Download Major Battles of the Civil War and Technology

Major Battles of the Civil War
• April 1861 -- Attack on Fort Sumter.
• When President Lincoln planned to send
supplies to Fort Sumter, he alerted the state in
advance, in an attempt to avoid hostilities. South
Carolina, however, feared a trick; the
commander of the fort, Robert Anderson, was
asked to surrender immediately. Anderson
offered to surrender, but only after he had
exhausted his supplies. His offer was rejected,
and on April 12, the Civil War began with shots
fired on the fort. Fort Sumter eventually was
surrendered to South Carolina.
• July 1861 -- First Battle of Bull Run.
• Public demand pushed General-in-Chief
Winfield Scott to advance on the South
before adequately training his untried
troops. Scott ordered General Irvin
McDowell to advance on Confederate
troops stationed at Manassas Junction,
Virginia. McDowell attacked on July 21,
and was initially successful, but the
introduction of Confederate reinforcements
resulted in a Southern victory and a
chaotic retreat toward Washington by
federal troops.
• April 1862 -- The Battle of Shiloh.
• On April 6, Confederate forces attacked Union
forces under General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh,
Tennessee. By the end of the day, the federal
troops were almost defeated. Yet, during the
night, reinforcements arrived, and by the next
morning the Union commanded the field. When
Confederate forces retreated, the exhausted
federal forces did not follow. Casualties were
heavy -- 13,000 out of 63,000 Union soldiers
died, and 11,000 of 40,000 Confederate troops
were killed
The Battle of Shiloh Mini Site
side of him
Island No. 10 and New Orleans
• The Battle of Island Number Ten was a
military engagement on the Mississippi
River during the Civil War. Union land and
naval forces besieged and captured the
island in early 1862, further opening the
river.
The Battle of Second Manassas:
August 28-30, 1862
In August 1862, Union and Confederate armies converged for a
second time on the plains of Manassas. The naive enthusiasm that
preceded the earlier encounter was gone. War was not the holiday
outing or grand adventure envisioned by the young recruits of 1861.
The contending forces, now made up of seasoned veterans, knew
well the realities of war. The Battle of Second Manassas, covering
three days, produced far greater carnage-3,300 killed-and brought
the Confederacy to the height of its power. Still the battle did not
weaken Northern resolve. The war's final outcome was yet unknown,
and it would be left to other battles to decide whether the sacrifice at
Manassas was part of the high price of Southern independence, or
the cost of one country again united under the national standard.
• GRAND TOTAL - 9,420 (South)
• GRAND TOTAL - 14,449 (North)
• September 1862 -- Antietam.
• On September 17, Confederate forces under General
Lee were caught by General McClellan near Sharpsburg,
Maryland. This battle proved to be the bloodiest day of
the war; 2,108 Union soldiers were killed and 9,549
wounded -- 2,700 Confederates were killed and 9,029
wounded. The battle had no clear winner, but because
General Lee withdrew to Virginia, McClellan was
considered the victor. The battle convinced the British
and French -- who were contemplating official
recognition of the Confederacy -- to reserve action, and
gave Lincoln the opportunity to announce his Preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation (September 22), which
would free all slaves in areas rebelling against the United
States, effective January 1, 1863.
• June-July 1863 -- The Gettysburg Campaign.
• Gettysburg, Pa.
June 1863 Confederate General Lee decided to take the war to the
enemy. On June 13, he defeated Union forces at Winchester,
Virginia, and continued north to Pennsylvania. General Hooker, who
had been planning to attack Richmond, was instead forced to follow
Lee. Hooker, never comfortable with his commander, General
Halleck, resigned on June 28, and General George Meade replaced
him as commander of the Army of the Potomac.
• On July 1, a chance encounter between Union and Confederate
forces began the Battle of Gettysburg. In the fighting that followed,
Meade had greater numbers and better defensive positions. He won
the battle, but failed to follow Lee as he retreated back to Virginia.
Militarily, the Battle of Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the
Confederacy; it is also significant because it ended Confederate
hopes of formal recognition by foreign governments. On November
19, President Lincoln dedicated a portion of the Gettysburg
battlefield as a national cemetery, and delivered his memorable
"Gettysburg Address."
Little Round Top
Dead Confederate Soldier in Devil’ Den
“The Harvest of Death”
November 1864 -- General William T.
Sherman's March to the Sea.
General Sherman continued his march
through Georgia to the sea. In the course of
the march, he cut himself off from his source
of supplies, planning for his troops to live off
the land. His men cut a path 300 miles in
length and 60 miles wide as they passed
through Georgia, destroying factories,
bridges, railroads, and public buildings.
