General James D. Morgan’s Division Holds the Line at The Battle of Bentonville
In March 1865, General William T. Sherman’s army entered North Carolina after marching through South Carolina with little opposition. Sherman’s plan was to continue north and join Ulysses S. Grant’s...
View ArticleGeneral John Hartranft’s Report on the Battle of Fort Stedman
By late March of 1865, the Union siege of Petersburg, Virginia had reduced the Confederate defenders there nearly to desperation. Almost all supply lines had been cut and the Federals had more of...
View ArticleGeneral George A. Custer’s Report on the Appomattox Campaign
On March 29th, 1865, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began the initial movements of the final campaign of the Civil War. Grant ordered his cavalry commander, Major General Philip Sheridan, to move...
View ArticleThe 22nd Iowa Infantry in the Assault on Vicksburg May 22nd, 1863
As the Union Army closed in on Vicksburg, Mississippi in the middle of May 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant decided to attempt to take the city by assault. The first such assault occurred...
View ArticleGeneral John Buford’s Report on His Cavalry’s Action at Gettysburg
At the outset of the Civil War, Confederate cavalry was generally superior to Union cavalry in terms of both commanders and tactics. As the war proceeded, better Union commanders emerged and the...
View ArticleCaptain Louis Kelly’s Report on the 15th Illinois Infantry at the Battle of...
The 15th Illinois Infantry was organized shortly after the Civil War began, and was mustered into service in May of 1861. The regiment spent the second half of the year at various points in...
View ArticleGeneral Albion P. Howe’s Report on the Battle of Malvern Hill
The Battle of Malvern Hill was the last of the Seven Days battles of Major General George McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. In May of 1862, McClellan was closing in on Richmond, Virginia, but his advance...
View ArticleWilliam T. Sherman’s Report on His Brigade’s Action at the First Battle of...
William T. Sherman is best known as a Union general in the western theatre of the Civil War, especially for his Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea. But before he was promoted to...
View ArticleCaptain Eugene Carr’s Report on the Battle of Wilson’s Creek
On August 10th, 1861, a Union Army force of 5400 men under the command of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon attacked a much larger Confederate army of approximately 12,000 at a location along a stream...
View ArticleGeneral James D. Morgan’s Report on the Battle of Jonesboro
By the end of August 1864, Major General William T. Sherman’s army had been outside of Atlanta, Georgia for several weeks but had been unable to drive out General John Bell Hood’s determined...
View ArticleBattery B, 4th U.S. Artillery at the Battle of Antietam
Battery B of the 4th U.S. Artillery often provided artillery support for the regiments of the Iron Brigade. At the battles of Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburg,...
View ArticleRutherford B. Hayes Recalls an Incident at the Battle of Cedar Creek
Rutherford B. Hayes commanded the 2nd Division of the Union Army of West Virginia at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley fought on October 19th, 1864. The future 19th President of...
View ArticleAdmiral David Porter Rips the Leadership and Tactics of the Red River...
In March 1864, a joint army–navy expedition under the commands of Major General Nathaniel Banks and Admiral David Porter ascended the Red River in Louisiana with an immediate objective of capturing the...
View ArticleLieutenant Samuel Benjamin’s Report on the Union Artillery at the Battle of...
In September 1863, Union forces under Major General Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville, Tennessee. Union Army engineers immediately set about the task of constructing a defensive line of earthworks...
View ArticleGeneral Nathan Kimball and Colonel John S. Mason’s Reports on the Assault on...
On December 11th, 1862, the Army of the Potomac under the command of Major General Ambrose Burnside crossed the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Despite crossing the river under fire,...
View ArticleColonel Lucius Hubbard’s Report on His Brigade’s Attack on the Confederate...
Despite suffering over 6000 casualties at the Battle of Franklin on November 30th, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood kept his army on the march to Nashville. Confederate forces reached the...
View ArticleWilliam T. Sherman’s Report on the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou
Before General Ulysses S. Grant’s launched his successful April to July 1863 campaign to take Vicksburg, Mississippi, he made several other attempts to take that important city on the Mississippi...
View ArticleColonel Mahlon D. Manson’s Report on The Battle of Mill Springs, or Logan’s...
In the late fall of 1861, Confederate Brigadier General Felix Zollicoffer was given the task of guarding the Cumberland Gap, an important mountain pass located where Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky...
View ArticleThe Death of General Leonidas Polk
In June of 1864, Major General William T. Sherman’s army was marching, maneuvering, and fighting its way towards Atlanta, Georgia. On June 14th, Sherman’s men were near Pine Mountain, northwest of...
View ArticleFlag Officer Andrew Foote’s Report on the Capture of Fort Henry, Tennessee
On February 6th, 1862, Flag Officer Andrew Foote of the U.S. Navy attacked Confederate Fort Henry located on the Tennessee River in Tennessee near the Kentucky border. Foote’s fleet totaled seven...
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