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The Chancellorsville Campaign was the true high water mark for both the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac. The campaign would be the Confederates' greatest battle, though it came at the cost of losing General Stonewall Jackson. Although the Confederacy prevailed at Chancellorsville, Hooker used the defeat to institute a multitude of reforms, which paved the way for the hard-fought victory at Gettysburg.
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Only twenty-five hours after the Confederate Army’s arrival on the battlefield of Spring Hill, TN the decision to assault the heavily defended fortifications at Franklin was made. It was a decision that would not have to be made had the Confederates followed through with their plans at Spring Hill. Follow the armies in their race to Spring Hill, the combat there and the critical decisions that led to the Federal escape and a total Confederate command breakdown in the most devastating blunder of the American "Civil War."
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The Battle of Fort Donelson was the first major victory for Federal forces and the first decisive battle in the vital area from the Appalachians to the Mississippi. It gave the Federals control of both the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers; led directly to the fall of the first Confederate capital at Nashville and the Battle of Shiloh, and was the beginning of the fame and/or infamy of several Civil War generals, including U.S. Grant, N. B. Forrest, Gideon Pillow and John B. Floyd. It also resulted in the first surrender of an army by a Confederate general, and the largest capture of enemy troops in American history, up to that time.
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The commander of the three-hundred-wagon Union supply train never expected a large ragtag group of Texans and Native Americans to attack during the dark of night. But Brigadier Generals Richard Gano and Stand Watie defeated the unsuspecting Federals in the early morning hours of September 19, 1864, at Cabin Creek in the Cherokee nation. The legendary Watie, the only Native American general on either side, planned details of the raid for months. His preparation paid off--the Confederate troops captured wagons with supplies that would be worth more than $75 million today.
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Leonidas Polk is one of the most fascinating figures of the Civil War. Consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church and commissioned as a general into the Confederate army, Polk’s life in both spheres blended into a unique historical composite. Polk was a man with deep religious convictions but equally committed to the Confederate cause. He baptized soldiers on the eve of bloody battles, administered last rites and even presided over officers’ weddings, all while leading his soldiers into battle.