Every bitter battle of the Civil War was devastating to some degree for the divided nation. This evening, military historian Edward Bonekemper looks at six in particular as noteworthy for the impact they had on the war’s outcome. He explores Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s 1862 capture of Forts Henry and Donelson; Gen. Robert E. Lee’s 1862 loss to Gen. George B. McClellan at Sharpsburg (Antietam); Gen. George Meade’s 1863 defeat of Lee at Gettysburg; Grant’s 1863 capture of Vicksburg and his 1863 breakout at Chattanooga; and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1864 capture of Atlanta. He describes these clashes and how each was significant in leading to the Union Army’s victory.

Bonekemper is a visiting lecturer at Muhlenberg College. His books Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian (Greenwood/Praeger) and McClellan and Failure: A Study of Civil War Fear, Incompetence and Worse (McFarland) are available for signing after the program.

CODE: 1M2-432