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Important Battles of the Civil War
The Battle
Significance
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Fort Sumter (1861)
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First Manassas (First Bull Run) (1861)
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Peninsula campaign (including the
Battle of the Seven Days) (1862)
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Shiloh (1862)
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Second Manassas (Second Bull Run)
(1862)
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Antietam (Sharpsburg) (1862)
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Fredericksburg (1862)
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Chancellorsville (1863)
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Gettysburg (1863)
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Sherman captures Atlanta, and makes
his “March to the Sea” (1864)
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Grant pushes Southward (including
Wilderness, Cold Harbor,
Spotsylvania, Petersburg (’64, ’65)
Appomattox (1865)
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Confederates fire first shots of the war
on Union garrison; leads Lincoln to
call for volunteers, which leads upper
South to secede
First battle of War;“Stonewall” gets
his name; shows that War will not be
over in 90 days; Confederate victory
Big victory by Lee over McClellan,
Confederate confidence booster, helps
lead Lincoln to decision to issue E.
Pro.
More casualties than in all previous
American wars combined; Union
victory helps to make Grant famous
Big Confederate victory, emboldens
Lee to make first incursion into the
North
Bloodiest day in American military
history; Union victory gives Lincoln
political clout to deliver preliminary E.
Proc.
Confederate victory with huge Union
casualties; Union tactics way behind
technology
Lee’s finest hour – where the odds are
the longest, he pulls off most
impressive Confederate victory
Turning point of War against the
Confederacy; Lee’s army is wrecked,
and will be on defensive for rest of
War
Sherman introduces concept of “Total
War”, and makes the South “howl”
Grant presses bloody fight after
bloody fight, finally wearing Lee and
his forces down.
Lee surrender’s to Grant; Lincoln
instructs Grant: “I want no one
punished”; - terms of surrender are
generous