The American Civil War.
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The American Civil War. |
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 American
Civil War.
There has been alot written about The American Civil War and I as a noble Englishman will not try to rewrite history by given you my version. What I can do is to talk a little about some of the civil war battlefields that I have been to, it was way back in 1977 that I first visited Appomattox Courthouse and all I new was this was where the civil war ended when the treaty was signed here. |
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was I believe a long time after that before I visited my next civil war
site back in 1988 and this was the big one, Gettysburg: we first stopped
by at the visitors center and had a good look around and watch a short narrated
film about the events that led up to The Battle Of Gettysburg. We also visited
Harpers Ferry a very old colonial town whom I knew was famous for John Brown.
Then in 1992 we visited Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, Manassas and then in
2000 we visited Fort Sumter, where I believe the first shots of the civil
war where fired, this we reach by ferry and as all of the rest of these
civil war sites I did find very interesting. Prior to and during the Civil
War, the North and South differed greatly in the resources that they could
use. After the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, the
states of the southern United States broke away from the federal union that
had existed since the ratification of the Constitution. Believing that Lincoln
would restrict their rights to own slaves, Southerners decided that secession
was a better choice than to give up their economic system and their way
of life. President Lincoln and the North opposed the South's withdrawal;
the president steadfastly maintained throughout the war that the secession
was illegal and that the newly formed Confederate States of America was
not valid as a new nation to the world. Despite Lincoln's hopes that the
secession would end without conflict, the two regions fought a war that
exploited the advantages and opportunities that each held over the other
before their differences could be resolved. The South ultimately did not
achieve its goals, and after four years of fighting the North won the war.
The decisive, destructive conflict cast a shadow on the successes of the
United States during the 19th century, however. The country had to find
ways to heal the wounds of war during Reconstruction. |
Fort Sumter. On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command
of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, |
On 16 July, 1861, the untried Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, 35,000 strong, marched out of the Washington defenses to give battle to the Confederate army, which was concentrated around the vital railroad junction at Manassas. This was the first major land battle of the armies in Virginia. On the 21st, McDowell attacked the Confederate left flank on Matthews Hill. Fighting raged throughout the day as Confederate forces were driven back. On the afternoon of July 21, 1861, Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard looked through his field glasses at a column of soldiers advancing toward the battlefield at Bull Run, where fighting had raged since early morning. Beauregard could not tell if the approaching troops were Confederate or Union, but he knew that if they were the enemy, the day would be lost, and he would have to order a retreat. A breeze swept across the fields and unfurled the flag at the head of the column; it was the Confederate Stars and Bars. Late in the afternoon, Confederate reinforcements arriving by rail the extended and broke the Union right flank. The Federal retreat rapidly deteriorated. Although victorious, Confederate forces were too disorganized to pursue. Confederate Gen. Bee and Col. Bartow were killed. Thomas J. Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall." By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington. This battle convinced the Lincoln administration that the war would be a long and costly affair. McDowell was relieved of command of the Union army and replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who set about re-training the troops. |
Fredericksburg. On November 14, 1862 General Ambrose Burnside now
in command of the Army of the Potomac, |
 Vicksburg.
In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. This was the culmination of one of the most brilliant military campaigns of the war. Grant's successes in the West boosted his reputation, leading ultimately to his appointment as General-in-Chief of the Union armies. |
| Gettysburg.
Located 50 miles northwest of Baltimore, the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the site of the largest Civil War battle ever waged in the Western Hemisphere. On June 24, 1863, General Robert E. Lee led his Confederate Army across the Potomac River and headed towards Pennsylvania. In response to this threat President Lincoln replaced his army commander, General Joseph Hooker, with General George Mead. As Lee's troops poured into Pennsylvania, Mead led the Union Army north from Washington. When a scout reported the Union approach, Lee ordered his scattered troops to converge west of the small village of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg opened on July 1, 1863 and closed two days. |
Harpers Ferry is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in the states of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Brown, "Stonewall" Jackson, are just a few of the prominent individuals who left their mark on this place. . Harpers Ferry witnessed the arrival of the first successful American railroad, John Brown's attack on slavery, the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War, and the education of former slaves in one of the earliest integrated schools in the United States. The first black arrived here in the mid-1700s as a slave to Robert Harper. By the time of John Brown's Raid in 1859, about ten percent of the town's residents were black. The town's 150 slaves, considered property, could be rented out, sold, used as collateral for business transactions, or given away. Another 150 "free" blacks often worked as laborers or teamsters, but some prospered as skilled masons, plasterers, butchers, and blacksmiths. During the Civil War, Harpers Ferry became one of many Union garrison towns where runaway slaves, or "contraband," sought refuge. John Brown believed he could free the slaves, and he selected Harpers Ferry as his starting point. Determined to seize the 100,000 weapons at the Arsenal and to use the Blue Ridge Mountains for guerrilla warfare, abolitionist Brown launched his raid on Sunday evening, October 16, 1859. His 21-man "army of liberation" seized the Armory and several other strategic points. Thirty-six hours after the raid begun, with most of his men killed or wounded, Brown was captured in the Armory fire engine house (now known as "John Brown's Fort") when U.S. Marines stormed the building. Brought to trial at nearby Charles Town, Brown was found guilty of treason, of conspiring with slaves to rebel, and murder. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. John Brown's short-lived raid failed, but his trial and execution focused the nation's attention on the moral issue of slavery and headed the country toward civil war. |
Appomattox Courthouse. With his army surrounded, his men weak and exhausted, Robert E. Lee realized there was little choice but to consider the surrender of his Army to General Grant. After a series of notes between the two leaders, they agreed to meet on April 9, 1865, at the house of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Courthouse. Robert E. Lee, Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his men to Ulysses Grant, General-in-Chief of all United States forces, on April 9, 1865. The meeting lasted approximately two and one-half hours and at its conclusion the bloodiest conflict in the nation's history neared its end. |
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© John Robert McNally. March 2003.
South
Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter
in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April
12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was unable
to reply effectively. At 2:30 pm, April 13, Major Anderson surrendered
Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment
of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.
Manassas.
sent
a corps to occupy the vicinity of Falmouth near Fredericksburg, the
rest of the army soon followed. Lee reacted by entrenching his army
on the heights behind the town. Burnside launched a winter campaign
against the Confederate capital, Richmond, by way of Fredericksburg,
a strategically important town on the Rappahannock River. The Federal
Army of the Potomac, 115,000-strong, raced to Fredericksburg, arriving
on November 17. There were only a few thousand Confederates on hand
to challenge them, yet the Federal advance ground to a halt on the eastern
bank of the Rappahannock, opposite the city. On December 11, Union engineers
laid five pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock under fire. On the
12th, the Federal army crossed over, and on December 13, Burnside mounted
a series of futile frontal assaults on Prospect Hill and Marye's Heights
that resulted in staggering casualties . December 15, Burnside called
off the offensive and re crossed the river, ending the campaign. The
Union had lost 13,000 soldiers in a battle in which the dreadful carnage
was matched only by its futility. Federal morale plummeted, and Burnside
was swiftly relieved of his command. By contrast, the morale of the
Confederacy reached a peak. Approximately 110,000 casualties occurred
during the four major battles fought in the vicinity of Fredericksburg,
Virginia making it the bloodiest ground on the North American continent.
Harpers
Ferry.