American Civil War Period

Rob James

October 29, 2025

1861.

SC, FL, AL, MS, TX already seceded. Lincoln’s first inaugural address (“mystic chords of memory,” “olive branch,” “better angels of our nature”). April: Ft. Sumter in harbor of Charleston, SC shelled and falls. Lincoln calls out militia and initiates Winfield Scott’s “Anaconda” blockade of S ports. VA, NC, TN and AK secede.  Britain, France declare neutrality but recognize the Confederate States of America as a “belligerent power.”

Railroad from Washington, DC to Richmond was blocked by S at Manassas Jct. In July, McDowell led his soon-to-be-furloughed recruits (walked only 6 miles one day, while picking berries) 20 miles to the banks of Bull Run, where Beauregard, Johnston and Jackson awaited them. Massed men plunged back and forth (but Jackson held like a “stone wall”), then a fresh Confederate brigade teems in and Yankees break. Still, S doesn’t follow up.

Lincoln’s call for enlistment off 500,000 men with three-year commitments. McClellan replaces McDowell as General of Army near DC [Army of Potomac?]. McClellan drilled them, necessarily but perhaps excessively. 

August: at Wilson’s Creek, MO, 5400 Yanks under Lyon (“savior of St. Louis”) surprise 11,000 Rebels under Price and McConnell. Yanks retreat, Lyon killed, but MO stays in Union.

Ulysses S Grant takes Paducah, KY to protect TN and Cumberland Rivers. Feds use amphibious landing to take Hatteras and Hilton Head. Captain Charles Wilkes of the US Navy stops HMS Trent with Confederate diplomats. Britain could have used this as pretext for supporting S, but courteously demanded release, and US Cabinet prudently disclaimed Wilkes’s act. Whatever the reasons, Britain stayed out of the American Civil War.

1862.

McClellan is now General in Chief; Lincoln orders move on Washington’s Birthday. 

Meanwhile Grant takes Ft. Henry, __ and Ft. Donelson, __ after he memorably demands “unconditional surrender.” Sibley’s Rebels head from El Paso, defeat US regular army at Valverde, and head toward Denver and its mines—but stopped at Ft. Union,  NM.

Grant and 64,000 head S from Ft. Donelson to Shiloh Creek, TN in April. AS Johnston and 40,000 attack middle; huge casualties, Johnston died, and S withdrew. Halleck controls West. Yanks win battle of Pea Ridge, AK against Rebels and Indians, ending S claims in MO altogether. Yanks take New Orleans (launching the martial-law reign of “Beast” Butler) and Memphis. In March the ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the Monitor) sinks several US vessels, but it and weird steampunky USS Merrimack fling cannonballs uselessly at each other.

McClellan relieved as General in Chief (why?) but still commands Army of Potomac; he ferries troops to Ft. Monroe on tip of Virginia Peninsula. With 100,000 vs only 15,000, McClellan lays siege to Yorktown and battles in Williamsburg while Rebels concentrate. He gets bogged down at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks; worse for N,  Johnston up and dies and is replaced by the brilliant if impetuous Robert E. Lee. Stonewall Jackson leads Shenandoah Valley Campaign in spring—5 battles over 700 miles, drew away 60,000 Yankee troops with 4,000-17,000 of his own. Lee trenched around Richmond while J.E.B. Stuart found exposed right Yankee flank; June 24-30’s Seven Days pushed McClellan back.

In July Halleck is General in Chief, Grant commands West, Pope commands Yankee troops in North Virginia to march overland.  A windbag (“headquarters in saddle,” where Lincoln notes “his hindquarters ought to be”). Jackson sent to stop Pope, battle at Cedar Mountain, __; McClellan tries to link up. Lee takes field. At Second Bull Run/Manassas in August, Longstreet and Jackson smash Pope. Reluctantly, Lincoln gives command again to McClellan. Lee marches N to gain MD, materiel, morale. Lee splits his forces between Harpers Ferry and MD, orders fall into McClellan’s hands; had he acted quickly, McClellan could have attacked and destroyed them in turn while they were split. But McClellan dithered.

Lee and 40,000 camped at Sharpsburg/Antietam, where McClellan finally rushed up and attacked with only half of his 87,000. Sept. 17, 1862 saw 12,000 Yank and 11,000 Rebel casualties in one day. Lee retreats, but unmolested. Still, the non-loss was good enough for Lincoln to issue on Sept. 22 the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation—using his executive power as Commander-in-Chief, freeing slaves in the rebel lands (a declaration anywhere else and he thinks he would have been accused of usurping legislative power or exceeding federal power). Ennobles cause, distances Britain and France from supporting Confederacy. After McClellan again fails to move Lincoln replaces him with Burnside, likeable but incompetent; in December Burnside attacks the middle of Lee’s army six times across a river at Fredericksburg (Lee: “it is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow fond of it”).  Bragg invades KY.

