Professor Blight lectures on the military history of the early part of the war. Beginning with events in the West, Blight describes the Union victories at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, introduces Union General Ulysses S. Grant, and narrates the horrific battle of Shiloh, fought in April of 1862. Moving back East, the lecture describes the Union General George McClellan's abortive 1862 Peninsula campaign, which introduced the world to Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The lecture concludes with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's decision to take the battle to the North.

Reading assignment:

William Gienapp, Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Collection, part 2, pp. 71-106

Michael P. Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War, parts 5-6, pp. 137-173

Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches