By: Sarah Macklin

 The Civil War was a war between the confederacy and the union. The factors that first sparked this war still remain in debate to this day. The battle was issued over slavery. The confederacy believed that slavery was needed, and that it was ok to treat the people with violence. However, the Union did not agree to this. They believed that African Americans should be treated equally with the whites. This is the main reason why these two decided to go to war.  Another main reason of the Civil war was the dispute over the rights of the individual states.

 In July of 1863, General Robert E. Lee's Army Of Northern Virginia of 75,000 men and the 97,000 man Union Army Of The Potomac under General George G. Meade met, by chance, when a Confederate brigade sent forward for supplies observed a forward column of Meade's cavalry. Of the more than 2,000 land engagements of the Civil War, Gettysburg ranks supreme. Although the Battle of Gettysburg did not end the war, nor did it attain any major war aim for the North or the South, it remains the great battle of the war.  Here at Gettysburg on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, more men actually fought and more men died than in any other battle before or since on North American soil.

 Fredericksburg, BATTLE. Robert E. Lee‘s evacuation of Maryland after the battle on Antietam Creek happened on Sept , Lee rested a few days on the Virginia side of the Potomac, and then marched up the Shenandoah Valley. McClellan did not pursue, but, after calling for reinforcement two times, he declared his intention to stand where he was, on the defensive, and "attack the enemy should he attempt to recross into Maryland." The government and the loyal people, not liking the delay, demanded an immediate advance.

 Word had been sent to Anderson that a bombardment of the fort was about to commence. Suddenly the dull booming of a mortar at Fort Johnson was heard, and a fiery shell went flying through the black night. The Bombardment of Fort Sumter had begun, and the Civil War was officially underway. Then the great guns on Morris Island opened upon Fort Sumter, and a furious attack began. At his own request, the venerable Virginian Edmund Ruffin fired the first shot at Sumter.  The combat lasted for four hours. Then the firing from the batteries became more concentrated. Some of the barbette guns were dismounted and otherwise disabled, and the barracks were set on fire.

 Rich Mountain, BATTLE. Early in 1861 the Confederates attempted to permanently occupy the country south of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway in Virginia. They were placed under the command of R. S. Garnett, a meritorious soldier, who was in the war with Mexico, and was brevetted for gallantry at Buena Vista. He made his headquarters at Beverly, in Randolph county, and prepared to prevent the National troops from pushing through the mountain gaps into the Shenandoah Valley.

 Monitor and Merrimac. At the moment when the Confederates evacuated Manassas a strange naval battle occurred in Hampton Roads. The Confederates had raised the sunken Merrimac in the Gosport navy yard and made it into an iron-clad ram, which they called the Virginia, commanded by Captain Buchanan, late of the United States navy. She had gone down to Hampton Roads and destroyed (March 8, 1862) the wooden sailing frigates Congress and Cumberland, at the mouth of the James River, and it was expected she would annihilate other ships there the next morning. Anxiously the army and navy officers of that vicinity passed the night of the 8th, for there appeared no competent human agency near to avert the threatened disaster.  Her aggregate weight of guns was 284,000 lbs., two of them 200-pounder Parrott guns. She had two horizontal steam-engines, and was furnished with sails. At her bow was a formidable wrought-iron ram or beak. She was accidentally set on fire and destroyed at her moorings at League Island, below Philadelphia, Dec. 15, 1866.

 Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing) After the capture of Fort Donelson in General Grant prepared to push towards Corinth, an important position at the intersection of the Charleston and Memphis, Mobile and Ohio railways. Possession of that point would give the National troops control of the great railway communications between the Mississippi and the East, and the border slave-labor States and the Gulf of Mexico. Passing up the Tennessee River, the main body of Grant's troops were encamped, at the beginning of April, between Pittsburgh Landing, on that stream, and Shiloh Meeting House, in the forest, 2 miles from the river bank.

 Fair Oaks, (or Seven Pines), May, 1862, Gen. Fitz-John Porter was sent by General MeClellan with a considerable force to keep the way open for McDowell's army to join him, which he persistently demanded, in order to venture on a battle for Richmond. Porter had some sharp skirmishes near Hanover Courthouse, and cut all railway connections with Richmond, excepting that from Fredericksburg.

 america _640_462.jpg  war_start.html   fredericksburg.jpg   Art/Troiani_- _Men_of_Arkansas.jpg&imgrefurl= _wg4W5RouT_s6L4A3wnykevRTU_U=&h=297&w=401&sz=32&hl=en&start=8&um=1&it bs=1&tbnid=4gYXpjInvLp6PM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DTHE%2BBA TTLE%2BAT%2BSHILOH%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1 

THIS SLIDE SHOW WAS CREATED BY: SARAH MACKLIN