What were the most important battles of the Civil War?
Gettysburg tops our ranking of the Civil War's greatest battles: on 1 to 3 July 1863 it broke Lee's second invasion of the North, at a cost of about 51,000 casualties. Next come Appomattox, where Lee surrendered his army in April 1865, the siege of Vicksburg, Antietam and the fall of Atlanta.
Our fifteen battles run from the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861 to Lee's surrender at Appomattox in April 1865, on land and at sea, and they include three sieges or fights for a city that decided a campaign: Vicksburg, Petersburg and Atlanta. They are ranked by score, with most weight on how well American readers know each battle; see how we chose and ranked them. Sherman's March to the Sea is left out as a campaign with no great battle in it, and the generals are judged in our guide to the commanders of the American Civil War.1
For the rest of the story, from the Revolution to Vietnam, with every American battle on this site grouped by era, see our guide to the military history of the United States.
For the war as a whole, its causes, campaigns, human cost and legacy, see our guide to the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865.
1 Gettysburg, 1863
- Where
- Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- War
- American Civil War (Gettysburg campaign)
- Sides
- Army of the Potomac (George G. Meade) vs Army of Northern Virginia (Robert E. Lee)
- Strength
- 93,921 Union vs 71,699 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust)
- Result
- Union victory, 1 to 3 July 1863; about 51,000 killed, wounded, captured or missing
After beating the Union at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Robert E. Lee marched north for the second time, to revive Confederate morale and to draw pressure away from Vicksburg, which Grant had under siege. On 1 July his advance ran into Union cavalry west of Gettysburg, a crossroads town in Pennsylvania, and the largest battle ever fought in North America began.2
On the second day Longstreet's attack on the Union left strewed the Wheatfield with dead and overran the Peach Orchard, but the line on Cemetery Ridge held. On 3 July Lee's guns pounded it for two hours, and then 12,000 to 12,500 Confederates advanced across open fields in Pickett's Charge; only one brigade briefly reached the crest, and the attack cost Lee over 5,000 men in an hour. On 4 July, the day Vicksburg surrendered, he began his retreat. The Trust counts 51,112 casualties, 23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate; the Park Service says more than 51,000. Meade did not pursue, and Lincoln lamented: “We had only to stretch forth our hands & they were ours.” On 19 November, after Edward Everett had spoken for two hours, Lincoln dedicated the soldiers' cemetery in a speech that Everett said came nearer the point in two minutes than his own had in two hours.3
Why it ranks here: It is No. 1 because it has full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: it is the best known battle of the war, and Pickett's Charge and the Gettysburg Address are still part of American life. It ended Lee's invasion rather than the war, so decisiveness and consequence are 4; it ties Appomattox on 46, level on recognition and consequence, and goes first as the older.
2 Appomattox, 1865
- Where
- Appomattox Court House, Virginia
- War
- American Civil War (Appomattox campaign)
- Sides
- Ulysses S. Grant's Union armies vs Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
- Strength
- 63,285 Union vs 26,000 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust); the Park Service puts Lee's remaining army at about 33,000
- Result
- Union victory on 9 April 1865; Lee surrendered that afternoon; 28,231 Confederates paroled
After the Union victory at Five Forks on 1 April 1865 Lee abandoned Petersburg and Richmond and marched west along the Richmond and Danville Railroad, hoping to reach supplies and join Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina, but on 7 April Union troops captured the supplies waiting at Farmville. On the evening of 8 April, with Union cavalry across the road west, Lee and his generals decided to attack at dawn to break out.4
About 9,000 Confederates under John B. Gordon attacked before 8 a.m. on 9 April and pushed back the Union cavalry. Then nearly 25,000 Union infantry, some 5,000 of them United States Colored Troops, arrived after a forced march of more than 30 miles and closed the ring. Between 10 and 11 a.m. white flags went out. The fight cost fewer than 1,000 casualties; the Trust estimates 652. That afternoon Lee met Grant in Wilmer McLean's parlor. Grant's terms sent the Confederates home on parole, officers keeping their side arms and horses. By 15 April, 28,231 paroles had been issued. Myth vs fact: Appomattox did not end the war by itself. Johnston surrendered on 26 April, the last large Confederate force on 2 June, and President Andrew Johnson formally declared the war over only on 20 August 1866.5
Why it ranks here: It shares Gettysburg's scores: full marks for recognition, memory and certainty, because the surrender in McLean's parlor is how Americans remember the end of the war, but decisiveness and consequence 4, because the fall of Petersburg had already decided the outcome and other armies held out for weeks. Level with Gettysburg on 46, recognition and consequence, it goes second as the younger.
