Editing Confederate States of America (section)

===Incursions: 1862===
The victories of 1861 were followed by a series of defeats east and west in early 1862. To restore the Union by military force, the Federal strategy was to (1) secure the Mississippi River, (2) seize or close Confederate ports, and (3) march on Richmond. To secure independence, the Confederate intent was to (1) repel the invader on all fronts, costing him blood and treasure, and (2) carry the war into the North by two offensives in time to affect the mid-term elections.

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|image1=Battle of Antietam.jpg
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|caption1=General Burnside halted at the bridge. Battle of Antietam ([[Battle of Antietam|Sharpsburg]]).
|image2=Burial of the dead on the Antietam battlefield army.mil-2008-09-10-145638.jpg
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|caption2=Burying Union dead. Antietam, Maryland.<ref>Glatthaar, Joseph T., ''General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse,'' Free Press 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-684-82787-2}}, p. xiv. Inflicting intolerable casualties on invading Federal armies was a Confederate strategy to make the northern Unionists relent in their pursuit of restoring the Union.</ref>
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Much of northwestern Virginia was under Federal control.<ref>Ambler, Charles, ''Francis H. Pierpont: Union War Governor of Virginia and Father of West Virginia'', Univ. of North Carolina, 1937, p. 419, note 36. Letter of Adjutant General Henry L. Samuels, August 22, 1862, to Gov. Francis Pierpont listing 22 of 48 counties under sufficient control for soldier recruitment.<br />[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsb&fileName=037/llsb037.db&recNum=1996 ''Congressional Globe,'' 37th Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Bill S.531, February 14, 1863] "A bill supplemental to the act entitled 'An act for the Admission of the State of 'West Virginia' into the Union, and for other purposes' which would include the counties of "Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Fayette, Nicholas, and Clay, now in the possession of the so-called confederate government".</ref> In February and March, most of Missouri and Kentucky were Union "occupied, consolidated, and used as staging areas for advances further South". Following the repulse of a Confederate counterattack at the [[Battle of Shiloh]], Tennessee, permanent Federal occupation expanded west, south and east.<ref>Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 27. In the Mississippi River Valley, during the first half of February, central Tennessee's [[Battle of Fort Henry|Fort Henry]] was lost and [[Battle of Fort Donelson|Fort Donelson]] fell with a small army. By the end of the month, [[Tennessee in the american civil war#Twin Rivers Campaign of 1862|Nashville]], Tennessee was the first conquered Confederate state capital. On April 6–7, Federals turned back the Confederate offensive at the Battle of Shiloh, and three days later [[Battle of Island Number Ten|Island Number 10]], controlling the upper Mississippi River, fell to a combined Army and Naval gunboat siege of three weeks.

Federal occupation of Confederate territory expanded to include northwestern Arkansas, south down the Mississippi River and east up the Tennessee River. The Confederate River Defense fleet sank two Union ships at [[Battle of Plum Point Bend|Plum Point Bend]] (naval Fort Pillow), but they withdrew and [[Fort Pillow, Tennessee|Fort Pillow]] was captured downriver.</ref> Confederate forces repositioned south along the Mississippi River to [[Memphis, Tennessee]], where at the naval [[First Battle of Memphis|Battle of Memphis]], its River Defense Fleet was sunk. Confederates withdrew from northern Mississippi and northern Alabama. [[Capture of New Orleans|New Orleans was captured on April 29]] by a combined Army-Navy force under U.S. Admiral [[David Farragut]], and the Confederacy lost control of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It had to concede extensive agricultural resources that had supported the Union's sea-supplied logistics base.<ref name="Martis28">Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 28.</ref>

Although Confederates had suffered major reverses everywhere, as of the end of April the Confederacy still controlled territory holding 72% of its population.<ref name="Martis27">Martis, ''Historical Atlas'', p. 27. Federal occupation expanded into northern Virginia, and their control of the Mississippi extended south to Nashville, Tennessee.</ref> Federal forces disrupted Missouri and Arkansas; they had broken through in western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana. Along the Confederacy's shores, Union forces had closed ports and made garrisoned lodgments on every coastal Confederate state except Alabama and Texas.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 354. Federal sea-based amphibious forces captured [[Battle of Roanoke Island|Roanoke Island]], North Carolina along with a large garrison in February. In March, Confederates abandoned forts at [[Amelia Island|Fernandia]] and [[St. Augustine in the American Civil War#Early war|St. Augustine]] Florida, and lost [[Battle of New Berne|New Berne]], North Carolina. In April, [[Capture of New Orleans|New Orleans]] fell and Savannah, Georgia was closed by the [[Battle of Fort Pulaski]]. In May retreating Confederates burned their two pre-war Navy yards at Norfolk and Pensacola. See Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 287, 306, 302</ref> Although scholars sometimes assess the Union blockade as ineffectual under international law until the last few months of the war, from the first months it disrupted Confederate privateers, making it "almost impossible to bring their prizes into Confederate ports".<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 294, 296–297. Europeans refused to allow captured U.S. shipping to be sold for the privateers 95% share, so through 1862, Confederate privateering disappeared. The CSA Congress authorized a Volunteer Navy to man cruisers the following year.</ref> British firms developed small fleets of [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade running]] companies, such as [[George Trenholm|John Fraser and Company]] and [[S. Isaac, Campbell & Company]] while the Ordnance Department secured its own blockade runners for dedicated munitions cargoes.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 288–291. As many as half the Confederate blockade runners had British nationals serving as officers and crew. Confederate regulations required one-third, then one-half of the cargoes to be munitions, food and medicine.</ref>

