Battle of Fredericksburg took place in Spotsylvania County, Virginia between December 11–15, 1862 and marked General Ambrose Burnside’s first major campaign as commander of Army of the Potomac. While Burnside’s overall objective was to march on Richmond, Virginia, his army had to first successfully cross the Rappahannock river near Fredericksburg. General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, however, defeated Burnside’s forces and forced them to retreat. Some estimates put the total number of casualties at 17,929 (Union 13,353, CSA 4,576), which included four generals – two Union (C. Feger Jackson and George Bayard) and two Confederate (Thomas R.R. Cobb and Maxey Gregg). The National Park Service’s website on Fredericksburg provides a nice overview of the battle and offers a number of resources. There are over ten galleries of modern and historic photographs, including “Fredericksburg Sketches” and “Historic Photos.” In addition, the site is creating a virtual tour of the battlefield. Anyone planning on a visit should check out their tour options. The Encyclopedia of Virginia, which is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, also provides a nice overview of the battle and links to historic images. Other primary sources about this battle are available at Cornell University’s Making of America, which provides digital access to historical periodicals like The Century. In August 1886, this magazine published five articles by officers who were involved in the battle, including General James Longstreet (HD profile / article) and Union Generals Darius Couch (HD profile / article), William Farrah Smith (HD profile / article), and Rush C. Hawkins (article).Longstreet argued that:

“The battle of Fredericksburg was a great and unprofitable sacrifice of human life made, through the pressure from the rear, against a general who should have known better and who doubtless acted against his judgment. If I had been in General Burnside’s place, I would have asked the President to allow me to resign rather than execute his order to force the passage of the river and march the army against Lee in his stronghold.”

You can also find other documents related to this battle in volume 21 of the Official Records.

The Battle of Cynthiana (also known as Kellar’s Bridge) took place on June 11-12, 1864 in Harrison County, Kentucky.  The National Park Service ’s website includes a brief summary regarding the battle and the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission provides a map detailing the location of each battleground within the state as well as an overview on the condition of each individual site.  The Cynthiana battleground has over eight hundred acres of land intact that would make field trips and walking tours of the area possible.  On June 11, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his forces attacked General Edward Hobson and the 171st Ohio National Guard, taking over one thousand prisoners of war captive.  The following day, Union General Stephen Gano Burbridge along with the 168th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the Kentucky Harrison County Home Guards attacked the Confederate forces at dawn and drove them back.  Collins’ Historical Sketches of Kentucky: History of Kentucky, Volume 2 described the scene of the battle:

“Fatigued as they were by the previous day’s operations- which resulted in the defeat and capture of two distinct Federal forces- the Confederates were not in condition to withstand the shock of a fresh body of troops.  Burbridge, with his cavalry, was enabled to flank them, and thus turn their lines; while his infantry, in the center, advanced steadily, forcing them back on the town.  The fighting commenced on Millersburg pike, about one mile east of Cynthiana.  But the Confederates- unable to hold out against the rapid and determined advance of superior numbers of fresh troops supported by artillery- soon gave way, and, by the time they reached Cynthiana, were in full retreat, and the retreat a rout.  One by one, they fell back through the town, crossed the river, and followed the Raven Creek pike.  Thus ended the battle that was fought at Cynthiana in the war for southern independence.”

Some suggestions for further reading on the Battle of Cynthiana include Chronicles of Cynthiana which gives a fairly concise overview of the second battle at the site.  Other interesting resources are the Official Records and the History of Morgan’s Cavalry which provides background information on General Morgan’s early life and his participation in the Confederate army.

