Civil War

The Civil War was America's bloodiest and most divisive conflict, pitting the Union Army against the Confederate States of America. The war resulted in the deaths of more than 620,000 people, with millions more injured and the South left in ruins.

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Historians and experts look at the role of slavery in the Civil War and its effect on the U.S. from Reconstruction through the present day.

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Gettysburg battlefield at dusk.

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Featured Overview

Historians and experts look at the role of slavery in the Civil War and its effect on the U.S. from Reconstruction through the present day.

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Gettysburg Battlefield National Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Civil War was a conflict many years in the making.

7 Critical Civil War Battles

These battles were among the most pivotal in America's bloodiest conflict.

How Photos from the Bloody Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War’s Horrors

Images of the bloodiest battle in U.S. history shocked the public and revealed the war’s gruesome reality.

Gettysburg Address19th November 1863: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, making his famous 'Gettysburg Address' speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery during the American Civil War. Original Artwork: Painting by Fletcher C Ransom (Photo by Library Of Congress/Getty Images)

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address contains fewer than 275 words. How did such a short speech carry such a long-lasting impact?

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

Using a revolutionary new form of communication, President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which he believes will give the Union both a moral and strategic advantage, in this scene from "The March to War."

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Civil War

The incredible story of the Nations' first all-Black peacetime regiments who fought to expand America's presence in the West, protect the National Parks and defend the U.S. on foreign soil.

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Grant surrounds and sieges Vicksburg, leading to a crucial victory for the Union.

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A public school room in Washington, D.C. circa late 1800s.

The department, established in 1867, faced opposition from congressmen who associated it with education for the formerly enslaved.

Gettysburg Address19th November 1863: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, making his famous 'Gettysburg Address' speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery during the American Civil War. Original Artwork: Painting by Fletcher C Ransom (Photo by Library Of Congress/Getty Images)

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address contains fewer than 275 words. How did such a short speech carry such a long-lasting impact?

Civil War soldier

A Civil War soldier's load typically weighed 30 to 40 pounds. This is what he wore—and carried.

Lawmakers drafted Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as a means to block former Confederate officers who were elected to office.

Bleeding Kansas

Violent clashes in Kansas and beyond over whether or not to allow slavery in the new territory, deepened divisions ahead of the American Civil War.

Arlington National Cemetery during the Civil War.

When General Robert E. Lee left Arlington to lead Confederate forces, Union troops moved in and soon the general's estate hosted Civil War burials.

Richmond Bread Riot

Food shortages in the South during the Civil War prompted working class women to riot in 1863.

A military balloon deployed in the Civil War near Gaines Mill, Virginia (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Since the Civil War, forces have deployed aerial surveillance gadgets from balloons to robotic dragonflies.

St. Louis, Missouri: Exodus of African American families from Louisiana and Mississippi to St. Louis. Procession of refugees from the steamboat landing to the colored churches. Engraving, 1879.

Many of the migrants, known as the Exodusters, fled the South after Reconstruction, seeking land and opportunity in Kansas.

Gettysburg Battlefield National Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The Civil War was a conflict many years in the making.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shows off some photographs and illustrations from the civil war, in this bonus scene.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores the contributions of courageous African Americans during the Civil War, in this Special, "Black Patriots: Heroes of the Civil War."

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Thomas Morris Chester (1813-1903)

Thomas Morris Chester, whose mother had escaped slavery, covered the final year of the war for a white-owned newspaper.

How the Presidency Weighed on Abraham Lincoln: Photos

Photographs taken of Lincoln between 1859 and 1865 reveal how increasingly careworn he became.

The national game. Three "outs" and one "run"

The 16th president was even recognized by the National Wresting Hall of Fame.

History Of The American Civil WarA vintage illustration featuring a small encampment of Union troops before the Battle of Fort Stevens near Washington DC during the American Civil War on 12th July 1864, published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated History of the Civil War" in New York City, circa 1894. (Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto via Getty Images)

The U.S. capital was vulnerable at the start of the war, but soon was fortified with forts, trenches, gun batteries and even river obstructions.

How Photos from the Bloody Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War’s Horrors

The U.S. Civil War was the nation's deadliest conflict, but debate remains over the total estimate of fatalities.

The Third Infantry California Volunteers, Band poses for photo.

Though far from the main fighting, California made an outsized contribution to the Union victory, mostly in the form of gold and troops.

Injured soldiers at Armory Square Hospital during the U.S. Civil War.

Many soldiers who received opioids in hospitals continued to use opium and morphine after the war.

A nurse prepares to spoon-feed soldiers in this photograph taken by Jim Enos inside the Union hospital at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, circa 1861.

As America's brutal war inflicted high casualties and placed a strain on military medical care, women on both sides of the conflict answered the call.

How Photos from the Bloody Battle of Antietam Revealed the American Civil War’s Horrors

Images of the bloodiest battle in U.S. history shocked the public and revealed the war’s gruesome reality.

Mary Edwards Walker was the first woman to receive the Medal of Honor, but her fight for recognition extended well beyond the war.

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Voting by mail is nothing new, and its origins lie in part in Abraham Lincoln's vision during the Civil War.

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7 Critical Civil War Battles

These battles were among the most pivotal in America's bloodiest conflict.

How the Civil War Influenced Music in the United States

For soldiers on both sides, music was a vital source of inspiration and comfort.

How the US Civil War Divided Indian Nations

Most tribal leaders in Indian Territory aligned with the Confederacy, but a Home Guard unit arose to support the Union.

Seated portrait of John Wilkes Booth with his hand under his chin

By most accounts, the manhunt for Abraham Lincoln's assassin ended in a Virginia tobacco barn.

