The Civil War

This is an article about The Civil War.

Though the experiences of the first year were decidedly against the Federals, their cause was greatly strengthened in 1862. Gen. Thomas succeeded in expelling a large part of the Confederate soldiers from Kentucky, while Pope, Buell, and Grant cleared the upper Mississippi and the lower Cumberland and Tennessee, with battles at Shiloh and Corinth, while Farragut captured New Orleans. Gen. Pope and Commodore Foote captured Island No. 10, in the Mississippi, and Maj. Gilmore bombarded and took possession of Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, Ga.

In March of the same year the Confederate ironclad Virginia, formerly the Merrimac, was defeated in Hampton Roads by the newly constructed Monitor.

Richmond, the Confederate capital, was an objective point in 1862, and Gen. McClellan undertook its capture with the Army of the Potomac. This army was carefully organized and disciplined and took a position on the peninsula formed by the York and James rivers, and in May gained a success at Williamsburgh, Va.

It advanced to the Chickahominy and in June won the Battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, but the Federals were compelled to abandon the project after a hard-fought campaign of about four months, which included the Seven Days' Battles, known separately as those of Oak Grove, Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill, Savage's Station, Frazier's Farm, and Malvern Hill. McClellan was superseded by Halleck in July and the contest was shifted to northern Virginia, where occurred the second Battle of Bull Run between the Federals under Pope and the Confederates under Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson, in which the Federals were defeated and, driven back upon Washington.

Lee now concluded to strike a master blow by crossing the Potomac into Maryland, but he was met at South Mountain by McClellan, who defeated him in the severe Battle of Antietam and compelled him to fall back into Virginia. In September Stonewall Jackson recaptured Harper's Ferry, where the Confederates took about 12,000 prisoners and valuable stores.