What was the most important battle of the American Civil War?

What was the most important battle of the American Civil War?

  • Fort Sumter

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1st Manassas

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Shiloh

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • 2nd Manassas

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • Antietam

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • Perryville

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Fredericksburg

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Murfreesboro

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chancellorsville

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gettysburg

    Votes: 12 38.7%
  • Vicksburg

    Votes: 8 25.8%
  • Chickamauga

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chattanooga

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Total voters
    31
I voted for Gettysburg, by a smidgen over Vicksburg, only because the war really needed to be ultimately won in the East; a slimmed down Confederacy (Virginia, the Carolinas, Florida, Alabama, and parts of Miss. and Tenn. by that time) still may have been able to protract the war enough to force a negotiated peace. After Gettysburg, the offensive was lost to the South, and the Army of the Potomac finally had the crushing victory they so desperately needed for morale, recruitment, etc.

Of course, Vicksburg brought U.S. Grant to the forefront, which in and of itself might have been the most important development of the war. So I wouldn't argue with anyone who thought Vicksburg was more significant.
 
I'd say it was the combo of Vicksburg/Gettysburg... these two battles, happening so close together, turned the war completely against the CSA and made it impossible for them to win or even force a draw...
 
Vicksburg (OK, also Port Hudson0 not only cut the west off from the rest of the Confederacy, but also resulted in the largest surrender of an army during the war (not sure if any surrenders were larger at the war's end). In addition, it made Grant - the man who oversees the defeat of the Confederacy - into the most successful Union general and, ultimately, the only choice to lead the Union's armies.
 
The Confederacy was really fighting above its weight in the American Civil War. The Union had more human and industrial resources, and when these were focused on the Confederacy under General Grant the Confederacy lost. Thus the only way that the Confederacy would have been able to win is with outside intervention, ala the French in the American Revolution. The British were interested in helping out the Confederacy, but they never recognized the Confederacy as an actual independent nation. The French also wanted to recognize the Confederacy, but were following the British lead.

Why am I writing all this? Because there was a single battle that destroyed the Confederacy's chance of European recognition, Antietam. With the Union victory there and the Emancipation Proclamation the British public began to overwhelming favor the Union, and thus, non-intervention in the American Civil War. Once the chance of European intervention was gone so was the South's only chance for winning the war.

So by the time Gettysburg and Vicksburg happen the writing is already on the wall. The South was going to lose, it was only a matter of time.
 
I'd have to say Gettysburg by a nose over Vicksburg. After huge victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville by the Army of Northern Virginia, the Union needed a major victory over Robert E. Lee, which they got. Lee helped them a bit because he was trying to win a decisive victory over the Army of the Potomac, and then march on Washington DC. After their defeat, Lee went back into the South and switched over to a defensive campaign.

Vicksburg was a very close second because it cut the Confederacy in half and gave the Union control of the Mississippi. The fact that it occured a day after Gettysburg made it the 2nd part of a double whammy for the South. It also brought attention to Grant, a general who would fight the kind of war needed to win.
 
I'm going for Shiloh as it completely changed the balance of power in the western theatre, long before any battle elsewhere ensured superiority for one side or the other. After Shiloh, the Union could & did, more or less, whatever it wanted in the western theatre. Consequentially, it ensured that, in the end, Sherman could march all over the Confederacy, burning it to the ground, whilst Grant was still stuck in Virginia
 
I voted for other. Lincoln's platform in 1864 would not have been successful without the successful capture of Atlanta. If Sherman screwed up, and was stopped for a month, voters would not have believed in the war's success. If lincoln had won 5 percent less of the voters, and McClellan took them, Lincoln would have lost.

I vote Atlanta
 
I'm not sure a lot of people realize how late the war was in doubt. Yes, the South's last battlefield chance to win the war was at Gettysburg, and Antietam ended all chance for foreign recognition, but the South could avoid losing the war up until the fall of Atlanta.

There were many points at which the drive to Atlanta could have been stopped, such as at Cassville, as another thread is positing, or during any one of Hood's counterattacks, should luck take on a grey hue.

Post-Gettysburg, Lee nearly outmaneuvered Meade in the Mine Run campaign, and Meade almost launched another Fredericksburg when he considered attacking heavily fortified Confederate positions. A bloody repulse would surely have hurt Union credibility.

During Grant's campaigns, there were several near-run moments, such as at Spotsylvania, where Lee nearly ambushed the II Corps, and at the North Anna River, where a day of illness cost Lee a chance at a masterful counterstroke.

Not to say that bad luck doomed the Confederacy; Grant, Sherman and Meade were all able commanders that percieved these threats. Bad luck, however, could doom the Union.
 
Fort Sumter
Up to then the South was winning,
Many newspapers had already moved news from Richmond to the International page,
Recruitment was lackidasical,
espesically in the Cities were the Union leaders and organiziers were happy with no Black/Slave competion.
Most of the Poor recent immigrants, saw no reason to fight.

Fort Sumter gave Lincoln His needed Casi Belli, -- Arise the Rebels have attacked-- and the War was on.
 
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