...were a result of the Battle of Antietam which took place during the Civil War. Some of the major factors that played part in such a high casualty rate in this battle were the artillery pieces used, the terrain and location of the battle, and the two experienced generals on both sides, George B McClellan as the Union commander, and Robert E. Lee as the Confederate commander. The Battle of Antietam featured four different artillery cannons, those cannons were the 1857 model Napoleon, the 3inch ordnance rifle, the 1841 model gun, and lastly the 10 pound parrot rifle. The 1857 model Napoleon cannon fired 12 pound projectiles, and had a ranger of up to 1600 yards. The...
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...Stonewall Jackson was born Thomas Jonathan Jackson on January 21, 1824 around midnight in the town of Clarksburg, West Virginia. In 1842, after attending local schools, Jackson enrolled in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1846, he graduated from West Point. Within a couple years, Jackson was chosen to fight in the Mexican-American War. In Mexico he joined the 1st U.S. Artillery as a 2nd lieutenant. Jackson quickly proved his bravery and resilience on the field, serving with importance under General Winfield Scott. Jackson spent 10 years as a professor of artillery tactics and natural philosophy at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. A skilled military tactician, he then served as a Confederate general under Robert E. Lee in the American Civil War, leading troops at Manassas, Antietam and Fredericksburg. Stonewall Jackson later was chosen to lead the Confederacy after Robert E. Lee during the U.S. Civil War. His importance marked him not only as a general, but a great man as well. Stonewall Jackson succeeded greatly; as an American, and as a role model and leader to the Confederacy. One reason Jackson is a very important person is because he had been promoted to the rank of brevet major and was considered a war hero during the brutal Civil War. Jackson later organized extremely successful military...
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...Battle of Fredericksburg 1. Battle of Fredericksburg a. Who i. The Battle of Fredericksburg took place during a time were a new nation, America, was trying to find its identity after succeeding from Britain. Because of different viewpoints of the citizens in this new country, states started to succeed to sustain their way of living. The southern states in this new nations earned its living from agriculture, which heavily relied on slaves to tend the fields. The northern states were industrial for the most part during this time period and earned its keep by trade. President Lincoln had a different point of view of how the new nation should operate. He believed the nation would only be as strong as its weakest link, and wanted to stop the states from succeeding. This essentially caused the civil war, which was fought between the Union and the Confederacy. b. When ii. There were a number of battles that occurred on the eastern side of the United States that led to the Battle of Fredericksburg such as: the Battle of Hampton Roads, the Battle of Winchester, The Seven Days Battle, the Second Battle of the Bull Run and etc. All of these prior conflicts led to the Battle of Fredericksburg that began on December 11, 1862 and ended December 15, 1862. c. Where iii. The Battle of Fredericksburg started in the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. This battle is considered the first urban assaults led by the Union army of this era; the...
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...during the four gruesome years of the Civil War. In the Battle of Antietam, Gen. Lee’s direct involvement made the difference for the Confederate army. With a force nearly half the size of his opponents, Gen. Lee showed that knowing your opponent, the terrain, and your capabilities can make the difference in any battle. (Gallagher 2010) Although unable to attend Harvard as his brother did, Gen. Lee was able to get an advanced education at the United States Military Academy. He graduated second in his class and was a...
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...Gen. John Pope in the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862, Lee led his own Army across the Potomac River into Maryland. Gen. Lee applied his tactical knowledge to his reasons for pushing north into Union territory to include; taking pressure off the Shenandoah Valley at harvest time to allow for more food for the Confederate Army, encouraging European support for the Confederacy by winning a battle on Northern soil, and demoralizing Northerners to reduce their support for the war while encouraging the slave-holding state of Maryland to secede and join the Confederacy. (Hartwig, 2011) Believing the Union forces need time to refit and reorganize due to recent defeats in battle, Gen. Lee split his forces to capture various objectives and towns along the Potomac, sending the largest portion of his army, 42,000 men, to Sharpsburg. (Gallagher...
