History briefing: Battles that shaped the war

The Civil War was fought between the Union (the United States) and the Confederacy, which had left the United States. Slavery was central to the conflict: the Confederacy fought to preserve slavery, while the Union fought to keep the country together and, as the war continued, to end slavery. Enslaved people also sought freedom and helped weaken slavery. At Shiloh in Tennessee, on April 6–7, 1862, Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s forces fought Confederate forces. The battle showed that the war would be long and costly. At Antietam in Maryland, on September 17, 1862, Union and Confederate armies fought a single day of intense combat. It was the bloodiest single day in U.S. history, with about 22,700 soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or missing. At Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on July 1–3, 1863, Union forces defeated General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army. Lee’s invasion of the North was stopped. The battle is often called a turning point because the Confederacy did not launch another major invasion of the North. In November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln honored the dead at Gettysburg and restated the importance of equality and democracy. At Chickamauga in Georgia, in September 1863, Confederate forces won a costly victory. At Fredericksburg in Virginia, in December 1862, Lee’s army defeated Union forces. These battles had different outcomes, but all brought serious losses to soldiers and families.