1863.

Confederacy’s inherent contradiction—federal power in a polity built on states’ rights—and Davis’s uninspiring presence as President start to take their toll. Without a diplomatic victory (what was the British and French response to Confederate overtures?) S must try to attrit and demoralize N. Indeed, N was impatient with the slow pace set by Lincoln as well as his generals.

Hooker takes Army of Potomac and 134,000 against Lee’s 60,000 in May at Chancellorsville. Hooker attacked but after probes surrendered the high ground. Lee divided his forces three ways; Hooker thought he had retreated and gave chase. Jackson wheeled into his right at dusk when soldiers were dining and listening to bands. Jackson chased well into enemy lines; on his return, he was shot by his own troops. Hooker could still divide the other  two forces, but he didn’t; after more brilliant Lee maneuvers, the Yanks headed back to town.

After daring water transits, 47-day siege and several battles, Grant takes Vicksburg and N controls Mississippi River. Confederate general Pemberton doesn’t evacuate or even destroy the guns and ammunition there. With the Father of Waters flowing unvexed to the sea, Lee goes N again. (Hooker still thinks Richmond, rather than the Army of Northern Virginia, is his objective.)

In June at Brandy Station, __, N cavalry finally does reasonably well against J.E.B. Stuart. Past MD into PA, Early takes tribute from York and Ewell takes Chambersburg and heads toward the capital Harrisburg. But Stuart is off gallivanting without telling Lee where Hooker is. Yanks get between them. Lincoln accepts Hooker’s resignation and appoints Meade. Lee tries to concentrate forces NW of Gettysburg, but that is where Meade finds Ewell. 

• July 1: when Ewell doesn’t press his initial advantage, Yanks form a fishhook S of the town, curving from Culp’s Hill to Cemetery Hill then straight down Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top; Rebels take Seminary Ridge to the west, with the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield and Devil’s Den towards Little Round Top. (Big Round Top is further south. Every American should know this general topography.) 

• July 2:  Yanks stretch south to Little Round Top until finally Lee attacks flank through Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield and Devil’s Den, with a final attack repulsed at Little Round Top by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. Attacks on Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill to the north fail in the dark. 

• July 3:  More ineffective Rebel attacks on Culp’s Hill, then fierce but ineffectual Rebel artillery precedes Pickett’s fateful Charge. S lost 20,000 to N’s 23,000; devastating to the smaller force, but Meade does not pursue. 

Gettysburg cemetery commemorated November with Horton’s oration and Lincoln’s address (you may have heard of it).

Morgan’s Rebel raids of KY, IN and OH until captured in July. NYC draft riots. Summer assault on Charleston, SC, including black regiments as depicted in movie Glory.

Rosecrans outflanks Chattanooga (rail center), Bragg pulls back for circuitous reinforcements by rail from Longstreet, Rosecrans follows and gets whupped at Chickamauga Sept. 19-20. George Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga, saves the Yankee retreat, succeeds Rosecrans. Bragg chases too late to siege; Yanks now dug in at Chattanooga. (Confederate generals at this point ask Davis to fire their commanding officer Bragg!) Rail reinforcements from Hooker and Sherman, and Grant as Commanding Officer attacked the besiegers. Joe Johnston replaces Bragg, who is now “promoted” to be an adviser to Davis.

1864.

Grant now in command of all US armies, promoted to (drumroll) Lt. General (why was N so stingy with stars?). Sherman takes command in west.  Capitol rebuilt, N elites confident, but Lincoln felt popular discontent. S’s only hope was that a weary N would elect a peace candidate like McClellan over Lincoln after some more embarrassments on the field. No black Confederate troops until early 1865. Break blockade, with the submarine Hunley? It sank one freighter, but never came back. 

Grant plans simultaneous thrust in the east and the west. But Meade dallies in northern Virginia; Butler gets bogged down before Petersburg; Banks heads from New Orleans to Mobile, but gets stuck in Red River, LA. Still, Sherman drove towards Atlanta with his 105,000, and Grant crossed the Rapidan River with his 115,000. Grant tried to cross Wilderness outside Chancellorsville before Lee left his trenches. Of course, Lee quickly attacked in the wild, where Grant’s numbers and artillery were neutralized. Yanks lost 17,000, Rebels lost 9000 in two days May 5-6, but for the first time in the war, the Yanks pursued instead of retreating or licking their wounds. Raced to Spotsylvania Courthouse but Lee was already entrenched there. Yanks briefly cracked mule shoe at the “bloody angle.” Grant: “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” In a war of attrition, Grant sagely noted that “our cat has the longer tail.”

