3 Major Battles During the Civil War

By Áine McGrath, Jennifer McHugh and Aisling McSweeney

http://vimeo.com/25141968#

• Definition: Two battles actually, both fought near Manassas Creek and both won by the South. The first was the first engagement of the war, on July 21, 1861, and sent the Union army packing. The second, following hard on the heels of the unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign, was a year later, on Aug. 29-30, 1862, and gave the South almost all of Virginia back.• The battle took place in Prince William County This episode is

called the First Battle of Bull Run and is also known as First Manassas, the latter being the name the Confederates used.

• A Union army, consisting of 28,000 men, commanded by General McDowell, fought 33,000 Confederates under General Beauregard. The Union army, under pressure to crush the rebellion in the South, marched towards Richmond, but met the Confederate forces coming north from Manassas, a Southern base.

Map of Virginia in relation to other American counties

The Battle• On the 21st, McDowell crossed at Sudley Ford and attacked the

Confederate left flank on Matthews Hill. Fighting raged throughout the day as Confederate forces were driven back to Henry Hill. Late in the afternoon, Confederate reinforcements (one brigade arriving by rail from the Shenandoah Valley) extended and broke the Union right flank. The Federal retreat rapidly deteriorated into a rout. Although victorious, Confederate forces were too disorganized to pursue. Confederate Gen. Bee and Col. Bartow were killed. Thomas J. Jackson earned the nom de guerre “Stonewall.” By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington. This battle convinced the Lincoln administration that the war would be a long and costly affair. McDowell was relieved of command of the Union army and replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who set about reorganizing and training the troops.

•Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing.[1] Irvin McDowell bore the brunt of the blame for the Union defeat at Bull Run and was soon replaced by George B. McClellan, who was named general-in-chief of all the Union armies. In a cruel irony, McDowell was also present to bear significant blame for the defeat of John Pope's Army of Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia just thirteen months later, at the Second Battle of Bull Run.•Result: Confederate victory

Aftermath

Link to interesting photos• http://www.americancivilwarphotos.com/category/battles/

bull-run?page=4

 Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing)

• This battle took place on April 6-7 1862 in south western Tennessee not far from Corinth, Mississippi.• General Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of

Confederate forces in the Western Theater, hoped to defeat Union major general Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee before it could be reinforced by Major General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, which was marching from Nashville.• Johnston initiated a surprise attack on Grant’s camps

around Shiloh Church and drove the Federal forces back to a defensive perimeter on the heights above Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River.• During the afternoon, Johnston was wounded in the leg

and bled to death

• He was replaced by General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, commander of the Army of the Mississippi.• As darkness fell, Beauregard called a halt to the

fighting and pulled his weary soldiers back from the landing, where they were being shelled by two gunboats, the USS Lexington and USS Tyler.• He believed Grant’s army was beaten and that Buell’s

army was miles away.

General Pierre Gustave Toutant

• Buell’s men arrived and ferried across the Tennessee River during the night, and a "lost" division of Grant’s army under Major General Lewis "Lew" Wallace finally arrived on the field. • These two new arrivals added 23,000 troops to the fight.• Shortly after 5:00 the next morning, Grant and Buell’s

combined forces moved out, slowly but surely forcing the Confederates back until, by dark, they had retaken all the ground lost the previous day. Beauregard’s battered army withdrew to Corinth.

Video Link

• http://www.history.com/videos/the-battle-of-shiloh#the-battle-of-shiloh

Battle of Antietam (AKA Sharpsburg)

Battle of Antietam• This was the first battle of the American Civil War to

be fought on up north.• The Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan

went to near to Antietam creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland.• McClellan failed to utilize to crush Lee’s army he was

able to check the Confederate to advance to the North. • After a string of union defeats, this victory provided

Abraham Lincoln the political cover he needed to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. • This battle is the bloodiest battle in American history

with over 22,000 casualties

Battle of Antietam• On September 17 1862, under the command of George

McClellan, the Army of Potomac mounted a series of powerful assaults on Robert E. Lee’s forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

• The morning of the assaults and Confederate attacks swept back and forth on the Miller’s cornfield and West Woods.

• Towards the centre of the battlefield, the Unions assault against the Sunken Road pierced the Confederate centre after a terrible struggle.

• The third and final major assault later that day, by the Union army pushed over a bullet-strewn stone bridge at Antietam Creek.

• As the Federal forces began to collapse the Confederate right, the arrival of A.P. Hill’s division of Harper’s boat helped to bring the Army of Potomac once more.

• This was the most bloodiest day of American Military History.

Video Clip• http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-antietam/

videos#gilder-lehrman-the-emancipation-proclamation