1. 3 Major Battles During
the Civil War
By Áine McGrath, Jennifer McHugh and Aisling
McSweeney

2. http://vimeo.com/25141968#

3. • Definition: Two battles actually, both fought near Manassas
Creek and both won by the South. The first was the first
engagement of the war, on July 21, 1861, and sent the Union
army packing. The second, following hard on the heels of the
unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign, was a year later, on Aug.
29-30, 1862, and gave the South almost all of Virginia back.
• The battle took place in Prince William County This episode is
called the First Battle of Bull Run and is also known as First
Manassas, the latter being the name the Confederates used.

5. • A Union army, consisting of 28,000 men, commanded by
General McDowell, fought 33,000 Confederates under General
Beauregard. The Union army, under pressure to crush the
rebellion in the South, marched towards Richmond, but met
the Confederate forces coming north from Manassas, a
Southern base.

6. Map of Virginia in relation to other American counties

7. The Battle
• On the 21st, McDowell crossed at Sudley Ford and attacked
the Confederate left flank on Matthews Hill. Fighting raged
throughout the day as Confederate forces were driven back
to Henry Hill. Late in the afternoon, Confederate
reinforcements (one brigade arriving by rail from the
Shenandoah Valley) extended and broke the Union right
flank. The Federal retreat rapidly deteriorated into a rout.
Although victorious, Confederate forces were too
disorganized to pursue. Confederate Gen. Bee and Col.
Bartow were killed. Thomas J. Jackson earned the nom de
guerre “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 reorganizing and training the troops.

8. Aftermath
•Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312
missing or captured; Confederate casualties were 387 killed,
1,582 wounded, and 13 missing.[1] Irvin McDowell bore the
brunt of the blame for the Union defeat at Bull Run and was
soon replaced by George B. McClellan, who was named generalin-chief of all the Union armies. In a cruel irony, McDowell was
also present to bear significant blame for the defeat of John
Pope's Army of Virginia by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia just thirteen months later, at the Second Battle of Bull
Run.
•Result: Confederate victory

9. Link to interesting photos
• http://www.americancivilwarphotos.com/category/battles/b
ull-run?page=4

10. Battle of Shiloh
(Pittsburg Landing)

11. • This battle took place on April 6-7 1862 in south western
Tennessee not far from Corinth, Mississippi.
• General Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of
Confederate forces in the Western Theater, hoped to
defeat Union major general Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of
the Tennessee before it could be reinforced by Major
General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, which was
marching from Nashville.
• Johnston initiated a surprise attack on Grant’s camps
around Shiloh Church and drove the Federal forces back
to a defensive perimeter on the heights above Pittsburg
Landing on the Tennessee River.
• During the afternoon, Johnston was wounded in the leg
and bled to death

12. • He was replaced by General Pierre Gustave Toutant
Beauregard, commander of the Army of the
Mississippi.
• As darkness fell, Beauregard called a halt to the
fighting and pulled his weary soldiers back from the
landing, where they were being shelled by two
gunboats, the USS Lexington and USS Tyler.
• He believed Grant’s army was beaten and that Buell’s
army was miles away.
General Pierre Gustave Toutant

13. • Buell’s men arrived and ferried across the Tennessee River
during the night, and a "lost" division of Grant’s army under
Major General Lewis "Lew" Wallace finally arrived on the
field.
• These two new arrivals added 23,000 troops to the fight.
• Shortly after 5:00 the next morning, Grant and Buell’s
combined forces moved out, slowly but surely forcing the
Confederates back until, by dark, they had retaken all the
ground lost the previous day. Beauregard’s battered army
withdrew to Corinth.

14. Video Link
• http://www.history.com/videos/the-battle-of-shiloh#the-battle-of-

15. Battle of Antietam
(AKA Sharpsburg)

16. Battle of Antietam
• This was the first battle of the American Civil War to
be fought on up north.
• The Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan
went to near to Antietam creek in Sharpsburg,
Maryland.
• McClellan failed to utilize to crush Lee’s army he was
able to check the Confederate to advance to the
North.
• After a string of union defeats, this victory provided
Abraham Lincoln the political cover he needed to
issue his Emancipation Proclamation.
• This battle is the bloodiest battle in American history
with over 22,000 casualties

18. Battle of Antietam
• On September 17 1862, under the command of George
McClellan, the Army of Potomac mounted a series of
powerful assaults on Robert E. Lee’s forces near Sharpsburg,
Maryland.
• The morning of the assaults and Confederate attacks swept
back and forth on the Miller’s cornfield and West Woods.
• Towards the centre of the battlefield, the Unions assault
against the Sunken Road pierced the Confederate centre after
a terrible struggle.
• The third and final major assault later that day, by the Union
army pushed over a bullet-strewn stone bridge at Antietam
Creek.
• As the Federal forces began to collapse the Confederate right,
the arrival of A.P. Hill’s division of Harper’s boat helped to
bring the Army of Potomac once more.

20. Video Clip
• http://www.history.com/topics/battle-ofantietam/videos#gilder-lehrman-the-emancipationproclamation