July, Sheridan’s cavalry kill J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern, __.  Grant bounds southeast alongside Lee to Cold Harbor outside Richmond. Blundered with pointless charge against Pickett himself! But that was Lee’s last victory of the war. 

The Yankee three-year enlistments were up, and Grant suddenly “lost” 50,000 men; the reinforcements only trickled in. Grant feinted at Riddell’s Shop, then crossed the James River to Petersburg (rail center south of Richmond); should have attacked but delayed, allowing Lee to secure his lines.  Burnside’s crater disaster, where untrained white  troops plunged into and crammed the crater before the trained black troops could take its sides.

Meanwhile, in GA Johnston dug in and avoided Thomas’s army and other flankers. Yanks repulsed at Kennesaw Mountain. In July, Davis, disliking evasion and trench tactics, replaced Johnston with J.B. Hood. Hood immediately attacked, at Peachtree Creek and Ezra Church. Sherman besieges Atlanta, tore railroads up into “Sherman neckties” until Hood attacked last rail line at Jonesboro; Sherman walked into Atlanta Sept. 2, sealing Lincoln’s reelection over McClellan’s peace party.

Mobile Bay finally falls to Yanks August 5 (Admiral David Farragut: “Damn the torpedoes [mines], full steam ahead”). 

Early swept Shenandoah of Yanks, even appeared in front of Ft. Stevens, MD—only 60 minutes from the White House! Grant sends Petersburg veterans to defend, and Early retreats.

June: CSS cruiser Alabama is sunk off the coast of France.

Sheridan chases Early into Shenandoah, devastates it (and its food supply for the S). Hood evacuates Atlanta civilians, objects to Sherman’s total-war tactics, Sherman: “war is cruelty and you cannot refine it.” 

Hood tries to attack Yank railroad line into Atlanta; Sherman chased him into AL. Next, Hood tried to lead Sherman out of Atlanta into TN, beat him there and marched into KY and OH. Sherman leaves Thomas with troops to face Hood, separates, burns Atlanta, then marches through GA.

Hood faced Thomas’s Schofeld at Franklin, made futile and suicidal charges (lost 6000 of 18,000 in advance; cue World War I). Schofeld retreated to Nashville and joined Thomas’s forces there. Hood entrenched south of the city of Nashville and waited.  Thomas came out and simply routed Hood—Nashville “the Waterloo of the war.” Sherman presents Lincoln with Christmas present of the city of Savannah.

1865.

Now it is hopeless for S; the rest is total civilian war or savage guerilla was, unless N tires itself out with the carnage. Fort Fisher and last Rebel port of Wilmington, NC fall to Yanks in January. Richmond starves, defense stretches before Petersburg; Sherman heads north from Savannah into SC and NC. Johnston and Army of Tennessee trying to link up with Lee in VA to make war in deep south last another year.

February: Confederacy VP Alexander Stephens sought peace “for the two countries” at Hampton Roads; rejected by Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward. March: Lincoln’s amazing Second Inaugural Address. Charleston, SC was evacuated, occupied by N black troops; Ft. Sumter was returned to Yanks in April.

In March, Johnston “wins” battle of Bentonville, GA, but he can’t stop Sherman’s 90,000. Lee tries to break out of Petersburg toward Johnston, but is beaten back at Ft. Stedman. Sheridan outflanks Lee’s right under the absent Pickett at Five Forks. Petersburg and Richmond are evacuated and burned.  Davis heads southwest to Danville, while Lee heads west to defend him. Lincoln enters Richmond in April. Sherman is now only 140 miles south, at Goldsboro. In Confederacy, Breckenridge advocates for surrender with armed troops in place, but Davis wants to go underground and guerilla. Lee unsuccessfully tries to burn the High Bridge across the Appomattox, as Grant pursues. Grant proposes peace, and Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at the Wilber McLean farmhouse in Appomattox Court House April 9.  Grant is magnanimous. 

Pointless battle of Blakely east of Mobile that same day, thousands die uselessly.

Good Friday, April 14: Ft. Sumter ceremony; Johnston sues Sherman for peace; John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln. (Johnston correctly sees that Lincoln was in some ways the  S’s best friend for Reconstruction.) Johnston surrenders at Bennett place near Durham, NC. 

In May, Davis is captured in wife’s shawl in Irwinville, GA, shackled in Ft. Monroe, VA, on Lincoln murder conspiracy charge.  Last battle near Brownsville, TX; last army surrenders May 26.

Grant, of course, becomes President 1869-1877. McClellan becomes governor of NJ. Lee heads Washington & Lee College and dies 1870. Sherman General-in-Chief, retires 1884, “will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.” Davis released 1867, dies 1889 unrepentant.