Read the full story of the battle of Appomattox Court House ›
3 Vicksburg, 1863
- Where
- Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the bluffs above the Mississippi River
- War
- American Civil War (Vicksburg campaign)
- Besiegers
- Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee with David D. Porter's fleet; about 70,000 men by HISTORY's count
- Defenders
- John C. Pemberton's Confederates, about 29,000 men inside the lines, with over 170 cannon
- Outcome
- Surrendered 4 July 1863 after 47 days of siege; the Union held the Mississippi
Confederate guns at Vicksburg closed the Mississippi, and Lincoln, by Admiral Porter's account, called the city the key: “The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” Pemberton's men had more than a year to ring it with earthen forts and over 170 cannon. In the spring of 1863 Porter ran his fleet past the batteries, and Grant crossed the river below the city and marched inland to cut the railroad, cutting Vicksburg off from the rest of the Confederacy.6
His assaults of 19 and 22 May failed, so from 23 May he laid siege. His men dug 15 miles of trenches around Pemberton's 29,000, the guns shelled the town, and many residents moved into tunnels dug into the hillsides. On 25 June a Union mine blew open the Third Louisiana Redan, but 26 hours of fighting with bayonets and clubbed muskets sealed the breach. Hungry, sick and stretched thin, with Johnston's relief army too late, Pemberton rode out to seek terms on 3 July, and that night Grant offered parole instead of unconditional surrender. At 10 a.m. on 4 July, the day after Gettysburg ended, the garrison marched out and stacked its arms. “The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea,” said Lincoln.7
Why it ranks here: Full marks for consequence and certainty: the surrender gave the Union the river and split the Confederacy in two. It won a region rather than the war, so decisiveness 4, and Gettysburg, which ended the day before, took most of the fame, so recognition and memory 4; at 43 it stands clear of every battle below it.
4 Antietam, 1862
- Where
- Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland
- War
- American Civil War (Maryland campaign)
- Sides
- Army of the Potomac (George B. McClellan) vs Army of Northern Virginia (Robert E. Lee)
- Strength
- 87,000 Union vs 41,000 (National Park Service) to 45,000 (American Battlefield Trust) Confederates
- Result
- Tactical draw on 17 September 1862; Lee withdrew to Virginia; 22,717 (Trust) to about 23,000 (Park Service) casualties
In September 1862 Lee carried the war north for the first time, into Maryland. Straggling had worn his army down from 55,000 to 41,000 men by the time George McClellan's 87,000 caught it behind Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg; the American Battlefield Trust gives Lee 45,000.8
The battle began at dawn on 17 September with Hooker's assault through Miller's cornfield, where, he wrote, the slain “lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks.” In the West Woods 2,200 of 5,300 Union soldiers fell in twenty minutes, and by 1 p.m. the Sunken Road had become Bloody Lane. In the afternoon Burnside's corps forced the stone bridge over the creek and was rolling up the Confederate right when A. P. Hill's division arrived from Harpers Ferry and drove it back. After twelve hours some 23,000 men were killed, wounded or missing, the bloodiest single day in American history; the Trust's estimate is 22,717, the Park Service's own table about 22,720. McClellan held a large force in reserve, and Lee slipped back across the Potomac. The verdict differs: the Trust calls it a tactical draw, the Park Service a Union victory. Either way it was enough. Five days later, on 22 September, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and Britain and France held back from an alliance with the Confederacy.9
Why it ranks here: The bloodiest day in American history and the opening for emancipation give it full marks for consequence, but the fight itself was a draw that only ended an invasion, so decisiveness 3, and its name is less known than Gettysburg's, recognition 4. It ties Atlanta on 41 and on recognition, and goes above it on consequence.
