New York 8th Infantry (Union)

ColonelDavid Hunter

First Bull Run

One of earliest battles of the Civil War, it introduced Americans to the idea that this would likely not be a short conflict and blood would be shed:READ MORE

Williamsburg

Following the Confederate withdrawal from their Yorktown position, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was not prepared to mount an immediate pursuit with his entire force from the siege lines he had occupied for nearly a month. Initially, he was able to send forward only a portion of his army, led by the Third Corps of Samuel P. Heitzelman, to follow Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates. Heitzelman's divisions, led by Brig. Gens. Joseph Hooker and Phil Kearny, made contact with Johnston's army four miles sout…READ MORE

CaptainButler Fitch

ColonelGuilford D. Bailey

CaptainPeter C. Regan

MajorD. H. Van Valkenburgh

Brigadier GeneralSilas Casey

ColonelGuilford D. Bailey

MajorD. H. Van Valkenburgh

Brigadier GeneralJulius Stahel

Brigadier GeneralLouis Blenker

Cross Keys

Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont's and his 11,000-man Mountain Department army were tasked with keeping Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's two-division force engaged in the Shenandoah Valley and unable to join with Robert E. Lee's army defending Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign against the Confederate capital. In early June, Jackson's men under Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell were encamped in the vicinity of Cross Keys on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. Union screening cavalry approached Jackson f…READ MORE

Second Bull Run

After the early summer collapse of the Union Peninsula Campaign offensive to capture Richmond, Robert E. Lee sought to move his army north and threaten Washington DC before Union forces could regroup.READ MORE

ColonelBenjamin F. Davis

ColonelBenjamin F. Davis

Brigadier GeneralAlfred Pleasonton

Antietam

The Army of the Potomac, under the command of Maj. Gen. George McClellan, mounted a series of powerful assaults against General Robert E. Lee's forces along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17th, 1862.READ MORE

ColonelFelix Salm-

Salm

ColonelLeopold Von Gilsa

Brigadier GeneralNathaniel C. McLean

Fredericksburg

In early November, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac, and made immediate plans to move the army once again toward Richmond.READ MORE

LieutenantHerman Rosenkranz

Brigadier GeneralCharles Devens Jr.

Brigadier GeneralNathaniel C. McLean

Brigadier GeneralCharles Devens Jr.

Chancellorsville

On April 27, 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker launched a turning movement designed to pry Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia out of its lines at Fredericksburg.READ MORE

MajorEdmund M. Pope

ColonelBenjamin F. Davis

MajorWilliam S. McClure

Brigadier GeneralJohn Buford

ColonelThomas C. Devin

ColonelBenjamin F. Davis

Brandy Station

> *As we emerged from the woods into an open space or field where our mounted skirmishers were deployed, it was clearly discovered that our troops were confronted with a heavy line of infantry, who, with weapons of a longer range than that of our carbines, were dismounting our men at a fearful rate, whilst they were unable to inflict any punishment upon the enemy. As Colonel Devin approached the skirmish line, he at once became the target for the Rebel sharp shooters and, the way the minnie balls were whiz…READ MORE

Gettysburg

In the summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of the Northern states. Lee sought to capitalize on recent Confederate victories and defeat the Union army on Northern soil, which he hoped would force the Lincoln administration to negotiate for peace. Lee also sought to take the war out of the ravaged Virginia farmland and gather supplies for his Army of Northern Virginia. Using the Shenandoah Valley as cover for his army, Lee was pursued first by Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Ho…READ MORE

Spotsylvania Court House

Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant marched the Union army south with the hope of capturing Spotsylvania Court House and preventing Robert E. Lee's army from retreating further. Lee's Confederates, however, managed to get ahead of the Federals and block the road. Fighting began on May 8th, when the Union Fifth Corps under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren and the Sixth Corps under Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick engaged Confederate Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson's First Corps at Laurel Hi…READ MORE

New Market

In conjunction with other spring 1864 offensives against strategic points in the Confederacy, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel to move up the Shenandoah Valley along the Valley Turnpike to destroy the railroad and canal complex at Lynchburg. Union control of the strategic and agriculturally rich valley was a crucial part of Grant's plans. Receiving word that the Union Army had entered the valley, Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge pulled together all available troops to repulse the invad…READ MORE

North Anna

Following the stalemate at Spotsylvania Court House, Grant was determined to continue his offensive against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. After a failed attempt to bait Lee out of his earthworks, he found the Confederates entrenched on the south side of the North Anna River, where Lee's "inverted V" defenses forced Grant to divide his army into three parts in order to attack. On May 23rd, one of Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill's divisions assaulted the isolated Fifth Corps on the Union right which had crossed the r…READ MORE

Cold Harbor

After two days of inconclusive fighting along Totopotomoy Creek northeast of Richmond, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee turned their sights on the crossroads of Cold Harbor. Roads emanating through this critical junction led to Richmond as well as supply and reinforcement sources for the Union army. On May 31, 1864, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry captured Cold Harbor. The next day, Sheridan held the crossroads against a Confederate attack. With reinforcements from both armies arriving…READ MORE

First Deep Bottom

Two weeks after Union forces arrived to invest the Confederate defenders of Petersburg, the battle lines of both sides settled into a stalemate. Since Cold Harbor, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was reluctant to mount a large frontal attack against well-entrenched Confederates. By late June, Grant's lines covered most of the eastern approaches to Petersburg, but neither side seemed ready to risk an offensive move. Determined to break the stalemate, Grant agreed to plans to blow up part of the Confederate def…READ MORE

Second Deep Bottom

As he had done in late July during the Battle of the Crater, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant called upon Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock and his Second Corps to attack Gen. Robert E. Lee's forces around Richmond to exploit suspected weaknesses in Lee's lines. In early August, Grant had detached the Sixth Corps from the Union lines around Richmond and Petersburg and sent them to the Shenandoah Valley under Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan. Sheridan's new army there was to counter Gen. Jubal Early, then operating in the v…READ MORE

Second Ream's Station

As the Union siege of Petersburg began to take hold, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant looked for ways to sever the railroads supplying the city and Gen. Robert E. Lee's army. One of these critical routes was the Weldon Railroad, which led south to the Confederacy's only remaining major port at Wilmington, North Carolina. On August 24th, the Army of the Potomac Second Corps moved south along the railroad, tearing up track, and screened by Brig. Gen. David McMurtrie Gregg's cavalry division. To stop Hancock, Lee…READ MORE

Bvt BG John C. Tidball

MajorTheodore Miller Inspector of Artillery

Fort Stedman

By March of 1865, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's grip on the Confederate lines around Petersburg was having its desired effect. Outnumbered and weakened by disease, desertion and shortage of food and supplies, Gen. Robert E. Lee had few options. After careful study of the Union troops in his sector of the line, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon suggested to Lee the possibility of a successful offensive strike against Grant. In front of Gordon's men, Union-held Fort Stedman seemed the best target for a Confederate a…READ MORE

Sailor's Creek

Five days after Robert E. Lee's men retreated from the trenches of Petersburg, cavalry under Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan effectively cut off three separate corps of Lee's army near Sailor's Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox River, while the Union Second and Sixth Corps approached from the east. On April 6th, two brigades of Andrew H. Humphrey's Second Corps overwhelmed two brigades of Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon's division as the Confederates struggled to move their supply and artillery trains across the creek…READ MORE

Appomattox Court House

Between 26,000 and 28,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered and were paroled.READ MORE