On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, forcing them to surrender, and began the war.

Even though they had the advantage of fighting on the defensive, the Confederate forces had " almost as high a percentage of casualties as the Union forces ".

Gen. George H. Thomas moved against the Confederates, Crittenden decided to attack one of the two parts of Thomas's command at Logan's Cross Roads near Mill Springs before the Union forces could unite.

His passive defensive performance while positioning himself in a forward position at Bowling Green, spreading his forces too thinly, not concentrating his forces in the face of Union advances, and appointing or relying upon inadequate or incompetent subordinates subjected him to criticism at the time and by later historians.

The fall of the forts exposed Nashville to imminent attack, and it fell without resistance to Union forces under Brig.

Johnston kept the Union forces, now under the overall command of the ponderous Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, confused and hesitant to move, allowing Johnston to reach his objective undetected.

Johnston now planned to defeat the Union forces piecemeal before the various Union units in Kentucky and Tennessee under Grant with 40, 000 men at nearby Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, and the now Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell on his way from Nashville with 35, 000 men, could unite against him.

As the Confederate forces overran the Union camps, Johnston seemed to be everywhere, personally leading and rallying troops up and down the line on his horse.

* 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh begins – in Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.

* 1861 – Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

* 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.

* 1862 – American Civil War: New Orleans, Louisiana falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.

* 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.

* 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern – Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.

* 1943 – World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government in exile in London from the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.

After the election Johnson was most anxious to complete the re-establishment of civil government in Tennessee ; Union forces brought the war to an end in that state with their victory in the Battle of Nashville in December.

* 1864 – During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.

* 1862 – American Civil War – Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General Horatio Wright.

Following the defeat of Union forces at Bull Run, he personally supervised the transportation of the defeated forces.

* 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Mansfield – Union forces are thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana.

* 1865 – American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.

The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army.

With 12, 000 Confederate troops at Fort Donelson, Foote's initial approach by Union naval ships were repulsed by Donelson's guns.

The Confederates struck hard and repulsed the Union Army towards the Tennessee River.

At dawn on June 3, three Union corps attacked the Confederate works on the southern end of the line and were easily repulsed with heavy casualties.

Shortly thereafter, Breckinridge reinforced Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and played an important role in the Battle of Cold Harbor, where his troops repulsed a powerful Union attack and where he was wounded by being trapped under his fallen horse.

In February, Wheeler and Forrest attacked Fort Donelson at Dover, Tennessee, but they were repulsed by the small Union garrison.

The Union forces attacked but were savagely repulsed by withering barrages of rifle and cannon fire.

During the Siege of Petersburg of 1864 – 65, Hill and his men participated in several battles during the various Union offensives: during the Crater, he fought against his West Point classmate Ambrose Burnside, whom the former repulsed at Antietam and Fredericksburg.

Phoumi proceeded to attack Vientiane, weakened by a Thai blockade, on September 18 but the neutralists with the help of the Pathet Lao and the Soviet Union, repulsed the attack.

* Battle of Gettysburg-Pickett's Charge aims at the Union center and is repulsed

His troops repulsed Confederate attacks later that day, but did not participate in the heaviest fighting of the day, which occurred on the Union left.

Again the pursuing Confederates rushed the Union guns but were repulsed by troops from Colonel William W. Orme's brigade.

Once again the Union soldiers and artillery repulsed the attack and darkness put an end to the fighting.

The Confederates launched several charges on the Union line but were repulsed, while nightfall ended the battle.

The outnumbered Illinois and Wisconsin infantry commanded by Union Col. Charles E. Hovey repulsed repeated, poorly organized attacks by Confederate Col. William H. Parsons's two Texas cavalry regiments.

The Union soldiers repulsed multiple assaults and inflicted over 6, 000 casualties on the Confederates, which included a large number of key Confederate generals, doing heavy damage to the leadership of the Army of Tennessee.

By 11: 00 a. m., the Union forces had already repulsed three separate Confederate charges.

Leaving the artillery branch, Lee briefly led an infantry division during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou from December 26 – 29, where he repulsed the attacks of Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.

Union cavalry charged on their position, but was repulsed, and the fighting went on further to the north.

Heth encountered stronger resistance from the Union I Corps than he expected and was repulsed in his first assault.

Two Union divisions of the III Corps attacked across the headwaters of White Oak Swamp, but were repulsed by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger's Confederate division.

Across the entire line of battle, the Confederate troops reached only within of the Union Center and were repulsed by nightfall with heavy losses.

Three attempts to cross were repulsed under heavy fire, delaying the Union advance by over 90 minutes.

Several Union assaults were repulsed the next morning with heavy casualties, and the Confederates counterattacked, gaining some ground.