By Febrary 1, 1861, six more states -- Mississippi ... than 186,000 black soldiers had joined the Union army; 93,000 from the Confederate states, 40,000 from the border slave states, and 53,000 ...

Strategically, the Eastern Theater was arguably the most important battleground of the Civil War; comprising the states ... 1861 to 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia fought in dozens of major ...