Discuss three “turning point” battles of the Civil War that decided the fate of our nation.

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Three Turning Point Battles of the Civil War
The civil war denotes the war that broke out in America in 1861 and ended in 1865. The war emanated from seven southern slave states which made the declaration of secession from the United States. They formed the Confederate States of America. In 1961, the Confederate States made an attack on the US fortress Fort Sumter prompting the outbreak of the war. The Confederate grew to include eleven states. However, there was no diplomatic recognition of the Confederate in any country in the world. In the course of the war, there were three turning points battles which to great extents decided the fate of our nation. In this paper, there is a discussion of those three turning point battles.
Battle of Chancellorsville
The battle of Chancellorsville made a significant impact to the fate of US in as far as the civil war is concerned. In 1863, General Hooker was in charge of the Union Army, and he formed a Calvary aimed at making attacks. The target was to strike at Robert Lee’s army, whose number was hardly half that of Hooker. The attack turned out to be a turning point in the war, though not much in an anticipated way, (Hopak, 24). General Hooker took much-calculated moves of dividing his army into several groups for those that would attack and those that would engage in defense.
General Hooker was profoundly convinced that there would be a victory as there was engagement in much hiding to deceive the opponents that the number was not so much high, hence prompt them to a reckless attack.

However, General Lee did not fall for the setup. With the help of Stonewall Jackson, Lee came up with a witty plan to defeat Hooker. Despite their already outnumbered army, they made divisions to allow the right kinds of attacks and defense. Jackson made an unprecedented attack on Lee’s army, and by early the following morning, Hooker and his team retreated, which marked a defeat for the union.
The Battle of Gettysburg
After the victory at Chancellorsville, General Lee had much charging and wanted to maintain the pace. He was in profound conviction that; with an attack on a Northern City, there would be a significant confidence to the popular opinion, including politicians to be against Lincoln and the civil war. Such a move would end the war and bring closure to the matter. Lee’s commanders sent some troops to Gettysburg for supplies even as talks for the way forward were underway. The brigades unexpectedly ran into the Union Calvary. President Lincoln heard of the plans for attacks and, therefore, sent the US army to cut off the attacks, (Felten, 26). There were, therefore, surprise attacks on each of the armies.
The Confederate troops appeared to be highly influential and sent the Union army back through the towns. The battle was in high escalation, and the generals had to send out for backups. By nightfall, there was bitter engagement on each other over the ridges. There happened to be many serious mishaps emanating from the leadership of the two armies leading to prolonging the battle with little achievement on both sides. Later, there was the opening of fire from the North which led to the killing of more than half of the Confederate soldiers, which was a massive defeat, and a surprise as well as it happened in less than half of an hour. There was a retreat from General Lee as the battle came to an end with deaths of thousands of military as well as civilians.
The battle of Vicksburg
This fight formed the final major military action in the civil war. The Vicksburg was among the major confederacy strongholds on the Mississippi River. The capture of it would, therefore, make a completion of the Northern strategy; the Anaconda plan. There was a decision to make an attack on Vicksburg after the two previous battles which ended with many casualties. Grant decided to have a siege on the area on May 25th, 1863. There had been heavy casualties following the previous battles and, therefore, there had to be the right calculations to ensure a success of this contest, (Christ, 125). The confederate had no reinforcement, and their supplies came to near depletion following a forty dear linger. In well-planned maneuvers, there came to be the crossing of the Mississippi River and driving the Confederate army into defensive lines. There was an overwhelming defeat of the Confederate, weakening the states to the final bit. It was on 4th July 1863, that the garrison surrendered, bringing an end to long time battle.
The success of the battle of Vicksburg brought a degradation of the ability of the Confederate in maintaining the war efforts, despite the previous confidence and conviction to success. Many analysts consider the battle at Vicksburg as the turning point for the war. The action brought about cutting off of the primary states such as Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, from the Confederacy, rendering it much weak for engagement in any other fight.
Works Cited
Christ, Mark. “Vicksburg 1863: The Deepest Wound: Battles and Leaders Of The American Civil War.” Arkansas Review: A Journal Of Delta Studies 47.2 (2016): 125-126. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
Felten, Eric. “Gettysburg In The Round.” Humanities 37.3 (2016): 24-27. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
Hopak, John D. “Blood Brothers.” America’s Civil War 29.4 (2016): 22-31. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.