American Civil War Events

Description: Maj. Gen. Sterling Price led an expedition into Missouri which Union forces under Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis and Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton finally countered around Kansas ...

Description: Following the Battle of Mine Creek, Maj. Gen. Sterling Price continued his cartage towards Fort Scott. In late afternoon of October 25, Price’s supply train had difficulty cr...

Description: About six miles south of Trading Post, where the Marais de Cygnes engagement had occurred, the brigades of Col. Frederick W. Benteen and Col. John F. Phillips, of Maj. Gen. A...

Description: As Gen. John B. Hood began the Franklin-Nashville Campaign during the fall of 1864, his Army of Tennessee demonstrated against Decatur, Alabama, October 26-29, in an attempt ...

Description: Directed by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, divisions from three Union corps (II, V, and IX) and Gregg’s cavalry division, numbering more than 30,000 men, withdrew from the...

Description: In combination with movements against the Boydton Plank Road at Petersburg, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler attacked the Richmond defenses along Darbytown Road with the X Corps. Th...

Description: Price’s force was in full retreat following its expedition into Missouri. On October 28, 1864, it stopped to rest about two miles south of Newtonia, Missouri. Soon afterward,...

Description: Leaving Hilton Head on November 28, a Union expeditionary force under Maj. Gen. John P. Hatch steamed up the Broad River in transports to cut the Charleston & Savannah Railro...

Description: In an effort to check the Union army’s advance through Georgia, Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest led a 23-day raid culminating in an attack on the Yankee supply base at Johns...

After Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga in 1863, overall victory seemed at hand, and Lincoln promoted Ulysses S. Grant General-in-Chief on March 12, 1864. When the...

Description: In November 1864, Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge undertook an expedition into East Tennessee, anticipating that Confederate sympathizers would join his force and help drive t...

Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted through Georgia from November 15, 1864 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman ...

Description: Brig. Gen. Charles Walcutt was ordered to make a demonstration, with the six infantry regiments and one battery that comprised his brigade, toward Macon to ascertain the disp...

Description:Conflict near Columbia, during Hood’s 1864 Tennessee invasion, constituted a Confederate diversion as part of a maneuver designed to cross the Duck River upstream and interdic...

Description: As Sherman’s infantry marched southeast through Georgia, his cavalry, under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick moved northeastward, on November 24, 1864, to destroy the railroad mi...

Description: Spring Hill was the prelude to the Battle of Franklin. On the night of November 28, 1864, Gen. John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee marched toward Spring Hill to get astride M...

The Sand Creek Massacre (also known as the Chivington massacre or the Battle of Sand Creek or the Massacre of Cheyenne Indians) was an incident in the Indian Wars of the United States tha...

Description: Having lost a good opportunity at Spring Hill to hurt significantly the Union Army, Gen. John B. Hood marched in rapid pursuit of Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield’s retreating Uni...

On 9 December, an expedition, of which Wyalusing was a part, moved farther up the Roanoke to capture Rainbow Bluff and another Confederate ram, rumored to be under construction at Halifax...

Description: As Sherman’s infantry marched southeast through Georgia, his cavalry under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick rode northeastward. He set out on the morning of December 4 to attack ...

Description: In a last, desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 186...

Description: Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler was relieved of command of the Army of the James and assigned to lead an amphibious expedition against Fort Fisher, which protected Wilmington, the ...

Fort Branch was a fort built by the Confederate Army especially to defend against attacks from the Union Army along the Roanoke River in North Carolina. The fort was originally built i...

The Battle of Altahama Bridge, also known as the Battle for the Doctortown Railroad Trestle, was an American Civil War engagement fought December 19, 1864, in Wayne County, Georgia, durin...

Description: As Sherman’ s troops approached Savannah they sorely required supplies. Sherman determined that if he could take Fort McAllister, supply ships could reach him. Thus, he order...

On the afternoon of December 16, 1864, Union troops led by General George H. Thomas devastated Confederate forces at Nashville, Tennessee. The battle had begun the day before when Thomas ...