5 Atlanta, 1864
- Where
- North Georgia and the city of Atlanta
- War
- American Civil War (Atlanta campaign, May to September 1864)
- Sides
- William T. Sherman's three Union armies vs the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Joseph E. Johnston, then John B. Hood
- Strength
- 98,000 (World History Encyclopedia) to 110,000 (New Georgia Encyclopedia) Union at the start vs about 65,000 Confederates by late May
- Result
- Union victory; Hood evacuated Atlanta on 1 September and the city surrendered on 2 September 1864
Atlanta was the largest industrial, logistical and administrative center of the Confederacy outside Richmond, and four railroads met there. The South, the historian Stephen Davis writes, could win by not losing: if its armies held out until the November election, war-weary Northerners might vote Lincoln out, and the Democratic candidate might seek an armistice. In May 1864 Sherman marched south from Chattanooga against Johnston; World History Encyclopedia gives him 98,000 men, the New Georgia Encyclopedia 110,000 and roughly twice the Confederate strength.10
On 18 July Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with John B. Hood, who attacked at once. In the Battle of Atlanta proper, east of the city on 22 July, he lost about 5,500 men to the Union's 3,722 and the Union general James B. McPherson was killed. When Sherman's infantry cut the city's last railroad, the Macon and Western, near Jonesborough, Hood evacuated Atlanta on the evening of 1 September, and the city surrendered the next day. The campaign cost about 35,000 Confederate and 34,500 Union casualties, by World History Encyclopedia's count. The news helped re-elect Lincoln in November. Myth vs fact: the city did not burn when it fell. Much of downtown went up in flames in mid-November, as Sherman's army left for the sea. The siege of Atlanta is the backdrop of Gone With the Wind.11
Why it ranks here: The fall of Atlanta is one of the best known scenes of the war, recognition 4, and it doomed the Confederacy's hope of a negotiated peace, decisiveness and consequence 4. It ties Antietam on 41 and on recognition, and goes below it on consequence: it won a city and an election, not the road to emancipation.
6 Petersburg, 1864 to 1865
- Where
- Petersburg and the approaches to Richmond, Virginia
- War
- American Civil War
- Besiegers
- Ulysses S. Grant's Union armies, nearly twice the Confederate strength for most of the campaign; at least 110,000 by April 1865
- Defenders
- Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia; more than 50,000 evacuated from Richmond and Petersburg in April 1865
- Outcome
- Lines broken on 2 April 1865 after 292 days; Richmond fell on 3 April; about 42,000 Union and 28,000 Confederate casualties
By 1864 Petersburg mattered for its five railroads, which linked Richmond with the rest of the South. Grant struck at it on 15 June with about 62,000 men against some 42,000, but four days of assaults failed, and Lee's army filed into the trenches. For the next nine months Grant struck again and again at the roads and railroads to the south and west. On 30 July Pennsylvanians fired 8,000 pounds of powder at the end of a 510-foot tunnel, killing more than 300 South Carolinians, but the assault into the Crater failed.12
On 1 April Sheridan won at Five Forks, opening the way to the South Side Railroad, and at dawn on 2 April the Sixth Corps broke through southwest of the city. That night Lee told Jefferson Davis that Petersburg and Richmond must be given up, and Richmond fell on 3 April. More than 180,000 soldiers fought over the 292 days. Casualty counts vary: the Trust's headline says some 60,000, but its best estimates, 42,000 Union and 28,000 Confederate, make about 70,000 by our sum, and the Park Service gives the same two figures. Myth vs fact: it is called the longest siege in American history, but Lee was never trapped and could leave at will, so the Trust argues it was not a true siege.13
Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness and consequence: the break of 2 April cost the Confederacy its capital and led within a week to Appomattox. But Gettysburg and Vicksburg overshadow nine months of trench warfare, so recognition and memory are 3, which holds it to 40, one point below Atlanta.
7 Fort Sumter, 1861
- Where
- Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
- War
- American Civil War (opening battle)
- Sides
- Major Robert Anderson's US Army garrison vs Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate forces
- Strength
- 80 Union vs 500 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust); the Park Service counts some 6,000 Confederate troops around the harbor
- Result
- Confederate victory, 12 and 13 April 1861; the fort surrendered after a 34-hour bombardment; no one killed in the fighting
South Carolina left the Union on 20 December 1860, and Charleston, the birthplace of secession, demanded the federal forts in its harbor. Major Robert Anderson held Fort Sumter with a small garrison and dwindling supplies. In April 1861 Lincoln let the governor of South Carolina know that he would send provisions only, and the Confederate government ordered Beauregard to demand the fort's evacuation and, if refused, to reduce it. Anderson refused.14
At 4:30 a.m. on 12 April a mortar shell from Fort Johnson burst over the fort, the signal for the batteries around the harbor to open fire. Short of cartridges, Anderson's men waited until about 7 a.m. to reply; Captain Abner Doubleday fired the first Union shot. On the second morning hot shot set the quarters on fire, and that afternoon Anderson accepted terms. In the 34-hour bombardment more than 3,000 shells had been fired at the fort, yet no one had been killed. The first lives came on 14 April, when a spark set off a charge during the garrison's salute to its flag. Private Daniel Hough was killed and another man died later of his wounds. Anderson's men sailed to New York and were greeted as heroes, and both North and South called for volunteers.15
Why it ranks here: Every American reader knows where the war began, so recognition 5 and memory 4, but the bombardment killed no one and decided nothing on the field, so decisiveness 1, and it opened a war the secession crisis had already made likely, so consequence 4. Its fame keeps it above First Bull Run; its empty field result keeps it below the battles that decided campaigns.
