EASTERN BATTLE FRONTS, 1861-1864

Initial Battles:

Fort Sumter:

When Confederate artillery under General Beauregard successfully attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour on April 12,1861, the Civil War began. This battle forced the Federal Government to collect an army of more than 30,000 men near Washington. General Irvin McDowell was in charge. This force, as well as General Robert Patterson's fourteen thousand men, moved to the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. A Confederate force of more than thirty-one thousand men under Generals Beauregard and Joseph Johnson faced McDowell.

First Bull Run or Manassas:

In July, on a creek called Bull Run, McDowell approached Manassas. McDowell thought his troops could smash Beauregard's troops while Patterson's men distracted Johnson's force of eleven thousand. But Johnson managed to slip away in the night and join Beauregard. The opposing forces, consisting mostly of poorly trained volunteers, clashed on July 21. The Union launched many attacks. During one assault, General Thomas Jackson held his ground so well that he was given the name "Stonewall". After halting the assaults Beauregard counter-attacked. The exhausted Northern forces were smashed and they fled wildly back to Washington. The Northern government for the very first time realised that this war would turn out to be a long fight. The Southern cause had gained great prestige, and Confederate moral and confidence was sky high.

On To Richmond!:

After Bull Run, Lincoln sacked McDowell and replaced him with General George McClellan to command the eastern army, the Army of the Potomac. During the winter of 1861-62, McClellan created a force of 150,000 men. McClellan proved to be a superb trainer of soldiers. "Little Mac" planned to overrun Richmond from the south-east. He hoped to land his troops on the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, and march along one of them straight into Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, before McClellan could even move, naval action forced him to change his plans.

The Monitor And The Merrimack :

The Confederate army raised a sunken Union ship, the Merrimack , of Norfolk, Virginia, and replaced its rotted wooden shell with solid iron plates. On March 1862, this ship surprise-attacked Northern ships at Hampton Roads and sank two of them. When the ship came back the very next day, it took on a newly arrived Northern Ironclad, the Monitor . The result of the battle was inconclusive, but the Merrimack did prevent McClellan from overtaking the James River, the best route into Richmond.