsylvania, the Confederates reached Chambersburg and turned eastward. They occupied York and Carlisle and menaced Harrisburg. Meanwhile, the dashing Confederate cavalryman J.E.B. ("Jeb") Stuart set off on a questionable ride around the Federal army. He was unable to join Lee's main army until the second day of fighting at Gettysburg.

General Hooker moved his Union forces northward, keeping them between Lee's army and Washington, in order to protect the capital. When Hooker's request for additional men was denied, he resigned. General George G. Meade replaced him.

Confederate and Union forces came together unexpectedly at the important crossroads town of Gettysburg. The resulting battle was the greatest ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863. About 28,000 Confederate troops attacked the advance Union cavalry, which was led by General John Buford. The cavalry was soon joined by Federal infantrymen under General John F. Reynolds. When he died, he was replaced by Major General Abner Doubleday. Doubleday ably handled the Federal troops, which at about 18,000 men were outnumbered. After nine hours of intense fighting, with heavy casualties on both sides, the Confederate forces finally prevailed. They forced the Union troops back through Gettysburg to strategic Cemetery Ridge south of town. Meade assembled the rest of his army there that night.

On the second day of battle, there were a great number of desperate attacks and counterattacks. The Confederates gained control of such locations as the Peach Orchard, Wheat Field, and Devil's Den. However, they failed to seize the vital Little Round Top and Cemetery Hill and could capture only a part of Culp's Hill. There were again heavy losses on both sides.

On July 3, the third and final day of the battle, Lee launched what has been called the greatest infantry charge in American history. He sent nearly 15,000 soldiers, led by General George Edward Pickett, to assault the center of Meade's lines on Cemetery Ridge. The ridge was held by about 10,000 Federal infantrymen. Despite heroic efforts, only several hundred Southerners temporarily cracked the center of the Federal lines. The rest of the Confederates were shot down by Federal cannoneers and musketrymen, captured, or thrown back; Pickett's men suffered casualties of almost 60 percent. With their formations hopelessly tangled, lacking reinforcement, and under savage attack from three sides, the Southerners retreated. However, Meade felt unable to counterattack, and Lee continued his retreat into Virginia.

The losses at Gettysburg were among the war's heaviest. Of 88,000 Northern troops, the casualties numbered about 23,000, with more than 3,100 killed. Of 75,000 Southerners, there were between 20,000 and 28,000 casualties, with more than 4,500 killed.

Lee's defeat stemmed from overconfidence in his troops, Ewell's inability to fill the boots of General Stonewall Jackson, and faulty reconnaissance. Though Meade has been criticized for not destroying the enemy by a vigorous pursuit, he had stopped the Confederate invasion and won a critical three-day battle. Never again was Lee able to mount a full-scale invasion of the North with his entire army.

Battle of Chattanooga
The campaign that led to the Battle of Chattanooga began on September 19, 1863. General Rosecrans's Union army at Chickamauga, Georgia, was routed by General Bragg 's Confederates. Rosecrans fell back to Chattanooga. Bragg occupied Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Confederate troops then cut off the Union army from its supply base at Bridgeport, Alabama, downstream on the Tennessee River.

To aid the trapped Federals, the government sent reinforcements to Chattanooga-General Sherman with an army from Vicksburg and General Hooker with 15,000 men from Virginia. General Grant was put in supreme command. He immediately replaced Rosecrans with General George H. Thomas.

On October 27 and 28 Grant's command cleared the Tennessee River of Confederates west of Lookout Mountain. This action reopened the road to Bridgeport. East of the city Union troops seized Orchard Knob on November 23. The next day Grant sent Hooker to attack Lookout Mountain. The attack seemed foolhardy because the mountain sides were steep and choked with vegetation. In addition, a thick fog had gathered, giving the conflict the name "battle above the clouds."

Hooker attacked vigorously. He had about 9,000 men against a defending force of less than 2,000. By afternoon the lower slopes had been taken. Bragg then abandoned Lookout Mountain to meet a new threat on his right flank-Sherman was attacking General William J. Hardee at the north end of Missionary Ridge.

