In a fierce battle at Shiloh, in southwestern Tennessee, Union forces rally from almost near defeat to drive back the Confederate army. Both sides are immobilized for the next three weeks because of the heavy casualties, including more than 13,000 on the Union side and more than 11,000 on the Confederate side.
September 17, 1862
The battle at Antietam, Maryland, is regarded as a Union victory in an otherwise bleak year for Union forces in the East. However, the casualties set a grisly record. In what marks the bloodiest single day of the war, the South loses 10,316 troops, and the North suffers casualties of 12,401. Following this battle, Lincoln shifts the focus of the war from preserving the Union to freeing enslaved people in the Confederacy.

July 1–3, 1863
After invading the North, Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee meet Union forces at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle rages over three days, involving heavy artillery duels and high casualties on both sides. The battle is considered a major turning point in the eastern theater. Lee withdraws and is forced to fight a defensive campaign for the rest of the war.
May–July 1863
In the western theater of the war, General Ulysses S. Grant lays siege to the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Confederates surrender on July 4. The victory leaves the Mississippi River completely under Union control and splits the Confederacy in half.

Two days later, however, Taylor learned of Johnston's surrender. He realized that the time for a decision was upon him, and he chose to surrender on May 4th. Taylor saw to it that his men had safe transportation home before he allowed Canby to personally escort him to his own home in New Orleans.

August/November 1865
The notorious superintendent of the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, was tried by a military commission presided over by General Lew Wallace from August 23 to October 24, 1865, and was hanged in the yard of the Old Capitol Prison on November 10.