Battle of Gettysburg

At the start of the war there was 1,016 miles of railroad and it began to drop as the war wore on since both sides began to destroy the tracks. In 1862 there were 720 miles, 1863 574 miles, 1864 947 miles, 1865 819 miles of track. Only in 1866 did the miles of track at 1404 become larger than before the war. By 1879 there was 5,006 miles of track.

Why do you watch TV, or go onto the internet? It's the same principle, many people saw the battles and skirmishes as entertainment. An example of this is at the First Battle of Bull Run, or the First Battle of Manassas, as some call it, Union officials came down from Washington DC to watch the battle. They were so sure the Union would win (which they didn't), that they thought it would be a nice time to picnic on the hills and sip expensive French champagne. When the Union lost the battle, however, the spectators panicked and retreated with the troops, while being fired at. This chaos caused even more casualties to be taken. But when it comes right down to it, it was brutal entertainment, like many shows today, such as The Walking Dead, or Breaking Bad (both of which are great shows, go watch them).

Burnside was an 'unlucky' General - partly through his own lack of initiative, partly through genuine misfortune.

He was a decent and popular man, highly modest about his talents, who never expected to be promoted to army commander. At his first big test, Fredericksburg, he was fooled by the Confederate General Magruder into thinking that he was outnumbered, and this put back his schedule, causing him to miss a major opportunity. This was followed by his terrible 'mud march' - again pure bad luck with the weather. Later, at Petersburg, he had viciously bad luck when his carefully planned attack on the Crater (blown up by Pennsylvania miners) was aborted by Grant, and he had to send in an unrehearsed brigade, who were cut to bits.

After Fredericksburg, he was replaced by Joe Hooker, who had more of the impatient fighting spirit that Lincoln was seeking. He proved that he had this, and more. Hooker was an energetic and efficient organiser, who looked as though he would be the one to defeat Lee.

But the Lee-Jackson combination proved too much for him. Lee managed to wrong-foot him, and he was, for the first time, rattled and irresolute. Before Gettysburg, he would be replaced by Gordon Meade.

first battle of bull run

this was fought at bull run creek, Virginia.

The Union commander, General George B. McClellan actually defeated himself by believing his inflated estimates of the number of troops Confederate General Lee had at his disposal. The Army of Northern Virginia could field about 90,000 soldiers of all arms compared to the North's 138,000, but Lee had swung to offensive operations and this compounded McClellan's fear that his army of the Potomac would be destroyed unless he retreated and gave up his plan of capturing Richmond. It was not a case of superior Southern leadership so much as the Federal commanders belief that he was facing insurmountable odds that doomed the Peninsular Campaign of which the Seven Days battles were a part.

Source: To The Gates of Richmond, Sears, Stephen W. 1992.

A few days before the Battle of Gettysburg, George Meade is appointed as the new general. The Battle of Gettysburg started July 1-3, 1863.

Yes--Gettysburg, for one.

The confederate forces

Effectively the Siege of Vicksburg, which surrendered on July 4th 1863.

This liberated the Mississippi and enabled Grant and Sherman to evacuate the Western region.

It did not quite end hostilities, as there were still forces in Louisiana (Red River campaign), but these were insignificant, and when Grant became General-in-Chief, he sent no fresh troops to the West.

Battle of Cold Harbor Grant's massive frontal assault against Lee's entrenched line at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864, resulted in approximately 7,000 Union casualties and 1,500 Confederate casualties within eight minutes--the bloodiest eight minutes of the Civil War.

true

Fredericksburg

After the war, woman found it difficult to continue working. Many women who continued to work after the war received wage cuts and demotions. The war allowed women to make decisions, and it gave them a chance to fight for their rights. And there is no doubt that the consequences of the war (the discrimination, job cuts, and wage inequalities) led to the development of many of the civil rights movements of the 1950's.

I would say Sherman's "march" to the sea-through the heart of Georgia. After the war he admitted that his military conduct in Georgia surely qualified as war crimes.(read "When in the Course of Human Events" by Charles Adams.

it worth about 7 grand in the next 5 years it will be worth 10 grand save it for later

When General Grant took command, the Union Army was still exchanging prisoners of war. This allowed each side to return their men to their country to fight again. Grant knew that the Union had more men and could produce more weapons than the Confederate. So he ended the prisoner exchange. This of course resulted in more men held in prisoner of war camps and creating problems for both sides, resulting in many deaths in these camps---both in the North and in the South. Grant also pressed his troops to stay on the attack. In some battles, his casualties were very high but he still knew that the Confederates could not replace their losses as easily as the Union could. Grant used General Sherman to force the war onto the civilian population and the industrial centers of the Confederacy. This was a new concept to most commanders. War was a duel between armies on the field of battle. The destruction of the industrial sites prevented an enemy from arming his troops and conducting war.

Lee courted one woman, Marie Custis, for years before her father allowed him to marry her.

The town was renamed "Hell-in Arkansas."

(Source Wikipedia.) -Dragonheart91

Yes, a Yankee soldier and a union soldier fought on the same side in the American Civil War (1861-65). The term "Yankee" was used by southerners to denote someone from the north, or the union. In this case, "Union" and "Yankee" mean the same thing. Nobody knows why the South ever came up with that term, though.

Gettysburg. General Heth had heard there was a warehouse full of shoes there, and moved to procur them for his men, when they encountered Union troops. It is a myth that the battle of Gettysburg started over shoes. The fact is Heth was told there were shoes there, and although they were never located, mainly because Jubal Early's troops had been through the town a few days before, and would have certainly taken everything of worth. Sources;Bruce Catton's Civil War, James Longstreet's From Manassas to Appomattox, Civil War Battlefields by Frank Vandiver.

when you step in a poodle!

The setting was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on Thursday, November 19, 1863. Lincoln was speaking at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. This was less than 5 months since the Union beat the Confederacy in the Battle of Gettysburg, so it was a very symbolic setting.

Robert E. Lee