Civil War battles in order: from Fort Sumter to Appomattox

The American Civil War was fought from April 12, 1861, to April 9, 1865. It opened with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and effectively ended when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. These 20 battles, in order, carried the war between those dates.

Read the table top to bottom and a pattern appears. The Confederacy wins most big fights in Virginia until mid-1863, while the Union wins steadily in the West, then everything turns in a single week in July 1863.

The Civil War started on April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Seven Southern states had already seceded after Abraham Lincoln’s election, and four more joined them after the attack. The first major land battle, First Bull Run in July, ended any hope of a quick war.

The Civil War coloring book opens exactly here. First the nation divides, as eleven states leave the Union, then the attack on Fort Sumter starts four years of war. Each scene carries a short caption, so you color the moment and learn what it set in motion.

The major battles of 1862 were Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the Seven Days, Second Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg. In the West, Grant won Fort Donelson and held on at Shiloh. In the East, Lee pushed the Union back from Richmond, invaded Maryland and was stopped at Antietam.

Antietam, on September 17, 1862, remains the bloodiest single day in American history, with about 23,000 men killed, wounded or missing. It was not a clear win on the field, but Lee retreated. Five days later Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation.

The year ended badly for the Union at Fredericksburg, where wave after wave of attacks broke against Confederate lines on Marye’s Heights. For our readers who served, our guide to gifts for veterans who love history covers the books and maps that do this period justice.

1863 was the turning point because two Union victories came in the same week. At Gettysburg, on July 1 to 3, Lee’s invasion of the North failed. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy in two.

Gettysburg cost about 51,000 casualties over three days, the highest of any battle in the war. Pickett’s Charge on the third day became the symbol of the Confederacy’s high-water mark. In November, Lincoln returned to the battlefield to give the Gettysburg Address.

Gettysburg is the turning point the book is built around, and the Emancipation Proclamation sits beside it: the moment freedom became the Union’s defining cause. Coloring the two together makes the link between the battlefield and the war’s purpose hard to forget.

In 1864 the Union used its size to grind the Confederacy down. Grant fought Lee in Virginia without retreating, through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, then laid siege to Petersburg. In the West, Sherman took Atlanta in September and marched to the sea at Savannah.

Sherman’s March to the Sea, from November 15 to December 21, 1864, cut a path up to 60 miles wide across Georgia. It destroyed railroads, factories and supplies the Confederate armies depended on. The fall of Atlanta also helped Lincoln win re-election in November, which ended any chance of a negotiated peace.

The March to the Sea is one of the book’s six turning points. It is a different kind of scene from the battlefields before it, a war against supply lines and industry rather than armies, and the caption explains why it mattered so much.

The Civil War ended in the spring of 1865. Petersburg and Richmond fell on April 2 and 3, and Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. Five days later Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre. The last Confederate forces surrendered over the following weeks.

The cost was enormous. Historians estimate that between 620,000 and 750,000 soldiers died, more than in any other American war. The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States.

Appomattox is the last scene of the book. You color the surrender that ended four years of war and preserved the United States, and the story you began at Fort Sumter comes full circle.

To learn the Civil War battles in order, group them by year and theater, East and West, and attach one image to each turning point. Four years and two theaters is easier to hold than twenty separate names. Coloring the key scenes gives each one a picture you will remember.

That is the idea behind The Civil War coloring book: 30+ realistic scenes in chronological order, each with a verified caption. It is an instant PDF, so you can print a battle tonight on A4 or US Letter and reprint any page. We explain why the method works in learning history through coloring.

Teachers often print one battle per lesson for the class; see our gifts for history teachers. If you are comparing publishers, our Dover vs Motiv Colors comparison sets the books side by side.

Want the war that came first? The bundle pairs this book with The American Revolution coloring book, from the Stamp Act to Yorktown. Our American Revolution timeline covers that first war date by date.

Twenty battles, four years, two theaters, and one week in July 1863 that turned everything. Learn them in order once and the whole war makes sense.

Print the first scene tonight, start with the nation dividing, and color your way to Appomattox.