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|caption1=CSS ''Virginia'' at [[Battle of Hampton Roads|Hampton Roads]], (Monitor and Merrimac) nearby destroyed Union warship
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|caption2=[[CSS Alabama|CSS ''Alabama'']] off [[Battle of Cherbourg (1864)|Cherbourg]], location of the only cruiser engagement
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During the Civil War fleets of [[Ironclad warship|armored warships]] were deployed for the first time in sustained blockades at sea. After some success against the Union blockade, in March the ironclad [[CSS Virginia|CSS ''Virginia'']] was forced into port and burned by Confederates at their retreat. Despite several attempts mounted from their port cities, CSA naval forces were unable to break the Union blockade. Attempts were made by Commodore [[Josiah Tattnall III]]'s ironclads from Savannah in 1862 with the [[USS Atlanta (1861)|CSS ''Atlanta'']].<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 287, 306, 302, 306 and [http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-2.htm CSS Atlanta, USS Atlanta. Navy Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100407154442/http%3A//www%2Ehistory%2Enavy%2Emil/branches/org11%2D2%2Ehtm |date=April 7, 2010 }}. In both events, as with the CSS ''Virginia'', the Navy's bravery and fighting skill was compromised in combat by mechanical failure in the engines or steering. The joint combined Army-Navy defense by General [[Robert E. Lee]], and his successor and Commodore [[Josiah Tattnall III]], repelled amphibious assault of Savannah for the duration of the war. Union General [[Tecumseh Sherman]] captured Savannah from the land side in December 1864. The British blockade runner [[USS Atlanta (1861)#As Fingal|''Fingal'']] was purchased and converted to the ironclad [[USS Atlanta (1861)|CSS ''Atlanta'']]. It made two sorties, was captured by Union forces, repaired, and returned to service as the ironclad USS ''Atlanta'' supporting Grant's [[Siege of Petersburg]].</ref> Secretary of the Navy [[Stephen Mallory]] placed his hopes in a European-built ironclad fleet, but they were never realized. On the other hand, four new English-built commerce raiders served the Confederacy, and several fast blockade runners were sold in Confederate ports. They were converted into commerce-raiding cruisers, and manned by their British crews.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', p. 303. French shipyards built four corvettes, and two ironclad rams for the Confederacy, but the American minister prevented their delivery. British firms contracted to build two additional ironclad rams, but under threat from the U.S., the British government bought them for their own navy. Two of the converted blockade runners effectively raided up and down the Atlantic coast until the end of the war.</ref>

In the east, Union forces could not close on Richmond. General McClellan landed his army on the [[Peninsula Campaign|Lower Peninsula]] of Virginia. Lee subsequently ended that threat from the east, then Union General John Pope attacked overland from the north only to be repulsed at Second Bull Run ([[Second Battle of Bull Run|Second Manassas]]). Lee's strike north was turned back at Antietam MD, then Union [[Ambrose Burnside|Major General Ambrose Burnside's]] offensive was disastrously ended at [[Battle of Fredericksburg|Fredericksburg]] VA in December. Both armies then turned to winter quarters to recruit and train for the coming spring.<ref>Coulter, ''The Confederate States of America'', pp. 354–356. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign caused the surprised Confederates to destroy their winter camp to mobilize against the threat to their Capital. They burned "a vast amount of supplies" to keep them from falling into enemy hands.</ref>

In an attempt to seize the initiative, reprove, protect farms in mid-growing season and influence U.S. Congressional elections, two major Confederate incursions into Union territory had been launched in August and September 1862. Both [[Braxton Bragg]]'s invasion of Kentucky and [[Battle of Antietam|Lee's invasion]] of Maryland were decisively repulsed, leaving Confederates in control of but 63% of its population.<ref name="Martis27"/> Civil War scholar [[Allan Nevins]] argues that 1862 was the strategic [[Ordinary high water mark|high-water mark]] of the Confederacy.<ref>Nevin's analysis of the strategic highpoint of Confederate military scope and effectiveness is in contra-distinction to the conventional "last chance" battlefield imagery of the [[High-water mark of the Confederacy]] found at "The Angle" of the Battle of Gettysburg.</ref> The failures of the two invasions were attributed to the same irrecoverable shortcomings: lack of manpower at the front, lack of supplies including serviceable shoes, and exhaustion after long marches without adequate food.<ref>Allan Nevins, ''War for the Union'' (1960) pp. 289–290. Weak national leadership led to disorganized overall direction in contrast to improved organization in Washington. With another 10,000 men Lee and Bragg might have prevailed in the border states, but the local populations did not respond to their pleas to recruit additional soldiers.</ref> Also in September Confederate General [[William W. Loring]] pushed Federal forces from [[Charleston, West Virginia|Charleston, Virginia]], and the Kanawha Valley in western Virginia, but lacking reinforcements Loring abandoned his position and by November the region was back in Federal control.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rice |first1=Otis K. |first2=Stephen W. |last2=Brown |title=West Virginia, A History |publisher=Univ. of Kentucky Press |year=1993 |edition=2nd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westvirginiahist00rice_0/page/134 134–135] |isbn=0-8131-1854-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/westvirginiahist00rice_0/page/134 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh23-1.html|title=The Civil War Comes to Charleston|accessdate=May 3, 2023}}</ref>