1862 Civil War History

 

Abraham Lincoln

1862 Civil War History for Kids
Civil War History started
April 12, 1861 and continued until May 10, 1865. The 1862 Civil War History guides you through the major events and the 1862 battles in the "War Between the States" including the Weapons and War Machines, the Battle of the Ironclads, the Seven Days Battles, the Second Bull Run Campaign, the Battle of Antietam, Shiloh and Seven Days Battles and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Learn about the details of the campaigns and the Union and Confederate Generals who led the armies into battle. It was also during this year that President Lincoln took the momentous first steps toward Emancipation.

1862 Civil War History
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th American President who served in office from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865. This article provides interesting short facts and
information about the 1862 Civil War History, the second year of the conflict.

 

1862 - The Second Year of War
This article on the 1862 Civil War History is designed to provide a simple, short history of the events that occured during 1862, the second year in Civil War hi story. Links are available providing access to detailed facts and information on specific events, but this article provides kids and students with a basic, short overview and introduction to the history of the Civil War. Access the short history of the other Civil War years from the above Civil War History links for each year.

1862 Civil War History: Contents

Army of the Potomac
Peninsular Campaign
Fort Henry
Fort Donelson
Battle of the Ironclads
Battle of Shiloh
New Orleans
First Steps toward Emancipation
Seven Days Battles
Battle of Murfreesboro
Second Bull Run
Battle of Antietam
Battle at Perryville
Battle of Corinth
Battle of Fredericksburg
1862 Battlefields

1862 Civil War History: Background History and Information
The Civil War history in 1861 closed as the Union and Confederate leaders were developing their military tactics and strategy. Both sides were enlisting soldiers, the Union Blockade was taking hold of the ports in the South and both sides had experienced the bloody taste of Civil War at the first Battle of Bull Run that ended in defeat for the Union and victory for the Confederate Army. The stage was set for the first full year when North and South experienced the full horror of Civil War.

1862 Civil War History: The Army of the Potomac
The Bull Run campaign was conducted badly by the Union in eastern Virginia but Civil War History favored the Union soldiers who had been winning victories in western Virginia under the command of General George B. McClellan. The new soldiers were put through their training at the United States capital at Washington D.C. and in March, 1862, the Army of the Potomac was ready for action.

1862 Civil War History: The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
Civil War History and the Confederacy. The Confederate States of America (CAS) had established their capital in Richmond, Virginia. The Confederate
government, under the leadership of Jefferson Davis, had successfully recruited large numbers of soldiers. The South were easily outnumbered by the population of the North but were able to use the African-American slaves to produce food for the army and to provide the labor to build forts and dig trenches. The Confederate army defending their capital at Richmond was the Army of Northern Virginia. It was commanded by Joseph E. Johnston who was ably supported by General Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson).

1862 Civil War History: The Union Plan of the Peninsular Campaign
The
Plan of the Peninsular Campaign led Civil War History to consider the advantages of using water as transport systems. The Union General, George B. McClellan, planned to transport his soldiers, by water, to the peninsula between the James, York and Pamunkey rivers. This route would provide him with a clear road to the Confederate capital of Richmond. This action would force Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston to leave his camp at Bull Run and march southward in order to defend Richmond. The problem with the Union plan was that Johnston might attack the Union capital at Washington instead of going to face General McClellan. There was also concern that Confederate General Stonewall Jackson might also march from the Shenandoah Valley, cross the Potomac and use his forces to seize Washington. The Plan of the Peninsular Campaign temporarily fell to pieces with the United States government making the decision to keep 75,000 of General McClellan's men to defend the Federal capital.

1862 Civil War History: Ulysses S. Grant and George Thomas (History of January 1862)
The 1862 Civil War History
now turned to the Western Theater where the determined, invincible will of Ulysses Simpson Grant had begun to attract considerable attention. He had proved his worth to the military leaders of the Union early in the Civil War, when he had seized Cairo, Illinois at the intersection of the Ohio and the Mississippi. In January, 1862, General George H. Thomas had successfully defeated a Confederate force at Mill Springs, by the Cumberland River. General Grant and General Thomas together now secured the line of the Ohio and eastern Kentucky for the Union.