Within twenty four hours of the Union’s victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July 1863, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered his forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July, 4, 1863 to General Ulysses S. Grant after a long siege. Vicksburg is a city located along the Mississippi River and the Confederacy’s loss of such an important port was a serious loss. Teachers should check out the great resources on National Park Service’s page and in their online exhibit, which are described in an earlier post. House Divided has several interesting documents that offer a variety of perspectives on Vicksburg, including a Confederate private who told his wife what he believed was responsible for the defeat. General Pemberton’s forces surrendered “on the account of provisions,” as Private William Stoker explained. Stoker, who was with General John Walker’s Texas Division in Louisiana when he heard about Vicksburg, argued that “[the Union] could [never] of whipped us there if we…of had [enough] provisions.” General William T. Sherman, who also participated in the Vicksburg Campaign, reflected after the war on some negative consequences of the Union’s victory:

“But our success at Vicksburg produced other results not so favorable to our cause a general relaxation of effort, and desire to escape the hard drudgery of camp: officers sought leaves of absence to visit their homes, and soldiers obtained furloughs and discharges on the most slender pretexts; even the General Government seemed to relax in its efforts to replenish our ranks with new men, or to enforce the draft, and the politicians were pressing their schemes to reorganize or patch up some form of civil government, as fast as the armies gained partial possession of the States.”

In addition, this short newspaper article from the Vicksburg Whig provides a nice example of the way southern editors portrayed Union soldiers’ conduct during the campaign. You can find other primary sources in the Vicksburg Campaign major topic at House Divided as well as in volume 15 of the Official Records.

Alexander Kelly was an African- American Civil War soldier who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  He was born on April 7, 1840 in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania and worked as a coal miner prior to his involvement in the war.  On August 19, 1863 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania he enlisted in Company F of the 6th United States Colored Troops Regiment  as a substitute for someone named Joseph Kelly.  He was originally trained at Camp William Penn in Chelten Hills, Pennsylvania.  Although Kelly was small in stature, standing at only about 5 feet 3 inches tall, he was commended for his actions at Chaffin’s Farm in Henrico County, Virginia on September 29-30, 1864.  The National Park Service’s website includes a brief summary on the battle at Chaffin’s Farm (also known as New Market Heights) that includes how  Union Major General Benjamin Butler attacked General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate forces at Richmond.  A more detailed description of the battle at Chaffin’s Farm is provided in “Pennsylvania Negro Regiments in the Civil War .”  Kelly was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor  on April 6, 1865 for his bravery and leadership at Chaffin’s Farm.  General Benjamin Butler noted in an order  issued on October 11, 1864:

“Alexander Kelly, first sergeant Company F, Sixth U.S. Colored Troops, gallantly seized the colors, which had fallen near the enemy’s lines of abatis, raised them, and rallied the men at a time of confusion and in a place of great danger.”

Another resource that may be interesting to browse is Black Union Soldier’s  in the Civil War which has a valuable list detailing all the Black Union Recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Kelly was “mustered out” of service in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1865.  After the war, Kelly married his wife Victoria on July 30, 1866, and the two had a son named William in January 1867.  He served as a night watchman for the Pittsburgh Police before his death on June 19, 1907.  Kelly is buried in St. Peters Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

On May 31, 1897, the city of Boston erected a monument created by the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in honor of the 54th Massachusetts and its colonel, Robert Gould Shaw.  The monument commemorates the regiment’s participation in the second attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18, 1863. The August 8 edition of Harper’s Weekly, available in a transcribed form at Assumption College’s primary source-rich database “Northern Vision of Race, Religion & Reform” recorded that at Fort Wagner: “The 54th Massachusetts (negro), whom Copperhead officers would have called cowardly if they had stormed and carried the gates of hell, went boldly into battle, for the second time, commanded by their brave Colonel, but came out of it led by no higher officer than the boy, Lieutenant Higginson.”  Sergeant James Henry Gooding of Company C of the 54th wrote weekly letters to the New Bedford Mercury, a periodical in the company’s hometown.  Gooding’s letters were published as On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier’s Civil War Letters from the Front, and some are available on Google Books.  Gooding’s July 20 letter documents the 54th’s attack of Fort Wagner: “When the men saw their gallant leader [Colonel Shaw] fall, they made a desperate effort to get him out, but they were either shot down, or reeled in the ditch below. One man succeeded in getting hold of the State color staff.” The “one man” who reached the flag was Sergeant William H. Carney, originally of Norfolk, Virginia, as he maintained the sanctity of the flag by keeping it from touching the ground. Though Carney was wounded in both of his legs, one arm, and his chest he kept the flag aloft and is recorded as exclaiming, “the old flag never touched the ground, boys!”  During the 1897 monument dedication Carney raised the flag once more, an action that Booker T. Washington recorded in his autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as causing such an effect on the crowd that “for a number of minutes the audience seemed to entirely lose control of itself.” Three years later, Carney received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle of Fort Wagner. Though Carney is often listed as the first African-American recipient of a Medal of Honor, instead, Carney’s rescue of the colors at Fort Wagner was the earliest African-American act of bravery to be recognized with a Medal of Honor. The medal notation reads: “Medal of Honor awarded May 9, 1900, for most dinstinguished gallantry in action at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, July 18, 1863.”

