The Eastern theater consisted of the American Civil War's land and naval military operations in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and coastal North Carolina, where, from 1861 to 1865, Union armies attempted to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond and Confederate armies attempted to capture the Federal capital of Washington DC. A series of major battles, including the first major battle of the war at Bull Run, the bloodiest single-day battle in American history at Antietam, the bloodiest battle in American history at Gettysburg, and the longest siege of an American city at Petersburg, Union armies eventually overwhelmed Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, occupied a burning Richmond, and pursued Lee's battered force until its surrender at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865.
Background[]
Starting with South Carolina on 20 December 1860, a succession of Southern slave states seceded from the Union following the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States. By February 1861, the entirety of the cotton-growing Deep South had seceded to form the Confederate States of America, but the Upper South states of Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee would remain in the Union until, following the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Lincoln called up 75,000 volunteers, including from these Upper South states, to militarily suppress the secessionist rebellion. With compromise no longer on the table, Virginia seceded on 17 April, followed by Arkansas on 6 May, North Carolina on 20 May, and Tennessee on 8 June. The Confederacy moved its capital from Montgomery, Alabama to the industrial powerhouse of Richmond, Virginia, and Virginia also contributed several able generals to the Confederate cause, including Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Stonewall Jackson, and A.P. Hill. The Eastern Theater of the war would largely be fought in the 100 miles between the Federal and Confederate capitals of Washington and Richmond, with the Appalachian Mountains to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east forming the boundaries of this theater.
History[]
At the start of the war, Lincoln ordered the raising of volunteers to augment the US Army's 16,000 regulars, more than half of whom were manning garrisons in the American West. New England, Pennsylvania, and New York volunteer regiments quickly made their way to Washington to bolster its few militia companies, whose loyalties were suspect due to the city's Southern sympathies, and they fought off pro-Confederate street thugs in the Baltimore riot of 1861. Eventually, Washington was secured for the Union cause, and Irvin McDowell assumed command of the Army of the Potomac.
Meanwhile, George B. McClellan's Department of the Ohio inaugurated land warfare in the East by moving into West Virginia, a section of Virginia where Unionist sentiment was strong. On 3 June 1861, the Union easily defeated a largely untrained Confederate force at the Battle of Philippi, and McClellan also defeated the rebels at the Battle of Rich Mountain in July. The Union victory in this early campaign enabled West Virginia unionists to secede from Confederate Virginia and create a new state in 1863. Meanwhile, on 10 June, Benjamin Butler led Union forces out of the Federal bases at Hampton and Newport News to attack advanced Confederate outposts, resulting in a minor defeat at the Battle of Big Bethel.
By early summer, McDowell experienced pressure from Washington politicians and Northern newspapers to attack the Confederate army assembling at Manassas Junction and bring a speedy end to the war before the 90-day enlistments of many of his volunteers expired. He marched with 35,000 men to attack P.G.T. Beauregard's 20,000-strong rebel army at Manassas, while Robert Patterson's 18,000 troops were sent to menace Harpers Ferry and keep Joseph E. Johnston's 12,000 rebels from joining forces with Beauregard. However, Patterson failed to prevent the junction of the two armies, and, on 21 July, the First Battle of Bull Run saw Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Virginia brigade blunt a strong Union attack and eventually throw back the Union forces with the help of Johnston's reinforcements. The Union army was routed in the "Great Skedaddle," returning safely to Washington as Beauregard's tired army opted against a pursuit. In August, the successful McClellan replaced the defeated McDowell in command of the Army of the Potomac and, on 1 November, replaced the old Winfield Scott as the Union Army's general-in-chief.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Butler redeemed his defeat at Big Bethel by capturing the batteries at North Carolina's Hatteras Inlet in 1861, threatening the Confederacy's vital seaport of Wilmington and the blockade-running bases in the Outer Banks. In February 1862, Burnside captured Roanoke Island, and a late 1862 expedition destroyed railroad tracks and bridges further inland. In late 1864, however, Butler would fail to take Fort Fisher in Wilmington harbor. In January 1865, the Union would renew its efforts to take the fort, defeating Braxton Bragg and capturing Wilmington in February 1865.
