A reconnaissance in force by Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell at Harris farm on May 19 was a costly and pointless failure.

Burnside did not perform adequate reconnaissance of the area, and instead of taking advantage of several easy fording sites out of range of the enemy, his troops were forced into repeated assaults across the narrow bridge which was dominated by Confederate sharpshooters on high ground.

As the two armies fought an artillery duel, reconnaissance indicated to Keyes the strength and breadth of the Confederate fortifications, and he advised McClellan against assaulting them.

Grant ordered Thomas to advance halfway to Missionary Ridge on a reconnaissance in force to determine the strength of the Confederate line, hoping to ensure that Bragg would not withdraw his forces and move in the direction of Knoxville, Tennessee, where Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside was being threatened by a Confederate force under Longstreet.

Grant ordered Thomas to advance halfway to Missionary Ridge on a reconnaissance in force to determine the strength of the Confederate line, hoping to ensure that Bragg would not withdraw his forces and move in the direction of Knoxville, Tennessee, where Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside was being threatened by a Confederate force under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet.

Soon after Chancellorsville, he was perhaps the first to note the movement of Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army toward the northwest while conducting air balloon reconnaissance.

On October 20, 1861, Stone was ordered by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan to conduct a reconnaissance across the Potomac River to report on Confederate activities in Leesburg, Virginia.

Sumner has been condemned by most historians for his " reckless " attack, his lack of coordination with the other corps commanders, accompanying Sedgwick's division personally and losing control of his other attacking division, failing to perform adequate reconnaissance prior to launching his attack, and selecting an unusual line of battle formation that was so effectively flanked by the Confederate counterattack.

He recognized his patriotic duty in offering his services as an aeronaut for the purposes of performing aerial reconnaissance on the Confederate troops on behalf of the Union Army.

Gen. Hooker had ordered Pleasonton to " disperse and destroy " the Confederate cavalry near Culpeper, Virginia, but Pleasonton claimed that he had only been ordered to make a " reconnaissance in force toward Culpeper ", thus rationalizing his actions.

Cole Younger and another man conducted a successful reconnaissance of the town on the day prior to the Confederate attack.

Meade was dissatisfied with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's Union cavalry's performance and released it from its reconnaissance and screening duties for the main body of the army to pursue and defeat the Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. J. E. B.

A reconnaissance in force by Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell at Harris farm on May 19 was a costly and pointless failure.

Hines had led a reconnaissance mission into Indiana in search of Confederate sympathizers to support Morgan ’ s coming raid.

Jeb Stuart became famous for two audacious raids around the Union Army of the Potomac in 1862 ; in his third such attempt, during the Gettysburg Campaign, he squandered much of the cavalry forces of the Army of Northern Virginia and deprived Robert E. Lee of adequate reconnaissance at the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the principal reasons for the Confederate defeat there.

Later he sent reconnaissance missions that discovered McDowell had sent his forces to cross Sudley Ford on the Confederate left.

Following the Battle of Dandridge on January 16 – 17, Union cavalry moved to the south side of the French Broad River, where they disrupted Confederate foraging parties and captured numerous loaded supply wagons in that area.

Commanding a mixed force of Confederate troops, including Native-American soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Choctaw Regiments, Marmaduke defeated a Federal foraging detachment at the Battle of Poison Springs, Arkansas on April 18, 1864.

* On April 7, Federals attacked Confederate partisan cavalry commander " Hanse " McNeill near Purgitsville, one day after his successful action at Burlington when he had captured Lt. William F. Speer and eleven of the Ringgold Cavalry's foraging party.

Again Reverend Corder saved the bridge when Union soldiers planned to destroy it, after filling its two lanes with hay and straw -- but for what reason is not recorded nor remembered, certainly not because of pressure from an opposing Confederate force.

As the battle progressed, Zollicoffer was killed, Crittenden was unable to lead the Confederate force since he was probably intoxicated and the Confederates were turned back and routed by a Union bayonet charge, suffering 533 casualties from their force of 4, 000.

On February 6, 1862, Union Navy gunboats quickly reduced the defenses of ill-sited Fort Henry, inflicting 21 casualties on the small remaining Confederate force.

Johnston knew he could be trapped at Bowling Green if Fort Donelson fell, so he moved his force to Nashville, the capital of Tennessee and an increasingly important Confederate industrial center, beginning on February 11, 1862.

Gen. John Gibbon's brigade against a larger Confederate force, fighting it to a standstill.

Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeat a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia.

Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.

* 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia – students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

During the American Civil War, on September 8, 1863, a small Confederate force thwarted a Union invasion of Texas at the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, fought at the mouth of the river.

* 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Iuka – Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price.

* 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass – on the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.

In the Camp Jackson Affair, a large force of German volunteers helped prevent Confederate forces from seizing the government arsenal in St. Louis just prior to the beginning of the war.

Due to Halleck's sluggardly assault on Corinth — covering 19 miles in 30 days — the entire Confederate force there escaped ; the 120, 000-man Union Army was then broken up.

* September 19 – American Civil War – Battle of Iuka: Union troops under Major General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Major General Sterling Price at Iuka, Mississippi.

* May 15 – American Civil War – Battle of New Market: Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.

** American Civil War – Battle of Brice's Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.

During the American Civil War, American cotton exports slumped due to a Union blockade on Southern ports, also because of a strategic decision by the Confederate government to cut exports, hoping to force Britain to recognize the Confederacy or enter the war, prompting the main purchasers of cotton, Britain and France to turn to Egyptian cotton.

Although the some 5, 800-man force under his command ( mostly hundred-days ' men amalgamated from the VIII Corps ) and the division of James B. Ricketts from VI Corps was defeated by Confederate General Jubal A.

Chancellorsville is known as Lee's " perfect battle " because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory.

On May 1, Hooker advanced from Chancellorsville toward Lee, but the Confederate general split his army in the face of superior numbers, leaving a small force at Fredericksburg to deter Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick from advancing, while he attacked Hooker's advance with about 4 / 5ths of his army.

That same day, Sedgwick advanced across the Rappahannock River, defeated the small Confederate force at Marye's Heights in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg and then moved to the west.

The Confederate army dispatched him into the backcountry of northern Alabama and west Georgia to defend against an attack of 3, 000 Union cavalrymen commanded by Colonel Abel Streight, with a force far smaller in number.

Streight had orders to cut the Confederate railroad south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to cut off Bragg's supply line and force him to retreat into Georgia.