Inside John Wilkes Booth's Colorful Family Tree

Before Booth killed Lincoln, his brother saved the life of Lincoln's son. And his sister wrote a secret memoir about her infamous sibling.

In 1898, America's Only Coup d'Etat Violently Overthrew an Elected Biracial Government, Wilmington, North Carolina

The Wilmington, North Carolina massacre decimated Black political and economic power in the city for nearly 100 years.

The Opelousas Massacre terrorized African American voters and stopped local Black political progress in its tracks.

US soldiers and sailors in New York City cast their votes in the 1918 General Election

U.S. armed forces have long used the mail to cast their ballots from the front lines.

Lincoln was so taken with the new technology—which he called 'lightning messages'—that he sometimes slept on a cot in the telegraph office during major battles.

Why Isn't Washington, D.C. a State?

Here's why D.C. license plates say 'End Taxation Without Representation.'

Ulysses S. Grant, Military Leader of the Civil War

What he lacked in knowledge of military art and science, he made up for with tenacity and grit.

Ulysses S. Grant, Lieutenant, West Point

An uninspired student at the prestigious military academy, Grant met more than 50 future Civil War generals—both comrades and foes—while there.

Abraham Lincoln was disappointed by most of his generals—but not Ulysses S. Grant.

The Quiet Accomplishments of Ulysses S. Grant’s Presidency

The Civil War hero left the White House under a cloud, but he also made substantial contributions—like passing the 15th Amendment.

Lincoln and Johnson, 1864 election

Fearing Abraham Lincoln would lose reelection, some wondered if the country should delay the election.

The Medal of Honor is given to America's bravest heroes, and the first people to receive it certainly proved their courage.

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Before beer, barbecues, and parking lots, the earliest tailgate took place somewhere very different – a Civil War battlefield.

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19th-century congressmen went to work carrying pistols and bowie knives—and sometimes used them on colleagues.

Ulysses S. Grant

General Orders No. 11 gave Jewish people just 24 hours to leave their homes and lives behind.

Battle of Gettysburg

In a must-win clash, Union forces halted the northern invasion of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army.

As the Union Army faced down a public health crisis in Nashville, it had no choice but to accept the city’s sex workers.

These Civil War veterans orchestrated one of the most audacious acts of the Fenian Brotherhood in the Americas.

The men of Town Line voted to leave the United States at the start of the Civil War—but it wasn’t over slavery.

Hiram Revels taking the oath of office in Washington, D.C. as the Senator of Mississippi in 1870.

Over the next decade, 15 more Black men would take their seats in the House and Senate as Reconstruction allowed a radical, if brief, transformation of government.

John Wilkes Booth was aided by a network of conspirators who concealed his escape from pursuing Union soldiers.

A woman dressed in traditional hoop skirt walks past graves marked with Confederate flags in the American Cemetery during the annual Festa Confederada in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Brazil, 2016. The festival is put on by Brazilian descendants of U.S. confederates who fled to Brazil during Reconstruction following the end of the Civil War.

After the Civil War, more than 10,000 Southerners left the U.S. rather than submit to Yankee rule.

H.L. Hunley

All eight crew members were eerily in position at their stations when the sub was discovered on the ocean floor. Why hadn't they run?

Nancy Hill Morgan, Captain of the Nancy Hart Militia. (Credit: Troup County Archives, LaGrange, GA)

A band of 40, self-trained female confederate rebels were ready for battle—and in 1865, they got their chance.

Since the 2015 massacre at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church, 37 schools honoring Confederate icons have changed their names, while about 100 others haven’t.

At a time when many white politicians wanted to compromise on slavery, Abraham Lincoln said that wasn't possible.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C, 1865. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Four sitting U.S. presidents have been felled by gunfire. Each time, important reforms and a new political era followed.

Vintage postcard of the Jefferson Davis House in Richmond, Virginia.

The formerly enslaved Mary Bowser and abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew teamed up to spy on Confederate President Jefferson Davis—and got away with it.

General Robert E. Lee surrendering his Army of Northern Virginia to Union Army General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, Virginia, 1865. (Credit: Ed Vebell/Getty Images)

For one thing, things were a little confusing in Texas.

American Civil War re-enactors of the 1865 Battle of Appomattox Station

Jefferson Davis fled Richmond with multiple wagons filled with gold and silver. When he was captured, he had almost nothing. Where did the loot go?

Portrait Of President Lincoln Portrait of American President Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) (painted by George P. Healy, mid-late 1800s), Washington, DC, 1969. The portriat was one of three painted by Healy (sometimes spelled as Healey). (Photo by Katherine Young/Getty Images)

The election of 1860 was a pivotal presidential election that brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House amid debates on issues of slavery and states' rights.

The Civil War hero brought his scorched-earth policy to the Plains—and wiped out Native Americans’ food supply.

Enslaved workers of General Thomas F. Drayton, in Hilton Head, S.C., 1862

It’s not as if Congress didn’t try.

Thousands of Union POWs died on the steamboat Sultana.

Most Confederate monuments were built long after the Civil War ended. What were they built to honor? How many still exist?

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Democratic defectors, known as the “Dixiecrats,” started a switch to the Republican party in a movement that was later fueled by a so-called "Southern strategy."

How the US Got So Many Confederate Monuments

These commemorations tell a national story.

History is usually written by the victors, but not in this case.

On July 21, 1861, Washingtonians trekked to the countryside near Manassas, Virginia, to watch the first major battle of the American Civil War.

Learn more about the Missouri Compromise of 1820, a temporary solution to the brewing controversy over slavery in the United States.

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The answer may surprise you.