Description: Riding through the Cumberland Gap, Stoneman’s expedition advanced on the important lead mines and salt ponds around Marion and Saltville. On December 17, Stoneman defeated a ...

Description: Union cavalry and infantry raiders led by Brig. Gen. Stephen Burbridge attempted to destroy the saltworks near Saltville. He was delayed at Clinch Mountain and Laurel Gap by ...

The Battle of Anthony’s Hill (also known as the Battle of King's Hill or the Battle of Devil's Gap) was an engagement that occurred December 25, 1864, in Tennessee during the American Civ...

The Battle of Dove Creek was a small engagement during the American Civil War that took place January 8, 1865, along Dove Creek in what is now southwest Tom Green County, Texas. Texan sol...

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a joint assault by Union Army and naval forces against Fort Fisher, outside Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War. Som...

Description:On February 2, a Confederate force under McLaws held the crossings of the Salkehatchie River against the advance of the right wing of Sherman’s Army. Federal soldiers began bu...

Description: On February 5, Bvt. Brig. Gen. David Gregg’s cavalry division rode out to the Boydton Plank Road via Ream's Station and Dinwiddie Court House in an attempt to intercept Confe...

Description: With the fall of Fort Fisher to Maj. Gen. Alfred Terry’s and Rear Adm. David Porter’s combined operation on January 15, Wilmington’s days were numbered. About 6,600 Confedera...

"A City of ruins, —silent, mournful, in deepest humiliation…The band was playing 'Hail, Columbia,' and the strains floated through the desolate city, awakening wild enthusiasm in the heart..." —A Northern reporter's description of Charleston, South Carolina

The Battle of Fort Myers was fought on February 25, 1865, in Lee County, Florida during the last months of the American Civil War. This small engagement is known as the "southernmost land...

John Yates Beall (January 1, 1835 - February 24, 1865) was a Confederate privateer in the American Civil War who was arrested as a spy in New York and executed at Governors Island, New Yo...

Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, during his inauguration at the start of his second term as President of the United States. At a time when victory ...

Other Names: None Location: Leon County Campaign: Operations near St. Marks, Florida (1865) Date(s): March 6, 1865 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. John Newton [US]; Maj. Gen. ...

The Battle of Wyse Fork was a battle fought in the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War, resulting in a Union Army victory. Background At the end of February 1865 the port c...

Description: As Sherman’s army advanced into North Carolina, Kilpatrick’s Cavalry Division screened its left flank. On the evening of March 9, two of Kilpatrick’s brigades encamped near t...

Description: On the afternoon of March 15, Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry came up against Lt. Gen. William Hardee’s corps—consisting of Taliaferro’s and McLaw’s infantry divisions and Wheele...

Description: While Slocum’s advance was stalled at Averasborough by Hardee’s troops, the right wing of Sherman’s army under command of Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard marched toward Goldsborough. ...

Description: In a last-gasp offensive, Gen. Robert E. Lee amassed nearly half of his army in an attempt to break through Grant’s Petersburg defenses and threaten his supply depot at City ...

Other Names: None Location: Baldwin County Campaign: Mobile Campaign (1865) Date(s): March 27-April 8, 1865 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. E.R.S. Canby [US]; Brig. Gen. Randa...

The Battle of Lewis's Farm (also known as Quaker Road, Military Road, or Gravelly Road) was fought on March 29, 1865, in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, during the American Civil War. It was ...

Description: On March 29, with the Cavalry Corps and the II and V Corps, Sheridan undertook a flank march to turn Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Petersburg defenses. A steady downpour turned the ro...

Other Names: Hatcher’s Run, Gravelly Run, Boydton Plank Road, White Oak Ridge Location: Dinwiddie County Campaign: Appomattox Campaign (March-April 1865) Date(s): March 31, 1865 ...

The Battle of Five Forks was fought on April 1, 1865, southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, in Dinwiddie County, during the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War. The battle, sometim...

Other Names: None Location: Baldwin County Campaign: Mobile Campaign (1865) Date(s): April 2-9, 1865 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. E.R.S. Canby [US]; Brig. Gen. St. John R. ...