Soldiers from opposite sides often knew each other, and you often hear the reference to “brother fighting brother,” which was especially true in the border states. After South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, initially joined by seven others, all part of the Deep South. The seven states sent representatives to Montgomery, Alabama to establish the Confederacy, with Jefferson Davis at its head. The seceding states demanded that all United States property should be turned over to the now confederate states. Lincoln refused, but instead sent survival necessities south to support soldiers at Fort Sumter, although he did not send munitions, only survival necessities. On April 12, 1861, the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter. The next day, the garrison commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered Fort Sumter. During this brief opening battle, no people lost their lives during the battle itself; one soldier died during the evacuation, and one died accidentally after an explosion during a planned 100-gun salute. After Fort Sumter, the remaining four states, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas joined the Confederacy.

Prior to the war, Robert E. Lee had served as superintendent at West Point, leaving the academy to join the cavalry in 1855, and four years later, he ended John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry. In 1861, Lincoln offered him command of the Union forces, but Virginia seceded in April, and Lee refused Lincoln’s offer, and resigned from the army because he would not fight against the people from his own state; after then accepting the general’s commission in the Confederate Army, Lee fought and lost his first battle of the war, at Cheat Mountain from September 12-15, 1861. Davis recalled Lee to Richmond, where he acted as military advisor to Davis until 1862. After General Sidney Johnston was killed at Shiloh, Davis gave Lee control of his army, which he renamed the Army of Northern Virginia. After this, Lee fought the Seven Days Battle, a battle which was fought for seven consecutive days from June 25-July 1 1862; Lee won every day except for the last, which was a draw.

The war wreaked havoc on the landscape as well, as this photograph of the ruins of Henry House after the First Battle of Bull Run shows. The First Battle of Bull Run was not noted for its casualties, but for its spectators. The photo was taken by Matthew Brady, who, with his team of photographers, documented much of the destruction of the Civil War. Images like this one brought the reality of war to the public.

The First Battle of Bull Run on July 1, 1861 when 35,000 troops marched from Washington to engage a force of 20,000 Confederates at Bull Run, a small river near Manassas Junction, Virginia (hence the Southern name for the battle). The Union army moved slowly, and since the Confederates had a spy network, they knew in advance that the Union was coming. Both armies were unprepared for battle as they were comprised of volunteers and amateurs. The battle attracted picnickers, including legislators, who were there to watch the battle. At this point in the war, they expected the Union would win a fast victory. The Confederates screamed the “rebel yell” as they broke through the Union lines, and the Union soldiers began retreating. Henry Wilson, a future vice president, passed out sandwiches to the retreating soldiers. In this battle, 2,800 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, missing or captured, while the Confederates suffered over 1.900 casualties and took one prisoner: Alfred Ely, a congressman from New York. During this battle, General Barnard Bee tried to reassure his men, pointing out Thomas J. Jackson, who stood like a “stone wall” giving Jackson his enduring nickname. At the Second Battle of Bull Run, there were no spectators, as people learned their lesson.

Bands accompanied the armies, entertaining the soldiers and maintaining morale as the fighting raged on. In particular, the fife and drummers, as in the photo, marched along with their units.

Music is not the first thing you think of when you consider the sounds of the Civil War, but it was prevalent as Robert E. Lee reportedly said, “I don’t believe we can have an army without music.” Taps, the bugle call used to tell troops that it was time to sleep, was created during the Civil War. After the Seven Days Battles, Butterfield reworked the extant bugle call to make it sound more melodious. He then asked his brigade bugle caller, Private Oliver Wilcox Norton to play the reworked call, and it eventually caught on with both the Union and Confederate armies. 

 Soldiers sang their own songs, often for camaraderie in their encampments at night. During the day, music also played a role in their activities. Musicians were divided into two groups: field musicians and military bands. Marching units were accompanied by the fife-and-drum corps, and both the cavalry and infantry were accompanied by the buglers. Music marked wake-up calls, roll calls, and drills; it even helped to convey orders to soldiers and organize their movements. Children as young as 12 were allowed to enlist as musicians (they had to be 18 to enlist as soldiers), making music a path into joining the war effort. The musicians also helped out in the war wherever needed, from tending the wounded to fighting when necessary.   

This photograph is of The USS Cairo which was one of the first ironclads; the ironclads, along with submarines, were first used in the Civil War. The Cairo which was commissioned on January 16, 1862, was sunk just north of Vicksburg. The ironclad ships were first developed in France, but first used in the Civil War.

In April-May 1861, Winfield Scott proposed the Anaconda Plan, the naval portion of the Civil War, which was to blockade the coastal port towns and to take control of the rivers, effectively cutting off supplies to the South.

The CSS Manassas was the first Confederate ironclad, built by constructing an iron shell over the screw steam tug, the Enoch Train. The Manassas saw battle on October 12, 1861, in the Battle of Head Passes. Then, during the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip from April 18-28. 1862, the Manassas exploded and sank.

Before the battle which sank the Manassas, at the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8-9, 1862, which occurred on the Elizabeth River, two things became clear: the older, wooden boats used in warfare were obsolete, and naval warfare was transformed forever with the introduction of the ironclads. During the battle, the USS Cumberland became the first ship to be sunk by the ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the wooden frigate the USS Merimack). The Virginia then ran the USS Congress aground and set it on fire, and fully intended to sink more ships the next day. However, the USS Monitor arrived before the Merrimack could inflict more damage to the wooden ships, and the two ships fought to a standstill, but the Monitor maintained its presence, protecting the Union’s fleet.

The Civil War also saw the first submarine, the HL Hunley, which sank the USS Housatonic just off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. Just after it sank the Housatonic, the Hunley also sank, taking its crew with it.  

In this photo, African Americans are collecting the bones of the dead after the battle in Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June, 1864. All told, there was a total of 620,000 casualties in the war. That number does not include the approximately 50,000 civilian casualties. So many died during the war, that in some of the battles, they had to bury the dead in mass graves. In some cases, as here in Cold Harbor, the graves were too shallow for long-term interment and had to be reburied.