When Abraham Lincoln denounced secession during his Inaugural Address and vowed to hold all federal property in the South, everyone knew he was referring to Fort Sumter.  Most federal installa...

General Winfield Scott wanted to wait.  He didn’t think much of the flood of volunteers that had rushed to enlist following Fort Sumter.  They needed months of training before they coul...

Following the fiasco at Bull Run, General George McClellan was given command of the Army of the Potomac.  He promptly set about training this army outside Washington, D.C., refusing to mount a...

The South had no navy.  Throughout the war it suffered under the blockade set up by Union ships.  But on 8 March 1862, Southern naval engineers unveiled a new ship that threatened the nav...

After the fiasco at Bull Run, Union General McClellan had insisted that his army be thoroughly trained before sent into action.  By April 1862, however, Lincoln had grown tired of watching his...

Now it was the South’s turn to take the offensive. After Union General McClellan failed to take Richmond, Confederate officials plotted to recapture lost territory in the West and threaten Washin...

After Antietam, Lincoln had had enough of McClellan.  Rather than push the attack a second day or pursue the retreating Lee, McClellan had chosen his customary caution. Lincoln, therefore, fir...

After the disaster at Fredericksburg, Burnside and his distinctive whiskers (Burnside/Sideburns) were dispatched to the western theater and boozing, blustering Joe Hooker was given command of the U...

All through traffic on the Mississippi River was controlled by the Confederate fortress at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Situated atop seemingly insurmountable cliffs, the fort and its big guns det...

Lee’s first venture into the North had ended in failure. Unable to win at Antietam, he had failed to crush Northerners’ will to fight and he had failed to convince Great Britain to extend diplo...

Finally Lincoln had the commander he wanted. Grant’s success in the West, coupled with McClellan’s, Burnside’s, Hooker’s, and Meade’s failures in the East, led the frustrated president to...

In the spring of 1864, while Grant relentlessly pursued Lee through Virginia, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman left Chattanooga, Tennessee with his sights set on Atlanta.   His army of 1...

For man than a month, Grant and Lee had fought almost daily battles.  Grant used his 100,000 man army to pound the Confederate lines, but Lee’s undersized army had not broken.  Both arm...