DK - The American Civil War

TIMELINE 1862

JULY 11
Lincoln appoints Henry
Halleck general-in-chief
of the Union armies.

JULY 15
The ironclad CSS
Arkansas steams
through a force of
Union ships on
the Mississippi River
at Vicksburg.

JULY 1
The Seven Days Battles
end with a costly
Confederate frontal
assault on Malvern Hill.

JULY 4
Confederate cavalry
commander John
Morgan launches a
raid deep into Union-
held Kentucky.

AUGUST 5

Confederate forces fail

in an attempt to retake

Baton Rouge, the

Louisiana state capital.

AUGUST 28

Confederate general

Braxton Bragg’s Army

of Mississippi embarks

on an invasion

of Kentucky.

SEPTEMBER 4

Lee crosses the Potomac

River to invade Maryland.

SEPTEMBER 15

The Union garrison at

Harpers Ferry surrenders

to Stonewall Jackson.

SEPTEMBER 17

The Battle of Antietam

causes the highest

casualties of a single

day’s fighting in

the war; after the

battle, Lee withdraws

into Virginia.

SEPTEMBER 22

Lincoln issues

the Preliminary

Emancipation

Proclamation,

theoretically freeing

slaves in Confederate-

held states.

OCTOBER 3–4

Union general William

Rosecrans wins a

defensive victory against

Confederate forces

under Earl Van Dorn at

Corinth, Mississippi.

OCTOBER 8

Braxton Bragg wins a

tactical victory against

Union forces at the

Battle of Perryville,

but cannot hold

Kentucky and withdraws

into Tennessee.

NOVEMBER 7

McClellan is fired by

Lincoln, who appoints

Ambrose Burnside to

command the Army of

the Potomac.

NOVEMBER 14

Lincoln approves

Burnside’s plan to

advance on Richmond.

NOVEMBER 20

Bragg is given command

of the newly formed

Army of Tennessee.

NOVEMBER 23

Halleck orders Grant to

mount a campaign to

take the Confederate

stronghold at

Vicksburg, Mississippi.

DECEMBER 13

Crossing the

Rappahannock River,

Burnside suffers a

costly defeat attacking

Confederate defenses

at the Battle of

Fredericksburg, Virginia.

DECEMBER 26–29

Major General William

Sherman, commanding

a wing of Grant’s Army

of the Tennessee,

fails in an assault on

Confederate defenses

at Chickasaw Bayou

near Vicksburg.

DECEMBER 31

Bragg’s Army of

Tennessee attacks

Union forces at Stones

River (Murfreesboro);

after heavy fighting

Bragg withdraws on

January 3, 1863.

JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER

“Lee has an army great in numbers and spirit, and I

believe he will wield it greatly. He is silent, inscrutable,

strong, like a god.”

LIEUTENANT JOHN H. CHAMBERLAYNE, VIRGINIA ARTILLERY, AUGUST 15, 1862, BEFORE THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN

Union drum

Seven Days Battles

Confederate dead at

Antietam

Kirkland memorial

commemorates

Fredericksburg

AUGUST 29–30

Lee’s Army of Northern

Virginia defeats Union

general John Pope’s

Army of Virginia at

the Second Battle of

Bull Run.

Stonewall Jackson

Burnside and staff

AUGUST 9

Stonewall Jackson repels an

attempted Union push into

Virginia at Cedar Mountain.