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On July 11, 1864, two days after the Battle of Monocacy, Confederate forces under the command of General Jubal A. Early reached the edge of Washington D.C.  The following day, the Confederate forces faced the Union VI Corps under the direction of Major General Horatio G. Wright and Major General Alexander M. McCook and were eventually forced to withdraw from the city which ended General Early’s invasion of Maryland.  President Abraham Lincoln watched the battle from Fort Stevens and was in close proximity to the fighting.  The National Park Service’s website provides a concise summary  of the battle as well as the number of casualties that occurred in the midst of the fighting.  It also includes a report on the preservation of the battlefield from the Civil War Sites Advisory Committee which shows that although most of the site has been destroyed or altered through urban development there is still an area that remains preserved in Rock Creek Park and can be visited today.  The National Park Service offers lesson plans for teachers under the Historical Context for Fort Circle Parks that has key resources for classroom learning as well as suggestions for additional sources.  The Grand Army of the Republic’s Washington During Wartime described the scene with President Lincoln at Fort Stevens during a conversation with General Wright:

“I entreated the President not to expose his life to the bullets of the enemy; but he seemed oblivious to his surroundings; finally, when I found that my entreaties had failed to make any impression on him, I said, ‘Mr. President, I know you are commander of the armies of the United States, but I am in command here, and as you are not safe when you are standing, I order you to come sit down here.’  Mr. Lincoln looked at me and smiled, and then, in more consideration of my earnestness than inclination, stepped down and took position behind the parapet.  Even then he would persist in standing up and exposing his tall form.”

Some other sources on Fort Stevens that may be interesting to browse are Robert Sampson Lanier’s The Photographic History of the Civil War: Forts and Artillery as it provides some valuable images of soldiers stationed at Fort Stevens during the Civil War along with summaries of the major battles fought around the Washington D.C. area.  Two other interesting sources that can be found on Google Books are Recollections of the Civil War: With Many Original Diary Entries and Letters Written from the Seat of War, and With Annotated References and the Official Records since both give many firsthand accounts written by soldiers and officers who took part in the fighting at Fort Stevens.

Confederate forces under the command of General Robert E. Lee and Maj. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson had 40,000 fewer soldiers fighting at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia than Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s Union troops.  Nonetheless, General Lee executed what historian John Murrin has labeled “the riskiest operation of his career” coming out victorious on May 8, 1863 after seven days of fighting.  William Swinton, in his 1882 analysis Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, credits Hooker with the mistake of taking a defensive stance and leaving his “right flank thrown out ‘in the air,’” and giving Lee the opportunity to attack.  The Civil War Preservation Trust provides an interactive map of the battle, which shows the forces’ movements over the course of May 1st.  Though the Confederacy won the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own troops on May 2nd, “the event of the Chancellorsville conflict which caused intense sorrow to the enemy [the Confederate troops],” according to Samuel Bates’ The Battle of Chancellorsville (1882), and “was regarded as entailing the greatest injury to their cause.”  The Virginia Military Institute, where Jackson was a member of the faculty from 1851 until 1861, has an online research center with an extensive Stonewall Jackson exhibit. Their Jackson exhibit includes a photo gallery, a collection of Jackson’s papers available as originals or transcriptions, a Jackson family genealogy, as well as an informational timeline and biography. The Battle of Chancellorsville has also been preserved as part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial by the National Parks Service.  The NPS website includes a wide variety of resources for teachers including “troop position maps” for May 2nd and May 3rd, links to General Lee and Hooker’s official reports, as well as an extensive list of suggested readings on the battle which range from firsthand accounts to children’s books.

