Battles of the Army of the Potomac Quiz

The Army of the Potomac was formed July 26, 1861, five days after the first Battle of Bull Run was fought. (The Federal forces who fought the first Battle of Bull Run were part of the Army of Northeastern Virginia, which was broken up and recreated as the Army of the Potomac. There was an Army of the Potomac at the first Battle of Bull Run - that was the name of the Confederate forces who took part.)

The Battle of Seven Pines pitted Union general George McClellan against Confederate Joseph E Johnston. It was fought during McClellan's Peninsula campaign, as the Federal army attempted to capture Richmond. The battle itself was indecisive, but it resulted in the death of General Johnston and the promotion of Robert E. Lee to head the Army of Northern Virginia.

Shortly after taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia, General Lee started a series of attacks on the invading Federal army, and succeeded in driving them out of Virginia. The Seven Days battles took place between June 25th and July 1st, 1862 and includes the battles of Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill. Gaines' Mill was enough to convince McClellan that his plans to capture Richmond were not going to succeed, and the army began to retreat to Washington. Though the Army of the Potomac defeated the Confederates in the battle of Malvern Hill, the Federals continued their retreat.

After the Peninsula campaign, Lincoln assigned most of the units of the Army of the Potomac to General John Pope's Army of Virginia. Pope had been successful in the Western theater of the war, and Lincoln had him brought east in hopes that his new Army of Virginia would repeat his western successes. Pope's attitude alienated many of the troops assigned to him, and his mismanagement of the military situation led his army into the debacle of the second Battle of Bull Run.

Lincoln returned the units he'd "borrowed" from the Army of the Potomac, which was facing Lee's invasion of Maryland. The Federal army got a lucky break when a copy of the Confederate battle plans, which had been wrapped around some cigars and lost, was found. This information helped McClellan form his battle plans. The resulting battle of Antietam, September 17th 1862, was the bloodiest single day battle of the Civil War - or of any subsequent wars fought by the United States. The Confederate army was defeated, and retreated to Virginia.

Lincoln had become frustrated by McClellan's cautious handling of the army, and replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside, one of McClellan's corps commanders who had done well during the Battle of Antietam. On December 11 1862, Burnside began attacking the Confederate positions in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

The battle was a debacle from start to finish, and the Federals retreated after suffering more than twice the casualties of the Confederates. Lincoln promptly replaced Burnside with "Fighting Joe" Hooker.

The Battle of Chancellorsville took place between April 30 and May 6, 1863. Hooker had started to move his army in hopes of encircling Lee's troops in Fredericksburg. What happened instead was that Lee split his army, leaving about a third of his men in Fredericksburg and bringing the rest to Chancellorsville to face Hooker. Lee then split his men again, and sent "Stonewall" Jackson's troops to circle behind the lines and emerge on the flank of the Federal XI Corps.

When the Confederates attacked, the Federal lines folded, resulting in another Confederate victory.

Their delight in the victory was dimmed when "Stonewall" Jackson died after he'd been shot by one of his own troops.

Lee began his second invasion of the North in early June, 1863. The invasion had several goals: get supplies which the Confederate army sorely needed, discourage the northern civilian populace, and encourage the anti-war northerners. The Army of the Potomac gave chase.

On June 28, Lincoln replaced Hooker with General Meade. Three days later, the two armies met in the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, leaving a total of 50-60,000 casualties altogether. After the three day battle was over, the Confederate army retreated back to Virginia.

At the same time as the Battle of Gettysburg was being fought, the Federals in the western theater captured Vicksburg, Mississippi, paving the way for clearing the river and restoring it to Federal control. General Ulysses Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General after he raised the siege of Chattanooga, and placed in command of all Federal forces. He decided to travel with the Army of the Potomac instead of having a permanent office in Washington. His orders to general Meade were to defeat Lee's army instead of to capture Richmond. Lincoln and Grant both believed that if the army defending it were defeated, Richmond would fall easily.

The first battle of the 1864 campaign was the Battle of the Wilderness, which was fought near Fredericksburg, May 5-7 1864. The Wilderness was a forested region with only a few roads through it, which meant that any large group traveling through would be disorganized and could be easily attacked. The battle which followed was brutal and inconclusive. However, unlike previous battles where they usually retreated, the Army of the Potomac moved forward.

The Army of the Potomac continued southward, in hopes of meeting the Army of Northern Virginia on open ground where the Federal army could take advantage of their larger numbers and better equipment. The Confederates beat them to the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House, and the battle began two days after the end of the Battle of the Wilderness on May ninth, 1864.

It was another bloody and inconclusive battle, and at the end, the Army of the Potomac continued to move southward.

Near the end of May, the two armies met again at Cold Harbor, Virginia. The Battle of Cold Harbor was a lopsided Confederate victory, which demonstrated again the advantages that an entrenched and prepared defender had over his attacker. But Grant did not retreat. He brought his troops across the James River, and began to encircle Petersburg.

Petersburg was an important transportation junction. It was the key to Richmond and Lee knew that if Petersburg fell, the Army of Northern Virginia would also fall.

Grant's army began the siege of Petersburg June 9, 1864. During the next months, the army gradually continued to encircle the city and cut off the rail lines supplying food and ammunition to the Confederate capitol and army. The siege lasted until March 25, 1865. Finally, Lee abandoned the defense of Petersburg and attempted to retreat. However, his army was greatly weakened and was unable to break loose. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant and the Army of the Potomac.