On the morning of April 24, New Orleans residents woke to news that the “Liberty Place” monument, an obelisk, had been removed from the cityscape. The obelisk, dedicated in 1891, honored a group of white supremacists who, 20 years earlier, had initiated a clash with black police and state militia in an effort to overthrow […]

Why the Purchase of Alaska Was Far From 'Folly'

Though mocked by some at the time, the 1867 purchase of Alaska came to be regarded as a masterful deal.

Destruction of CSS Virginia during the Civil War's Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862

On March 9, 1862, the ironclad warships USS Monitor and CSS Virginia squared off in the most influential naval battle of the Civil War.

Historian Matthew Pinsker explains the Homestead Act in the context of the Civil War, when it was passed.

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Historians and experts look at the role of slavery in the Civil War and its effect on the U.S. from Reconstruction through the present day.

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Historian Matthew Pinsker presents a quick rundown of the battles at South Carolina's Fort Sumter and the start of the U.S. Civil War.

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Historian Matthew Pinsker presents a quick rundown of women's involvement in the U.S. Civil War.

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Illustration showing a scene from the First Battle of Bull Run, between Union and Confederate forces, during the American Civil War, near Manassas, Virginia, July 21, 1861. Print by Kurz and Allison. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

Hopes for a quick end to the Civil War were shattered on July 21, 1861, when Union and Confederate forces clashed in northern Virginia at the First Battle of Bull Run.

From a former manservant to a little-known Civil War veteran, these five men rose from slavery to become part of the America’s first generation of Black legislators.

Silhouette of a man playing taps on his bugle. (Credit: gjohnstonphoto/istockphoto.com)

The bugle melody played at U.S. military memorials and as a lights-out cue for armed forces had its start in the Civil War.

Shenandoah destroying whale ships.

When the Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah finally surrendered 150 years ago today, the Civil War ended in a most unlikely place—Liverpool, England.

A map (by Alvin Jewett Johnson) shows Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uraguay, 1862.

In the years after the Civil War ended, thousands of defiant and disillusioned Confederates fled Reconstruction-era Dixie and headed even farther south to Latin America. Some settled in Mexico and Venezuela, but the lion’s share sailed for Brazil, a former Confederate ally and one of the few countries in the Americas where slavery was still […]

Stand Watie

Stand Watie, a contentious Cherokee leader who signed away his ancestral lands, fought for the South in the Civil War, terrorizing many of his own people.

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, c. 1855-1865

On the anniversary of the capture of Jefferson Davis by Union forces, explore 10 surprising facts about the Confederate president.

Using a revolutionary new form of communication, President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which he believes will give the Union both a moral and strategic advantage, in this scene from "The March to War."

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President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most moving and infamous speeches in U.S. History in this scene from "Bloodbath."

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During the infamous 285-mile "March to the Sea," General William Tecumseh Sherman burns buildings, twists train tracks, and tramples the Georgian countryside in this scene from "Bloodbath."

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Decades after his reported death, John Wilkes Booth had a second box-office career when his purported mummy became a carnival attraction.

President Lincoln was not the only high-ranking government official that John Wilkes Booth slated for assassination.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C, 1865. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

Explore 10 surprising facts about one of the most infamous moments in American history.

Diorama depiction of the Battle of Palmito Ranch. (Credit: Texas Military Forces Museum, Camp Mabry, Austin, Texas)

Robert E. Lee’s surrender did not officially end the Civil War. Find out where the fighting continued in the weeks after Appomattox.

Abraham Lincoln facts

As Washington celebrated the expected end to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln delivered what would be his last public address from a White House balcony.

"The Peacemakers," by artist George P.A. Healy, depicts the March 1865 meeting between William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln and David D. Porter.

In the waning days of the Civil War, the three main architects of the Union victory convened for the first and only time.

A political cartoon depicting a woman as the South being crushed under the wieght of the carpetbagger, who is protected by military support on President Grant's order.

Following the American Civil War, if someone called you a carpetbagger or scalawag, it wasn’t meant as a compliment. The term carpetbagger was used by opponents of Reconstruction—the period from 1865 to 1877 when the Southern states that seceded were reorganized as part of the Union—to describe Northerners who moved to the South after the […]

vintage map macro showing the state of Tennessee

Learn the unusual stories behind six Civil War-era Southern territories where Unionist sentiment was most widespread.

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, left, meeting General Joseph E. Johnston to discuss terms of surrender of Confederate forces in North Carolina.

Nine surprising facts about the powerful general who helped pioneer “scorched earth” military tactics.

UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1864: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's army laid siege to Atlanta after the battle; Confederate General Johnston was relieved and replaced by General Hood. General Macpherson was Grant's appointed subordinate commander who achieved victory. (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

During the Civil War, the fall of Atlanta proved to be a blow from which the Confederacy never recovered.

In 1864, Union Admiral David Farragut damned the torpedoes at Mobile Bay.

President Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Mathew Brady

At the Battle of Fort Stevens, Abraham Lincoln came within feet of being shot by a Confederate sniper.

Grant's Overland Campaign, The Battle of the Wilderness

The Civil War campaign saw Grant and Robert E. Lee duel for the first time.

Hundreds of Union troops, many of them African Americans, died at Fort Pillow 150 years ago. How it happened is still hotly debated.

The H.L. Hunley in conservsation lab in North Charleston, South Carolina.

When the Confederate submarine Hunley sank a Union, it didn’t change the course of the Civil War, yet it altered naval warfare forever.

General Samuel Cooper (1798 - 1876), nineteenth century.

Get the facts on six generals who switched sides in the run-up to the Civil War.

September 1863: The battle of Chickamauga in Georgia.

Explore surprising facts about one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War.

Women Spies of the Civil War

Find out more about Rose O'Neal Greenhow and three other female informants who played a significant role in America’s bloodiest conflict.

