American Civil WarStuff Happened · War
The Civil War story
How the War
Happened
From the first shot at Fort Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox, two unready nations raised armies almost from nothing and learned to fight as they went. Each battle bent the strategy that came after it. Casualties and broken supply lines slowly wore the South down, and a war begun to save the Union became a war to end slavery.
“Battle of Chattanooga” · Thure de Thulstrup (L. Prang & Co.) · 1880 · public domain
The war as its commanders saw it, 1861 to 1865.
01Improvising a WarTwo amateur nations raise armies from nothing, and the dream of a short war dies at Bull Run.186102The Limited War EndsThe year’s huge battles kill the short-war dream, and Antietam turns a war for the Union into a war on slavery.186203The TurningVicksburg and Gettysburg, and why the war was really won in the West, with Black soldiers now in the fight.186304Coordinated AttritionGrant takes overall command and advances on every front at once, and the battlefield decides an election.186405The CollapseThe Confederacy runs out of men, food, and rail, and the surrender secures emancipation for good.1865