Osprey Essential Histories 10 : The American Civil War (2) : The War in the East 1863-1865

Great battles and famous commanders dominated the military history of the Civil War in the Eastern Theatre during the period 1863-1865. The third year of the war opened with Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North, which achieved considerable success before the fateful three-day clash at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac suffered more than 50,000 casualties in the costliest battle ever waged in the Western Hemisphere, a bloodletting that forced Lee to withdraw to Virginia but, contrary to common belief, did not constitute a great turning point in the war. After a period of several quiet months punctuated by relatively minor campaigning at Bristoe Station and Mine Run, action reached a new level of fury with the 1864 Overland campaign. Ulysses S. Grant became the Union general-in-chief in March 1864 and soon accompanied Meade's army against Lee. The resulting battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, fought over a period of about seven weeks, established a pattern of nearly continuous fighting and immense loss. The exhausted armies settled into a siege at Petersburg in mid-June. While Lee and Grant faced each other on the static Petersburg-Richmond front, Jubal A. Early and Philip H. Sheridan waged a campaign of manoeuvre in the Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan emerged as the clear victor, winning three decisive battles and laying waste to much of the Valley before rejoining Grant. Constant Union pressure finally broke Lee's defensive lines at Petersburg in early April, and the Army of Northern Virginia abandoned Richmond and fled westward. Trapped on April 9 near Appomattox Court House, Lee accepted generous terms of surrender from Grant and brought the war in Virginia to a close. Text by Gary W. Gallagher.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Warring Sides : The North and South Compared
• Outbreak : A Nation at War
• The Fighting : Struggle for the Heartland
• Common Soldiers : Billy Reb and Johnny Yank at War
• Portrait of a Soldier : John Beatty, A Union soldier
• The World around War : Societies at War
• Portrait of a Civilian : Kate Stone, A Confederate Civilian
• How the War Ended : The Promise of Summer