curriculum connections Civil War Battles and Campaigns
Introduction Civil War forms part of the Curriculum Connections series Each of the six volumes of the set covers a particular aspect of the conflict Home Front and the Economy Behind the Fighting Weapons Tactics and Strategy Politics Battles and Campaigns and People About this set Each volume in Civil War features illustrated chapters providing in-depth information about each subject The chapters are all listed in the contents pages of each book Each volume can be studied to provide a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the conflict However each chapter may also be studied independently Within each chapter there are two key aids to learning that are to be found in color sidebars located in the margins of each page Curriculum Context sidebars indicate to the reader that a subject has a particular relevance to certain key state and national history guidelines and curricula They highlight essential information or suggest useful ways for students to consider a subject or to include it in their studies Glossary sidebars define key words within the text At the end of the book a summary Glossary lists the key terms defined in the volume There is also a list of further print and Web-based resources and a full volume index Fully captioned illustrations play an important role throughout the set including photographs and explanatory maps 4 Battles and Campaigns
About this book Battles and Campaigns uses photographs and detailed battle maps to describe all of the most important military engagements of the war from the First Battle of Bull Run Manassas in July 1861 to the surrender of the Confederate commander Robert E Lee to his Union counterpart Ulysses S Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9 1865 While the South set out to invade the North the North imposed a naval blockade on Southern ports and attempted an advance on the Southern capital Richmond by fighting along the Virginia Peninsula In the early stages of the war both sides suffered from poor leadership in part due to the appointment of officers for their political loyalties rather than their military ability As the conflict went on so a generation of more able commanders emerged including Lee and Stonewall Jackson in the South and Grant and William T Sherman in the North The course of much of the fighting was dictated by the need to control vital railroad lines and rivers The North realized that it could cut the Confederacy in two by capturing the Mississippi Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and rail junctions at Chattanooga The Confederates meanwhile invaded the North on a number of occasions but reached their high-water mark at Gettysburg in July 1863 From then the South was on the back foot Lee fought a series of remarkable defensive battles while key Southern positions and cities were besieged The fall of Atlanta and Sherman’s March to the Sea in which Union troops devastated Southern territory brought the Confederacy to its end although as this book reveals some Southern commanders refused to lay down their arms for weeks after the surrender at Appomattox Court House Introduction 5