General William Tecumseh Sherman
Burning of a Railroad Station
Map of Sherman's March to the Sea imposed
on a map of Georgia showing railroads of 1864
Allatoona Pass, shortly after the battle. Note the Clayton (now Mooney) House to
the left of the picture (still standing). Also the artillery stables at the top of the hill
on right. Part of the fort can been seen on the top of the ridge to the left of the
pass.
• April 1865 -- Fallen Richmond.
• On March 25, General Lee attacked
General Grant's forces near
Petersburg, but was defeated -attacking and losing again on April 1.
On April 2, Lee evacuated Richmond,
the Confederate capital, and headed
west to join with other forces.
Shells of the buildings of Richmond, silhouetted against a dark sky after the destruction
by Confederates fleeing advancing Union forces, 1865.
• April 1865 -- Surrender at Appomattox
Courthouse.
• General Lee's troops were soon
surrounded, and on April 7, Grant called
upon Lee to surrender. On April 9, the two
commanders met at Appomattox
Courthouse, and agreed on the terms of
surrender. Lee's men were sent home on
parole -- soldiers with their horses, and
officers with their side arms. All other
equipment was surrendered.
Large Easy to Read Map | Printable PDF
"The Surrender" by Keith Rocco is based
upon research by National Park Service
Historians and Curators.
On April 9, 1865 after four years of Civil War, approximately 630,000
deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered
the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses
S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of
Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
April 14, 1865 -- The Assassination of
President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater
Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancé Clara Harris with the President
The Conspirators
Hanging Preparations
From left: John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, and Junius Booth
End of Battles Slideshow
New Military Technology
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Ironclads “Ironsides”
Artillery (Many different improved types)
Ammunition
Move away from musket towards repeating rifles
Use of Cavalry
Use of Signal Corps
Hot Air Balloons
Medical techniques
The First Ironclad built in AmericaUSS St. Louis
USS Merrimac to CSS Virginia
• Battle of the "Monitor" and the
"Merrimac" -- March 1862
• In an attempt to reduce the North's great
naval advantage, Confederate engineers
converted a scuttled Union frigate, the
U.S.S. Merrimac, into an iron-sided vessel
rechristened the C.S.S. Virginia. On March
9, in the first naval engagement between
ironclad ships, the Monitor fought the
Virginia to a draw, but not before the
Virginia had sunk two wooden Union
warships off Norfolk, Virginia.
Basic Terminology
This is a schematic of a Napoleon, with the addition of a chamber purely for illustrative purposes.
(From Dean S. Thomas, Cannons: An Introduction to Civil War Artillery)
a - knob
b - neck
c - vent
d - trunnion
e - muzzle swell
f - muzzle face
g - muzzle
h - rimbase
i - cascable
j - breech
k - chamber
l - bore
Name
Tube
Length
Tube
Weight
Bore
Range1
Diameter
Material
GUNS
Six-Pounder, M1841
60
inches
884
pounds
3.67
inches
1520
yards
Bronze
Light 12-pounder,
M18572
66
inches
1227
pounds
4.62
inches
1620
yards
Bronze
10-pounder Parrott,
M1861
78
inches
890
pounds
2.9
inches
2000
yards
Cast Iron
20-Pounder Parrott
89
inches
1750
pounds
3.67
inches
2100
yards
Cast Iron
3-inch ordnance
rifle
73
inches
816
pounds
3.0
inches
1850
yards
Wrought
Iron
12-Pounder
53
inches
778
pounds
4.62
inches
1100
yards
Bronze
24-pounder
65
inches
1318
pounds
5.82
inches
1325
yards
Bronze
Mountain Howitzer
37
inches
220
pounds
4.62
inches
900
yards
Bronze
HOWITZERS
Artillery (Indirect Fire)
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Cannons
Guns
Howitzer
Mortar
Muzzle Loader Vs. Breechloader
13-inch seacoast mortar
Scan courtesy Dave Smith
Rampart
In both temporary and permanent fortifications a rampart was a mound of
earth that enclosed the fortified ground. Its basic purpose was to shield the interior of a fortification from horizontal
artillery fire and increase the relief of the work to protect it against assault by storming or escalade. In most cases
the exterior side of the rampart formed the scarp wall which was retained with at a slope of 1 base for 24 of height
by a masonry wall buttressed by internal counterforts. The interior side could either be revetted or allowed to fall
with a gentle slope to form the ramp of the terre-plein of the rampart. Ramparts were rarely included in the profile
of field fortifications, but were employed on occasion to increase the relief of an important and provide the artillery
armament with a better command of the surrounding country than it would otherwise have. In sea-coast field
fortifications ramparts were sometimes used to provide the artillery armament with a better angle to fire down on
warships engaging the fortification.
The Balloons With The Army Of The Potomac
THE MILITARYTELEGRAPH SERVICE
Telegraph battery-wagon
near Petersburg, June 1864
War on Horseback
Springfield Rifle Musket
The most frequently used rifle of the Civil War was the American-made Springfield rifle
musket (above)--a single-shot, muzzle-loading gun detonated with a percussion cap.
