In an attempt to reduce the North's great naval advantage, Confederate engineers converted a scuttled Union frigate, the U.S.S. Merrimac, into an iron-sided vessel rechristened the C.S.S. Virginia. On March 9, in the first naval engagement between ironclad ships, the Monitor fought the Virginia to a draw, but not before the Virginia had sunk two wooden Union warships off Norfolk, Virginia.

The Battle of Antietam (Sharpuburg)

Bouyed by a string of successes through the summer of 1862, Robert E. Lee led his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on an invasion of the north. However, as southern forces moved into Maryland with their sights set on the Pennsylvania border, Northern officers happened upon a copy of Lee's battle plan wrapped around a bundle of cigars. With knowledge of Lee's troop dispositions, the usually sluggish McClellan moved the Union Army of the Potomac with surprising speed to converge on the scattered southern forces.

Lee reunited his army on the banks of Antietam Creek, where he was attacked in successive waves by McClellan's forces on September 17th. Lee's lines almost broke late in the afternoon, but the timely arrival of A.P. Hill's forces from Harpers Ferry prevented a decisive Union victory. The battle produced the single bloodiest day of fighting in American History, resulting in 23,000 total casualties.

"Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home." Major General George B. McClellan, USA