Sherman was stopped and Hooker prevented from joining in the attack on General John C. Breckinridge. By the afternoon of November 25 the Union offensive had stalled completely. To help Sherman's attack from the north, Grant ordered Thomas to capture a line of rifle pits at the western foot of the ridge. Thomas's men won their objective. Then, instead of halting as ordered, they continued the attack up to the top of the ridge. The surprised Union generals could only follow, and the equally surprised Confederates on the crest broke ranks and fled. Soon Bragg's entire army was in headlong flight to the south. This victory gave the North control of the railroads centered in Chattanooga. The South now had only one east-west route-through Atlanta. During the series of battles the Union army, which consisted of 56,359 men, suffered 5,824 casualties. The Confederates, with 46,165 men, lost 6,667 killed, wounded, or missing.

Armstrong, Jennifer. Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War (Atheneum, 2005).Beller, S.P. The Civil War (Benchmark, 2003).Burgan, Michael. North over South: Final Victory in the Civil War (Compass Point, 2011).Collier, Christopher, and Collier, J.L. Civil War (Benchmark, 2000).DeFord, D.H. African Americans During the Civil War (Chelsea House, 2006).Hakim, Joy. War, Terrible War, rev. 3rd ed. (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005).McGowen, Tom. The Surrender at Appomattox (Children's Press, 2004).Murray, A.R., ed. Civil War: Battles and Leaders, 1st American ed. (DK, 2004).Nardo, Don. From Bull Run to Gettysburg: Early Battles of the Civil War (Compass Point, 2011).Nardo, Don. A Nation Divided: The Long Road to the Civil War (Compass Point, 2011).Ojeda, Auriana, ed. The Civil War: 1850-1895 (Thomson/Gale, 2003).Sheinkin, Steve, and Robinson, Tim. Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War (Square Fish/Roaring Brook Press, 2012).Stanchak, J.E. Civil War, rev. ed. (DK, 2011).

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At 4:30 am on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery in Charleston, South Carolina, opened fire on Fort Sumter, which was held by the United States Army. The bombardment set...

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https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/abraham-lincoln#:~:text=Abraham%20Lincoln%20was%20born%20in,years%20old%2C%20his%20mother%20died.

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NAME: Abraham Lincoln

NICKNAMES: Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator

BORN: February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky

DIED: April 15, 1865, in Washington, D.C.

TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865

VICE PRESIDENTS: Hannibal Hamlin (first term), Andrew Johnson (second term)

POLITICAL PARTY: Republican (formerly Whig)

EARLY LIFE

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809, to parents who could neither read nor write. He went to school on and off for a total of about a year, but he educated himself by reading borrowed books. When Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died. His father-a carpenter and farmer-remarried and moved his family farther west, eventually settling in Illinois.

As a young adult, Lincoln worked as a flatboat navigator, storekeeper, soldier, surveyor, and postmaster. At age 25 he was elected to the local government in Springfield, Illinois. Once there, he taught himself law, opened a law practice, and earned the nickname "Honest Abe."

He served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost two U.S. Senate races. But the debates he had about the enslavement of people with his 1858 senatorial opponent, Stephen Douglas, helped him win the presidential nomination two years later. (Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery in the United States.) In the four-way presidential race of 1860, Lincoln got more votes than any other candidate.

A NATION DIVIDED

When Lincoln first took office in 1861, the United States was not truly united. The nation had been arguing for more than a hundred years about enslaving people and each state's right to allow it. Now Northerners and Southerners were close to war. When he became president, Lincoln allowed the enslavement of people to continue in southern states but he outlawed its spread to other existing states and states that might later join the Union.

Southern leaders didn't agree with this plan and decided to secede, or withdraw, from the nation. Eventually, 11 southern states formed the Confederate States of America to oppose the 23 northern states that remained in the Union. The Civil War officially began on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, when troops from the Confederacy attacked the U.S. fort.

