Page 3 - Dissolving Union News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Efforts, the confederates at manassas are able to prepare for the union attack. >> fire! >> at dawn, mcdowell attacks beauregard with 35,000 union troops and still catches the confederates off guard. overwhelmed by the surprise attack, rebel forces are easy prey. >> civilians come to the battle, they bring picnic baskets, and they set up on a nearby field with the thought that they're going to watch a brief, maybe even bloodless encounter, that will swiftly bring this whole idea of secession and a nascent confederacy to a quick end. >> there's this naivety, just a lack of understanding about w...

Being sort of beneath him. >> while mcclellan stalls the union offensive in d.c., another general is on the attack in western tennessee. after capturing fort henry, ulysses s. grant pushes toward fort donelson, a vital confederate outpost. for grant, this is the first step toward redeeming his past disgraces. >> at the beginning of the american civil war, ulysses s. grant is a has-been, kind of a loser. this guy had had a promising military career. kind of whittled it away at the bottom of a whiskey jar. >> as the civil war escalated and the army discovered it

The union. colonel william tecumseh sherman is one man committed to preserving the union at any cost. >> sherman is passionate and driven and has a tremendous resentment on the part of northerners, like himself, that the southerners have caused this, in his eyes. >> colonel sherman! crest that hill! >> yes, sir! >> this way, men! this way! >> as confederate casualties mount, general barnard bee orders his south carolina brigade to fall back. >> retreat! retreat! >> with the confederates in retreat, irvin mcdowell's union forces control the battlefield, but some rebels aren't ready to give up. ...

Efforts, the confederates at manassas are able to prepare for the union attack. >> fire! >> at dawn, mcdowell attacks beauregard with 35,000 union troops and still catches the confederates off guard. overwhelmed by the surprise attack, rebel forces are easy prey. >> civilians come to the battle, they bring picnic baskets, and they set up on a nearby field with the thought that they're going to watch a brief, maybe even bloodless encounter, that will swiftly bring this whole idea of secession and a nascent confederacy to a quick end. >> there's this naivety, just a lackf understanding about war...

But jefferson davis, like lincoln, is under pressure to attack his enemy's capital. an ambitious plan to engage the union troops is fueled by a southern attitude of confidence and superiority. >> any man from alabama's worth at least three yanks. we'll be home in a week. >> now, what the rebel troops may lack in numbers and equipment, they make up for with a rebel pride, a fierce determination to hold on to their southern way of life no matter the consequence. >> [ chuckles ] >> with the confederate army rallying just 30 miles from washington and union troops's enlistments ending soon, lincoln...