8 First Bull Run, 1861
- Where
- Bull Run, near Manassas Junction, Virginia
- War
- American Civil War
- Sides
- Irvin McDowell's Union army vs the Confederate armies of P. G. T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston
- Strength
- 28,450 Union vs 32,230 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust); McDowell marched out with 35,000 (National Park Service)
- Result
- Confederate victory on 21 July 1861; 2,896 Union and 1,982 Confederate casualties; the Union army routed to Washington
In July 1861 McDowell's army of 35,000 green recruits marched out of Washington to take Richmond and end the war. Its target was Manassas Junction, where the Orange and Alexandria Railroad met the Manassas Gap line to the Shenandoah Valley, and 22,000 Confederates under Beauregard guarded the fords of Bull Run in front of it. Joseph E. Johnston's army slipped away from the Valley by train; the Park Service counts 12,000 men carried on the Manassas Gap Railroad, in one of the first uses of rails to move an army to battle.16
On 21 July two Union divisions crossed at Sudley Ford and came down behind the Confederate left. On Henry Hill Thomas J. Jackson's 2,500 Virginians held, and General Bee rallied his men to Jackson standing “like a Stonewall”; Bee was killed, but the name stuck. The Confederates captured the Union guns on the hill, and the whole Union army began to fall back. The retreat became a rout on a road jammed with the carriages of congressmen and others who had driven out to watch, and by daybreak on 22 July the beaten army was back behind the defenses of Washington. The Union lost 2,896 men and the Confederates 1,982. In the Trust's words, it forced both sides to face the sobering reality that the war would be long and bloody.17
Why it ranks here: The first great battle and the birth of Stonewall Jackson's name keep recognition and memory at 4, but it showed that a long war lay ahead rather than deciding one, so decisiveness and consequence 3. It ties Shiloh on 37, level on recognition and consequence, and goes first as the older.
9 Shiloh, 1862
- Where
- Pittsburg Landing, Hardin County, southwestern Tennessee
- War
- American Civil War, Western Theater
- Sides
- Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee and Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio vs Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of the Mississippi
- Strength
- 65,085 Union vs 44,968 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust); nearly 40,000 vs nearly 44,000 on the first day (National Park Service)
- Result
- Union victory, 6 and 7 April 1862; 23,746 casualties, Johnston killed
After the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, Grant camped his army at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, 22 miles from the rail junction at Corinth, Mississippi, to wait for Buell. Johnston, with nearly 44,000 men, meant to smash him first, and at daybreak on Sunday 6 April his corps burst into the Union camps around a log church called Shiloh Meeting House. The old story has Union soldiers bayoneted asleep in their tents; in fact a patrol sent out by Colonel Everett Peabody found the Confederates first, and every Union unit met the attack in front of its camp.18
All day Grant's divisions gave ground, making a stand in a thicket the survivors named the Hornets' Nest. In mid-afternoon Johnston was hit in the leg and bled to death. Buell arrived overnight, and on 7 April more than 54,500 Federals drove barely 34,000 Confederates back toward Corinth. The two days cost 23,746 killed, wounded and missing: 13,047 Union and 10,669 Confederate. By the National Park Service's reckoning that eclipsed the casualties of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. Critics wanted Grant dismissed; the American Battlefield Trust quotes Lincoln's answer: “I can't spare this man, he fights.”19
Why it ranks here: Shiloh ended the belief, North and South, that the war would be short, and the name is still known as the first great slaughter of the war, so recognition and memory 4; it decided the campaign for western Tennessee rather than the war, so decisiveness and consequence 3. It ties First Bull Run on 37 points, equal on recognition and consequence, and goes below it as the younger.20
10 Chattanooga, 1863
- Where
- Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, Hamilton County, Tennessee
- War
- American Civil War, Western Theater
- Sides
- Ulysses S. Grant's Military Division of the Mississippi vs Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee
- Strength
- 72,500 Union vs 48,900 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust)
- Result
- Union victory, 23 to 25 November 1863; siege broken, Bragg driven into Georgia
Beaten at Chickamauga in September 1863, the Union Army of the Cumberland fell back into Chattanooga, and Bragg besieged it from Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, cutting its supply line and hoping to starve it into surrender. On 17 October Grant was given command of all the Union forces in the West. He replaced Rosecrans with George Thomas, who promised “we will hold the town till we starve,” and opened the “Cracker Line” to bring food across the Tennessee River.21
