American Civil War Events

Description: Following the Battle of Stones River, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the Cumberland, remained in the Murfreesboro area for five and one-half months. ...

Career as a Confederate spy In November 1861, Harrison was discharged from the Militia and eventually became a spy for CSA Secretary of War, James Seddon. In April 1863, Harrison met J...

Other Names: None Location: Ascension Parish Campaign: Taylor’s Operations in West Louisiana (1863) Date(s): June 28, 1863 Principal Commanders: Maj. Joseph D. Bullen [US]; Br...

Description: After Union forces began occupying the Louisiana river parishes, thousands of escaped slaves flocked to them. The Federals, therefore, leased some plantations and put the fre...

Description: Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry, which was riding north to get around the Union army, attacked a Union cavalry regiment, driving it through the streets of Hanover. Brig. ...

The Skirmish of Sporting Hill was a relatively small skirmish during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War, taking place on June 30, 1863, in present day Hampden Township, Pen...

Union cavalry under H. Judson Kilpatrick engages Confederates under J.E.B. Stuart at Hanover, Pennsylvania, during the Gettysburg Campaign. After a lengthy fight, Stuart withdraws toward ...

Description: Col. James M. Williams of the First Kansas Colored Infantry led a Union supply train from Fort Scott, Kansas, to Fort Gibson, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory). As he approach...

The Battle of Carlisle was a relatively small, but strategically important skirmish during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War, taking place during the evening of July 1, 18...

"…he can still remember the peaches on the trees across the field, and the corn being knee high, and how hot it was the day they fought." —William Munroe Graves

On July 2, 1863, the lines of the Battle of Gettysburg, now in its second day, were drawn in two sweeping parallel arcs. The Confederate and Union armies faced each other a mile apart. Th...

The Battle of Hunterstown was a minor cavalry engagement in Adams County, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In recent years, the eng...

The Battle of Fairfield was a cavalry engagement during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War. It was fought July 3, 1863, near Fairfield, Pennsylvania, concurrently with the ...

Pickett's Charge Armistead leapt the wall and laid his hand on the gun, The last of the three brigadiers who ordered Pickett's brigades, He waved his hat on his sword and...

Description: Lt. Gen. Theophilus Holmes’s troops attacked Helena in an attempt to relieve pressure on Vicksburg. Although the Rebels had more troops and did initially capture some of the ...

The Battle of Tebbs' Bend (or Tebbs Bend or Green River) was fought on July 4, 1863, near the Green River in Taylor County, Kentucky during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War. Despit...

The Fight at Monterey Pass (or Gap) was an American Civil War military engagement beginning the evening of July 4, 1863, during the Retreat from Gettysburg. A Confederate wagon train of L...

The Battle of Lebanon occurred July 5, 1863, in Lebanon, Kentucky, during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War. Confederate troops under Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan fought for six hour...

The Battle of Williamsport, also known as the Battle of Hagerstown or Falling Waters, took place from July 6 to July 16, 1863, in Washington County, Maryland, as part of the Gettysburg Ca...

Description: On July 8, the Confederate cavalry, holding the South Mountain passes, fought a rearguard action against elements of the Union 1st and 3rd Cavalry Divisions and infantry. Thi...

Other Names: None Location: Harrison Campaign: Morgan’s Raid in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio (July 1863) Date(s): July 9, 1863 Principal Commanders: BCol. Lewis Jordan [US]; Brig. ...

The Second Battle of Funkstown (more commonly simply referred to as the Battle of Funkstown) took place near Funkstown, Maryland, on July 10, 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign of the A...

Description: On July 10, Union artillery on Folly Island together with Rear Adm. John Dahlgren’s fleet of ironclads opened fire on Confederate defenses of Morris Island. The bombardment p...

Other Names: Secessionville, James Island Location: City of Charleston and James Island Campaign: Operations against Defenses of Charleston (1863) Date(s): July 16, 1863 Princ...

Description: Union and Confederate troops had frequently skirmished in the vicinity of Honey Springs Depot. The Union commander in the area, Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt, correctly surmised t...

