American Civil War Events

The Battle of Apache Pass was fought at Apache Pass in Arizona, United States, between Apache warriors and the California Column as it marched from California to New Mexico. Colonel Jame...

The Battle of Moore’s Mill was an American Civil War battle that took place in northeast Missouri on July 28, 1862 along Auxvasse Creek near modern day Calwood. This engagement, the Battl...

Description: In an attempt to regain control of the state, Confederates wished to recapture the capital at Baton Rouge. Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge planned a combined land/water expedi...

The Battle of Kirksville was a battle in the American Civil War, fought near the town of Kirksville, Missouri, on August 6, 1862. The Union victory helped consolidate Federal control over...

Description: Maj. Gen. John Pope was placed in command of the newly constituted Army of Virginia on June 26. Gen. Robert E. Lee responded to Pope’s dispositions by dispatching Maj. Gen. T...

Other Names: None Location: Ascension Parish Campaign: Operations against Baton Rouge (1862) Date(s): August 9, 1862 Principal Commanders: Rear Adm. David G. Farragut [US]; Ca...

The Battle of Compton's Ferry (also known as Little Compton Ferry) was an action during the American Civil War, occurring August 11, 1862, along the Grand River. Colonel John A. Poindex...

Description: On August 11, 1862, Col. J.T. Hughes’s Confederate force, including William Quantrill, attacked Independence, at dawn, in two columns on different roads. They drove through t...

The Battle of Lone Jack was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on August 15 – August 16, 1862 in Jackson County, Missouri. The battle was part of the Confederate guerrilla and ...

Fort Ridgely was built in 1851. It wasn't much of a fort though, but it was the only military post between the Sioux Reservations and the settlers. On August 18, 1862, the Lower Sioux Age...

The First Battle of Rappahannock Station, also known as Waterloo Bridge, White Sulphur Springs, Lee Springs, or Freeman's Ford, took place from August 22 to August 25, 1862, in Culpeper C...

The Battle of Manassas Station Operations, also known as the Bristoe Station, Kettle Run, Bull Run Bridge, or Union Mills, took place from August 25 to August 27, 1862, in Prince William ...

The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap, also known as Chapman's Mill, took place on August 28, 1862, in Fauquier County and Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the Northern Virginia Campa...

"Our men on the left loaded and fired with the energy of madmen, and the 6th worked with equal desperation. This stopped the rush of the enemy and they halted and fired upon us their deadl..." —Maj. Rufus R. Dawes, 6th Wisconsin

Jackson had initiated the battle at Brawner's farm with the intent of holding Pope until Longstreet arrived with the remainder of the Army of Northern Virginia. Longstreet's 25,000 men be...

The Battle of Richmond, Kentucky — took place on and around what is now the grounds of the Blue Grass Army Depot, outside Richmond, Kentucky. In Maj. Gen. Kirby Smith's 1862 Confederat...

"A splendid army almost demoralized, millions of public property given up or destroyed, thousands of lives of our best men sacrificed for no purpose. I dare not trust myself to speak of th..." —Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams (II Corps division commander)

The Battle of Chantilly (or Ox Hill, the Confederate name) took place on September 1, 1862, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as the concluding battle of the Northern Virginia Campaign of the ...

The Battle of Harpers Ferry was fought September 12–15, 1862, as part of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War. As Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army invaded Maryland, a port...

Description: In the 1862 Confederate offensive into Kentucky, Gen. Braxton Bragg’s army left Chattanooga, Tennessee, in late August. Followed by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Union Army, B...

Description: After invading Maryland in September 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee divided his army to march on and invest Harpers Ferry. The Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClell...

"Of all the days on all the fields where American soldiers have fought, the most terrible by almost any measure was September 17, 1862. The battle waged on that date, close by Antietam Cre..." —Stephen W. Sears

The Battle of Iuka was an American Civil War battle fought on September 19, 1862, in Iuka, Mississippi. In the opening battle of the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rose...