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...both sides, military and civilian. The War is so well documented, studied and recreated that it is surprising that there is still debate to this day over the causes and reasons for this bloody conflict (“American Civil War”). One of the most popular ways of remembering this critical event is through Reenactments. While many wars from throughout history are reenacted, the American Civil War is by far the most re-enacted war in the US and possibly the world today. This war has been reenacted since before the war ended, but did not become very popular until the second half of the 20th century, with the success of a few large scale commemorative events on important anniversaries starting in the 1960s, such as the reenactment of the First Battle of Manassas/Bull Run on its 125th anniversary in 1986(“American Civil War Reenactment”). These reenactment events are usually open to the public and generally involve fairly large numbers of reenactors organized into reenactor units which spend time in authentically recreated camps if they are not engaged in combat. Most people reenact as a part time hobby for a variety of reasons, such as historical interest or having had ancestors who served in the war. There are different kind of reenactors, with some being extremely authentic, while others are not very authentic and don’t pay a whole lot of attention to historical accuracy. But most are “mainstream” meaning that they are in the middle between not accurate and extremely accurate. ...
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...British were on the verge of recognizing the Confederacy if they could show it could hold its own, and Lee was anxious to provide a cornerstone for the Confederacy to build upon. The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day in American history and was a major blow to the Army of Northern Virginia and the morale of the south. This is the tableau against which our story unfolds. Stephen W. (Ward) Sears was born July 27th, 1932 in Ohio. He is a pre-eminent American historian specializing in all facets of the Civil War. He graduated from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio and was an attendee of a journalism seminar at Radcliffe-Harvard. As a novelist, he has concentrated on the military history of the Civil War, primarily focusing his works on the battles involving and leaders of the Army of the Potomac. He was formerly employed as an editor for the Educational Department at the American Heritage Publishing Company. Sears currently resides in Norwalk, Connecticut. Some of the other books he has written on the Civil War are Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign, and George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon. However, it is his novel, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam, that we are concerned with here. It is a fantastic book detailing the battle of Antietam or, as it is sometimes known, Sharpsburg. The diplomatic undercurrent of pending support for the Confederate cause from cotton-dependent nations such as Great Britain and France isn’t...
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...The Civil War had the largest death toll for any American war, nearly 620,000. The causes of the Civil War was caused by what is to be believed four main things, know as the four S's. The Civil War needed every solider to end it but some were truly amazing like the two presidents and the two generals of the warring sides. The Confederate and Union army had many battles throughout the war and the tide of war changed with each battle but some greatly changed the outcomes. The war's end came slower than it was thought to come and many great things came out of it like the end to slavery and the reconstruction of America. The Civil War commenced in order with the causes, the people who were a big impact, battles, and the results. There were many...
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...Barton working as a temporary copyist for the U.S. Patent Office, which was then located in Washington D.C. Upon hearing of the Baltimore Riot of April 19 in which Southern sympathizers attacked Union soldiers en route to the capital, Barton rushed to care for the wounded troops, carrying food, medicine, and other vital supplies. She would soon resign from her position as temporary copyist, devoting herself to supporting the war effort in any way possible (Oates 3). Regarded as one of the most honored women in American history, she was involved in many major battles, risking her life countless times to aid wounded soldiers. Barton showed an unusual initiative at the outbreak of the war in the First Battle of Bull Run, bringing it upon herself to collect supplies and to distribute them to the wounded (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). Touched by the sight of the many neglected wounds of soldiers in the First Battle of Bull Run, she desire to do...
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...The Civil War of 1861-1865 The Civil War of 1861-1865 One of the biggest reasons for the start of the Civil War (1861-1865) was centered around the issue of slavery. Southern states (known as the slave states) was dependent on agriculture, this created a huge demand for slaves to do the hard labor. Northern states on the other hand, were liberal and favored the idea of abolition of slavery. The politicians in the Northern states lobbied for abolition of slavery, which the Southern states opposed and threatened to secede if the Federal administration took any such step, which they did and thus the start of the Civil War. The imminent beginnings of the Civil War began in 1619 because of the arrival of 20 Black Africans from a Dutch frigate as indentured servants. Shortly after this, the Black Africans were experiencing the life as slaves and both the Southerners and Northerners were selling and trading them for profits. As the North started to pass laws to abolish slavery, in the South slavery was still part of the economy, part of the way of life, and remained legally sanctioned. In 1850, the South, with its slave labor, were exporting over a million tons of cotton a year and during this time in the in the North, the abolitionist movement was gaining momentum. Congress was having an intense argument in 1854 over the two states, Kansa and Nebraska that were added, whether they should be admitted to the Union as Free states or slave states. Congress decided that the states should...
