The Civil War, 1861 to 1865

Eastern Theater

The Eastern Theater took in 35 campaigns and 162 principal battles fought between 1861 and 1865 across MD, NC, PA, VA, WV, DC. The surviving records account for 181,444 Union and 135,509 Confederate casualties in its principal actions.

At a glance

The theater in figures

Campaigns
35
Principal battles
162
Span
1861-1865
States
MD, NC, PA, VA, WV, DC
Union casualties
181,444
Confederate casualties
135,509
Its campaigns

Campaigns of the theater, in sequence

FromCampaignBattlesStatesCasualties (US / CS)
May 18, 1861Blockade of the Chesapeake Bay3VA79 / 8
Jun 3, 1861Operations in Western Virginia7WV552 / 642
Jul 2, 1861Manassas Campaign3WV, VA3,056 / 1,909
Aug 28, 1861Blockade of the Carolina Coast1NC3 / 770
Oct 21, 1861McClellan's Operations in Northern Virginia2VA992 / 379
Jan 3, 1862Blockade of the Potomac River1VA0 / 0
Jan 5, 1862Jackson's Operations Against the B&O Railroad1MD0 / 0
Feb 7, 1862Burnside's North Carolina Expedition5NC47 / 503
Mar 8, 1862Peninsula Campaign16VA16,738 / 21,100
Mar 23, 1862Jackson's Valley Campaign7VA, WV5,179 / 2,277
Aug 9, 1862Northern Virginia Campaign6VA16,530 / 10,457
Sep 12, 1862Maryland Campaign4WV, MD44 / 39
Dec 11, 1862Fredericksburg Campaign1VA13,353 / 4,576
Dec 14, 1862Goldsboro Expedition3NC0 / 0
Mar 13, 1863Longstreet's Tidewater Operations4NC, VA0 / 0
Mar 17, 1863Cavalry Operations along the Rappahannock1VA0 / 0
Apr 30, 1863Chancellorsville Campaign3VA14,000 / 10,000
Jun 9, 1863Gettysburg Campaign10VA, PA, MD27,443 / 28,266
Oct 13, 1863Bristoe Campaign5VA0 / 0
Nov 6, 1863Averell's Raid on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad1WV0 / 0
Nov 27, 1863Mine Run Campaign1VA1,272 / 680
Feb 6, 1864Demonstration on the Rapidan River1VA0 / 0
Mar 2, 1864Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid1VA0 / 0
Apr 17, 1864Operations Against Plymouth2NC0 / 0
May 5, 1864Grant's Overland Campaign11VA50,844 / 27,400
May 6, 1864Bermuda Hundred Campaign5VA0 / 0
May 9, 1864Crook-Averell Raid on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad2VA0 / 0
May 15, 1864Lynchburg Campaign3VA1,715 / 2,040
Jun 9, 1864Richmond-Petersburg Campaign19VA9,100 / 6,136
Jul 9, 1864Early's Raid and Operations Against the B&O Railroad7MD, DC, VA, WV1,622 / 997
Aug 16, 1864Sheridan's Valley Campaign8VA, WV11,270 / 8,105
Dec 7, 1864Expedition Against Fort Fisher1NC0 / 0
Jan 13, 1865Operations Against Fort Fisher and Wilmington2NC0 / 0
Mar 2, 1865Sheridan's Expedition to Petersburg1VA0 / 0
Mar 29, 1865Appomattox Campaign14VA7,605 / 9,225

12 of these campaigns have a dedicated page, linked above; the remainder are recorded here with their battle and casualty figures.