On 24 November Hooker swept the Confederates off Lookout Mountain in the fight remembered as the Battle Above the Clouds; the name came later from the fog that hid the slopes, and there was no fighting on the summit. On 25 November Sherman stalled at Tunnel Hill, and Grant sent Thomas against the rifle pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge. Having taken them, the men kept climbing against Grant's orders and broke Bragg's center. The Army of Tennessee fled into Georgia, and a Confederate officer later called it “the death knell of the Confederacy.” The American Battlefield Trust estimates 5,824 Union and about 8,000 Confederate casualties. Chattanooga became the base for Sherman's march on Atlanta in 1864, and on 9 March 1864 Grant received his commission as lieutenant general, with command of all the Union armies.22
Why it ranks here: It broke a siege, opened the road into Georgia that led to Atlanta and carried Grant to command of every Union army, so decisiveness and consequence 4; but it is less known to readers than the battles above it, so recognition and memory 3. It stands alone on 36 points, one below Shiloh and one above Hampton Roads.
11 Hampton Roads, 1862
- Where
- Hampton Roads, off Newport News and Norfolk, Virginia
- War
- American Civil War, Union blockade
- Fleets
- CSS Virginia and supporting Confederate vessels vs the Union blockading squadron and, on 9 March, USS Monitor
- Strength
- About 1,400 Union vs 188 Confederate sailors, by the American Battlefield Trust’s count
- Result
- Ironclad duel of 9 March a draw; the Union lost two warships on 8 March and 261 killed in the two days
When Union forces abandoned the Gosport Navy Yard at Portsmouth in April 1861, they scuttled and burned the steam frigate Merrimack. The Confederates raised her, covered her with an iron casemate mounting ten guns, fitted a 1,500 pound iron ram and renamed her CSS Virginia. On 8 March 1862 she steamed into Hampton Roads against the wooden ships of the blockade. She rammed USS Cumberland, which sank with 121 sailors, and shelled USS Congress until she caught fire and struck her flag.23
That night John Ericsson's USS Monitor arrived: a deck only 18 inches above the water and a revolving turret with two 11-inch Dahlgren guns. On 9 March the two ironclads fought at close range for about four hours, and their shots glanced off each other's armor; the Virginia withdrew to Norfolk and the battle ended in a draw. The Union navy lost 261 killed in the two days, and 8 March stayed its bloodiest day until Pearl Harbor. The Monitor saved the blockade and freed McClellan to move up the Virginia Peninsula; two months later the retreating Confederates scuttled the Virginia, and the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras at the end of the year. The National Park Service writes that the two ships “ushered in a new era in naval warfare.”24
Why it ranks here: The world's first battle between ironclad warships is known far beyond the war and changed how navies were built, so recognition, consequence and memory 4, but the duel itself decided nothing, so decisiveness 1, scored as in our naval guide. It ties Chancellorsville on 35 points and recognition, and goes above it on consequence.25
12 Chancellorsville, 1863
- Where
- Spotsylvania County, Virginia, west of Fredericksburg
- War
- American Civil War, Eastern Theater
- Sides
- Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia vs Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac
- Strength
- About 60,000 Confederates vs about 130,000 Union troops (National Park Service); 57,352 vs 97,382 engaged (American Battlefield Trust)
- Result
- Confederate victory, 30 April to 6 May 1863; Stonewall Jackson mortally wounded
At the end of April 1863 Hooker sent most of his infantry 40 miles upstream, across the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, to sweep against Lee's left flank; the National Park Service puts his strength at 130,000 well-equipped men against Lee's 60,000. The American Battlefield Trust counts 97,382 Union and 57,352 Confederate troops engaged. Instead of retreating, Lee divided his smaller army, and on 2 May Stonewall Jackson led about 30,000 men on a march of more than 12 miles around the Union right.26
At about 5 p.m. Jackson's men burst out of the woods, shattered the Union Eleventh Corps and drove the line back more than two miles. That night, riding ahead of his lines, Jackson was taken for Union cavalry and shot by his own troops; his left arm was amputated and he died on 10 May. Hooker pulled back across the river, and his army was back in Stafford County on 6 May. He had lost 17,304 men and Lee 13,460, by the Trust's count; the Park Service notes that Lee's losses were 22 percent of his army, Hooker's only 13 percent of his. The Park Service calls it, with some irony, “Lee's greatest victory”: within six weeks his army was marching north, toward Gettysburg.27
