Union Timeline

Description: Maj. Gen. Fred Steele’s forces retreated from Camden after being mauled at Marks’ Mills and Poison Spring. On the afternoon of April 29, the Union forces reached Jenkins’ Fer...

Description: On May 5, CSS Albemarle fought seven blockading Union ships to a draw at the mouth of the Roanoke River. Federals recaptured the converted steamer Bombshell. USS Sassacus was...

The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5-6, 1864. It was the beginning of the Overland Campaign, the bloodiest campaign in American history and the turning point in the war in the...

Description: Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had entrenched his army on the long, high mountain of Rocky Face Ridge and eastward across Crow Valley. As Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman approached, he...

Description: On May 9, Crook’s three brigades (6,100 men) on a raid into southwestern Virginia encountered a patchwork Confederate force under Brig. Gen. Albert Jenkins at Cloyd’s Mountai...

Description: On May 9, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler made a thrust toward Petersburg and was met by Bushrod Johnson’s Division at Swift Creek. A premature Confederate attack at Arrowfield Chu...

Description: As the battle between Grant and Lee raged at Spotsylvania Court House, the Union cavalry corps under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan embarked on a cavalry raid against Richmond. Af...

Description: Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had withdrawn from Rocky Face Ridge to the hills around Resaca. On the 13th, the Union troops tested the Rebel lines to pinpoint their whereabouts. Th...

Description: Following the Battle of Resaca, May 13-15, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’ s army retreated southward while Sherman pursued. Failing to find a good defensive position south of Calho...

Description: After the fighting at Spotsylvania Court House, Grant continued his Overland Offensive against Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He was brought up short on the North Anna Rive...

Description:On May 24, Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry division (about 3,000 men) attacked the Union supply depot at Wilson’s Wharf and was repulsed by two black regiments under Brig. Gen. Edward ...

Description: With the armies stalemated along the Totopotomoy Creek line, the Federal cavalry began probing east and south. On May 30, Torbert’s Division attacked and defeated Butler's Br...

Significance: On 5 June 1864, the US army of General David Hunter crushed the smaller Confederate army at Piedmont, killing the CS commander (General ``Grumble'' Jones) and taking nearly ...

Description: During the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman maneuvered Johnston's Confederate army out of several successive defensive positions in Cobb County. This strategy spared the Union army ...

Description: On the night of June 18-19, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, fearing envelopment, moved his army to a new, previously selected position astride Kennesaw Mountain, an entrenched arc-s...

Description: On July 11, Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s exhausted Confederates reached the outskirts of Washington near Silver Spring. Skirmishers advanced to feel the fortifications which at ...

Description: Maj. Gen. A.J. Smith, commanding a combined force of more than 14,000 men, left LaGrange, Tennessee, on July 5, 1864, and advanced south. Smith’s mission was to insure that M...

Description: Under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, the Army of Tennessee had retired south of Peachtree Creek, an east to west flowing stream, about three miles north of Atlanta. Sherman split h...

Description: On July 20, Brig. Gen. W.W. Averell’s Union division attacked Maj. Gen. S.D. Ramseur’s Confederate division at Rutherford’s and Carter’s farms. This sudden assault came in on...

Description: Earlier, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces had approached Atlanta from the east and north. Hood had not defeated them, but he had kept them away from the city. Sherman no...

Description: After failing to envelop Hood’s left flank at Ezra Church, Sherman still wanted to extend his right flank to hit the railroad between East Point and Atlanta. He transferred J...

Description: While Hancock’s command demonstrated north of the James River at Deep Bottom, the Union V Corps and elements of the IX and II Corps under command of Maj. Gen. G.K. Warren wer...

The Battle of Marianna was a small but significant engagement on September 27, 1864, in the panhandle of Florida during the American Civil War. The Union victory over Confederates and mil...

Description: During the night of September 28-29, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James crossed James River to assault the Richmond defenses north of the river. The columns attack...