Eleven of the fifteen costliest battles of the Civil War (calculated by number of casualties) were fought in the Eastern Theater. Ten of these are featured on this site. Also included in this list is Petersburg, whose casualties after nine months of fighting far exceeded any single battle.

	Gettysburg Over 1,200 monuments and markers remember the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and one of the great turning points of history.
	Antietam Over 300 monuments and markers commemorate the single deadliest day of American military history.
	Harpers Ferry An almost bloodless victory for “Stonewall” Jackson. The largest surrender of United States troops until the fall of the Philippines in World War II.
	Chancellorsville Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory and Stonewall Jackson’s last fight. It was the deadliest battle of the war until two months later at Gettysburg.
	The Wilderness The opening battle of Grant’s 1864 campaign was a confused stalemate. But Grant refused to admit defeat and kept pushing on to Richmond.
	Spotsylvania The second battle of Grant’s 1864 campaign continued with what may have been the most violent clash of the Civil War.
	Cold Harbor The final battle of Grant’s Overland Campaign. It showed that Lee was not going to be easily pushed away from the gates of Richmond.
	Petersburg Nine months of bloody fights alternated with deadly trench warfare. Both armies were ground down in a horrific battle of attrition that Lee could not win.
	Second Bull Run (Second Manassas) Pope almost wore down Jackson’s Corps in two days of brutal fighting. Then Lee arrived with Longstreet’s Corps and crushed the Union Army for the second time on this bloody ground.
	Fredericksburg Burnside’s Army of the Potomac threw itself against Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in unbeatable defensive positions.