Painting depicting the Second Battle of Fort Wagner.

On the 150th anniversary of the bloody battle that inspired the movie “Glory,” take a look back at the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

Illustration depicting street fighting during the New York Draft Riots in 1863. New York City, New York, circa 1863.

The 1863 upheaval underscored growing class and race strife.

Civil War-era rations: This tin plate holds hard tack, bacon, fat back and an apple core. It rests on a wooden reproduction army equipment box.

Take a look back at the food that fed hungry troops, both the blue and the grey, during the American Civil War.

HISTORY: Siege of Vicksburg

Along with the defeat of Robert E. Lee’s army at Gettysburg a day earlier, the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 would turn the tide of the Civil War.

Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War, Battle of Antietam, 1862 Sharpsburg, Maryland

Antietam or Sharpsburg? Manassas or Bull Run? For many Americans, what you call a Civil War battle has nearly everything to do with where you or your Civil War-era ancestors grew up. Northern soldiers, far more likely to hail from cities or urbanized areas, are believed to have been impressed with the geography of the […]

Confederate General Lewis Armistead at George Edward Pickett's famous charge at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.

The bloody engagement halted Confederate momentum and forever changed America.

Battle of Chancellorsville. The Union defeat of General Hooker's Army at the hands of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was a decisive victory for the South, but resulted in the loss of General Stonewall Jackson, who was killed.

Check out seven facts you may not know about Robert E. Lee's daring victory.

Winan's Steam Battery, invented in 1861, was a steam gun which It is said will cast from 100 to 500 balls per minute.

Musket, bayonets and cannons weren’t the only deadly weapons to haunt the battlefields of the 1860s.

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Abraham Lincoln's Civil War-era speech is one for the ages.

Portrait of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda taken prior to the end of World War Two, one of two Japanese soldiers hiding out in the jungle following the end of the war, Philippines, circa 1944.

Meet six combatants who wouldn’t lay down their arms, long after their wars had come to an end.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C, 1865.

Lincoln was apparently quite interested in the meaning of dreams—and what they have to say about future events.

America’s bloodiest day changed the course of the Civil War—and the country itself—forever.

30th August 1862: Union troops charging during the second battle of Bull Run, which took place at Manassas, Virginia. Original Artwork: Print by Currier & Ives. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The Confederacy won a complete—albeit quickly overshadowed—victory at Bull Run 150 years ago.

Portrait of John Singleton Mosby, the 'Gray Ghost,' who was a Confederate cavalry battalion commander, 1864. (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Civil War guerilla leaders had tenuous ties to the Confederate and Union armies and often operated outside normal rules of warfare with their brutal attacks.

Original or facsimile? The original Gettysburg Address bears creases in it it from when Abraham Lincoln placed it in his pocket.

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As a fugitive on the run, John Wilkes Booth recorded his version of the Lincoln assassination in a diary, but some of his secrets are lost to history.

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A closer look at why John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

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1863 "Wallpaper Edition" of the Daily Citizen newspaper is created as resources is scarce during the Civil War.

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In the last days of the Civil War, the Confederate capital of Richmond falls after nine months under siege. General Lee and President Jefferson Davis flee the city as Union forces advance to reclaim Virginia.

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The assassination of President Lincoln was just one part of a larger plot to decapitate the federal government of the U.S. after the Civil War.

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Who really was the driving force behind the Lincoln assassination? This video looks at the events leading to Lincoln's assassination, particularly the role of trade between Union and Confederacy and the role of George Sanders.

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After the carnage at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln reaffirms his commitment to achieving freedom for all.

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Biographer Liz Pryor reveals Robert E. Lee's greatest regret about his military career.

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Two unlikely leaders, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman become the most essential Union commanders in the Civil War.

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The Civil War was a long and gruesome conflict that claimed more than 620,000 lives and had lasting effects on military and civilian survivors.

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Union General William T. Sherman was reviled throughout the South as a monster, but his real legacy contradicted his myth.

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Find out what event turned the tide of the Civil War.

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In April 1865 Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, bringing an end to the Civil War after four years of battle.

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The unexperienced Union Army faces 30,000 Confederate troops in the first land battle of the Civil War. A Decisive Confederate victory signals that a long conflict lay ahead.

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In the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, 3,000 Union soldiers prepare to face the onslaught of 60,000 advancing Confederate soldiers.

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The bloodiest single day in American history ends in a Union victory that bolsters President Lincoln's ability to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

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In march of 1865, Confederate forces made a valiant last stand against General Sherman's advancing troops, but were undone by the most unlikely of errors

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Find out how the actions of a former Maine professor helped the Union win at Gettysburg, the deadliest battle of the Civil War.

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If you had just one word to describe the Civil War, what would it be?

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Learn how blacks serving in WWII helped forward the Civil Rights Movement.

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For three days in July 1863, Union and Confederate forces clash at Gettysburg in one of the most pivotal battles of the Civil War.

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The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was one of the first official black units in the U.S. armed forces. Their courageous assault on Fort Wagner played a key role in bringing about an end to slavery.

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The passenger ship Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River killing over 1,800 civilians and solfiers returning from the battlefield after the Civil War. Though the war had officially ended, was this tragedy the work of Confederate agents?

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Despite gaining their freedom, African-Americans face struggles in the years after the Civil War.

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At Shiloh, Tennessee in April of 1862, a Confederate surprise attack backfires when the Union holds firm at the "Hornet's Nest."

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Although poorly planned and executed, John Brown's raid helped lead the nation into Civil War and made him one of the most controversial men of his day.

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One hundred and fifty years after it began, the Civil War is still an important component of our national character.

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Union forces assault Fort McCallister, the key to Savannah and the final obstacle along General Sherman's march to the sea.