1862 Civil War History: Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (History of February 1862)
In February, 1862, General Grant and Commodore Andrew Foote attacked Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. These were the two forts which the Confederates had built to keep the Union gunboats from penetrating the western part of the Confederacy. Fort Henry capitulated almost at once, but it was necessary for the Union forces to besiege Fort Donelson, under the command of General Simon Bolivar Buckner for some time. The Confederate defense eventually crumpled and General Buckner was forced to asked for the terms of surrender. "Unconditional surrender," replied Grant, and Buckner had no option but to agree. With the fall of Fort Henry on February 6, 1862 and Fort Donelson on February 14-16, 1862, the lower Tennessee and the lower Cumberland were now open to the Union forces in the Civil War history.

1862 Civil War History: The Battle of the Ironclads (History of March 1862)
The Ironclad Warships were steam-propelled naval warships that had their parts, above water, covered by large plates of iron or steel. The Monitor was a Union built ironclad and the Merrimac was a Confederate built ironclad. The two floating forts, covered with iron met on March 3, 1862 in what would become known as the Battle of the Ironclads. The clash of the giants took place at Sewell's Point (modern-day Norfolk), near the mouth of Hampton Roads, Virginia during the Battle of Hampton Roads.

1862 Civil War History: Battle of Shiloh (History of April 1862)
The 1862 Civil War History concerning
the operations of the Union armies in the West was directed by General Henry Wager Halleck (1815 – 1872). "Old Brains" Halleck, a senior Union Army commander in the Western Theater, ordered Ulysses S. Grant up the Tennessee to Pittsburg Landing and join with the forces of Don Carlos Buell (1818 – 1898) who had marched overland from Nashville, Tennessee. The forces of Grant were attacked by General Albert Sidney Johnston (1803 – 1862), the Confederate commander in the West. The Union army was pushed back to the river but Grant held on until he was relieved by the regiments of General Buell. Grant then led the attack and pushed the Confederates off the field at the Battle of Shiloh, Tenn. on April 6-7, 1862.

1862 Civil War History: Importance of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi
The 1862 Civil War History also covered the
strategic and tactical importance of the Battle of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi. This region gave the South access to Texas, and through Texas to Mexico. The Union blockade were succeeding in blocking access in important Southern ports, but as long as the Confederacy could continue to maintain trade and commerce overland with Mexico, the South could struggle on. The Mississippi was also tactically important because the very size of the river, with its numerous mouths and estuaries,  made it difficult to prevent vessels from running in and out and collecting supplies. The control of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi was therefore extremely important to both the North and the South. The leaders of the Union were determined to seize New Orleans and the lower Mississippi and the command of the expedition was given to David Glasgow Farragut (1801 – 1870), admiral in the United States Navy. Farragut. (Admiral Farragut would later be remembered for the famous navy phrase "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" during the Battle of Mobile Bay, on August 5, 1864, in Alabama)

1862 Civil War History: Farragut and the Capture of New Orleans (History of May 1862)
The 1862 Civil War History continued as
Admiral Farragut led his Union fleet into the Mississippi, but found his way upstream was blocked by two forts on the river's bank. A great chain of defense stretched across the river below the forts with a fleet of Confederate river gunboats, including new Ironclad warships. Despite the ferocious opposition from Confederate cannon, Admiral Farragut and the Union fleet succeeded in passing the forts and New Orleans was forced to surrender on and the lower Mississippi was lost to the Confederacy (April 25 – May 1, 1862).

1862 Civil War History: Battle of Corinth (History of June 1862)
The Confederate forces were forced to retreat, ending their hopes that they could block the Union advance into northern Mississippi. General Halleck merged the forces of the Western Theater, joining the army of General John Pope (1822 – 1892) with forces of Grant and Buell and Corinth, Miss. was captured following the Battle of Corinth on April 29-June 10, 1862.

Civil War History: 1862 Peninsular Campaign - The Seven Days Battles (History of June 1862)
In the Civil War History the Union General
McClellan resumed the goals of the Peninsula campaign and had moved within 10 miles of the Confederate capital of Richmond. Other Union forces were kept at bay in the Shenandoah Valley by General Jackson.  Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston led his army to the defense of Richmond. On May 31, 1862 the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia clashed in a hard battle at Seven Pines. General Johnston was wounded, and Robert E. Lee took over command of the Confederates. General Lee summoned Jackson from the Shenandoah Valley and for seven days, from June 25 to July 1, 1862 attacked General McClellan. These terrible Seven Days Battles forced McClellan and the Union Army away from the Peninsula and back to the James River. The Confederate capital of Richmond was saved, and it would take the Union Army nearly three years before it finally captured it.