The battle of Shiloh took place on April 6-7, 1862 in Hardin County, Tennessee between the Union Army of the Tennessee & the Army of the Ohio and the Army of the Mississippi. After several decisive victories, Union forces had largely driven the Confederates out of Kentucky and central Tennessee. However, Confederates regrouped under General Albert Sidney Johnston and they launched a major offensive on April 6 that caught Union forces by surprise. The first day of fighting left thousands of casualties on both sides, including General Johnston, who was mortally wounded. The following day General Johnston’s second in command, General P. G. T. Beauregard, ordered another attack, but he did not know that General Ulysses S. Grant’s depleted forces had been reinforced overnight by General Don Carlos Buell. Eventually General Beauregard decided to withdraw his forces from the battle. On April 8 General Grant sent General William T. Sherman in pursuit of General Beauregard’s troops.

The National Park Service website has several resources that both students and teachers might find useful, including a detailed map, a historic pamphlet, and a short essay about the battle. Anyone planning a field trip to this site should check out this page, which provides important information on the park’s policy for waiving entrance fees for school groups as well as an overview of the various places to visit. Another interesting resource is an animated battle map from Civilwaranimated.com, which also offers animated maps on other key battles like Gettysburg and Vicksburg. The Official Records also published a number of documents related to this battle, including a report by General John A. McClernand. (A full list of reports related to this engagement starts on page 93 of Series 1 – Volume 10 (Part 1)). Union officers like General McClernand immediately recognized that their victory had been a critical one. “Had our army been captured or destroyed…, the rebellion would have rolled back over Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri before another army could have been raised and equipped adequate to retrieve the disaster,” as McClernand noted in his report. As for General Grant, this battle completely changed his perspective on what conditions were necessary for the Union to win the Civil War. Grant explained in his Personal Memoirs (1885-1886) that:

“Up to the battle of Shiloh, I, as well as thousands of other citizens, believed that the rebellion against the government would collapse suddenly and soon if a decisive victory could be gained over any of its armies. Donelson and Henry were such victories. An army of more than twenty one thousand men was captured or destroyed….. But when Confederate armies were collected which not only attempted to hold a line farther south, from Memphis to Chattanooga, Knoxville, and on to the Atlantic , but assumed the offensive and made such a gallant effort to regain what had been lost, then, indeed, I gave up all idea of saving the Union except by complete conquest.”

The Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864 in Frederick County, Maryland became known as “The battle that saved Washington” as it gave supporting Union troops more time to fill the area and defend the Capital.  The National Park Service ’s website provides resources including a short summary of the battle and a map that shows the location of the battle as well as a detailed overview regarding the preservation of the site.  The Confederate forces were led by Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early whose memoir provides an interesting account of the battle from the Confederate perspective.  Major General Lew Wallace (who later on became better known as the author of the novel Ben Hur) and the Union forces attempted to arrest Early and the Confederate forces, but were defeated.  General Ulysses S. Grant highlighted the importance of the battle through an excerpt from his memoir:

“If Early had been but one day earlier, he might have entered the Capital before the arrival of the reinforcements I had sent.  Whether the delay caused by the battle [Monocacy] amounted to a day or not, General Wallace, on this occasion, by the defeat of the troops under him, contributed to a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory.”

There are several other interesting books which could be valuable to learning about the Battle of Monocacy from both the Union and Confederate perspectives.  Along with Early’s memoir, John H. Worsham’s One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry: His Experience and What He Saw During the War 1861-1865 provides a valuable first hand narrative of the author’s experience as a Confederate soldier who fought in the Battle of Monocacy.  Also, The Land We Love, Volume II is available in full view on Google Books and contains Confederate General Gordon’s report on the battle which may be worthwhile to look at as it also contains reports and correspondence between other Confederate officials.  Since the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission has made the preservation of the Monocacy National Battlefield  one of its top priorities the park holds over one thousand acres and five walking trails which could provide for an interesting field trip .