Why it ranks here: Lee's boldest win over an army almost twice his size is famous, recognition 4, but it opened the road to Gettysburg rather than deciding the war, and cost him Jackson, so decisiveness, consequence and memory 3, scored as in our against the odds guide. It ties Hampton Roads on 35 points and recognition, and goes below it on consequence.28
13 Seven Days, 1862
- Where
- East of Richmond, Virginia, from Mechanicsville to Malvern Hill
- War
- American Civil War, Peninsula campaign
- Sides
- Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia vs George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac
- Strength
- Lee’s 65,000 plus Jackson’s 20,000 (National Park Service) vs more than 100,000 (National Park Service) to nearly 120,000 Union (American Battlefield Trust)
- Result
- Confederate strategic victory, 25 June to 1 July 1862; Richmond saved
By mid-May 1862 McClellan's army, which had landed at Fort Monroe and fought its way up the peninsula, lay on the outskirts of Richmond. When Joseph E. Johnston fell wounded at Seven Pines on 31 May, Jefferson Davis gave his army to Robert E. Lee, who had never commanded an army in the field. Lee ringed the capital with earthworks, earning the mocking name “King of Spades,” and called Stonewall Jackson's 20,000 men from the Shenandoah Valley.29
From 26 June Lee attacked again and again: at Beaver Dam Creek he lost more than 1,500 men to 450 Federal, and at Gaines' Mill on 27 June 15,000 men fell in less than half a day, but the Union line broke. McClellan retreated toward the James River, fighting rearguard battles at Savage's Station and Glendale, and on 1 July his artillery on Malvern Hill cut down the Confederate assaults; “It was not war,” wrote General D. H. Hill, “it was murder.” Malvern Hill was a Union victory, but the drive on Richmond was over and the city was safe. William Miller, writing for the American Battlefield Trust, counts more than 34,000 casualties, about 19,000 Confederate and 15,000 Union, which made it the bloodiest week in American history so far.30
Why it ranks here: Lee's first campaign drove the largest army America had yet raised away from the Confederate capital and gave the South a new life, so decisiveness 4; but the war went on much as before, consequence 3, and the name is less known than the battles above it, recognition and memory 3. It ties Mobile Bay on 34 points, equal on recognition and consequence, and goes above it as the older.31
14 Mobile Bay, 1864
- Where
- Entrance to Mobile Bay, between Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, Alabama
- War
- American Civil War, Union blockade of the Gulf coast
- Fleets
- David G. Farragut's fleet of four monitors and more than a dozen wooden ships vs Franklin Buchanan's ironclad CSS Tennessee and three gunboats, with the forts
- Strength
- About 5,500 Union vs 1,500 Confederate in the whole operation, ships and forts (American Battlefield Trust)
- Result
- Union victory, 5 August 1864; Tennessee surrendered, the forts fell by 23 August
By the summer of 1864 Mobile was one of the last Confederate ports open to blockade runners. Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines guarded the entrance, a triple line of mines, then called torpedoes, filled most of the channel, and inside waited Admiral Buchanan, once of the Virginia, with the ironclad Tennessee. Farragut would run past the forts in two columns, monitors nearest Fort Morgan, wooden ships lashed in pairs.32
On the morning of 5 August the monitor Tecumseh struck a mine and went down, by Craig Symonds' account in barely 25 seconds, taking 94 men with her. With the column stalling under the fort's guns, Farragut, lashed in the rigging of his flagship Hartford, took her past the Brooklyn and straight through the minefield. Whether he said “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” is uncertain: Symonds and the Encyclopedia of Alabama say only that he purportedly or reportedly did, and Symonds notes he could hardly have stopped. The Union ships quickly put the Confederate gunboats out of the fight, and about 10 a.m. Buchanan, wounded, surrendered the Tennessee and her crew of 190. The fight in the bay cost the Union 315 casualties against 32 Confederate. The forts fell on 8 and 23 August, but the city held out until 12 April 1865. With Atlanta, the victory helped re-elect Lincoln in November.33
Why it ranks here: Farragut closed the port, not the city, so decisiveness and consequence 3, but the words tradition gives him keep the battle alive in American speech, so memory 4, above its recognition of 3. It ties the Seven Days on 34 points, equal on recognition and consequence, and goes below them as the younger.34
15 Fredericksburg, 1862
- Where
- Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock River, Virginia
- War
- American Civil War, Eastern Theater
- Sides
- Ambrose E. Burnside's Army of the Potomac vs Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