1862 Civil War History: Battle of Stones River, Murfreesboro (History of July 1862)
The Union General Buell was succeeded by  William Starke Rosecrans (1819 – 1898). General "Old Rosy" Rosecrans attacked General Bragg and the two armies collided at the at the Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro', Tennessee on July 13, 1862 in which the Confederates were defeated.

1862 Civil War History: The Confederates Second Bull Run Campaign (History of August 1862)
The Confederate campaign in Civil War History focused on Bull Run at
Manassas Junction in eastern Virginia. The Union Army of the Potomac was still uncomfortably near Richmond and it occurred to General Robert E. Lee that if he should strike a hard blow at the Union army in front of the capital of Washington, that President Lincoln would recall General George McClellan. The Confederates put the plan into action and suddenly, without any warning, General Jackson appeared at Manassas Junction. General McClellan was immediately ordered to transport his army by water to the Potomac, and place it under the orders of General John Pope who was commanding the Union forces in front of Washington. Lee moved faster than McClellan and before the Army of the Potomac had reached Pope, General Lee attacked the Union and on on August 28-30, 1862 the armies became engaged in the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Union army was defeated. The Confederate victory at the second Battle of Bull Run was strategically significant as Manassas was an important railroad junction and, as such, could be used to transport soldiers and supplies during the Civil War.

1862 Civil War History: The Battle of Antietam (History of September 1862)
General Robert E. Lee
crossed the Potomac and Civil War History moved into Maryland. The Union General McClellan was in charge of the Union forces which he kept between the Confederate army of Lee and the Union capital of Washington and threatened Lee's communications with Virginia. The two armies, with a combined force of  114,000 men, met at the infamous Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam received a place in Civil War history as the "bloodiest single day battle in American history". General McClellan's attacks were not well planned and the Army of the Potomac lost more than 12,000 men to less than 10,000 men on the Confederate side. General Lee was able to retreat to Virginia. President Lincoln removed General McClellan from command and and General Ambrose E. Burnside became chief of the Army of the Potomac. The Battle of Antietam prevented General Robert E. Lee's planned invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

1862 Civil War History: The First Steps toward Emancipation (History of September 1862)
The 1862 Civil War History moved from the battlefield to politics.
 President Lincoln and the Republican party believed that Congress could not interfere with slavery in the states. However, they also believed that it was lawful to buy slaves and set them free or help the states to do this and duly passed a law offering aid to any state which should abolish slavery within its borders. Congress completely abolished slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation to the owners. Congress also abolished slavery in the territories, but without compensation. President Lincoln was instrumental in making these these laws and by August, 1862, he had decided that to free the slaves in the seceded states would help "to save the Union" and would therefore be right action to take as a "war measure". The reasoning behind the "war measure" was that every Black-American slave taken away from forced labor would weaken the production of goods in the Confederacy and so make the conquest of the South easier. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation stating that on the first day of the new year he would declare all slaves free in any portion of the United States that were still in rebellion. (President Lincoln kept to his word and issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

1862 Civil War History: General Bragg invades Kentucky (Battle at Perryville, October 1862)
General Braxton Bragg (1817 – 1876), a principal Confederate commander in the Western Theater, took a large part of the Confederate army to Chattanooga. The Confederate Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith had made the decision to invade Kentucky from Eastern Tennessee. General Braxton Bragg marched rapidly across Tennessee and Kentucky to Louisville on the Ohio River. The Union General Buell was sent after him, and the two armies fought the indecisive and bloody Battle at Perryville on October 8, 1862. General Bragg was forced to retreat back to Chattanooga.

