WThe Battle of Camp Allegheny, also known as the Battle of Allegheny Mountain, took place on December 13, 1861, in Pocahontas County, Virginia, about 3 miles from the mountainous border of Highland County, Virginia, as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. The battle was a small brigade-level conflict, and while the Confederates technically won with a Union withdrawal, it was considered militarily indecisive. However, it had critical implications for the future border of Virginia and West Virginia, ensuring Highland County remained in Confederate hands and would not be involved in the formation of the future state of West Virginia.
WThe Battle of Aquia Creek was an exchange of cannon fire between Union Navy gunboats and Confederate shore batteries on the Potomac River at its confluence with Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia. The battle took place from May 29, 1861 to June 1, 1861 during the early days of the American Civil War. The Confederates set up several shore batteries to block Union military and commercial vessels from moving in the Chesapeake Bay and along the lower Potomac River as well as for defensive purposes. The battery at Aquia also was intended to protect the railroad terminal at that location. The Union forces sought to destroy or remove these batteries as part of the effort to blockade Confederate States coastal and Chesapeake Bay ports. The battle was tactically inconclusive. Each side inflicted little damage and no serious casualties on the other. The Union vessels were unable to dislodge the Confederates from their positions or to inflict serious casualties on their garrisons or serious damage to their batteries. The Confederates manning the batteries were unable to inflict serious casualties on the Union sailors or cause serious damage to the Union vessels. Soon after the battle, on Sunday, July 7, 1861, the Confederates first used naval mines, unsuccessfully, off the Aquia Landing batteries. The Confederates ultimately abandoned the batteries on March 9, 1862 as they moved forces to meet the threat created by the Union Army's Peninsula Campaign. The U. S. National Park Service includes this engagement in its list of 384 principal battles of the American Civil War.
WThe Battle of Athens was an American Civil War skirmish that took place in northeast Missouri in 1861 near present Revere and southeast Iowa along the Des Moines River across from Croton. The Union victory has the distinction of being the most northerly of Civil War Battles fought west of the Mississippi, and also of being the only such battle fought along the Iowa border.
WThe Baltimore riot of 1861 was a civil conflict on Friday, April 19, 1861, on Pratt Street, in Baltimore, Maryland. It occurred between antiwar "Copperhead" Democrats and other Southern/Confederate sympathizers on one side, and on the other, members of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania state militia regiments en route to the national capital at Washington who had been called up for federal service. The fighting began at the President Street Station, spreading throughout President Street and subsequently to Howard Street, where it ended at the Camden Street Station. The riot produced the first deaths by hostile action in the American Civil War and is nicknamed the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War".
WThe Battle of Ball's Bluff was an early battle of the American Civil War fought in Loudoun County, Virginia, on October 21, 1861, in which Union Army forces under Major General George B. McClellan suffered a humiliating defeat.
WThe Battle of Barbourville was one of the early engagements of the American Civil War. It took place on September 19, 1861, in Knox County, Kentucky during the campaign known as the Kentucky Confederate Offensive. The battle is considered the first Confederate victory in the commonwealth, and threw a scare into Federal commanders, who rushed troops to central Kentucky to try to repel the invasion, which was finally stopped at the Battle of Camp Wildcat in October.
WThe Battle of Belmont was fought on November 7, 1861 in Mississippi County, Missouri. It was the first combat test in the American Civil War for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the future Union Army general in chief and eventual U.S. president, who was fighting Major General Leonidas Polk. Grant's troops in this battle were the "nucleus" of what would become the Union Army of the Tennessee.
WThe Battle of Big Bethel was one of the earliest land battles of the American Civil War. It took place on the Virginia Peninsula, near Newport News, on June 10, 1861.
WThe First Battle of Boonville was a minor skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on June 17, 1861, near Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri. Although casualties were extremely light, the battle's strategic impact was far greater than one might assume from its limited nature. The Union victory established what would become an unbroken Federal control of the Missouri River, and helped to thwart efforts to bring Missouri into the Confederacy.
WThe Battle of Carthage, also known as the Engagement near Carthage, took place at the beginning of the American Civil War on July 5, 1861, near Carthage, Missouri. The experienced Colonel Franz Sigel commanded 1,100 Federal soldiers intent on keeping Missouri within the Union. The Missouri State Guard was commanded by Governor Claiborne F. Jackson himself and numbered over 4,000 soldiers led by a hero of Mexico, Sterling Price, along with 2,000 unarmed troops who did not participate in the battle.