WARTIME PRESIDENCY

Lincoln's primary goal as president was to hold the country together. For a long time, it didn't look as if he would succeed. During the early years, the South was winning the war. It wasn't until the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania during July 1863 that the war turned in favor of the Union.

Through speeches such as the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln encouraged Northerners to keep fighting. In this famous dedication of the battlefield cemetery, he urged citizens to ensure "that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Earlier that same year Lincoln called for the end of the enslavement of people in his Emancipation Proclamation speech.

When the war was nearly over, Lincoln was re-elected in 1864. Civil War victory came on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Some 750,000 soldiers had died during the four-year conflict.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Seeing the Union successfully through the Civil War was Lincoln's greatest responsibility, but it wasn't his only triumph during his presidential years. Together with Congress, he established the Department of Agriculture; supported the development of a transcontinental railroad; enacted the Homestead Act, which opened up land to settlers; and crafted the 13th Amendment, which ended the enslavement of people.

TRAGIC FATE

Less than a week after people celebrated the end the Civil War, the country was mourning yet again. Lincoln became the first president to be assassinated when he was shot on April 14, 1865.

The night he was shot, he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were watching a play in Washington, D.C. The entrance to their box seats was poorly guarded, allowing actor John Wilkes Booth to enter. Booth hoped to revive the Confederate cause by killing Lincoln. He shot Lincoln in the back of the head, then fled the theater. He wasn't caught until two weeks later. He was shot during his eventual capture and died from his wounds.

The wounded and unconscious president was carried to a boardinghouse across the street, where he died the next morning, April 15, 1865. Lincoln's presidency was tragically cut short, but his contributions to the United States ensured that he would be remembered as one of its most influential presidents.
From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NAME: Abraham Lincoln NICKNAMES: Honest Abe, the Great Emancipator BORN: February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville, Kentucky DIED: April 15, 1865, in Washington, D.C. TIME IN OFFICE: March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865 VICE PRESIDENTS: Hannibal Hamlin (first term), Andrew Johnson (second term) POLITICAL PARTY: Republican (formerly Whig) Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809, to parents who could neither read nor write.

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Abraham Lincoln | 60-Second Presidents | PBS

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https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-biography/

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Ulysses S. Grant | Article

Library of Congress

For much of his life, Ulysses S. Grant failed at every occupation he tried. But in the United States Army, his remarkable talents as a soldier and leader saved his country from falling apart.

Born April 27, 1822, Hiram Ulysses Grant, as he was named, grew up in Georgetown, Ohio. His childhood was, he recalled, an "uneventful" one. He went to school, did chores, ice skated, fished, and rode horses, like other children on the American frontier. Grant's father, Jesse Root Grant, owned a tannery, but his son hated the horrible stench and the filth of the family business. From a very young age, Hiram showed a remarkable talent for working with horses. His father allowed him to earn his keep by plowing, driving teams to haul wood, and performing other chores.

Jesse Grant realized early on that Hiram would never make it as a businessman. In 1839 Jesse sent the boy to the United States Military Academy at West Point, ignoring the fact that the small, skinny 17-year-old did not want to go. Upon his arrival at West Point, Grant discovered that there was no one by his name listed as a new cadet. But there was a U. S. Grant on the list. Rather than risk refusal, young Grant changed his name on the spot. Ulysses S. Grant was born.

U. S. Grant showed little promise at West Point. Although relatively well educated, he studied little. He stood out in mathematics and horsemanship, which had always been his best subjects, as well as in art. He earned his lowest marks in French. Ulysses graduated 21st out of 39 cadets in his class. Like many graduates, he planned to resign from the military after serving his tour of duty.

After graduation, Grant was stationed in St. Louis, Missouri. There, he visited a West Point roommate, Frederick Dent. Soon, Grant began courting Julia Dent, Fred's sister. The two quickly fell in love. In 1844 Julia accepted Ulysses' marriage proposal. But before they could marry, Ulysses went off to war for the first time.

