Download Battles Featured in the Series

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Battles Featured in the Series
Handout for Conflicting Newspaper Accounts
Episode 1 Chapter 8 - 4:30 a.m. April 12, 1861 (Battle of Fort Sumter)
Southern artillery attack a battalion of Northern troops inside Fort Sumter, off the coast of South
Carolina in the first battle of the Civil War. When Union forces surrender, the South is jubilant.
Walt Whitman writes, "all the past we leave behind with Sumter."
Episode 1 Chapter 11 - Manassas (1st Battle of Manassas or Bull Run)
When the Union army marches into Virginia, Confederate troops engage them at the Battle of
Bull Run/Manassas. The battle, thanks in part to "Stonewall" Jackson, is a Southern victory with
an unprecedented 5,000 casualties. Union troops limp back to Washington.
Episode 2 Chapter 4 - Ironclads
The Confederacy builds the Merrimack, a new iron-plated ship, and the Union then constructs its
own "ironclad," the Monitor. Off the coast of Virginia, the Merrimack attacks the Union navy,
but the Monitor arrives just in time. All other navies on earth, after the epic battle of ironclads,
are obsolete.
Episode 2 Chapter 8 - Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing)
In Tennessee, U.S. Grant fights off a surprise attack by Confederates under General Albert
Sidney Johnston at the Battle of Shiloh. Johnston is killed and Grant suffers huge losses – but
eventually wins the battle when Union reinforcements arrive. More men die at Shiloh than in all
previous American wars combined.
Episode 3 Chapter 5 - The Seven Days
Union and Rebel troops clash outside Richmond. Confederate commander Joseph Johnston is
seriously wounded and Robert E. Lee takes charge. When Lee and McClellan clash for seven
days, every battle except one is a Union victory, but McClellan retreats down the Peninsula and
all the way back to Washington
Episode 3 Chapter 8 - Antietam (Sharpsburg)
The Battle of Antietam, a costly Union victory, is the bloodiest day in American history. The
next day, Lee and his army slip back across the Potomac River. Introduction to Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain, Union officer from Maine. Lincoln permanently removes McClellan from
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command. Photographer Mathew Brady opens a landmark exhibition in New York – "The Dead
of Antietam."
Episode 4 Chapter 3 - Northern Lights (Battle of Fredericksburg)
The Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 1862 - where entrenched rebel forces under
Robert E. Lee kill or wound 12,600 Union soldiers under Ambrose Burnside - it is another
debacle for the Union.
Episode 4 Chapter 6 - Under the Shade of the Trees (Battle of Chancellorsville)
Lincoln appoints Joseph Hooker to lead the Union army. He faces Lee at the Battle of
Chancellorsville, Virginia and loses 17,000 men to Lee's 13,000. But Lee's most brilliant victory
is also his costliest; Stonewall Jackson dies from a battle wound on May 10th.
Episode 5 Chapter 3 - Gettysburg: The First Day
Footsore Confederate forces enter Gettysburg in search of shoes and run headlong into the Union
cavalry. All divisions in the area converge on Gettysburg. The Union takes the high ground and
much to Lee's chagrin, Jeb Stuart arrives late.
Episode 5 Chapter 4 - Gettysburg: The Second Day
The two armies amass overnight - by morning, 65,000 Confederate troops face 85,000 Union
troops. The rebels try to take the crucial Big and Little Round Tops but the Union holds, thanks
in part to the brilliance of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and his 20th Maine. Lee pronounces
the day a Confederate victory, and plans to attack the center of the Union line the next day.
Episode 5 Chapter 5 - Gettysburg: The Third Day
Pickett's charge is Lee's greatest mistake and the turning point of the war. Entire Southern
regiments disappear. The rebels suffer 28,000 casualties; almost a third of all the men engaged51,000 men-are lost. The South will never invade the North again. Lee offers to resign.
Episode 5 Chapter 7 - Vicksburg
As Grant's siege drags on, conditions inside the city become unbearable. After 48 days, on July
4, 1863, the Confederates Surrender. "the Father of Waters," Lincoln says, "again goes unvexed
to the sea."
Episode 5 Chapter 9 - The River of Death (Battle of Chickamauga)
The Battle of Chickamauga, Tennessee is a Confederate victory and the Union army retreats to
Chattanooga. U.S. Grant arrives, takes charge and brilliantly wins major victories at Lookout
Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
Episode 6 Chapter 5 - In the Wilderness (The Wilderness Campaign)
Grant plans a four-pronged assault on the Confederacy: Sherman will move on Atlanta, Sigel
will advance up the Shenandoah Valley, Butler will work his way up the James River, and
Meade will head south to Richmond. Lee and Grant clash for the first time at The Wilderness,
near Chancellors Ville, Virginia, "in many ways the most terrible battle of the war." Grant loses
17,000 men. But the next day, instead of retreating, he gives orders to march. Now the war will
wage non-stop for 30 days.
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Episode 6 Chapter 6 - Move By the Right Flank (Battle of Cold Harbor and Siege of
Petersburg)
Lee and Grant fight continuously as Grant's flanking maneuvers force Lee south towards
Richmond. At the Battle of Cold Harbor, Grant makes his worst mistake, sending 7,000 troops to
be slaughtered by entrenched Rebel troops. In one month, the Union loses 50,000 men. But
Grant tricks Lee and makes it to Petersburg, just south of Richmond. The siege of Petersburg
begins - it will last ten months.
Episode 7.9 Chapter 9 - The Promised Land (The Battle of Atlanta)
Black soldiers are finally given equal pay with whites. Union Admiral David Farragut, wins
another naval victory in Mobile Bay. Sherman's troops arrive outside Atlanta. Jefferson Davis
removes General Joseph E. Johnston from command and replaces him with John Bell Hood. At
the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman's favorite general, 35-year old James McPherson is killed. But
with the next Union attack, Hood withdraws into the city, and Sherman puts Atlanta under siege.
A week later, Hood abandons Atlanta and Sherman enters the city.
Episode 8 Chapter 3 - Sherman's March
In late 1864, Sherman decides to march his army from Atlanta to Savannah, living off the land,
and destroying everything along the way that could aid the Confederate army. On the march,
Sherman's army causes $100 million worth of damage "the South would never forget." John Bell
Hood moves his forces into Tennessee, and at the Battle of Franklin clashes with Union troops
under General George Thomas. Hood loses 7,000 men. At the battle of Nashville, Hood's army is
destroyed. Joseph E. Johnston is put back in command.
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