The first major battle of the Civil War was fought around the town of Manassas, Virginia, some 25 miles west and just south of Washington, D.C. Known as the First Battle of Bull Run (for a stream in the area), the battle occurred in July of 1861 and resulted in a moderate Confederate victory.

Yes, as General Philip Henry Sheridan defeated the Confederate army here. This helped Lincoln get reelected in 1864.

I would like to improve the answer as follows:

Gen. Sheridan won the decisive, pivotal battle of Cedar Creek which led to the definitive control of Shenandoah Valley by the Union.

Indeed in the Valley no battle called "the Battle of Shenandoah" was fought during the Civil War. Several campaigns were instead carried out there and each one was marked out with a number of battles, some of which of high strategic importance.

Ft. Sumter was fired upon on April 12, 1861, for 40 hours straight.

On June 17th and 18th of 1864, near Lynchburg, Virginia, the forces of Confederate General Jubal Early stopped Union General David Hunter in his attempt to capture the aforementioned city. Early was able to keep Hunter off balance and used a ploy of receiving reinforcements to cause Hunter into a retreat.

The first Battle of Manassas or First Bull Run was the first large scale major action of the US Civil War. The first land battle however was the Battle of Philippi in what was then still Virginia. It was fought June 23, 1861. A naval bombardment of Confederate land artillery batteries by US Navy gunboats took place at Sewells Point, Virginia, May 18-19, 1861 making it the first battle of the war after Sumter.

It had to invade the self-styled Confederate nation, which could claim that it didn't want a war.

This would mean selecting Generals who had the urge to destroy enemy forces, and this took Lincoln some time.

The other big imperative was to maintain the naval blockade, to prevent the South from exporting their cotton in exchange fo was-supplies.

Yes, in Georgia.

He was more-or-less fantasising that he and his cabinet could continue the struggle from somewhere West of the Mississippi.

Hs two-year prison sentence earned him some sympathy, and he was allowed a dignified retirement.

The newly-formed Confederate States of America's first general officer, Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard, led the forces (estimated to be 500) who relentlessly bombarded the significantly outgunned union forces (85 men) under U.S. Major Robert Anderson, beginning the siege at 4:30 a.m on April 12, 1861, and ending 34 hours later. President Abraham Lincoln immediately called for 75,000 volunteers to step up and suppress the rebellion, which prompted four southern slave states to join the Confederacy.

The Confederates won

The Confederates under the command of General PT Beauregard bombarded the fort for about 14 hours then Major Anderson surrendered the fort. The only casualty was a Union horse!!!

Fort Sumter was an act of Southern rebellion that in a short period of time would become the US Civil War.

As the fort was surrounded by Southern cannon fire, it was forced to surrender. This was a wise move as it prevented loss of life.

No. Most historians agree that the Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg and Antietam Creek, Maryland, was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties on both sides.

But it depends to some extent on how you define "battle." Cold Harbor was an engagement that lasted 13 days. The National Park Service considers that there were as many as 13,000 Union casualties (killed, wounded and missing) as against 2,500 Confederate. By this count, Cold Harbor doesn't even make the top 10 battles of the Civil War in terms of casualties, but it almost cost Grant his command and Lincoln reelection because of the lopsided casualty figures. What saved Lincoln was Sherman's taking of Atlanta in September.

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted three days, July 1-3, 1863, and cost more than 51,000 casualties on both sides, making it the bloodiest battle of the entire war, but it wasn't a single day battle.

It allowed the Union and enabled them to control the river systems and to blockade the entire southern coastline.

The Union forces went in a full frontal assault against a well prepared Confederate army that was fortified and not exposed. The result was a disaster for the Union army. There is a link below for more information. The Army of Northern Virginia also suffered losses, but US Grant's brutal assaults were highly criticized in Northern newspapers. Grant had the Army of the Potomac led by General George Meade as the general in charge, but Meade took the lead and the orders from the General in Chief Grant.

Problems for the Confederates involved their attempt to keep casualties to a minimum as unlike the North, lost troops were not easily replaced.

The North had control untill Major Anderson surredered the fort to the south.

A typical Civil War soldier was issued a kit containing a blanket, a cup and bowl, a uniform, and a few other essentials. Most soldiers brought other items from home including musical instruments, gloves, socks, etc. Most soldiers were issued rifled muskets and power and shot for 60 rounds. One thing most soldiers did not have was training. Basic training often consisted of telling the men what orders meant and instructing them how to march. They generally didn't receive much (if any) practice firing and reloading the musket or any instruction in how to build a foxhole or deal with the situations of battle.

Confederate soldiers received less and less of the standard kit as the war went on.

the us civil war

IMPROVEMENT.

Because the rivers represented for the Union excellent way of penetrations into the South territory and for the Confederacy their control had to be defended at all costs in order to avoid strategic irrecoverable disadvantages in case their control would be lost.

A bright example is that given by the course of Mississippi River, whose conquest by Union split the Confederacy into two parts.

They wanted to capture Richmond, and cut off the South's supplies.

It's all speculation, but one possible scenario: Lee swings east, sending Hill's Corps toward Washington, followed by Ewell's Corps, leaving Longstreet's Corps to collect prisoners and then to act as rear guard against any action by the Army of the Potomac. Hill's Corps and Ewell's Corps take Washington, capturing many government officials, including Lincoln. The US sues for peace, and a separate country is recognized. This could easily have happened - if Meade had been decisively defeated. The Battle of Gettysburg was that important.

The Seven Days Battles were fought as a part of Major General George McClellan's Peninsula Campaign and were fought between June 25 and July 1, 1862. These battles were Robert E. Lees first as the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Superior generalship by Ulysses Grant, operating under difficult conditions - political as well as military.

Timely assistance by an unknown Union cavalry leader of no experience (a music-teacher who was frightened of horses) who mounted an astonishingly successful raid across Mississippi, totally disorienting the garrison commander as to what was going on.

Serious feuding between the Confederate President (an ex-regular officer who thought he should have been General-in-Chief) and the local area commander Joe Johnston. They issued conflicting orders, so once again the unlucky garrison commander was thrown into confusion.

After an artillery duel, the Union Army's Red River Expeditionary Force under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks drove off the Confederate forces of Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor, who had earlier defeated Banks at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill (April 1864). The Battle of Mansura was one of the few successes by the retreating Union in the ill-fated Red River Campaign.

the union forces defeated the confederate forces

Once they realized that the weak Union attacks led against their centre and right wing were only demonstrative actions, they managed to reinforce their left wing, which were next to collapse, by displacing more and more troops from the other sectors.

As the Federal force attacking that wing, could not receive reinforcements their

onslaught was at first checked, then they were compelled to fall back and eventually a general Confederate counterattack routed them, making the Rebels win the battle.

Yes there was a war but didn't take place in US soil it was called the Spanish American War

In World War II the Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States armed forces. Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was an Air Force general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen. He was the second African American General in the US Air Force.

The first battle of the war was the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. The city is also the place where the state adopted its ordinance of secession on December 20, 1860 making it the first state to leave the Union.

April 9th, 1865