A report on American Civil War, Siege of Petersburg, Western theater of the American Civil War and James Longstreet

Clockwise from top: Battle of Gettysburg

Union Captain John Tidball's artillery

Confederate prisoners

ironclad USS Atlanta (1861)

Ruins of Richmond, Virginia

Battle of Franklin

The "Dictator" siege mortar at Petersburg. In the foreground, the figure on the right is Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, aroused public opinion about the evils of slavery. According to legend, when Lincoln was introduced to her at the White House, his first words were, "So this is the little lady who started this Great War."

Fredericksburg, Virginia; May 1863. Soldiers in the trenches. Trench warfare would appear again more infamously in World War I

Western Theater map at The Photographic History of the Civil War

Frederick Douglass, a former slave, was a leading abolitionist

From Belmont (November 1861) to Shiloh (April 1862)

Marais des Cygnes massacre of anti-slavery Kansans, May 19, 1858

Siege of Petersburg, assaults on June 15–18

From Corinth (May 1862) to Perryville (October 1862)

August 30, 4 p.m.: Start of Longstreet's attack

Mathew Brady, Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Siege of Petersburg, movements against the railroads and A.P. Hill's counterattack, June 21–22

Operations against Vicksburg and Grant's Bayou Operations

The first published imprint of secession, a broadside issued by the Charleston Mercury, December 20, 1860

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (1861–1865)

"Dictator" siege mortar on the U.S. Military Railroad at Petersburg

From Vicksburg (December 1862 – July 1863) to Chickamauga (September 1863)

Longstreet at Gettysburg c. undefined 1900

Bombardment of the Fort by the Confederates

Rioters attacking a building during the New York anti-draft riots of 1863

Siege of Petersburg, Battle of the Crater, July 30

Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, Chattanooga Campaign

Clashes on the rivers were melees of ironclads, cottonclads, gunboats and rams, complicated by naval mines and fire rafts.

Sketch of the explosion seen from the Union line.

Longstreet's Left Wing assaults, mid-day September 20

Battle between the USS Monitor and USS Merrimack (1855)

Second Battle of Deep Bottom, August 14–20

General Scott's "Anaconda Plan" 1861. Tightening naval blockade, forcing rebels out of Missouri along the Mississippi River, Kentucky Unionists sit on the fence, idled cotton industry illustrated in Georgia.

Siege of Petersburg, capture of the Weldon Railroad, August 18–19

Gunline of nine Union ironclads. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston. Continuous blockade of all major ports was sustained by North's overwhelming war production.

Siege of Petersburg, actions on October 27

A December 1861 cartoon in Punch magazine in London ridicules American aggressiveness in the Trent Affair. John Bull, at right, warns Uncle Sam, "You do what's right, my son, or I'll blow you out of the water."

Siege of Petersburg, actions preceding Five Forks

James Longstreet in later life (1896), affecting the sideburns of his opponent at Fredericksburg and Knoxville

County map of Civil War battles by theater and year

Grant's final assaults and Lee's retreat (start of the Appomattox Campaign)

Equestrian statue of General Longstreet on his horse Hero in Pitzer Woods at Gettysburg National Military Park

"Stonewall" Jackson got his nickname at Bull Run.

Map of events during the Peninsula campaign to the Battle of Seven Pines Confederate
Union

Longstreet's attack in the Battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, shortly before he was wounded Confederate
Union

The Battle of Antietam, the Civil War's deadliest one-day fight.

Confederate dead overrun at Marye's Heights, reoccupied next day May 4, 1863

By 1863, the Union controlled large portions of the Western Theater, especially areas surrounding the Mississippi River

The Battle of Chickamauga, the highest two-day losses

<center>Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson</center>

Nathaniel Lyon secured St. Louis docks and arsenal, led Union forces to expel Missouri Confederate forces and government.

<center>Brig. Gen. August Kautz</center>

Fascine Trench Breastworks, Petersburg, Va. – NARA – 524792. Although identified as Confederate Trenches this is actually Union Fort Sedgwick aka "Fort Hell" which was opposite Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damnation"<ref>Civil War talk Forum</ref>

Union Army 9th Corps attacking Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damanation" sketch by Alfred Ward.

These dead soldiers—from Ewell's May 1864 attack at Spotsylvania—delayed Grant's advance on Richmond in the Overland Campaign.

Confederate artilleryman killed during the final Union assault against the trenches at Petersburg. Photo by Thomas C. Roche, April 3, 1865.<ref>Frassanito, p. 360.</ref><ref>See website Petersburg Project on location of Many of the Roche photographs at Petersburg April 1865</ref> Although prints of this picture list it as being taken at Ft Mahone, historians at the "Petersburg Project" believe it was taken at Confederate Battery 25<ref>Dead Artilleryman comments Petersburg Project</ref>

Smoke is still rising from the ruins of Richmond, Virginia after surrendering on April 3, 1865 following the Union victory at the siege of Petersburg. Union cavalry mounts with carbines visible are hitched in the foreground.

Map of Confederate territory losses year by year

Richmond–Petersburg Theater, fall 1864
Confederate
Union

Burying Union dead on the Antietam battlefield, 1862

Through the supervision of the Freedmen's Bureau, northern teachers traveled into the South to provide education and training for the newly freed population.

Beginning in 1961 the U.S. Post Office released commemorative stamps for five famous battles, each issued on the 100th anniversary of the respective battle.

The Battle of Fort Sumter, as depicted by Currier and Ives.