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...Following the Union catastrophe that was the Battle of Fredericksburg, commanding General Ambrose E. Burnside tendered his resignation as the head of the Army of the Potomac. In his place, President Abraham Lincoln would appoint Union Major General Joseph Hooker (Brothers, 1). At this time MG Hooker was faced with fixing severe organizational problems and boosting moral in a demoralized Army of the Potomac that had suffered loses in previous battles. “The reason for the Army of the Potomac’s lackluster performance extended beyond the unimaginative tactics and strategy of its previous commanding generals it was based on severe organizational problems required correction as well”(Sears,61). As MG Hooker assessed, the organizational problems...
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...very hard thing to do. No other profession requires it. That is one reason why there are so very few good officers. Although there are many good men” (Shaara 191-192). July 1, 1863, 87 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the bloodiest and most important engagement of the Civil war, the Battle of Gettysburg, had transpired. Three days of continuous conflicts brought out the best and the worst of every individual on the battlefields. James Longstreet, also known as “Old Pete” (Civil War 1), was one of the most controversial of these individuals. As a result of many disputes with...
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...CIVIL WAR JOURNALS “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, And is not either to save or destroy slavery” -Abraham Lincoln (1862) THE BACKGROUND CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR (C.W. JOURNAL #1). The Civil War wasn’t only about the fight of freedom for the black people, but also the economics, and the states against the federal rights, lead them to the call of battle. To me, they were important factors that people had their own desire of having the life they wanted. The Economic and social differences between the North and the South became more notable each day. The North needed the South, and the South needed the North. The southern economy was depending on cotton in which they needed the salves to work on. The North had the industries that purchased the raw cotton and turned them into finished goods. This created a major difference in economic attitude, and the North meant the change of society, evolved with different cultures and classes. Other fact that lead them to war was the disagreement the states had against the government. The government felt that the states should still have the right to decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts. This resulted in the idea of nullification. When nullification would not work, the states felt that they were no longer respected and moved towards secession. ELECTION OF 1860 (C.W. JOURNAL #2). The Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern due the slavery issues. In the Northern democratic...
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...The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion. Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a large volunteer army, then four more Southern states declared their secession. In the war's first year, the Union assumed control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides massed armies and resources. In 1862, battles such as Shiloh and Antietam caused massive casualties unprecedented in U.S. military history. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, which complicated the Confederacy's manpower shortages. In the East, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won a series of victories over Union armies, but Lee's reverse at Gettysburg in early July, 1863 proved the turning point. The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by Ulysses S. Grant completed Union control of the Mississippi River. Grant fought bloody battles of attrition with Lee in 1864, forcing Lee to defend the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Union general William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and began his famous March to the Sea, devastating a...
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...Medicine during the Civil War "When the war began, the United States Army medical staff consisted of only the surgeon general, thirty surgeons, and eighty-three assistant surgeons. Of these, twenty-four resigned to "go South," and three other assistant surgeons were promptly dropped for "disloyalty." Thus the medical corps began its war service with only eighty seven men. When the war ended in 1865, more than eleven thousand doctors had served or were serving, many of these as acting assistant surgeons, uncommissioned and working under contract, often on a part-time basis. They could wear uniforms if they wished and were usually restricted to general hospitals away from the fighting front. The Confederate Army began by taking the several state militias into service, each regiment equipped with a surgeon and an assistant surgeon, appointed by the state governors. The Confederate Medical Department started with the appointment on May 4 of Daniel De Leon, one of three resigned United States surgeons, as acting surgeon general. After a few weeks he was replaced by another acting surgeon general, who on July 1,1861, was succeeded by Samuel Preston Moore. He took the rank of colonel and stayed on duty until the collapse of the Confederacy. Dr. Moore, originally a Charlestonian, had served twenty seven years in the United States Army. He has been described as brusque and autocratic, a martinet. He was also very hard working and determined, and he was progressive in his military-medical...
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