Stonewall Jackson

Lee came up with a plan to make up for his numbers by attacking General McClellan’s army. In the next days there were a number of skirmishes between Lee’s advancing forces and against McClellan’s army which became know as the Days Battle. After Lee’s success at the Days Battle, Lee gained control of the Army of North Virginia, the biggest army in Virginia. The battle of Chancellorsville... ... middle of paper ... ...e Confederate forces. A Union attack on Petersburg on April 2, 1865 forced Lee to retreat from Richmond and go west.

The Union army was taken by surprise the first day when the Confederate Army unexpectedly attacked, but after Union reinforcements arrived the fighting virtually ended in a tie. Lasting for two days, April 6 and 7 of 1862, casualties for both sides exceeded 20,000. The Battle of Shiloh was a message to both the North and South that the Civil War was for real. General Grant was anxious to maintain the momentum of his victory at Fort Donelson. His army had moved up to a port on the Tennessee River called Pittsburg Landing in preparation for an attack on Corinth, Mississippi, where the Confederate troops were located.

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.

II. The situation up until the battle a. During the first two years, every major battle in the eastern U.S. was won by the south except the Battle of Antietam 1. in which General T. J. “Stonewall” Jackson lost his life b. General Lee began plotting and readying his troops to attack the North’s territory a second time c. Many various small battles were fought, the Confederate army pressing further toward Northern territory 1.

During May of 1862, Joseph E. Johnston was wounded during the Peninsular Campaign. Lee was thrust into the command of the Confederate's strongest army, which he renamed the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee then won a number of victories in the following months. In June of 1862, Lee drove the Union army away from the Richmond area in the Seven Days' Battle. Lee then drove the northern army back into Washington D.C. after the second Battle of Bull Run.

General George G. Meade led the Union against the Confederates, who were led by General Robert E. Lee. There were 51,112 total casualties in the battle, with approximately 23,049 casualties on the Union side and approximately 28,063 Confederate casualties. General Robert E. Lee and the Confederates had just gotten a great victory over the Union at Chancellorsville, giving them the confidence to march into the North, the Union’s territory. They were heading into Gettysburg on June 30 in search of shoes for their soldiers when they spotted Union forces approaching the town. They retreated until the next day, when they attacked the Union forces outside Gettysburg, overwhelming them.

Resigning his commission, he made his way to Richmond and was at once made a major-general in the Virginian forces. A few weeks later he became a brigadier-general (then the highest rank) in the Confederate service. The military operations with which the great Civil War opened in 1861 were directed by President Davis and General Lee. Lee was personally in charge of the unsuccessful West Virginian operations in the autumn, and, having been made a full general on the 31st of August, during the winter he devoted his experience as an engineer to the fortification and general defense of the Atlantic coast.

Sherman offered his services at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 and was put in command of a volunteer infantry regiment, becoming a brigadier general of volunteers after the first Battle of bull run. He led his division at the Battle of Shiloh and was then promoted to major general of volunteers. Soon after Sherman fought in the battle of Chattanooga he was made supreme commander of the armies in the west. Sherman fought many battles with such people as Ulysses S. Grant, and against people such as Robert E. Lee before he was commissioned lieutenant general of the regular army. Following Grants election to presidency he was promoted to the rank of full general and given command of the entire U.S. Army.

He displayed excellent leadership in battle, and was soon promoted to major. On February 29th, 1851, Jackson stepped down and retired from his position in the army to become an instructor at Virginia Military Institute located in Lexington, Virginia. When the war started, he joined the Confederate Army and accepted orders as a Colonel of the Virginia Militia. T.J. “Stonewall” Jackson was well known for his use of brilliant tactics in battle. It was during the First Battle of Bull Run when Jackson earned his classic nickname “Stonewall”.

This resulted in Grant devising another plan to capture Vicksburg. The Union used another strategy to gain edge over the Confederate army. ”An assault by troops of the Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman corps against the high grounds of Chickasaw bluffs north of the town resulted in nearly 1,800 Union casualties, compared to just over 200 for the defenders”, (http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-vicksburg). The Union plan had backfired. In the coming months, Grant decided to execute a series of events.