In the summer of 1862, the confederates found themselves as the aggressors. In the Eastern Theater, Lee’s army of Northern Virginia had driven the Union Armies away from the Confederate capital, Richmond and was preparing to invade Maryland. In the western theater, the confederate armies were also moving strong, into Kentucky. Due to the war France and Britain were feeling the strain as cotton from the southern states was starting to diminish.
President Lincoln was thinking of taking a risky step to seal victory. At this point in time he came to the realization that he needed to move in a different direction. The strategic goal to restore the Union was not a good enough reason to keep the Northern states interested and behind the war. Lincoln decided to offer the North a new reason to stay in the fight and the British to stay out of the war, however he needed a good victory under his belt to use for this change in strategic planning. The problem was how to break the news of this change in strategy before the Confederates tore through the union on the battlefield and effected his troops morale.
A month prior Generals Lee and Jackson were crossing guns with Pope at Manassas#. Lee moved his army across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 4, 1862. At this point in time his objective was to claim Harrisburg.# On his way he spread his troops around Maryland to show everyone his strength, gathering supplies#, rounding up volunteers and he also managed to threaten Baltimore, Washington and even Philadelphia. Lee’s plan was that McClellan would eventually come out of Washington to fight him and he would have plenty of time to choose the ground that he wanted to fight on and secure the southern victory.
Lee choose the Shenandoah Valley as his supply route. Unfortunately the Union controlled Harpers ferry at the northern opening of the valley. This Union force could cut off the confederate supply route of wagon trains loaded with ammunition, which could not be obtained locally. Lee decided that harpers ferry would have to be taken in order to continue on. Lee ordered Jackson to lead three columns to capture Harpers Ferry. Once Jackson was finished in Harpers Ferry he would move back to rejoin the rest of the army.
September 2, 1862 was also the day in which McClellan again regained control and command of the union forces in Virginia and Washington. The next...
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...de’s Corps became the only attack. McClellan ordered Burnside to keep charging a stone bridge. There were 550 Confederate soldiers sitting on a hill sniping these men out. Burnside eventually succeeded in crossing the bridge and wiped out the Confederates and made their way up the ridge. In the dusty distance a large army appeared on Burnside’s flank. Burnside thought these were reinforcements. The confederate army wearing union uniforms# attacked at the right time and place sending Burnsides men back to the bridge they had fought 14 hours to claim.
The sun finally set on the bloodiest battle that this country has ever seen. All in all 12,400 union casualties and 10,300 Confederate casualties#
Although neither side really “won” this bloody battle at Antietam, this battle had a very big significance on America. The next day heavily battered Lee withdrew. This was just the battle that President Lincoln had been waiting for.
On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation#. The proclamation declared that unless the Southern states returned to the union by January 1, 1863, all the slaves in those states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free.”
From July 1st to July 3rd, 1863, the most famous and most important Civil War Battle took place in the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Confederates under Robert E. Lee advanced on the Union in hopes of taking the major city of Philadelphia, Baltimore, or even Washington D.C. Union commander General George Meade was sent to make sure none of this would happen. General Robert E. Lee was determined to invade the North and win a victory important for southern morale, leads his army toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he hopes to destroy railroad bridges linking east with west. He is unaware that a large union force headed by General Meade is headed in the same direction.
Fredericksburg was the meeting place of the Armies of the Potomac and of Northern Virginia because of political pressure for the Union to achieve a decisive military victory. Winfield Scott’s Anaconda plan, which would have strangled the Confederacy into surrender through economic warfare, was overshadowed by impatience in Washington D.C., and by the aspirations of officers who were students of the grand Napoleonic victories that occurred less than a century prior.
The Battle of Antietam was significant to the United States for many reasons. One of the reasons why the battle was so significant was because Abraham Lincoln was up for reelection for president in 1864. Lincoln at the time knew that if he went into battle that he was for sure not to lose his presidency seat, but he was also afraid of what the outcome might bring him. Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward had made a suggestion at the cabinet meeting that was held that Abraham should wait for a Union victory from the battle. The reason Seward had suggested this plan was to make Abraham Lincoln not look like he was so desperate for a victory so that he could issue his Emancipation Proclamation Act.
Two months before Gettysburg Lee had dealt a stunning defeat to the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville Virginia. He then created plans for a Northern invasion in order to relieve pressure on war-weary Virginia and to seize the initiative from the Yankees. His army at a number
Lee is very quick; he organized scattered confederate troops into the famed Army of Northern Virginia in just three weeks. Lee’s wisdom urged him to keep the Union as far away as possible from the armament producing center of Richmond and far away from the northern part of the state where farmers were harvesting crops. Lee knows that defeats of such decisive sports will weaken our will to continue the war, and he prevented this at all costs.