WThe Battle of Dranesville was a small battle during the American Civil War that took place between Confederate forces under Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart and Union forces under Brigadier General Edward O. C. Ord on December 20, 1861, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as part of Major General George B. McClellan's operations in northern Virginia. The two forces on similar winter time patrols encountered and engaged one another in the crossroads village of Dranesville. The battle resulted in a Union victory.
WThe Battle of Pensacola was a battle between the Confederate States of America troops occupying Pensacola Bay and the Union fleet under Harvey Brown. The Confederates retained control of the city and its forts after months of siege.
WThe Battle of Port Royal was one of the earliest amphibious operations of the American Civil War, in which a United States Navy fleet and United States Army expeditionary force captured Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, between Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, on November 7, 1861. The sound was guarded by two forts on opposite sides of the entrance, Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island to the south and Fort Beauregard on Phillip's Island to the north. A small force of four gunboats supported the forts, but did not materially affect the battle.
WThe Battle of Santa Rosa Island was an unsuccessful Confederate attempt to take Union-held Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, Florida.
WThe Big Sandy Expedition was an early campaign of the American Civil War in Kentucky that began in mid-September 1861 when Union Brig. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson received orders to organize a new brigade at Maysville, Kentucky and conduct an expedition into the Big Sandy Valley region of Eastern Kentucky and stop the build-up of Confederate forces under Col. John S. Williams. This was done in three phases. From September 21 to October 20, 1861, Nelson assembled a brigade of 5,500 Union volunteers from Ohio and Kentucky. On October 23, the southern prong secured Hazel Green and the northern prong West Liberty. The two prongs were consolidated at Salyersville and they began the final phase on October 31. This led to the Battle of Ivy Mountain on November 8 and the withdrawal of Confederate forces from Pikeville (Piketon) on November 9, 1861.
WThe action at Blue Mills Landing, also known as the Battle of Liberty, was a battle of the American Civil War that took place on September 17, 1861, in Clay County, Missouri. Union forces unsuccessfully attempted to prevent pro-Southern Missouri State Guards from northwestern Missouri from crossing the Missouri River near the confluence with the Blue River to reinforce Sterling Price at Lexington.
WThe Camp Jackson affair, also known as the Camp Jackson massacre, occurred during the American Civil War on May 10, 1861, when a volunteer Union Army regiment captured a unit of secessionists at Camp Jackson, outside the city of St. Louis, in the divided slave state of Missouri.
WThe Battle of Camp Wildcat was one of the early engagements of the American Civil War. It occurred October 21, 1861, in northern Laurel County, Kentucky during the campaign known as the Kentucky Confederate Offensive or Operations in Eastern Kentucky (1861). The battle is considered one of the first Union victories of the Civil War, and marked the second engagement of troops in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
WThe Battle of Canada Alamosa as it was known to the Union Army, or Alamosa as it was known to the Confederates, was a skirmish of the American Civil War on the late evening of September 24 and the morning of September 25, 1861. It was one of several small battles that occurred in Confederate Arizona near the border with Union held New Mexico Territory, this one being the largest.
WThe Battle of Carnifex Ferry took place on September 10, 1861 in Nicholas County, Virginia, as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. The battle resulted in a Union strategic victory that contributed to the eventual Confederate withdrawal from western Virginia, which in turn led to the creation of the State of West Virginia two years later.
WThe Battle of Charleston, also known as the Battle of Bird's Point, was a minor clash in Charleston, Missouri, United States during the American Civil War. On August 19, 1861, Union forces led by Col. Henry Dougherty were able to destroy a Confederate camp. There had been a number of clashes in the Charleston and Bird's Point area for the previous week between pro-Union forces and secession groups.
WThe Battle of Cheat Mountain, also known as the Battle of Cheat Summit Fort, took place from September 12 to 15, 1861, in Pocahontas County and Randolph County, Virginia as part of the Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of the Civil War in which Robert E. Lee led troops into combat. During the battle, Lee attempted to surround the Union garrison atop Cheat Mountain, but the attack was never launched, due to false information from prisoners and poor communications among the various Confederate commands.