Back in Virginia, Confederate morale declined due to reverses in the Western theater, particularly at the Battle of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh. In March 1862, McClellan landed his Army of the Potomac at Fort Monroe and planned to march northwest to Richmond rather than take the overland route south from Washington. McClellan's advance was held up at the Battle of Yorktown, while the US Navy's advance was checked at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff. Meanwhile, McDowell's corps advanced on Richmond from the north and Nathaniel P. Banks' army threatened the Shenandoah Valley. Stonewall Jackson took command of the Valley District of the Department of Northern Virginia and, in the brilliant "Valley Campaign", defeated the Union forces in the Valley in detail. In June, Union forces were withdrawn from the Valley. From 31 May to 1 June, McClellan's army fought Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army to a draw at the Battle of Seven Pines in the Peninsula Campaign, and the wounded Johnston was replaced by Robert E. Lee. Joined by Jackson's forces coming in from the valley, Lee fortified Richmond during a month-long lull in the fighting and fought off McClellan's forces in the Seven Days Battles of June-July 1862. After the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Army of the Potomac withdrew to the James River, after which it was withdrawn in August to defend northern Virginia. Lee's army had suffered 20,000 casualties out of a total of 90,000 troops, while McClellan's 105,445-strong army lost 16,000 men.
The initiative now in his hands, Lee launched a two-pronged offensive against the Union armies in northern Virginia. Lincoln had John Pope take command of a newly-formed, 50,000-strong Army of Virginia, which would protect the Shenandoah Valley and threaten Richmond. Leaving McClellan to flounder on the Peninsula, Lee moved to attack Pope. On 9 August, Nathaniel P. Banks' Union corps preemptively attacked Stonewall Jackson's corps at the Battle of Cedar Mountain near Culpeper, resulting in a narrow defeat. Pope's corps were able to consolidate before Jackson could carry out his plan of defeating them in detail, but, in the ensuing Second Battle of Bull Run from 28 to 29 August, Pope launched several failed attacks on Jackson's positions at an unfinished railroad grade before being driven back in a massive counterattack led by Longstreet. The Confederates failed to cut off the Union retreat at the Battle of Chantilly on 1 September, and Pope retreated to Washington.
Despite his heavy losses during the spring and summer, Lee decided to carry forth his plan to invade the North, lower Northern morale, and either force Lincoln to negotiate an end to the war or prove to Britain and France that the Confederacy was worth formally backing. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River on 6 September, bound for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln quickly reinstated McClellan in command of all Union forces around Washington and sent him to confront Lee's army. Lee detached Longstreet's corps to capture Harpers Ferry as his army continued into Maryland, and, while McClellan discovered Lee's invasion plans wrapped around a discarded cigar, he waited 18 hours before taking advantage of his intelligence and moving to defend the mountain passes around South Mountain. On 14 September, McClellan defeated the rebels at the Battle of South Mountain but passed up an opportunity to destroy Lee's scatted army. On 17 September, McClellan attacked Lee at the Battle of Antietam, resulting in the bloodiest single-day battle of the war, with over 23,000 casualties. Lee withdrew into the Shenandoah Valley as McClellan failed to commit his reserves or pursue, but Lee's first attempt to invade the North failed, as did the Confederacy's plans to entice European powers to come to their aid. Lincoln also used the opportunity to issue an Emancipation Proclamation that would deprive the South of its enslaved workforce, now freed in the rebellious states.
On 7 November, Lincoln relieved McClellan from command for failing to pursue Lee after Sharpsburg. Ambrose Burnside took command of the army and was ordered to renew the offensive against Richmond. Burnside's plan to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg and place himself between the Confederate army and Richmond resulted in a disastrous battle on 13 December as nearly a dozen waves of Union soldiers were repulsed with 12,000 losses; the CSA lost 4,500 men. Burnside's plan to resume his offensive in January 1863 resulted in the Mud March, and his subordinates persuaded Lincoln to replace Burnside with Joseph Hooker.
Hooker reorganized the Army of the Potomac during the winter and planned to resume the offensive from Fredericksburg. His 97,000 Union troops outnumbered Lee's 57,000, and, on 1 May, the bulk of the Union army crossed the Rapidan River. Hooker panicked before he could execute his plan to strike the rear of Lee's army, and, on 2 May, Lee split his army to launch a flank attack on the Union army instead, resulting in the Battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson's corps routed Oliver O. Howard's XI Corps and delivered victory to the Confederate cause, only to be mortally wounded by friendly fire. By 7 May, Hooker was forced to withdraw north of the Rappahannock, losing 17,000 men to Lee's 13,000; however, Lee's losses amounted to 25% of his army.
