ABSTRACT
The first two years of the Civil War brought little good news for the North. In the East, the Union suffered stalemate and setback, beginning with the first major clash, the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, where northern troops panicked and retreated. The Union's only bright spots were in the war's western theater, where Union forces captured New Orleans and brought large sections of the Mississippi River under their control. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made history by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves in rebelling states and endowed the Union cause with increased fervor. During the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, the North finally achieved a major victory in the East. In 1864, Union forces in the East were stalemated again, as General Ulysses S. Grant's troops were locked in a long siege of Petersburg, Virginia.