- Strength
- 123,000 Union vs 78,000 Confederate engaged (American Battlefield Trust)
- Result
- Confederate victory, 11 to 15 December 1862; Burnside withdrew across the river
McClellan's successor, Burnside, planned a dash across the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg toward Richmond, but his pontoon bridges arrived late, and by the time his engineers laid them under fire on 11 December, Lee's army was dug in on the heights behind the town. With nearly 200,000 men on the field, the American Battlefield Trust counts it the largest number in any Civil War battle.35
On 13 December Meade's division briefly broke Jackson's line before being thrown back. On the Union right, Burnside sent brigade after brigade across 400 yards of open ground at Marye's Heights, where Confederates four ranks deep fired from the Sunken Road behind a stone wall. “A chicken could not live on that field,” one Confederate gunner had boasted. Fifteen Union brigades charged that day, and no Union soldier reached the wall. Watching, Lee said, “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.” The Union lost about 12,600 men by the National Park Service's count and more than 12,500 by the Trust's, almost two thirds of them before the wall; Lee lost about 5,300 by the Park Service's count, about 6,000 by the Trust's. Burnside withdrew across the river on 15 December; six weeks later Lincoln replaced him with Hooker.36
Why it ranks here: The slaughter before the stone wall and Lee's words keep Fredericksburg famous, recognition and memory 4, but in the Park Service's words it made no decisive impact on the war and only postponed the next march on Richmond until spring, so decisiveness and consequence 2. It ties Fort Donelson on 33 points and takes the last place on recognition.37
How we chose and ranked these battles of the American Civil War
We counted a land or naval battle of the American Civil War, from the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861 to Lee's surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. A siege, or a fight of several weeks for one city, counts when it decided a campaign, as at Vicksburg, Petersburg and Atlanta; Sherman's March to the Sea is left out because it was a campaign of destruction with no great battle in it, and the fighting that opened it is ranked as Atlanta. The generals who fought these battles are judged in our guide to the commanders of the American Civil War, and Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Antietam are weighed against the rest of the nation's wars in the greatest battles in American history.38
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which battles of the Civil War are the greatest and best known, and we judge it by American readers, for whom this war is a national story; decisiveness, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of decisive battles, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Decisiveness (×2). 5 if it decided a war or the fate of a state, 3 if it decided a campaign, 1 if it settled nothing beyond the day itself.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it changed the map or the course of history for generations, 1 if it changed nothing beyond the war.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a national day, a monument, a proverb, a march, a famous work of art), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why Fredericksburg, one of the most famous Union defeats of the war, is only fifteenth: the slaughter before the stone wall at Marye's Heights ended the 1862 campaign in the East and only postponed the next march on Richmond until spring.39
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Decisiveness ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gettysburg | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 2 | Appomattox | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 3 | Vicksburg | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 43 |
| 4 | Antietam | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 5 | Atlanta | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 6 | Petersburg | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 40 |
| 7 | Fort Sumter | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 38 |
| 8 | First Bull Run | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 37 |
| 9 | Shiloh | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 37 |
| 10 | Chattanooga | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 36 |
| 11 | Hampton Roads | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 35 |
| 12 | Chancellorsville | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 35 |
| 13 | Seven Days | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 34 |
| 14 | Mobile Bay | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 34 |
| 15 | Fredericksburg | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 33 |
Close calls
Five battles came close and did not make the fifteen:
