Washington DC the capital of the Federals, borders Virginia. Richmond Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy. Less than 200 miles seperates the two locations. Both sides wanted to capture the capital of the other side.
During the centenial, I had a statement that 90% of the battles were fought in Virginia. After doing my own reading, I don't believe this anymore. Go read about the campaigns in Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia. You may change your mind.
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The Confederate Capitol was Richmond, Virginia and the Union Capitol of Washington DC was only about 100 miles away. Both sides wanted to protect their capitols and the land in between was in Virginia so naturally much of the fighting was in that state.
They bordered the slave and free states so they met there at first.
The North expended a lot of effort trying to take Richmond in Virginia. Tennessee, with the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, was the gateway to the Deep South for Grant and Sherman.
This area was where the respective national capitols were. The US capital at Washington DC is barely 100 miles from the Confederate capital at Richmond Virginia. In 19th century warfare, if the capital of a country fell, along with the actual government, then the war tended to be over. The Union and Confederacy would spend vast amounts of time, treasure, and lives in defense of their seats of government. That is why Virginia was the scene of the most battles during the US Civil War.
Most of the Civil War battles were fought in Virginia, because the Union and Confederate capitals were both, either, in Virginia, or on the border (Richmond, VA, and Washington, D.C.).
During the American Civil War, most of the actual fighting took place in and around the Southern state of Virginia. Given the close proximity of the Union and Confederate capitals of Washington, D.C., and Richmond (Virginia), both the North and the South made a concentrated effort in this region to achieve victories at each other's expense, although important battles occurred in other regions, as well.
The last fighting took place at Appomattox Station on April 9, 1865
No. Although major battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg took place in Northern states (Maryland, Pennsylvania), the vast majority of battles took place during the invasion of the South by Union forces.
Nearly all the major battles were fought in the South, the big exceptions being Antietam/Sharpsburg (Maryland) and Gettysburg (Pennsylvania). There were a few battles in Kansas, Ohio and the District of Columbia (Union) and rather more in West Virginia (many of which took place when it was still formally part of Virginia and therefore "the south"), Maryland (slave but union) and Missouri (slave but claimed by both sides), and some battles against American Indians in the northwest, but outside of that, the fighting was almost entirely within territory claimed by the Confederacy, so it makes sense that most of the destruction would be there.
it took place in spotsylvania, virginia...