In June 1863, Lee decided to capitalize on his victory at Chancellorsville by again invading the North. Lee organized the Army of Northern Virginia into corps led by Longstreet, Richard S. Ewell, and A.P. Hill, and his army moved through the Shenandoah Valley and clashed with Hooker's cavalry at the Battle of Brandy Station on 9 June. On 28 June, Lincoln replaced Hooker with George G. Meade, who was ordered to retreat to southern Pennsylvania to protect Washington and Baltimore and find Lee's army. The two armies met at the Battle of Gettysburg from 1-3 July 1863, and the ensuing encounter saw 160,000 soldiers clash and suffer 51,000 casualties. Meade was unable to pursue Lee's defeated army and finish it off, partly because he had been ordered to keep his army between Lee and Washington. In October, after a portion of Meade's army was sent west, Lee attempted to attack the Union army and defeat it in detail, resulting in the unsuccessful Bristoe Campaign. Meade's Mine Run Campaign of autumn, 1863 similarly failed to achieve a decisive victory, and Meade decided against launching a frontal attack on Confederate defenses along the Rapidan.
In March 1864, Lincoln transferred Ulysses S. Grant east and gave him command of all the Union armies. Grant decided to launch simultaneous offensives against the Confederacy: Grant and Meade would attack Lee from the north as Benjamin Butler attacked Richmond from the southeast, Franz Sigel captured the Shenandoah Valley, William Tecumseh Sherman invaded Georgia, George Crook and William W. Averell attacked railroad supply lines in West Virginia, and Nathaniel P. Banks captured Mobile, Alabama. However, Butler's Army of the James became bogged down in the Bermuda Hundred campaign, Sigel was defeated at the Battle of New Market and his successor David Hunter at the Battle of Lynchburg, and Banks was distracted by the Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Crook and Averell were able to cut the last railway linking Virginia and Tennessee as Sherman's Atlanta campaign achieved success in the fall.
In May 1864, Grant's main army launched the Overland Campaign, moving on Richmond from the north. The Union Army suffered heavy losses at the Battle of the Wilderness and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, but he was able to outmaneuver Lee's retreating army each time and inflict losses that Lee was unable to replace. On 1-3 June, the Union suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Cold Harbor, losing 12,000 soldiers in suicidal human wave attacks against Confederate entrenchments, but Grant was again able to outmaneuver Lee by crossing the James River and forcing Lee to defend Richmond and the rail hub of Petersburg. The ensuing Richmond-Petersburg campaign saw Union forces besiege Petersburg and battle Confederate forces around the Richmond area. The Union siege degraded into World War I-style trench warfare and a war of attrition.
In order to compel Grant to break the siege, Lee sent Early's corps to sweep Union forces from the Shenandoah Valley and menace Washington DC. Early defeated a smaller Union army at the Battle of Monocacy, near Frederick, Maryland, on 9 July 1864. However, his advance on Washington was delayed, and his assault on the capital was defeated at the Battle of Fort Stevens from 11 to 12 July. Early was also able to burn the city of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in retaliation for Hunter's burning of the Virginia Military Institute, but Grant's cavalry general Philip Sheridan took command of Union forces in the area and moved against Early. Early was defeated at the Battle of Opequon on 19 September, the Battle of Fisher's Hill on 21-22 September, and the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864, after which the remnants of Early's corps either rejoined Lee at Petersburg in December or remained barely active until the Battle of Waynesboro on 2 March 1865.
In January 1865, Davis appointed Lee as his general-in-chief, but Lee remained trapped in Petersburg as Grant gradually cut all of the Confederate supply lines. A Confederate breakout attempt was defeated at the Battle of Fort Stedman, and Sheridan soon returned from the Valley and flanked the Confederate army. Lee sent George Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee to defend his flank, resulting in the 1 April 1865 Battle of Five Forks. Sheridan's decisive victory enabled him to capture the South Side Railroad. On 2 April, Grant launched the Third Battle of Petersburg, during which Union forces broke through the Confederate lines. Lee was forced to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and retreat towards Danville, from which he hoped to join Joseph E. Johnston's retreating army in North Carolina. On 3 April, Richmond fell into Union hands.
The ensuing Appomattox campaign saw Sheridan chase Lee's army and foil his attempts to gather supplies. On 6 April, at the Battle of Sailor's Creek, a quarter of the Confederate army was forced to surrender. On 9 April, Lee launched a final attack on the Union army at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, but his depleted corps were forced back. Surrounded on three sides, Lee decided to surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House rather than waste any more lives. Lee's soldiers were allowed to return home with their horses, personal effects, and sidearms, and the dissolution of the Army of Northern Virginia effectively ended the fighting in the Eastern theater.