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The general leads to Confederate forces in the Civil War, and in the process gains mythic status.

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Find out what divided the men of the Civil War, and how in many ways they were more alike than different.

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General Sherman cuts the rail lines around Atlanta and captures the key Southern city, bolstering public opinion in the North as Lincoln prepares for re-election.

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Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is regarded as one of the most powerful and poignant speeches in American history.

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Union leaders hatch a conspiracy to assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis in an attempt to bring and end to the Civil War.

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Painting of the Battle of Shiloh by Thure de Thulstrup. The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, was a major battle in the Western theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6-7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee.

It was one of the American Civil War's deadliest—and most consequential—clashes.

Members of the Sixth United States Cavalry charge Jeb Stuart's Confederate Cavalry during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War, May 1862. Illustration dates from 1893.

The enormous death toll of America’s bloodiest conflict may be even higher than we think, according to one historian’s recent analysis.

Explore 10 surprising Civil War facts, brought to you by the authors of "The Seven-Day Scholar: The Civil War."

circa 1865: Mary Eugenia Surratt (c 1820-1865). American alleged conspirator. She kept a boarding house in Washington DC, when John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators met to plan the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. She was found guilty on insufficient evidence for complicity in the assassination and hung on July 7, 1865 with others. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The widowed boardinghouse owner went to the gallows for her role in John Wilkes Booth's plot to kill the 16th president.

The Second Battle of Bull Run during the U.S. Civil War

The Civil War's Second Battle of Bull Run, waged in northern Virginia in 1862, brought a decisive victory for the Confederates over the far larger Union forces.

First Battle of Bull Run, U.S. Civil War

The First Battle of Bull Run was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle, fought in 1861 by poorly trained volunteers, ended in Confederate victory. The high casualty count from the battle made both sides realize it would be a long, costly war.

Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, between 1855 and 1865. [Soldier and politician: officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War; US Minister to Chile]. Artist Unknown. (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

Hugh Judson Kilpatrick’s Early Life and Military Career Born in New Jersey, Kilpatrick developed early dreams of success, envisioning himself following up on military heroics with a career in politics: first as governor of New Jersey and eventually as p...

UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1863: Union defeat of General Hooker's Army at the hands of Lees Army of Northern Virginia which although a decisive victory for the South resulted in the loss of General Stonewall Jackson who was killed. (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

Richard Ewell was a Confederate general who earned criticism following the Battle of Gettysburg and was captured by Union forces at the end of the Civil War.

Daniel Edgar Sickles is a former Union general and United States minister to Spain. (Photo by J.E. Purdy/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Daniel Sickles was a politician known for losing a leg in the Civil War and for being the first person to successfully use temporary insanity as legal defense.

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut

David Farragut was an accomplished U.S. naval officer who helped the Union achieve key victories at New Orleans, Vicksburg and Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (1823-1886)

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, (1823-1886) was the author of A Diary from Dixie, an insightful view of Southern life and leadership during the American Civil War. In 1840 she married James Chesnut, Jr., who later served as a U.S. senator from South Carolin...

The Confederate Army of the Valley divisions of Major General Joseph B. Kershaw and the cavalry of Major General Fitzhugh Lee on the march to engage the Union Army of the Shenandoah under Major General Philip H. Sheridan in September 1864 during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of the American Civil War.

During the Civil War, Virginia's Shenandoah Valley saw a series of military clashes as Union and Confederate forces attempted to gain control of the area.

Women Spies of the Civil War

Spying in the Civil War was prevalent despite the lack of formal military intelligence networks, with both sides relying on women to secure vital information.

The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

The Civil War left a lasting impact on American culture, from the anthems sung by soliders to the graphic images revealed by novel developments in photography.

13th December 1862: Union troops advancing during the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Original Artwork: Print by Currier & Ives. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

Henry Slocum was a Civil War Union general who participated in the Battle of Gettysburg and the March to the Sea, and later became a congressman from New York.

HISTORY: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia was a bloody but inconclusive Civil War skirmish that followed the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864.

Portrait of former U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward seated in profile, 1863.

William Seward (1801-1872) was a politician who served as governor of New York, as a U.S. senator and as secretary of state during the Civil War (1861-65).

Gettysburg Address19th November 1863: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, making his famous 'Gettysburg Address' speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery during the American Civil War. Original Artwork: Painting by Fletcher C Ransom (Photo by Library Of Congress/Getty Images)

President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in November 1863, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Lincoln's brief speech, calling upon Americans to unite in a "new birth of freedom," became known as one of the greatest in U.S. history.

1872 Harper's Weekly political cartoon of Carl Schurz depicted as a carpetbagger, which reflected Southern attitudes toward Northerners during Reconstruction.

Carpetbaggers and scalawags were the terms for northerners who took advantage of post-Civil War upheaval and southerners who supported Reconstruction policies.

Black leaders during the Reconstruction Era, such as Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, served in local, state and national offices, including the U.S. Congress.

The Minié ball, an expanding bullet invented by French army officer Claude-Etienne Minié, was used to devastating effect in the American Civil War.

Members of the Sixth United States Cavalry charge Jeb Stuart's Confederate Cavalry during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War, May 1862. Illustration dates from 1893.

While the American Civil War saw the use of new weapons like the repeating rifle, other technological innovations from the era also impacted the fighting.

18th July 1863: The storming of Fort Wagner during the American Civil War, and the death of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (atop the hill). He led the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African-American regiment in the US Army. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Infantry was a volunteer Union regiment organized in the American Civil War. Its members became known for their bravery and fierce fighting against Confederate forces. It was the second all-Black Union regiment to fight in the war, after the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Irish Brigade Charge.

