TACTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR – WARFARE MOVES BEYOND NAPOLEON

The Army of the Potomac gathering for its Grand Review in Washington, D.C. at the end of the war – columns and lines all on display. Drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly.

Walking out onto a Civil War battlefield, one can become bogged down by maps and monuments – regimental, State, and others.  Most of the major battlefields lie preserved within the National Park Service today, though there are a few important exceptions – Perryville, Resaca, Atlanta, Bentonville, are some of those not within the federal system. And how and why did the actions occur on those battlefields. Here, we dive a bit into the actual tactics used during the Civil War. 

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RE-FOCUSING THE ARMY EASTWARD ON THE COLUMBIA – FORT DALLES

James Madison Alden’s painting of Fort Dalles from 1857.

Beiniecke Library Yale University.

Fort Dalles was one of the original forts set up by the Army as it came west after the 1846 treaty with Great Britain solidifying borders on the 49th parallel.  Before 1855, the fort was a small fort with room for one or two companies of troops.  The Yakama War changed that.  From the middle of 1856 until the beginning of 1859, the fort became one of the Army’s main centers in the Northwest.  Home for the Ninth Regiment, Fort Dalles became the jump-off point for campaigns, interior explorations, road, and fort building and a supply depot for all these activities.

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