Not only did it have the rifled barrel, which dramatically increased accuracy over a
smoothbore musket, but it also was the first rifle to fire the famous .58 cal. Minié ball-an inch-long, bullet-shaped projectile, rather than a round ball as used in older
muskets. The 39-inch-long rifled barrel made it possible to hit a target with a Minié ball
as far away as 500 yards. By the end of the war, approximately 1.5 million Springfield
rifle muskets had been produced by the Springfield Armory and 20 subcontractors.
Since the South lacked sufficient manufacturing capability, most of the Springfields in
Southern hands were captured on the battlefields during the early part of the war.
Spencer repeating rifle
The Spencer repeating rifle was a manually operated lever-action,
repeating rifle fed from a tube magazine with cartridges. It was adopted
by the Union Army, especially by the cavalry, during the American Civil
War, but did not replace the standard issue muzzle-loading rifled
muskets in use at the time. The Spencer carbine was a shorter and
lighter version.
As many as 50 of the .52 calibre breechloading Billinghurst-Requa batteries, as
they were called, were produced for the
Union. Some were used in battles,
though with limited effect. This gun used
a light carriage to mount 25 rifled barrels
side by side. When loaded and primed,
the gun was set off by use of a lanyard -firing the barrels in sequence with a
rippling sound. Several different types of
rapid-firing weapons were designed and
produced during the war, although few
saw much actual service.
The first machine-gun type weapon ever
used in combat was built for the Confederate War Dept in Sept 1861. The
Williams breech-loading rapid-fire gun was first used at the Battle of Seven
Pines and worked so well that the War Dept ordered 42 more of them. The gun
was actually a crank-operated, very light artillery piece that fired a one-pound
(1.57 calibre) projectile with a range of 2,000 yards. It was operated by a crew of
three and could fire at a rate of 65 rounds per minute. One operator aimed and
fired the weapon by turning the crank, the second placed a paper cartridge into
the breech, and the third placed the percussion cap. The major problem with
this gun was overheating, which made the breech jam due to heat expansion.
In 1848 Morgan
James of Utica, N.Y. invented the long-tube telescopic sight that
would be used by Civil War marksmen just 13 years later. Priced
at about $20, these telescopes were no more than four power. But
in the hands of a skilled soldier with a sharp wit and keen eye,
these devices offered sufficient magnification for aiming a rifle with
deadly, long-distance accuracy
Caring for the Men
The History of Civil War Medicine
Fig. 459. The "TRIPLER" Ambulance Wagon
Fig. 453. The "MOSES" Ambulance Wagon
Rear View
Rear View
Civil War Nurses
"The Angels of the Battlefield"
Approximately two thousand women,
North and South, served as volunteer
nurses in military hospitals during the
American Civil War. Seeking convention
and direct involvement in the national
struggle rather than the domestic support
roles to which social minimum career
opportunity had traditionally confined the
majority of their sex, they experienced at
first hand the grim constants of war -amputated limbs, mutilated bodies, disease
and death -- and provided invaluable aid to
the sick and wounded soldiers and medical
authorities on either side.
Amputations "Saved By The Saw"
The trademark of Civil War surgery, amputations accounted for 75
percent of all operations performed by Civil War doctors. More arms
and legs were chopped off in this war than in any other fought by this
country. Three out of every four wounded soldiers were hit in the
extremities, and at that time, amputation was the only proper medical
treatment for a compound fracture or severe laceration of a limb.
Union Amputations
Cases
Deaths
% Fatal
Fingers
7,902
198
2.5
Forearms
1,761
245
13.9
Upper
Arms
5,540
1,273
23.0
Toes
1,519
81
5.3
Shins
5,523
1,790
32.4
Thighs
6,369
3,411
53.6
Knee
Joints
195
111
56.9
Hip Joints
66
55
83.3
Ankle
Joints
161
119
73.9
TABLE XV.
Summarizing the Records of the Hospital at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia.
Cases admitted
into hospital
Died
Percentage of
fatal cases
All diseases and
injuries
17,875
12,541
70.2
Continued Fevers
283
241
85.8
Malarial Fevers
254
163
67.6
Diarrhea and
Dysentery
7,352
5,605
80.3
Consumption
35
26
74.3
Rheumatism
202
83
48.2
Scurvy
5,662
3,614
68.4
Bronchitis
205
141
70.1
Pneumonia
553
322
65.8
Totals
33,421
22,736
70.2
Summary of Military Technology
•
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Ironclads “Ironsides”
Artillery (Many different improved types)
Ammunition
Move away from musket towards repeating rifles
Use of Cavalry
Use of Signal Corps
Hot Air Balloons
Medical techniques