Beyond the principal battles

Recorded engagements across the theater

DateEngagementStateCasualties
May 4, 1864Campaign from the Rapidan River to the James RiverVA7621 killed, 38339 wounded, 8966 missing/captured
Jul 1, 1863Battle, GettysburgPA3070 killed, 14497 wounded, 5434 missing/captured
May 8, 1864Battles of Spottsylvania Court House, Laurel Hill, Ny River, Fredericksburg RoadVA2725 killed, 13416 wounded, 2258 missing/captured
May 5, 1864Battle of the WildernessVA2246 killed, 12037 wounded, 3383 missing/captured
Sep 13, 1862Siege of Harper's FerryWV44 killed, 173 wounded, 12520 missing/captured
Dec 12, 1862Battle of FredericksburgVA1284 killed, 9600 wounded, 1769 missing/captured
May 1, 1863Battle of ChancellorsvilleVA1113 killed, 7052 wounded, 4422 missing/captured
Sep 16, 1862Battle of Antietam, SharpsburgMD2108 killed, 9549 wounded, 753 missing/captured
Jun 16, 1864Assaults on PetersburgVA1688 killed, 8513 wounded, 1185 missing/captured
Jun 16, 1864Siege operations against Petersburg and RichmondVA1127 killed, 4874 wounded, 2277 missing/captured
Jun 27, 1862Battle of Gaines Mill, Cold Harbor, ChickahominyVA894 killed, 3107 wounded, 2836 missing/captured
Oct 19, 1864Battle of Cedar Creek, Middletown, Belle GroveVA644 killed, 3430 wounded, 1591 missing/captured
May 31, 1862Battle of Seven Pines or Fair OaksVA790 killed, 3594 wounded, 647 missing/captured
Sep 19, 1864Battle of Opequan, WinchesterVA697 killed, 3983 wounded, 338 missing/captured
May 3, 1863Battle of Salem Heights, Salem ChurchVA493 killed, 2710 wounded, 1497 missing/captured
Jun 13, 1863Actions and Battle, WinchesterVA95 killed, 348 wounded, 4000 missing/captured
Aug 18, 1864Battle of Weldon R. R., Globe Tavern or Yellow House and Blick's Station or Six Mile HouseVA251 killed, 1149 wounded, 2879 missing/captured
May 12, 1864Engagement and battle, Proctor's Creek and Drewry's Bluff or Fort DarlingVA390 killed, 2380 wounded, 1390 missing/captured
Jul 30, 1864Explosion of Petersburg Mine and assault on the CraterVA504 killed, 1881 wounded, 1413 missing/captured
Jul 21, 1861Battle of Bull Run, ManassasVA470 killed, 1071 wounded, 1792 missing/captured

1,959 further recorded engagements fall within this theater’s dates and ground. The complete geographic record is held on the state pages: VA, PA, WV, MD, NC, SC.

Who commanded

Commanders across the theater

Confederate
Other
On the ground

Battle map

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Solid markers are precisely located sites. A soft circle marks an approximate location, centred on the nearest recorded settlement where the exact site is unrecorded.

Background and narrative

The Eastern Theater in detail

Theater of operations

This region of conflict encompasses the campaigns most widely remembered today, a prominence owing less to their military weight than to their closeness to densely populated cities, influential newspapers, and the two rival governments' seats of power. Both Northern and Southern imaginations fixed on the dramatic contest between Lee's Confederate force, the Army of Northern Virginia, and its Union counterpart, the Army of the Potomac, which cycled through a string of commanders who rarely matched his success. Antietam produced the single deadliest day of the entire conflict, while Gettysburg stands as its costliest battle overall, and both were fought here. Each side's capital, Washington, D.C., for the Union and Richmond for the Confederacy, came under direct assault or siege at various points. Some historians contend that the western theater carried greater weight in bringing about Confederate defeat, yet neither side's civilians could have truly believed the fighting had ended until Lee laid down arms at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865.

Geographically, this theater stretched from the Appalachian range in the west to the Atlantic coastline in the east. The overwhelming share of engagements unfolded within roughly a hundred miles separating Washington from Richmond. Because the rivers in this region generally flowed east to west, they became barriers rather than routes for invading Union forces to advance or maintain supply lines, giving a natural edge to the defending Confederates. This dynamic set the area apart sharply from conditions seen earlier in the western theater. Since Union forces depended almost entirely on the crude road networks of the period for moving troops and materiel, winter fighting became difficult for armies on both sides. What the Union possessed instead was dominance over the ocean and principal waterways, meaning any force positioned near the coast could count on steady reinforcement and resupply.

The National Park Service applies a more detailed system for categorizing campaigns than what appears here, and several of its smaller designations have been left out or folded into broader groupings for this discussion. Of the roughly 160 engagements the Park Service attributes to this theater, only a handful receive treatment in these pages. Sidebars positioned along the right margin identify which Park Service campaigns correspond to each portion of the text.

Principal Union commanders of the eastern theater

The source material provided consists solely of a heading identifying commanders on the Confederate side who operated in the eastern theater. No further details, names, dates, figures, or outcomes accompany it, so there is no additional content available to render into prose.

Source: Eastern theater of the American Civil War on Wikipedia, cited as a reference.

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