Description:After the July 11 assault on Fort Wagner failed, Gillmore reinforced his beachhead on Morris Island. At dusk July 18, Gillmore launched an attack spearheaded by the 54th Massa...

Description: On July 13, Morgan’s raiders crossed into Ohio at Harrison, pursued by several columns of Union cavalry under overall direction of Brig. Gen. Edward H. Hobson. On July 19, Ka...

Description: After recrossing the Potomac River at Williamsport, Lee’s army withdrew up the Shenandoah Valley. Meade crossed the Potomac River east of the Blue Ridge and followed Lee int...

Description: Brig. Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley led his troops from Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, into the Dakotas, pursuing the Santee Sioux, who had initiated an uprising in the Minnesota Rive...

The Battle of Salineville occurred July 26, 1863, near Salineville, Ohio during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War. It was one of the northernmost military actions involving the Conf...

Description: Following the Battle of Big Mound on July 24, 1863, Brig. Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley and his men moved their camp about four miles and then rested till the next day. The morn...

Description: Following the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake, Brig. Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley continued his march after the retreating Sioux until he reached Stony Lake, where his animals’ exh...

Description: During the night of September 6-7, Confederate forces evacuated Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg pressured by advancing Federal siegeworks. Federal troops then occupied all of M...

Description: Federal batteries erected on Morris Island opened fire on August 17 and continued their bombardment of Fort Sumter and the Charleston defenses until August 23. Despite a seve...

Description: In a supposed retaliation for a Union raid on Osceola, Missouri, Lt. Col. William C. Quantrill led a force of about 300 to 400 partisans in an attack on the city of Lawrence,...

Description: On August 16, 1863, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland, launched a campaign to take Chattanooga. Col. John T. Wilder’s brigade of the Uni...

Description: Union Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt ordered Col. William Cloud to continue in pursuit of the Confederate forces that had withdrawn from Fort Smith and were chased to Old Jenny Lin...

Description: Following Brig. Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley’s victories over the Sioux, he left the area, crossing the James River. The Sioux then recrossed the Missouri River and returned to...

The old Wilderness Road cutting through the Gap was a natural invasion route. For the Confederacy, it led to the rich Kentucky bluegrass country to the north. For the Union, it led to the...

The Second Battle of Sabine Pass took place on September 8, 1863, and was the result of a Union expedition into Confederate-controlled Texas during the American Civil War. It has often be...

Description: On September 10, 1863, Maj. Gen. Fred Steele, Army of Arkansas commander, sent Brig. Gen. John W. Davidson’s cavalry division across the Arkansas River to move on Little Rock...

Description: After the Tullahoma Campaign, Rosecrans renewed his offensive, aiming to force the Rebels out of Chattanooga. The three corps comprising Rosecrans’s army split and set out fo...

The Battle of Chickamauga, fought September 19–20, 1863, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia called the Chickamauga Campaign. The battle...

Planning for the second day At Braxton Bragg's headquarters at Thedford Ford, the commanding general was officially pleased with the day's events. He reported that "Night found us mast...

Description: Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the Department of the Ohio, undertook an expedition into East Tennessee to clear the roads and gaps to Virginia, and, if possible, se...

Other Names: Fordoche Bridge Location: Pointe Coupeé Parish Campaign: Taylor’s Operations in West Louisiana (1863) Date(s): September 29, 1863 Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. ...

Wheeler's October 1863 Raid (October 1–9, 1863) was a large cavalry raid in southeastern Tennessee during the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Confederate cavalry scored a g...

Description: After conducting many raids in Kansas, including the massacre at Lawrence, Quantrill decided to winter in Texas. Along with other partisans, he headed south on the Texas Road...

Description: Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, commander of the Department of the Ohio, undertook an expedition into East Tennessee to clear the roads and passes to Virginia, and, if possibl...

Description: After the retreat from Gettysburg, the Confederate army concentrated behind Rapidan River in Orange County. The Federals advanced to Rappahannock River in August, and in mid-...