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The Civil War at a GlanceThe Eastern Theatre, 1862 |
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Johnston's Confederates abandon their long-held lines around Manassas in early March and withdraw toward Richmond.
McClellan's Army of the Potomac moves by water to Fort Monroe and Newport News at the tip of the Virginia peninsula and prepares to march on Richmond some 70 miles to the northwest. Confederate delaying tactics and heavy rains slow McClellan's advance and it is nearly two months before he comes within sight of the city's steeples. When a Southern offensive at Sevens Pines on May 31-June 1 fails to dislodge the Federals and Johnston is wounded,
Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Army of Northern Virginia and drives McClellan's troops away from the Southern capital in the Seven Days' Battles.
Victories during August by Maj. Gen.
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson at Cedar Mountain and by Lee's army at the Second Battle of Manassas push the Federals back to the outskirts of Washington. Within nine weeks, Lee has transferred the war from his own capital to the edge of the enemy's. A Confederate offensive across the Potomac is halted and turned back after battles at South Mountain and Antietam (Sharpsburg), Maryland, in mid September. The final action of the year ends in Federal disaster when McClellan's successor, Maj. Gen.
Ambrose E. Burnside, throws his army against Lee's near Fredricksbrug, Virginia, in a series of frontal assaults that are easily and bloodily repulsed.
| March 9 | USS Monitor vis CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads, Va. First naval battle between ironclad vessels |
| Mar 23 - Jun 9 Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Va | |
| Mar 23 | Battle of Kernstown |
| May 8 | Battle of McDowell |
| May 23 | Battle of Front Royal |
| May 25 | First Battle of Winchseter |
| June 8 | Battle of Cross Keys |
| June 9 | Battle of Port Republic |
| Apr 4 | McClellan's Army of the Potomac advance up the virginia peninsula toward Richmond |
| Apr 5 - May 4 | McClellan's army besieges Confederate forces at Yorktown, Va. |
| May 15 | Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Va. |
| May 31 - Jun 1 | Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Va. |
| June 1 | robert E. Lee assumes command of the Army of Northern Virginia |
| Jun 25 - Jul 1 Seven Days' Battles Around Richmond, Va. | |
| Jun 25 | Battle of Oak Grove |
| Jun 26 | Battle of Mechanicsville |
| Jun 27 | Battle of Gaines' Mill |
| Jun 29 | Battle of Savage's Station |
| Jun 30 | Battle of Glendale (Fraser's Farm) |
| Jul 1 | Battle of Malvern Hill |
| Aug 9 | Battle of Cedar Mountain, Va. |
| Aug 28 - 30 | Battle of Second Manassas (Bull Run), Va. |
| Sep 1 | Battle of Chantilly (Ox Hill), Va. |
| Sep 12 - 15 | Siege and capture of harpers Ferry, Va. (now W.Va.) |
| Sep 14 - 17 | Battles of South mountain and Antietam (Sharpsburg), MD. |
| Nov 7 | Ambrose E. Burnside replaces McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac |
| Dec 11 - 13 | Battle of Fredericksburg, Va. |
| Click on a map to read about that year | ||||
1861 |
1862 |
1863 |
1864 |
1865 |
| The Eastern Theater The Western Theater War at a Glance | ||||