WThe Battle of Corrick's Ford took place on July 13, 1861, on the Cheat River in western Virginia as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War. By later standards the battle was a minor skirmish. Often considered a final part of the Battle of Rich Mountain, it was the end of a series of battles between the forces of Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and Confederate Brig. Gen. Robert S. Garnett.
WThe town of Dedham, Massachusetts participated in the American Civil War primarily through the 630 men who served in the United States Armed Forces during the war. A total of 46 men would die in the war, including in battle, from disease, from wounds sustained in battle, and in prisoner of war camps. The Town of Dedham supported the soldiers and their families both through appropriations raised by taxes, and through donations of supplies sent to the front lines.
WCharles Didier Dreux was the first Confederate field officer killed during the Civil War. He was the son of Guy Dreux and Léontine Arnoult. Prior to the Civil War, Dreux had served as district attorney and a member of the Louisiana state legislature. 30,000 mourners attended his funeral in New Orleans. He is buried in Metairie Cemetery.
WThe Battle of Dry Wood Creek, also known as the Battle of the Mules, was fought on September 2, 1861, in Vernon County, Missouri, during the American Civil War. After his victory at the Battle of Wilson's Creek on August 10, Sterling Price and the Missouri State Guard moved further north into Missouri. A force of Union troops under James H. Lane moved from Fort Scott, Kansas to attempt an interception of Price's army, and set an ambush along Dry Wood Creek. Price's Missouri State Guard troops outnumbered Lane's Kansas troops, and after a two hour skirmish forced Lane to retreat to Fort Scott. In their retreat, Lane's troops abandoned their supplies and mules to the Missourians. Price followed up his victory by continuing his northward march, culminating in another victory at the siege of Lexington, September 13 to 20, before returning south shortly afterwards.
WElkwater is an unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States. Elkwater is located on U.S. Route 219 and West Virginia Route 55 along the Tygart Valley River, 5.6 miles (9.0 km) south-southwest of Huttonsville.
WThe Battle of Fairfax Court House was the first land engagement of the American Civil War with fatal casualties. On June 1, 1861, a Union scouting party clashed with the local militia in the village of Fairfax, Virginia, resulting in the first deaths in action, and the first wounding of a field-grade officer.
WThe First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of First Manassas, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about 30 miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. The Union's forces were slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops in their first battle. It was a Confederate victory, followed by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces.
WThe Manassas campaign was a series of military engagements in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.
WEngagement at Fredericktown, also known as the Battle of Fredericktown, was a battle of the American Civil War that took place on October 21, 1861, in Madison County, Missouri. The Union victory consolidated control of southeastern Missouri.
WThe Gallinas massacre or the Gallinas Mountains massacre was an engagement of the Apache Wars on September 2, 1861, between a war party of Mescalero Apache warriors and four Confederate soldiers in the Gallinas Mountains of what is now Lincoln County, New Mexico. The incident occurred early in the American Civil War, at a time when the area was claimed by the Confederate States of America as part of Confederate Arizona and military control of the territory had not yet been decisively established by either Union or Confederate forces.
WThe Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries was the first combined operation of the Union Army and Navy in the American Civil War, resulting in Union domination of the strategically important North Carolina Sounds.
WThe Battle of the Head of Passes was a bloodless naval battle of the American Civil War. It was a naval raid made by the Confederate river defense fleet, also known as the “mosquito fleet” in the local media, on ships of the Union blockade squadron anchored at the Head of Passes. The mosquito fleet deployed three fire rafts, which were ignited and followed the ironclad ram CSS Manassas into the action. The attack occurred after moonset in the early hours of October 12, 1861, and routed the Union fleet, which fled in disorder down the Southwest pass of the delta. After sunrise Commodore George N. Hollins, running low on ammunition and fuel, ordered the mosquito fleet to withdraw upriver.
WThe Battle of Hoke's Run, also known as the Battle of Falling Waters or Hainesville, took place on July 2, 1861, in Berkeley County, Virginia as part of the Manassas Campaign of the American Civil War. Notable as an early engagement of Confederate Colonel Thomas J. Jackson and his Brigade of Virginia Volunteers, nineteen days before their famous nickname would originate, this brief skirmish was hailed by both sides as a stern lesson to the other. Acting precisely upon the orders of a superior officer about how to operate in the face of superior numbers, Jackson's forces resisted General Robert Patterson's Union forces briefly and then slowly retreated over several miles.
