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The Civil War at a Glance

The Eastern Theater, 1864

First posted 1998
Last update Apr 29, 2009
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The last full year of campainging in the east begins with Federal forces east and west making a unified effort to wear down the South's will to continue fighting. Abraham Lincoln Lincoln has given Ulysses Grant Ulysses S. Grant the revived rank of lieutenant general and placed him in command of all Union armies. His mission: destroy Joe Johnston's Army of Tennessee and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Leaving Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman to deal with Johnston, Grant concentrates on Lee. Their first encounter, the Battle of the Wilderness, opens on May 5 and for the next 40 days the armies remain locked in deadly embrace. The course of the fighting leads through Spotsylvania Court House, across the North Anna River to Cold Harbor, and finally to Petersburg. There the opponents settle down to a siege, punctuated by Grant's relentless efforts to outflank the Confederates and seize vital transportation arteries. His attempt to capture Petersburg outright fails at the Battle of the Crater. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederate troops expel Union forces from the Shenandoah Valley and march to the outskirts of Washington, before being turned back at Fort Stevens. Outnumbered but defiant, they return to the Valley where, in a series of hard-fought engagements, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan erases Early's army from the war.

May 5 - 6Battle of the Wilderness, Va.
May 8 - 21Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Va.
May 9 - 24Sheridan's Richmond Raid
May 15Battle of New Market, Va.
May 16Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Va.
May 23 - 26Battle of North Anna River, Va.
May 31 - Jun 12Battle of Cold Harbor, Va.
Jun 5Battle of Piedmont, Va.
Jun 11 - 12Battle of Trevilian Station, Va.
Jun 15 - 18Battle of Petersburg, Va.
Jun 17 - 18Battle of Lynchburg, Va.
Jun 18 - Dec 31 Siege of Petersburg, Va.
Jul 30Battle of the Crater
Aug 18 - 25Battles of Weldon Railroad and Ream's Station
Sep 29Engagement at New Market Heights
Sep 29 - 30Battle of Fort Harrison (Chaffin's Farm)
Sep 29 - Oct 2Battle of Peebles' Farm
Oct 27 - 28Battle of Burgess' Mill (Boydton Plank Road)
Jun 23 - Jul 25 Early's Washington Raid
Jul 9Battle of Monocacy, Md.
Jul 12Battle of Fort Stevens, near Washington, D.C.
Jul 24Second Battle of Kernstown, Va.
Aug 7 - Oct 19 Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Va.
Sep 19Third Battle of Winchester (Oqequon Creek)
Sep 22Battle of Fisher's Hill
Oct 19Battle of Cedar Creek
Nov 8Lincoln reelected President of the United States

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