What is the most interesting battle of the civil war?
June 15, 2010 by
Filed under civil war battles
I am doing a report for social studies, and I’m doing it on 2 of the civil war battles. What are some interesting ones I should look into? Please reply. I need it pretty soon.
gettysberg
I pesonally like Gettysburg and Vicksburg along with the Battle of Mansfield (it is local to me. local is good)
Antietam is one.
General McClellan actually discovered General Lee’s battle plans and used them to his advantage, somewhat. Though not entirely a victory for the Union, the battle discouraged England and France from entering the war and gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
Gettysburg was the turning point of the war.
Lee invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania. Pickett’s Charge, which was crushed, was the last Confederate offensive of the war. Lincoln dedicated a memorial to the fallen soldiers and gave a now-famous speech, the Gettysburg Address.
Both were a couple of the bloodiest battles of the entire war.
Wow–good question–and a very tough choice. Here are my recommendations:
1. Antietam. Single bloodiest day in American history. In the morning phase of the battle in The Cornfield (and the surrounding area), in 3 hours there were 12,000 casualties. Let me put that in perspective. Given the population then, it would have been comparable to the US military suffering 120,000 casualties in Iraq in 3 hours of fighting. See the significance? Antietam lead to the Emancipation Proclamation (freeing the slaves in the south) which set us on a firm path to eventually Civil Rights (yeah, it took a while with some detours along the way). Or how about how Toomb’s Georgia sharpshooters (about 400 men) held off over 15,000 Union troops at what is now called the Burnside Bridge (the Lower Bridge) until they ran out of ammunition? Or how about how the Civil War almost ended that day–the center of Lee’s line was completely destroyed. Only 2 cannon and about 400 demoralized stragglers were all that stood between 20,000 Union troops (some of them fresh) and Lee’s HQ. But McClellan decided it “wouldn’t be prudent” to order an advance and the senior officer on the spot (trying to find a way around the orders and still come up with advance) Gen. Israel Richardson was mortally wounded. Or how two units (1st Texas Infantry and a regiment from Massachusetts) suffered the worst losses proportionately of any units during the entire war in one battle. Or how the Sunken Road was so filled with Confederate dead that one observer said afterwards you could walk from one end to another stepping only on bodies and was subsequently known as “Bloody Lane.”
2. Shiloh. A tale of 2 days. Day one is a Union rout stemmed only by gunboats providing cannon fire and the desperate and heroic stand at the Hornet’s Nest. Day two is a Union regroup and advance with the Confederates losing everything they gained in the 1st day. Sherman making a name for himself, Nathan Bedford Forrest defying death (he should have been killed in the retreat from the battlefield–and Forrest goes on to play a pivotal role in the formation of the KKK after the war), Lew Wallace shamed by Grant and spending the rest of his life trying to earn back his respect (later saving Washington DC at the battle of Monocacy, writing what was the best selling book in the world at that time–Ben Hur). Shiloh is the two bloodiest days of fighting in the civil war and it’s the epitome of how Americans fought the civil war: bloody, heroic, stupid tactics, bad generalship, sacrificing men willingly like the French or British in WW-1, using tactics made obsolete by the new technology, extreme cowardice (the huddle of deserter at Pittsfield landing). If there had been no “day 2″ than Grant probably never goes on to command in the East and the Civil War goes on another 1-2 years.
But you know what–you could pick a dozen battles and find ways to make them interesting.