The Irish Brigade consisted of the all-Irish voluntary infantries that bravely fought for the Union side in several major battles of the American Civil War.

Company E in Formation (Original Caption) 1865- Company E, Fourth Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln. Photograph by William Morris Smith.

After President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Black soldiers could officially fight for the U.S. Army during the Civil War.

Philip Henry Sheridan.

Philip Sheridan was a Civil War Union general who was prominently involved in the victorious Shenandoah Valley Campaign and the Battle of Five Forks.

HISTORY: Gatling Gun

The Gatling gun was the first hand-driven machine gun, and the first firearm to solve the problems of loading, reliability, and the firing of sustained bursts. It was invented by Richard J. Gatling during the American Civil War, and later used in the Spanish-American War. Years later, the technology behind the gun was re-introduced by the U.S. military, and new versions of the gun remain in use today.

Sherman's March to the Sea', (1878). Unionist Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's men sabotaging a railrway during a military campaign of the American Civil War. Sherman's forces followed a 'scorched earth' policy in November-December 1864, destroying military targets as well as industry and infrastructure, and disrupting the Confederates' transport networks. The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and helped bring about its eventual surrender. From "Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time", Volume 3, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1878]. Artist Albert Bobbett. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

Sherman's March to the Sea was a destructive Union offensive across Georgia in late 1864 that aimed to frighten locals into abandoning the Confederate cause.

Women Spies of the Civil War

The American Civil War challenged the ideology of Victorian domesticity and prompted women on both sides to get involved as nurses, fundraisers and soldiers.

P.G.T. Beauregard commanded the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, at the start of the Civil War. He took artillery training at West Point under Union Major John Anderson, the man whom he bombarded at the siege and surrender of Fort Sumter at the outbreak of hostilities. Three months later he won the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia.

P.G.T. Beauregard was a Civil War general who won at Fort Sumpter and the First Battle of Bull Run but also clashed with Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

HISTORY: Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady was a 19th-century American photographer who was celebrated for his portraits of politicians and his photographs of the American Civil War (1861-65). In addition to his own work, Brady employed a team of assistants who fanned out across the country to capture the war.

HISTORY: Battle of Fort Donelson

The Battle of Fort Donelson, fought in February 1862, raised the profile of General Ulysses S. Grant and ensured that Kentucky would remain in the Union.

John J. Crittenden

The Crittenden Compromise, proposed by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden in 1860, aimed to stave off secession by making slavery permanent in the South.

The Battle of Cold Harbor was the final battle of Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign. (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

The Battles of Cold Harbor were separate Civil War skirmishes that took place in 1862 and 1864 near Richmond, Virginia, both resulting in Confederate victories.

General William Tecumseh Sherman.

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) was a Union general during the Civil War. He played a crucial role in the victory over the Confederate States and became one of the most famous military leaders in U.S. history.

Map illustrating the various states in secession during the U.S. Civil War, mid 19th century. Published in Shinn's History of the American People, 1899.

Secession, as it applies to the outbreak of the American Civil War, comprises the series of events that began on December 20, 1860, and extended through June 8 of the next year when eleven states in the lower and upper South severed their ties with the Union.

Harriet Beecher Stowe The American author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96). She became famous for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and her most popular books deal with New England life. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a 19th century teacher, abolitionist and writer, best known for exposing the horrors of slavery in her seminal novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Official portrait of Civil War officer General Braxton Bragg of the Confederate States of America.

Braxton Bragg was a Civil War general who delivered the most significant Confederate victory of the Western theater at the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga.

HISTORY: Siege of Vicksburg

The Battle of Vicksburg, and the subsequent Siege of Vicksburg, were decisive victories for the Union over the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.

The Union Naval vessel 'San Jacinto' captures two Confederate commissioners traveling on the British mail steamer 'Trent' from Havana to Europe during the American Civil War.

The Trent Affair was a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Great Britain that followed the 1861 arrest of Confederate envoys aboard a British ship.

Stonewall Jackson was one of the South's top generals in the Civil War, until he was mortally wounded by friendly fire at the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville.

Battle of Stone River or the Battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862- January 2, 1863, American Civil War, engraving, United States of America, 19th century.

The Battle of Stones River, one of the deadliest clashes of the Civil War, delivered a morale boost and control of central Tennessee to the Union in early 1863.

HISTORY: The Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh, or the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, took place April 6-7, 1862. The Union victory was one of the bloodiest engagements of the Civil War.

HISTORY: Petersburg Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg

The Petersburg Campaign was a climactic series of battles late in the Civil War that led to the abandonment of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Members of the Sixth United States Cavalry charge Jeb Stuart's Confederate Cavalry during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War, May 1862. Illustration dates from 1893.

The Peninsula Campaign was an 1862 Union offensive, led by General George B. McClellan, that failed to take the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Destruction of CSS Virginia during the Civil War's Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862

The Battle of Hampton Roads, fought by the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia in March 1862, marked history's first naval battle between ironclad warships.

The Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5th 1864. This print shows the old type broadside ship, the improvised paddle gunboat, the ironclad ram Tennessee, which the Confederates built in face of so many difficulties and the primitive monitors which defeated her. . (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864 resulted in victory for Union Admiral David Farragut and the fall of the key Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico.

Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government.

Mary Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government.

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a Confederate general during the Civil War (1861-65). After the Civil War Forrest worked as a planter and railroad president, and served as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

The Battle of Nashville, fought in December 1864 during the American Civil War, ended in a rout of the once powerful Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Illustration showing a scene from the First Battle of Bull Run, between Union and Confederate forces, during the American Civil War, near Manassas, Virginia, July 21, 1861. Print by Kurz and Allison. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)

Jubal Early was a Confederate general who participated in many key battles of the Civil War and later helped shape the Lost Cause movement with his writings.