During the War Between the States there were two large-scale, decisive battles fought near the town of Manassas, Virginia. This will be a guided look at the second of those two occurring at the end of August in 1862. There were several great leaders from both sides of the war involved in the 2nd of Manassas, however I am going to focus on the attitudes, maneuvers, and decisions of the four primary generals; General Robert E. Lee, Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Major General John Pope, and Major General George B. McClellan, as it was these men who, ultimately, shaped the actions and outcome of the battle. Following the Seven Days Battle, Maj. Gen. McClellan’s armies were camped on the banks of the James River, 20 miles from Richmond1 (Debelius 1998) and Gen Lee had just taken control of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 12 (Hennessy 2005). Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson was a subordinate commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and Maj. Gen. Pope was inbound to “assist” Maj. Gen. McClellan in securing the area of Northern Virginia for the Union high command. This study will focus on the mind-sets, maneuvers, and decisions these men made throughout the course of the battle that led to the defeat of the Union forces under Maj. Gen. Pope’s leadership.
In Labs 22 through 26, my lab partner and I were assigned a fetal pig to perform a dissection on in order to understand anatomy, the study of an organism’s structure1, and physiology, the study of the functions and activities of a living organism2. Throughout these labs, we studied the structure of the fetal pig and performed experiments to understand four system processes: digestion, cardiovascular, respiratory, and excretory. Dissecting an organism, physically moving and seeing the different portions of the organism, especially of a fetal pig, is very important. This helps in the understanding of the skeletal structure and what series of physical and chemical processes the mammalian species body performs in order to survive.
From the beginning of the war in 1861, to protect their most prized possession, the Confederacy put up fortifications at strategic points along the river. Federal forces eventually captured post after post. After fighting their way southward from Illinois and northward from the Gulf of Mexico. Until by late summer of 1862, only Vicksburg and Port Hudson appeared to be major constraints to the Union.
Stevens, Norman S. 2004. Antietam 1862; The Civil War's bloodiest day. New York: Osprey Publishing.
Both forces were moving towards Pennsylvania, when they converged upon Gettysburg. General Lee decided to take the fighting to Northern soil, and moved his troops to Maryland. While heading north, the two forces converged at Gettysburg, and the fighting began soon thereafter. After news of the fighting, General Meade arrived on the battlefield on the second day of battle..
Fredericksburg lays approximately half way between Washington D.C. and the capital of the Confederacy Richmond Virginia. Burnsides plan called for departing Maryland and crossing the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, thus providing a straight shot towards Richmond, believing that this was the ultimate goal of his army. Lincoln favored this so-called covering approach to attackin...
September 16-18, 1862, outside of the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, between the Potomac River and Antietam Creek, was the location of the bloodiest battle in American history. Confederate Colonel Stephen D. Lee described it as “Artillery Hell” because of the frightful toll on his gunners and horses from Federal counter battery and infantry fire. (AotW, 2014) The battle of Antietam, or the Battle of Sharpsburg, would collect an estimated 23,100 total casualties (Luvaas and Nelson, 1987). The body count far exceeded any of the other three battles waged in the Maryland Campaign (Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, and Shepherdstown). This battle was a contributing factor in the outcome of our country and the rest of the world. The Union Army desperately needed a victory at Antietam; however, a victory for the Confederate rebels may have very well gained them international recognition as a sovereign country in the eyes of the rest of the world. The Federal Army, which belonged to the Union States, consisted of an all-volunteer army and was a larger army than the Confederate States. Even though the Battle of Antietam was inconclusive, President Lincoln went on to read the Emancipation Proclamation to the country, effectively ending slavery, and ensuring that no foreign nation would intervene on the Confederates behave.
It is towards the last day of the battle that the results appeared much clear. The barely made victory was enough to motivate and encourage the Union armies to a string of victories over the next year and to throw Confederate forces back on their defenses among an increasingly despairing population. This battle was responsible for marking the last major southern invasion of the North in history. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington were safe form the rebels of the North.
The first reason Antietam is such an important battle, is that in the beginning of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1863, the South won the majority of battles, making the idea of victory seemingly unapproachable for the North. However, the battle of Antietam showed the North that they could in fact win the war. This is why the battle of Antietam was considered a turning point of the Civil War. The amounts of Confederate wins in the beginning of the war were numerous. The following are only a few of their victories: The Battle of Fort Sumter, Battle of Big Bethel, Battle of Cole Camp, Battle of Carthage, Battle of Blackburn's Ford, First Battle of Bull Run, and Battle of Dry Wood Creek (Weaver). As you can imagine, all these Confederate wins took a direct shot at the Union’s confidence. They were just hanging on when the battle of Antietam came an...
Before the battle, major cities in the North such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and even Washington were under threat of attack from General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia which had crossed the Potomac River and marched into Pennsylvania.