In later years, Grant wrote that the Mexican War was "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation." Officially, he served as a quartermaster, efficiently controlling the movement of supplies. But he also saw action, and showed bravery under fire. Grant also took the opportunity to study generals Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor carefully, learning from their successes and their failures.

For a time after the war, Grant, his wife, and their firstborn son, Fred, enjoyed happiness. But in 1852, when Ulysses was transferred to Fort Vancouver in what is now Washington State, trouble began. He missed Julia and their two young sons, one of which he had never seen. Grant lost money in business ventures. He grew despondent and began to drink. A transfer to a post in California did little to raise his spirits. On April 11, 1854, Grant resigned from the Army.

Ulysses moved with his family to Missouri, and began to farm land given to him by Julia's father. Grant called the farm Hardscrabble, a name that fit. He built a modest house there, planted potatoes, corn, and oats, and struggled to survive. By 1857, after several bad years, the farm had failed. Grant moved to St. Louis, where he failed at several pursuits. Ulysses then moved his family to Galena, Illinois, where he took a job as a clerk in his father's leather goods shop.

Shortly after the Civil War started in 1861, Grant once again became a soldier. As a battlefield commander, he won the Union's first major victory, capturing Fort Donelson in Tennessee and demanding the rebels' unconditional surrender. He successfully turned back a surprise Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. His capture of the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863, after a drawn-out siege, broke the Confederate stranglehold on the Mississippi. Grant had finally found an arena where he could shine: the battlefield.

In March 1864, a grateful Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant commander of all the U.S. armies, with the rank of lieutenant general. No soldier since George Washington had held the rank. As commander, Grant worked to constantly occupy Robert E. Lee's rebel army in the East, while Union troops struck at the heart of the South, destroying homes, farms, and factories - and Southerners' willingness to fight. Grant's plan worked, and on April 9, 1865, he accepted Lee's surrender. Four bloody and tragic years of Civil War ended, and Grant was the hero who had achieved the victory.

In 1868, with the nation still struggling to heal the wounds of war, Grant accepted the Republican presidential nomination. Running under the slogan "Let Us Have Peace," Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour. During two terms in office, Grant worked hard to bring the North and the South together again, contending with an emerging white supremacist group called the Ku Klux Klan, and violent uprisings against blacks and Republicans. He met with Native america leaders, including Red Cloud, trying to develop a peace policy in the West. He also took steps to repair the damaged economy. But his two terms as president are best remembered for financial scandals among members of his party and his administration.

In 1877, after he left office, Grant traveled with Julia on a round-the-world tour. He was the most famous American of his time. In city after city, Grant was welcomed by cheering mobs - and by world leaders, including Queen Victoria and the Emperor and Empress of Japan. After returning to the United States, the Grants moved to New York. There, Ulysses began to put his money into Grant and Ward, a Wall Street investment firm co-owned by his son Buck. Ulysses didn't know that Ferdinand Ward, the firm's other partner, was stealing investors' money. In 1884 the firm went bankrupt. So did Ulysses S. Grant.

Desperate for money, Grant turned to writing his wartime memoirs as a way to support his family. He began by selling short magazine articles, then negotiated a book contract with a publishing company owned by his friend, the novelist mark Twain. Published as a two-volume set, Grant's memoirs sold some 300,000 copies and became a classic work of American literature, but Grant never saw any of the profits. Shortly after he had begun to write, Grant had been diagnosed with throat cancer. He died on July 23, 1885, just two months after the book went to press, and was honored with an enormous funeral procession in New York City.

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Biography: Ulysses S. Grant | American Experience | PBS

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For much of his life, Grant failed at every occupation he tried. But his remarkable talents as a soldier and leader saved his country from falling apart.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73WC1LHUGqQ

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The Civil War in Four Minutes: Ulysses S  Grant

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Learn more at: http://www.civilwar.org/education/in4/ Living historian Curt Fields describes the life and accomplishments of Ulysses S. Grant. This video is part of the Civil War Trust's In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics.

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https://www.ducksters.com/biography/uspresidents/ulyssessgrant.php

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Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States. Kids learn about his biography and life story.