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This Day in History
May 26
Civil War
One of the last Confederate generals surrenders, 1865
Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, surrenders on this day in 1865, one of the last…
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Battle of Fort Donelson
Ulysses S. Grant's victory at Fort Donelson in February 1862 was one of the first significant Union victories of the American Civil War.
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Battle of Fort Henry
The Battle of Fort Henry helped the Union regain parts of Tennessee and Kentucky during the American Civil War.
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Battle of Chattanooga
The Battle of Chattanooga (November 1863) was a decisive Union victory, which contributed to the North's ultimate success in the American Civil War.
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Battle of Chickamauga
In September 1863, Confederate troops led by Braxton Bragg defeated a Union force along Georgia's Chickamauga Creek.
(December 15–16, 1864), in the American Civil War, decisive Union victory over the Confederates that ended organized Southern resistance in Tennessee for the remainder of the war. Hoping to cut the supply lines of the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman and perhaps to threaten Cincinnati, Ohio, and other Northern cities, Confederate General John B. Hood moved back into Tennessee in late 1864, incurring heavy losses in an engagement with General John M. Schofield's Union troops at Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30. As Hood approached Nashville in early December, a Union force of quickly assembled heterogeneous troops under General George H. Thomas marched out of the city and administered a resounding defeat to the South on December 15–16. The Confederate army retreated in near disorder to Alabama, and, though Hood escaped, his army virtually ceased to exist as a fighting force.
Copyright © 1994-2011 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.
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10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: Antietam (PDF)
Teacher's Guide to the program dramatically exploring the events, meaning, and significance of the watershed battle at Antietam.
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April 1865: The Month That Saved America (PDF)
Teacher's Guide to the program covering the last few weeks of the Civil War, from President Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration, to the surrender at Appomatox, the assassination of Lincoln, and the final laying down of arms by the Confederacy.
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The Hatfields and the McCoys. Their names evoke images of a bitter feud between two American families. But many people may be unfamiliar with the story behind this legendary conflict.