Joseph Hooker (1814-1879), American soldier who fought in Second Seminole War, Mexican War, and the Civil War. Replaced Burnside as head of the Army of the Potomac, replaced by Meade before the Battle of Gettysburg, succeeded at Atlanta siege. Original Artwork: Engraving by A H Ritchie.

Joseph Hooker was a Civil War Union general who reorganized the Army of the Potomac but resigned as its commander following the Battle of Chancellorsville.

U.S. Army officer in the Mexican-American War and Seminole War and senior general officer in the American Civil War, Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807 - 1891), circa 1865. From an original engraving by R. Whitechurch

Joseph E. Johnston was a Civil War general who enjoyed success at the First Battle of Bull Run before ceding command of the Confederate army to Robert E. Lee.

General John B. Hood, CSA, mid to late 19th century.

Confederate John B. Hood was wounded at the Battles of Gettysburg and Chickamauga and became the youngest person to independently lead an army in the Civil War.

Jefferson Davis , the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, circa 1865

Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, also served in the Mexican-American War and in the U.S. Congress.

A statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, at the center of Stuart Circle in Richmond, Virginia, photographed in 2017. Richmond's elementary school named after Stuart will soon be changed to Barack Obama Elementary School.

J.E.B. Stuart, a Civil War Confederate general known for his flamboyant style and bold tactics, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864.

HISTORY: Battle of Fort Henry

The Battle of Fort Henry drove Confederate troops from the Tennessee River fortification in 1862 and marked the first significant Union win of the Civil War.

Portrait of Lieutenant General James Longstreet, officer of the Confederate Army, 1863. (Credit: Brady National Photographic Art Gallery/Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

General James Longstreet was a trusted subordinate of Robert E. Lee, but was criticized for the loss at Gettysburg and his later support of Republican policies.

HISTORY: Homestead Act

The 1862 Homestead Act accelerated settlement of U.S. western territory by allowing any American, including freed slaves, to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land.

American Civil War 1861-1865: William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) left, Unionist (northern) general, meeting General Joseph E Johnston to discuss terms of surrender of Confederate (southern) forces in North Carolina. After Currier & Ives lithograph. (Photo by: Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Hampton Roads Conference was a meeting between U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate officals to negotiate an end to the Civil War in early 1865.

Civil War officer, General George Meade (1815-1872), who was placed in command of armies at the Potomac and at Gettysburgh.

George G. Meade was a Civil War Union general whose perceived caution, despite success at the Battle of Gettysburg, led to his subordinacy to Ulysses S. Grant.

George Pickett was a U.S. Army officer turned Civil War Confederate general who became known for his defeats at the Battles of Gettysburg and Five Forks.

circa 1860: American Union Army General George McClellan (1826 - 1885). Twice Commander of the Army of the Potomac, he also ran against President Lincoln as the Democratic candidate in 1864. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

George McClellan was a U.S. Army engineer, railroad president and politician who served as a major general during the Civil War. McClellan was well liked by his men, but his reticence to attack the Confederacy with the full force of his army put him at odds with President Abraham Lincoln.

The Battle of Fredericksburg. Coloured scene of The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in December 1862, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Scene shows the battle taken place on the beach, with lots of destruction and casualties. 1862. (Photo by: Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, involved nearly 200,000 combatants and is remembered as one of the most significant Confederate victories. The battle, which took place in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, involved the largest concentration of troops in any Civil War battle.

Confederate flag at Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is an island fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, and is most famous for being the site of the first battle of the Civil War.

HISTORY: Fort Pillow Massacre

The Fort Pillow Massacre in Tennessee on April 12, 1864, in which some 300 African-American soldiers were killed, was one of the most controversial events of the American Civil War. Though most of the Union garrison surrendered, and thus should have been taken as prisoners of war, the soldiers were gunned down by Confederate forces.

Edwin M. Stanton: Politician and lawyer, US Attorney General and Secretary of War.

Edwin M. Stanton is best known as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war. He also served as U.S. attorney general and was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Mathew Brady studio portrait of General Don Carlos Buell (1818-1898), a noted Federal officer of the American Civil War. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Don Carlos Buell was a Civil War Union general who helped train the Army of the Potomac and played a key role in the bloody Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.

4th October 1862: Union and Confederate soldiers fighting during the battle of Corinth in Mississippi. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The Battle of Corinth took place at a Mississippi railroad junction in 1862. Despite early gains, the Confederates suffered heavy losses and had to retreat.

Confederate UniformsIllustration shows Confederate uniforms of the American Civil War. The uniforms shown are (left to right) North Carolina militia, Regular infantry private, Washington artilleryman, Montgomery True Blue (an Alabama artillery unit), infantry field officer, General Robert E. Lee (1807 - 1870), Regular cavalry private, Louisiana Tiger Zouave, Louisiana Zouave, Regular artillery private. (Image by Kean Collection/Getty Images)

The Confederate States of America was a collection of 11 states that seceded from the United States in 1860 and disbanded with the end of the Civil War in 1865.

September 1863: The battle of Chickamauga in Georgia.

The Battle of Chickamauga was a successful counteroffensive launched by Confederate General Braxton Bragg in north Georgia during the American Civil War.

HISTORY: Battle of Chattanooga

The Battles for Chattanooga in late 1863 brought victory to Union forces and ended the Confederate siege at the railroad junction of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Kennesw Mountain, Civil War battles, Atlanta campaign

The Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War, fought from May to September 1864, saw Union forces under General William T. Sherman claim a crucial Confederate hub.

HISTORY: Battle of Appomattox Court House

The Appomattox Court House, located in Virginia, is where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865, bringing an end to the Civil War.