The Battle of Shepherdstown, also known as the Battle of Boteler's Ford, took place September 19–20, 1862, in Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia), at the end of the Maryland Ca...

The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. The first one, issued September 22, 1862, d...

Description: Following the Battle of Pea Ridge, in March 1862, most Confederate and Union troops left northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri. By late summer, Confederates returne...

The First Battle of Newtonia was a battle of the American Civil War, occurring on September 30, 1862 in Newton County, Missouri. Following the Battle of Pea Ridge in March, most Confed...

Other Names: None Location: Duval County Campaign: Expedition to St. John’ s Bluff (1862) Date(s): October 1-3, 1862 Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. John M. Brannan [US]; Lt....

The Second Battle of Corinth (which, in the context of the American Civil War, is usually referred to as the Battle of Corinth, to differentiate it from the Siege of Corinth earlier the s...

The First Battle of Galveston was a naval engagement fought on October 4, 1862 near the city of Galveston, Texas between forces from the Union Navy and the Confederate States of America. ...

The Battle of Hatchie's Bridge, also known as Davis's Bridge or Matamora, was fought on October 5, 1862, in Hardeman County and McNairy County, Tennessee, as the final engagement of the I...

Other Names: None Location: Boyle County Campaign: Confederate Heartland Offensive (1862) Date(s): October 8, 1862 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell [US]; Gen. ...

Description: Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt and his troops attacked Col. Douglas H. Cooper and his Confederate command on Beatties Prairie near Old Fort Wayne at 7:00 am on October 22, 1862. T...

Other Names: Labadieville, Texana Location: Lafourche Parish Campaign: Operations in LaFourche District (1862) Date(s): October 27, 1862 Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. Godfr...

The Skirmish at Island Mound was a skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring from October 27 to October 29, 1862, in Bates County, Missouri. This Union victory was notable as the firs...

Description: Having received reports that Confederate troops were in the area, Capt. Hiram E. Barstow, Union commander at Clark’s Mill, sent a detachment toward Gainesville and he led ano...

The Battle of Cane Hill was fought during the American Civil War on November 28, 1862 in Washington County, Arkansas. Union troops under Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt drove Confederates under...

Other Names: Cox’s Plantation Location: Ascension Parish Campaign: Taylor's Operations in West Louisiana (1863) Date(s): November 28, 1862 Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. God...

The Battle of Hartsville was fought on December 7, 1862, in northern Tennessee at the opening of the Stones River Campaign the American Civil War. The Stones River Campaign started in ...

The Battle of Prairie Grove was a battle of the American Civil War fought on 7 December 1862, that resulted in a tactical stalemate but essentially secured northwest Arkansas for the Unio...

The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, from December 11 to December 15, 1862, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia a...

Description: A Union expedition led by Brig. Gen. John G. Foster left New Berne in December to disrupt the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad at Goldsborough. The advance was stubbornly contest...

On December 15, Brig. Gen. John G. Foster's Union troops reached White Hall where Brig. Gen. Beverly Robertson had taken command of Confederate militia holding the north bank of the Neuse...

Description: On December 17, Foster’s expedition reached the railroad near Everettsville and began destroying the tracks north toward the Goldsborough Bridge. Clingman’s Confederate briga...

Description: The engagement at Jackson occurred during Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Expedition into West Tennessee, between December 11, 1862, and January 1, 1863. Forrest wished t...

The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called Walnut Hills,[2] fought December 26–29, 1862, was the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Confederate fo...

Description: As Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s expedition into West Tennessee neared its conclusion, Union Brig. Gen. Jeremiah C. Sullivan, with the brigades of Col. Cyrus L. Dunham ...

Other Names: Murfreesboro Location: Rutherford County Campaign: Stones River Campaign (1862-63) Date(s): December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Will...

In the Second Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln also formally recognised the right of black men to enlist in the army, and shortly afterwards the first all-black division, the 54th Massa...

Description: Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder, who became the Confederate commander of military forces in Texas on November 29, 1862, gave the recapture of Galveston top priority. At 3:00 am on...