WThe Skirmish at Hunter's Farm was a battle of the American Civil War fought between the Union Army and pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard at Hunter's Farm near Belmont in Mississippi County, Missouri on September 26, 1861. A reconnaissance party of cavalry sent out by Brigadier General Ulysses S Grant succeeded in surprising a detachment of Brigadier General's Jeff Thompson's command.
WThe siege of Lexington, also known as the Battle of First Lexington, was a minor conflict of the American Civil War. The siege took place from September 13 to 20, 1861 between the Union Army and the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard in Lexington, county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri. The victory won by the Missouri Guard bolstered the considerable Southern sentiment in the area, and briefly consolidated Missouri State Guard control of the Missouri River Valley in the western part of the state.
WThe Battle of Mount Zion Church was fought on December 28, 1861, in Boone County, near Mount Zion Church, during the American Civil War. The resulting Union victory here and elsewhere in central Missouri ended Confederate recruiting activities in the region and pushed conventional Confederate forces out of the area until the desperate fall 1864 invasion by General Sterling Price and his Missouri State Guard.
WThe Battle of Philippi formed part of the Western Virginia Campaign of the American Civil War and was fought in and around Philippi, Virginia, on June 3, 1861. A Union victory, it was the first organized land action of the war, though generally viewed as a skirmish rather than a battle. However, the Northern press celebrated it as an epic triumph and this encouraged Congress to call for the drive on Richmond that ended with the Union defeat at First Bull Run in July. It brought overnight fame to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and was notable for the first battlefield amputations. As the first of a series of victories that pushed Confederate forces out of northwest Virginia, it strengthened the Union government in exile that would soon create the new state of West Virginia.
WThe Battle of Rich Mountain took place on July 11, 1861, in Randolph County, Virginia as part of the Operations in Western Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War.
WThe Battle of Round Mountain was the first battle in the Trail of Blood on Ice campaign for the control of Indian Territory during the American Civil War and occurred on November 19, 1861. Its main purpose was to prevent Union supporters of the Creek Nation, led by Opothleyahola from fleeing Indian Territory to the protection of Union forces in Kansas.
WThe Battle of Rowlett's Station was a land battle in the American Civil War, fought at the railroad whistle-stop of Rowlett's in Hart County, Kentucky, on December 17, 1861. The outcome was inconclusive, although the Union Army continued to hold its objective, a railroad bridge across the Green River.
WThe Battle of Scary Creek was a minor battle fought during the American Civil War across the Kanawha River from present day Nitro in Putnam County, West Virginia on July 17, 1861.
WAction at Springfield, also known as the Battle of First Springfield, was a battle of the American Civil War that took place on October 25, 1861, in Greene County, Missouri. It was the only Union victory in southwestern Missouri in 1861.
WStar of the West was an American civilian steamship that was launched in 1852 and scuttled by Confederate forces in 1863. In January 1861, the ship was hired by the government of the United States to transport military supplies and reinforcements to the U.S. military garrison of Fort Sumter. A battery on Morris Island, South Carolina handled by cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy fired upon the ship, effectively the first shots fired in the American Civil War.
WThe Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the South Carolina militia, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War.
WThe Trent Affair was a diplomatic incident in 1861 during the American Civil War that threatened a war between the United States and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Navy captured two Confederate envoys from a British Royal Mail steamer; the British government protested vigorously. The United States ended the incident by releasing the envoys.
WThe Siege of Tubac was a siege of the Apache Wars, between settlers and militia of Confederate Arizona and Chiricahua Apaches. The battle took place at Tubac in the present day southern Arizona. The actual dates of this engagement have been lost to time.
WThe Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.
WThe Battle of Vienna, Virginia was a minor engagement between Union and Confederate forces on June 17, 1861, during the early days of the American Civil War.
WThe Battle of Wilson's Creek, also known as the Battle of Oak Hills, was the first major battle of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. It was fought on August 10, 1861, near Springfield, Missouri. Missouri was officially a neutral state, but its governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, supported the South and secretly collaborated with Confederate troops.