New Orleans (the biggest city in the Confederacy) fell without a fight in April, 1862. The next goal of the Union army in Louisiana was to participate in the campaign to control the Mississippi River. As Grant advanced on Vicksburg, Gen. Nathaniel Banks decided to campaign through the Bayou Read more…
The Civil War is sometimes called the “brothers’ war” because some families were split in allegiance. Some family members joined the Union Army and others the Confederate Army. During the Seven Days Battle fought outside Richmond in 1862. The last battle was the Battle of Malvern Hill. Gen. McClellan’s Read more…
Clement Vallandigham was a Presbyterian minister turned lawyer. As the Civil War approached, he became an ardent anti-abolitionist. He supported states’ rights, even though he lived in the Ohio. When the war broke out, he was against it and criticized Pres. Lincoln’s continuing the war. He was the most Read more…
Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865, but fighting continued after that. The last battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas. The Union and the Confederacy had small forces on the southern tip of Texas along the Rio Grande River. A gentleman’s Read more…
In 1864, Gen. Grant’s campaign to capture Richmond and destroy Lee’s Army of North Virginia ran into a brick wall at Petersburg. Both sides dug in and if you think trench warfare began in WWI, think again. There was even a no man’s land between the front lines. In Read more…
The St. Albans Raid was the most Northern action of the Civil War. Lt. Bennett Young of the Confederate army had escaped from a Union prison camp and made it to Canada. He came up with the idea of robbing some Northern banks to get back at his captors. Read more…
The Battle of Cherbourg was the second most famous naval battle of the Civil War. Second only to the Monitor versus the Merrimack. It marked the end of the most feared commerce raider, the CSS Alabama. The Alabama had been built in British shipyard and was sold to the Read more…