Prison stockade at Andersonville, Georgia, American Civil War, 1861-1865. During the summer of 1864, 32,899 Union (northern) prisoners were confined here. In the National Cemetery at Andersonville, 12,912 who did not survive are buried.

Andersonville was notorious Civil War-era Confederate military prison in Andersonville, Georgia. The prison, officially called Camp Sumter, was the South’s largest prison for captured Union soldiers and known for its unhealthy conditions and high death rate.

Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside (center) and staff officers, circa 1863: Warrenton, Virginia.

Ambrose Burnside was a Union general in the Civil War before serving as president of the National Rifle Association, Rhode Island governor and a U.S. Senator.

Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia who became Vice President of the Confederacy, circa 1965.

Alexander H. Stephens served as vice president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War (1861-65). A career politician, he served in both houses of the Georgia legislature before winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843.

Portrait of American military officer and political leader Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886). Photograph by Matthew Brady.

Winfield Scott Hancock was a celebrated Civil War general who served with distinction at the Battle of Williamsburg and keyed the Union victory at Gettysburg.

UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1861: The Battle of Wilson's Creek, also known as the Battle of Oak Hills, was fought on August 10, 1861, near Springfield, Missouri, between Union forces and the Missouri State Guard, early in the American Civil War. It was the first major battle of the war west of the Mississippi River and is sometimes called the "Bull Run of the West." (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)

The Battle of Wilson’s Creek, won by the Confederates in August 1861, was the first major battle west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War.

Grant's Overland Campaign, The Battle of the Wilderness

The Battle of the Wilderness in 1864 brought heavy losses to the Union army but failed to halt their advance to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

circa 1870: Portrait of American politician Wade Hampton (1818 - 1902). In Civil War, raised Hampton's Legion in Charleston, SC, fought at Bull Run. Brigadier general, commanded cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart at Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. In command of Confederate cavalry after Stuart's death. Governor of South Carolina 1876-79, US senator 1879-91. Original Artwork: Engraving by H.B. Hall Jr. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Wade Hampton III was a key Confederate general in the Civil War who went on to oppose Reconstruction efforts as governor of South Carolina and a U.S. senator.

Sketched group portrait of the first black senator, H. M. Revels of Mississippi and black representatives of the US Congress during the Reconstruction Era following the American Civil War, circa 1870-1875.

Reconstruction, the turbulent era following the U.S. Civil War, was an effort to reunify the divided nation, address and integrate African Americans into society by rewriting the nation's laws and Constitution. The steps taken gave rise to the Ku Klux Klan and other divisive groups.

Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general who led the South’s failed attempt at secession from the United States during the Civil War.

GettysburgJuly 1863: The Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The battle took place from July 1 to July 3, 1863. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three hot summer days, from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. The South lost the battle—and many men—and it marked a turning point in the bloody war that left the South mostly on the defensive.

Emancipation Proclomation

Issued after the Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation carried moral and strategic implications for the ongoing Civil War. While it did not free a single enslaved person, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom.

John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln assassination

John Wilkes Booth was an actor and Confederate sympathizer who assassinated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in April 1865.

Abner Doubleday (1819 - 1893), circa 1862. Engraved by J. C. Buttre from a photograph by Mathew Brady.

Abner Doubleday, a U.S. military officer who served as a Union general during the Civil War, was mistakenly credited as the inventor of the game of baseball.

Ambrose Powell Hill, Jr., 1825 – 1865. Confederate army general who was killed in the American Civil War. From The History of Our Country, published 1905. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

A.P. Hill: Early Life and Military Service Ambrose Powell Hill was born on November 9, 1825, in Culpeper, Virginia. His father was a prominent politician and merchant whose connections helped Hill secure an appointment to the United States Military Acad...

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C. Engraving by Currier & Ives.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

circa 1850: Portrait of American soldier Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862) who was in the US army but resigned in 1861 to enter the Confederate army; he was killed in action at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Albert Sidney Johnston was a longtime American military officer. Named a Confederate general in the Civil War, he died at the Battle of Shiloh.

Action between the Union cruiser ‘USS Kearsarge’ and the Confederate raider ‘CSS Alabama’ at the Battle of Cherbourg, France, 19th June 1864. The crew of the ‘Alabama’ are being rescued by the British yacht ‘Deerhound’. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Alabama claims were brought by the United States against Great Britain for damages caused by Confederate warships built in Liverpool during the Civil War.

By 1863 the time had expired for men to enlist in the Union army. There was fear the Confederate army would march North. The draft was reinstituted and some New Yorkers rioted against it. Illustration published in The New Eclectic History of the United States by M. E. Thalheimer (American Book Company; New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago) in 1881 and 1890. Copyright expired; artwork is in Public Domain.

The New York Draft Riots of 1863 were a violent uprising against a strict military draft during the Civil War. Blacks were a frequent target of the violence.

A Last Meeting1863: The last meeting between the Confederate Army Generals Stonewall Jackson (1824 - 1863) and Robert E Lee (1807 - 1870). Jackson (left) was shot and fatally wounded by his own men during the Battle of Chancellorsville, when his escort was mistaken for a detachment of Union troops. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The Battle of Chancellorsville, fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863 in Virginia, is widely considered to be Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory during the American Civil War.

The Civil War's Battle of Antietam.

The Battle of Antietam was a pivotal, bloody Civil War skirmish on September 17, 1862, that halted Confederate momentum on the battlefield and abroad.

SpotsylvaniaMay 1864: The battle of Spotsylvania, Virginia. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion. Eleven southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederacy. Ultimately more than 620,000 Americans' lives were lost in the four-year war that ended in a Confederate defeat.