Slave states that seceded before April 15, 1861 Slave states that seceded after April 15, 1861 Union states that permitted slavery (border states) Union states that banned slavery
Territories

US Secession map. The Union vs. the Confederacy.
Union states
Union territories not permitting slavery
Border Union states, permitting slavery (One of these states, West Virginia was created in 1863)
Confederate states
Union territories that permitted slavery (claimed by Confederacy) at the start of the war, but where slavery was outlawed by the U.S. in 1862

Abolition of slavery in the various states of the United States over time:Abolition of slavery during or shortly after the American Revolution
The Northwest Ordinance, 1787
Gradual emancipation in New York (starting 1799, completed 1827) and New Jersey (starting 1804, completed by Thirteenth Amendment, 1865)
The Missouri Compromise, 1821
Effective abolition of slavery by Mexican or joint US/British authority
Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1861
Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1862
Emancipation Proclamation as originally issued, January 1, 1863
Subsequent operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
Abolition of slavery by state action during the Civil War
Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864
Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865
Thirteenth Amendment to the US constitution, December 18, 1865
Territory incorporated into the US after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment

Oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and, among other promises, to "abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the . . . rebellion having reference to slaves . . . ," signed by former Confederate officer Samuel M. Kennard on June 27, 1865

The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War.

- Siege of Petersburg

The Western Theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River.

- Western theater of the American Civil War

James Longstreet (January 8, 1821 – January 2, 1904) was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse".

- James Longstreet

He served under Lee as a corps commander for most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater, and briefly with Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater.

- James Longstreet

Grant put Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman in immediate command of all forces in the West and moved his own headquarters to be with the Army of the Potomac (still commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade) in Virginia, where he intended to maneuver Lee's army to a decisive battle; his secondary objective was to capture Richmond (the capital of the Confederacy), but Grant knew that the latter would happen automatically once the former was accomplished.

- Siege of Petersburg

During 1861–1862 in the war's Western Theater, the Union made significant permanent gains—though in the war's Eastern Theater the conflict was inconclusive.

- American Civil War

He later returned to the field, serving under Lee in the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign.

- James Longstreet

The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond.

- American Civil War

First Corps, under Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. George E. Pickett, Charles W. Field, and Joseph B. Kershaw. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet returned from medical leave and resumed command of the corps on October 19. Anderson was given command of the new Fourth Corps, which included the division of Maj. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson.

- Siege of Petersburg

The Confederate high command reinforced Bragg with a division from Mississippi as well as a corps previously of the Army of Northern Virginia commanded by James Longstreet.

- Western theater of the American Civil War

Most of the initiatives failed: Butler became bogged down in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign; Sigel was quickly defeated in the valley; Banks became occupied in the ill-fated Red River Campaign; Meade and Grant experienced many setbacks and much bloodshed in the Overland Campaign before finally settling down to a siege of Petersburg.

- Western theater of the American Civil War

General Lee and top subordinates James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat.

- American Civil War

1 related topic with Alpha

Ulysses S. Grant

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American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

Grant's birthplace, Point Pleasant, Ohio

Chinook Indian Plank House Published 1845
Grant believed Pacific Northwest Indians were a peaceful people and not a threat to settlers.

"Hardscrabble" Published 1891
The farm home Grant built in Missouri for his family. His wife Julia called the home an "unattractive cabin".

Brigadier General Grant photographed at Cairo, Illinois, September 1861 (Published 1911)

21st Illinois regiment monument in the Viniard Field, Chickamauga

Grant's successful gamble: Porter's gunboats night ran the Confederate gauntlet at Vicksburg on the Mississippi River.
Published 1863

The Battle of Jackson, fought on May 14, 1863, was part of the Vicksburg Campaign.
Published 1863

Union troops swarm Missionary Ridge and defeat Bragg's army. Published 1886

Commanding General Grant at the Battle of Cold Harbor, June 1864

Grant (center left) next to Lincoln with General Sherman (far left) and Admiral Porter (right) – The Peacemakers by Healy, 1868

Defeated by Grant, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House

Grant–Colfax Republican Ticket
Published 1868

Inauguration of President U.S. Grant, Capitol building steps.
March 4, 1869

Anthony Comstock Grant's vigorous prosecutor of abortionists and pornographers.

Amos T. Akerman, appointed Attorney General by Grant, who vigorously prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan

Image of mobs rioting entitled "The Louisiana Outrage". White Leaguers at Liberty Place attacked the integrated police force and state militia, New Orleans, September 1874.
Published October 1874

Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell aided Grant to defeat the Gold Ring.

Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and Grant successfully settled the Alabama Claims by treaty and arbitration.

Wharf of Santo Domingo City
Dominican Republic

American Captain Frye and his crew were executed by Spanish authority.

King Kalākaua of Hawaii meets President Grant at the White House on his state visit, 1874.
Published January 2, 1875

Ely Samuel Parker
Grant appointed Parker the first Native American (Seneca) Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Battle of the Little Big Horn
Great Sioux War
Published 1889

Cartoon by Thomas Nast on Grant's opponents in the reelection campaign

Grant is congratulated for vetoing the "inflation bill" in 1874.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast praises Grant for rejecting demands by Pennsylvania politicians to suspend civil service rules.

Harper's Weekly
cartoon on Bristow's Whiskey Ring investigation

Cartoonist Joseph Keppler lampooned Grant and his associates. Grant's prosecutions of the Whiskey Ring and the Klan were ignored.
Puck, 1880

Official White House portrait of President Grant by Henry Ulke, 1875

Commanding General Grant
Constant Mayer's portrait of 1866

Grant National Memorial, known as "Grant's Tomb", largest mausoleum in North America

As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War.

He joined the Union Army after the American Civil War broke out in 1861 and rose to prominence after winning several early Union victories on the Western Theater.

For thirteen months, Grant fought Robert E. Lee during the high-casualty Overland Campaign and at Petersburg.

Quiet by nature, Grant established a few intimate friends among fellow cadets, including Frederick Tracy Dent and James Longstreet.