American Civil War course of four years. Intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 people dead, more than the number of U.S. military deaths in all other wars combined. The war ended when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate generals throughout the southern states followed suit. Much of the South's infrastructure was destroyed, especially the transportation systems. The Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and four million black slaves were freed. During the Reconstruction Era that followed the war, national unity was slowly restored, the national government expanded its power, and civil rights
Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1864 Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1864 The following engagements took place in the year 1864 during the American Civil War. The Union armies, under the command of U.S. Grant, launched multiple offenses in all theaters of the war, in an attempt to prevent Confederate forces from transferring troops from one army to another. In March, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed general-in-chief of the Union Army. He decided on a strategy of simultaneous offenses in the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi Theaters in order to grind down and ultimately defeat the Confederate armies. Grant himself