Fort Donelson, 1862. Grant's reply to the garrison, “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted,” took the fort on 16 February 1862 with more than 12,000 prisoners, by the American Battlefield Trust's count, and opened the way for Union advances up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Decisiveness and consequence score 4, but few readers beyond Civil War enthusiasts know the name, recognition 2: it ties Fredericksburg on 33 points and misses the fifteen on recognition.40
Second Bull Run, 1862. Lee's 55,000 beat John Pope's 70,000 on 28 to 30 August 1862, by the Trust's count, and drove the Union army back across Bull Run; on 5 September Lee crossed the Potomac into Maryland, but the invasion ended at Antietam on 17 September. Decisiveness and consequence score 3, for 32 points, one short of the fifteen.41
The Wilderness, 1864. The first clash of Grant and Lee, 5 to 7 May 1864, was fought in dense thickets and ended with neither side able to claim victory; the Union lost more than 17,500 men in 48 hours. Its meaning came after it, when Grant, who had promised Lincoln he would not halt, marched south instead of retreating. Decisiveness and consequence score 3, for 32 points.42
Nashville, 1864. George Thomas's 55,000 broke John Bell Hood's 30,000 on 15 and 16 December 1864; after six months of campaigning, the Trust writes, the Army of Tennessee had lost nearly three quarters of its fighting force and ceased to be a serious threat. That earns decisiveness 5, but the war in the West had already been decided at Atlanta and few readers know the battle, recognition and memory 2, for 31 points.43
Spotsylvania, 1864. From 8 to 21 May 1864 Grant tried again and again to break Lee's line; at the Bloody Angle on 12 May the fighting went on hand to hand for 22 hours in pouring rain. The battle cost about 18,000 Union and 12,000 Confederate casualties, but neither army broke and Grant marched on south. Decisiveness 2, for 30 points, below the Wilderness, which began the same campaign.44
Why is Appomattox on the list, but not the Wilderness, Spotsylvania or the March to the Sea?
Because the list now follows scores and a stated scope. The Wilderness and Spotsylvania, both on earlier versions of this guide, fall just short of the fifteen and are now close calls; the March to the Sea had no great battle in it; and Appomattox was a real battle, fought on the morning Lee surrendered.
The Wilderness and Spotsylvania opened Grant's Overland Campaign in May 1864 and were among the bloodiest battles of the war: the American Battlefield Trust puts their casualties at about 29,800 and 31,000, and at Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle the fighting went on hand to hand for 22 hours. The Trust calls both inconclusive, and after each Grant marched on south instead of retreating. Their weight lies in that refusal to turn back, which led to the siege of Petersburg, ranked sixth; on their own they score 32 and 30 points.45
Sherman's March to the Sea, from Atlanta on 15 November to Savannah on 21 December 1864, would score 43 points, as many as Vicksburg, but it is out by scope. The New Georgia Encyclopedia calls it the most destructive campaign against a civilian population in the war and counts only two battles of any significance on the way, at Griswoldville and Fort McAllister; the American Battlefield Trust calls Griswoldville the only real combat of the march. It was a campaign aimed at the South's will to fight, not a battle, and the fighting that opened the road to it is ranked as Atlanta.46
Appomattox counts as a battle, not only a surrender. On the morning of 9 April 1865 about 9,000 Confederates under John B. Gordon attacked the Union cavalry blocking the road west, and only the arrival of nearly 25,000 Union infantry closed the ring; the National Park Service counts fewer than 1,000 casualties and calls the battle decisive. It ranks second, level with Gettysburg on 46 points, because the surrender that followed is how Americans remember the end of the war, though other Confederate armies held out until late April and June.47
What was the turning point of the Civil War?
Early July 1863 is the usual answer. Lee's invasion of the North was broken at Gettysburg on 1 to 3 July, and on 4 July Vicksburg surrendered and gave the Union the Mississippi; the National Park Service writes that the two together marked the turning point of the war. Victory still took almost two more years. In 1864 Grant held Lee in Virginia from the Wilderness to Petersburg while Sherman took Atlanta, and the fall of Atlanta helped re-elect Lincoln in November. Rifled weapons, railroads, ironclads and trenches made it a war that foreshadowed the industrial battles to come; for these battles against the rest of the nation's wars, see the greatest battles in American history.48
More from this war on Echoes of Battle: The Battle of Fort Donelson, The Battle of Perryville, The Second Battle of Fort Wagner, The Battle of Chickamauga, The Battle of Cold Harbor, The Siege of Petersburg, The Battle of Mobile Bay, Sherman's March to the Sea, The Battle of Appomattox Court House
