The Battle of Fredricksburg In the next pages I will explain why Fredericksburg was such a tragedy. Why it was a big morale booster for the South, but a disappointment for the North? It all started in the year 1862. General George McCellen currently controls the army of the Potomac. When it was determined that McCellen was a bad general, in December of 1862 he was replaced with General Ambrose Burnside. Within a week, Burnside decided on a campaign to the Southern capitol, Richmond. He told his plans to Lincoln and Lincoln approved, but told Burnside the only way for a win was to move quickly. Burnside split his group into three grand divisions, each with two corps. Burnside’s division arrives first at Fredericksburg; when he arrived there weren’t many Confederates. After Burnside’s arrival there was a swarm of Confederates who arrived. The problem was, that while the Confederates moved into position, General Burnside had to wait for pontoon builders so they could cross the Rappahannock River. (See Map1) He had requested pontoons from Harper’s Ferry but they hadn’t arrived yet and came two weeks later. This gave the Confederates time to get an advantageous position over the Union. While Burnside waited he looked at the town from on top of a ridge. While Burnside waited, Lee was positioning himself for the best way to attack. Lee also had help from Stonewall; Stonewall was positioned down stream on the Rappahannock River. Stonewall had two regiments by the creek and two regiments by the railroad. Lee also had help from General Longstreet, who was positioned by the Rappahannock River and the railroad. The position that Lee had set up was good because he was on higher ground looking down on the Union. Lee, with the major adv... ... middle of paper ... ...ition. Even after the South was all set up and it looked impossible for Burnside to win, he decided to try anyway. All of the mistakes Burnside made could have been avoided, so it was Burnside’s entire fault for this big disaster. I think that General Burnside was out-of-line; he was being very naïve by ordering more troops up the hill when he knew they would die. For these reasons, Fredericksburg was a morale booster for the South and a man-killer for the North. Bibliography: Bibliography American Heritage, ed. The American Heritage Picture History of The Civil War. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.,1960 Bender, David L. The Civil War Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1995. Shelby Foote. The Civil War: A Narrative Fredericksburg to Merdian. New York: Random House, Inc., 1963.
Once there the Union formed a strong defensive position that resembled that of a fishhook, with Culp's Hill and the two Round Tops anchoring each end. After reinforcements had arrived the Union position was three miles long. Meanwhile, the Confederate troops occupied Gettysburg and Seminary Ridge to the west. Lee did not dig his army in a defensive position at all. He believed that his own army was invincible, even though they were without out their cavalry, which was off somewhere harassing other Union soldier, but on the first day of battle, the confederates are victorious
In The article “Slavery, the Constitutional, and the Origins of the Civil War”, Paul Finkelman discusses some of the events that he believes lead the United States to have a Civil War. He discusses how both the North and the South territories of the Untied States did not see eye to eye when it came to ab...
After the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville in May of 1863, General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia embarked on their 2nd invasion of the north. General Lee’s first campaign into the north resulted in the Confederate defeat at Antietam. The failure of Lee’s first northern campaign raises the question of his motives. The Confederate Army was...
Screams and curses fill the air. The grassy plain runs blood red.” (page 61). All of these iconic Civil War battles led up to the Confederate surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse and the inescapable rebuilding of a new nation Abraham Lincoln had to deal with. Next, John Wilkes Booth is introduced and his pro-Confederate motives are made clear.
It all began with the secession of South Carolina. After this an understanding was established between the authorities in Washington and the members of Congress from South Carolina. They both agreed that the forts, Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, would not be attacked, or seized as an act of war, until proper negotiations for their cession to the state. At the time of this Fort Sumter was in an unfinished state and did not have a garrison. (www.civilwarhome.com/CMHsumter.htm)
... or ending the war, because it was the only rail junction connecting Richmond to the rest of the Confederacy. Faced with the need to defend a line running continuously from north of Richmond to Petersburg, the Confederates were stretched thinner and thinner. Eventually their line broke. Within a little over a week it was over. The final year of the Civil War was something new in the history of warfare - never before had two large armies remained locked in continuous combat for such a long period of time. In the past the armies would fight, retreat, regroup, and usually meet at some later date and place but in 1864-65 even though they moved around some it was almost one continuous fight to the end.
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.
The Civil War is one of the defining wars in the history of this great nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in American history, and a turning point in the four year war. At the time, Gettysburg was a small, quiet town generally unaffected by the war. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America and General George Meade of the Union converged in Gettysburg, and a conflict quickly arose. After three long days of battle the Union pulled away with a victory, though not an easy one. This essay will outline the six themes of history; in essence the who, what, when, where, why, and who cares of this infamous battle.
“Why did the North win the Civil War?” is only half of a question by itself, for the other half is “Why did the South lose the Civil War?” To this day historians have tried to put their finger on the exact reason for the South losing the war. Some historians blame the head of the confederacy Jefferson Davis; however others believe that it was the shear numbers of the Union (North). The advantages and disadvantages are abundant on either sides of the argument, but the most dominate arguments on why the South lost the war would be the fact that state’s rights prevented unification of the South, Jefferson Davis' poor leadership and his failure to work together with his generals, the South failed to gain the recognition of the European nations, North's superior resources made the outcome inevitable, and moral of the South towards the end of the war.
On October 9, 1781, General George Washington surrounded General Lord Charles Cornwallis at the Virginia port city of Yorktown with 8,500 American soldiers and around 10,000 French soldiers. The bruised up British army contained only around 8,000 soldiers. The Siege of Yorktown lasted eight days, and Cornwallis had to surrender to American forces. The British loss crushed their southern army and forced them to give up on the war. The surrender of Yorktown could easily be one of the greatest moments in American history. Not only did the surrender signal the end of the war, but it also signaled that independence had been won by the colonies. No longer would the colonies have to answer to Great Britain and the tyrants that ruled it.
Abraham Lincoln was very ashamed of General George B. McClellan because he had continuous amounts of defeats and his possible lack of dedication. On November 7, Lincoln replaced General McClellan with General Ambrose E. Burnside even though Burnside did not think he was right for the job. General Burnside was a very well-trained soldier and Lincoln was very impressed with his amount of battles won. Before General McClellan was fired by Abraham Lincoln had ordered an attack on General Robert E. Lee, general of the Confederate army, but even though he was fired, the battle still had to go on and General Burnside had to won this battle.
The town of Vicksburg, Mississippi was a strategic and vital location, militarily, for both the North and the South. Many, including President Abraham Lincoln, called Vicksburg the key to the Confederacy. Vicksburg was so important that the Union besieged it for forty-seven days, and when given the chance, the women and children within Vicksburg refused to leave. Under Siege tells the storyg of the Battle and Siege of Vicksburg through the eyes of two Confederate children and the son of Union general, Ulysses S. Grant. Through their diaries and accounts of the event, this is the summary of what happened in Vicksburg.
The North’s negligence also contributed to the end of Reconstruction. The North had failed to notice the many racially motivated atrocities that occurred in the South durin...
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.
Sears’ thesis is the Union could have won the war faster. McClellan was an incompetent commander and to take the initiative to attack an defeat the Confederate army. The Army of Northern Virginia, under...