1862 Civil War History: The Battle of Fredericksburg (History of December 1862)
The 1862 Civil War History lurched from one ferocious battle to the next - this time it was the Battle of Fredericksburg located in
Fredericksburg, Va. on December 13, 1862. Nearly 17,000 men would die on that dreadful day. General Ambrose E. Burnside found General Robert E. Lee strongly posted on Marye's Heights, which rise sharply behind the small town of Fredericksburg which was on the south bank of the Rappahannock River in Virginia. General Burnside attacked, his soldiers had to cross the Rappahannock River and assault the hill in the face of a murderous fire of fire. The opposition was too fierce and the Union lost 12,500 men to only 4,500 Confederates. Major General "Fighting Joe" Hooker succeeded General Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac, ready to fight the battles of the coming year.

1862 Civil War History
So ends the major events and battles of the 1862 Civil War history - details of the major battlefields of 1862 are provided below but to continue the story click 1863 Civil War History.

 

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1862 Civil War History: Major Battlefields in 1862 (Over 500 men)
The following chart provides the details of the numbers of soldiers from the North and South who were killed, wounded, and missing in Engagements in the major battlefields in 1862 Civil War history in which over 500 men were involved in the conflict (the numbers of Confederate troops are estimated.

 
DateName of Battle and Location KilledWoundedMissingTotal
Union Loss
Total
CSA Loss
February 14-16, 1862Fort Donelson, Tenn. 4461,7351502,33115,067
March 6-8, 1862Pea Ridge, Ark. 2039721741,3495,200
March 14, 1862New-Berne, N. C. 91466-557583
March 23, 1862Winchester, Va. 10344024567691
April 6-7, 1862Shiloh, Tenn. 1,7357,8823,95613,57310,699
May 5, 1862Williamsburg, Va. 4561,4003722,2281,000
May 23, 1862Front Royal, Va. 32122750904-
May 25Winchester, Va. 38155711904-
May 31-June 1, 1862Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, Va. 8903,6271,2225,7397,997
June 8, 1862Cross Keys, Va. 125500-625287
June 9, 1862Fort Republic, Va. 673615741,002657
June 16, 1862Secessionville, James Island, S. C. 85472128685204
June 25, 1862Oak Grove, Va. 5140164516541
June 26 to July 1, 1862
Seven Days Battles
Seven Days Battles: Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mills, Chickahominy, Peach Orchard, Savage Station, Charles City Cross Roads, and Malvern Hill 1,5827,7095,95815,24917,583
July 13, 1862Murfreesboro', Tenn. 3362800895150
August 8, 1862Cedar Mountain, Va. 4506602901,4001,307
August 30, 1862Second Battle of Bull Run, Va. 8004,0003,0007,8003,700
August 30, 1862Richmond Ky. 2007004,0004,900750
September 1, 1862Chantilly, Va. ---1,300800
September 12-15, 1862Harper's Ferry, Va. 8012011,58311,783500
September 14, 1862Turner's and Crampton's Gaps, South Mountain, Md. 4431,806762,3254,343
September 14-16, 1862Munfordsville Ky. 50-3,5663,616714
September 17, 1862Antietam, Md. 2,0109,4161,04312,46925,899
September 19-20, 1862Iuka, Miss. 144598407821,516
October 3-4, 1862Corinth, Miss. 3151,8122322,35914,221
October 5, 1862Big Hatchie River, Miss. ---500400
October 8, 1862Perryville, Ky. 9162,9434894,3487,000
December 7, 1862Prairie Grove, Ark. 1677981831,1481,500
December 7, 1862Hartsville, Tenn. 55-1,8001,855149
December 12-18, 1862Foster's expedition to Goldsboro', N.C. 904789577739
December 13, 1862Fredericksburg, Va. 1,1809,0282,14512,3534,576
December 20, 1862Holly Springs, Miss. --1,0001,000-
December 27, 1862Elizabethtown, Ky. --500500-
December 28-29, 1862Chickasaw Bayou, Vicksburg, Miss. 1919827561,929207
December 31, 1862
January 2, 1863
Stone's River, Tenn. 1,5337,2452,80011,57825,560
DateName of Battle and LocationKilledWoundedMissingUnion LossCSA Loss

1862 Civil War History - President Abraham Lincoln Video
The article on the 1862 Civil War History provides an overview of this year of the American Civil War during his presidential term in office. The following Abraham Lincoln video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 16th American President whose presidency spanned from March 4, 1861 to April 15, 1865.

 

 

 

1862 Civil War History: The Second Year of Conflict
 
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