10 of the Civil War's Deadliest Clashes

For 47 days, Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant fought an intense battle against an entrenched Confederate army at Vicksburg. But it wasn’t Grant’s first attempt at taking over the key port city. In the winter of 1862-63, the Union general failed to overtake Vicksburg. His effort in the spring was successful. Due to its location along the Mississippi River, Vicksburg provided an essential supply route for the Confederacy. By gaining control of the city, the Union cut off that supply line. Abraham Lincoln termed the Vicksburg victory “the key to the war.”

The Second Battle of Bull Run (also known as the Battle of Second Manassas) proved to be a major victory for the South and General Robert E. Lee. However, it cost more than 1,000 Confederate lives. Commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, Lee beat numerically superior forces led by Union Major General John Pope and General George McClellan. Lee’s victory enabled him to take his army across the Potomac and into western Maryland, where he and McClellan would battle again at Antietam.

In September of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln was planning to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, but he needed a Union victory to bolster his support. On Sept. 17, tRobert E. Lee and George McClellan were once again pitted against each other at Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Union declared victory in the bloodiest one-day battle in U.S. history until World War II. Despite the toll, the Union win gave Lincoln the victory he needed to release his proclamation.

After their defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Union Army was in desperate need of a victory. When Union forces led by Major General William Rosecrans clashed with a Confederate army commanded by General Braxton Bragg, the two sides battled back and forth near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. On Jan. 2, 1863, Union forces achieved a much-needed victory.

An early battle in the Civil War, the Battle of Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee was one of the deadliest. The Confederate army scored an initial victory against Ulysses S. Grant’s Union army in a surprise attack. But a Union counterattack proved decisive. The battle gets its name from Shiloh Church near which the fighting occurred.

General Robert E. Lee cemented his reputation as a tactical expert at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. By splitting his army into two forces, he defeated an army twice the size of his led by Union General Joseph Hooker. The battle is also famous for having been the last fought by Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, who was shot during the fighting and succumbed to pneumonia eight days later.

Newly appointed General in Chief of the Union Army Ulysses S. Grant confronted General Robert E. Lee in the dense woods in northern Virginia known as the Wilderness. The thick brush negated the Union’s numerical advantage, but after two days of fierce fighting, the battle was considered a draw. Grant, however, refused to retreat and continued his march toward the Confederate capital of Richmond.

After the Battle of the Wilderness, Confederate and Union forces clashed again at the Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia. Over 12 days, Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia battled as both sides inflicted huge losses. But the battle was ultimately considered a stalemate as Grant disengaged his troops. Yet Grant kept up his march on the Confederate capital, forcing Lee to order his troops to deploy between the Union forces and Richmond.

The Army of Tennessee led by General Braxton Bragg initially defeated a force commanded by Union General William Rosecrans at Chickamauga, Georgia. When Bragg failed to build on the initial success, he allowed the Federal troops to reach Chattanooga. Reinforced by troops led by Ulysses S. Grant, the Union overtook Chickamauga, reversing what could have been a decisive victory for the South.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the pivotal battle of the Civil War. After his victory at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia marched into the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There, Lee’s army clashed with Federal troops led by General George G. Meade. Both sides suffered heavy losses. But when Lee’s troops failed to break the Union line at Cemetery Ridge, the Southern general retreated on July 4 and his advance on the North was halted.