Eastern theater of the American Civil War

The eastern theater of the American Civil War consisted of the major military and naval operations in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the national capital in Washington, D.C., and the coastal fortifications and seaports of North Carolina. The interior of the Carolinas were considered part of the western theater, and other coastal areas along the Atlantic Ocean were part of the lower seaboard theater.

The eastern theater was the venue for several major campaigns launched by the Union Army of the Potomac to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia; many of these were frustrated by the Army of Northern Virginia, a division of the Confederate States Army, commanded by General Robert E. Lee. President Abraham Lincoln responded by seeking a general to match Lee's boldness, and successively appointed Major General Irvin McDowell, George B. McClellan, John Pope, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, and George G. Meade to command his principal eastern armies.

Meade gained a decisive victory over Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Newly appointed general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant arrived from the western theater the following year, in 1864, and took control of operations in Virginia. Under Grant, Union forces captured Richmond after several bloody battles of the Overland Campaign and a nine-month siege near the cities of Petersburg and Richmond. The surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 brought major operations in the area to a close, essentially guaranteeing the Union's victory.

While many of the campaigns and battles were fought in the region of Virginia between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, there were other major campaigns fought nearby. The Western Virginia Campaign of 1861 secured Union control over the western counties of Virginia, which would be formed into the new state of West Virginia. Confederate coastal areas and ports were seized in southeastern Virginia and North Carolina. The Shenandoah Valley was marked by frequent clashes in 1862, 1863, and 1864. Lee launched two unsuccessful invasions of Union territory in hopes of influencing Northern opinion to end the war.

In the fall of 1862, Lee followed his successful Northern Virginia Campaign with his first invasion, the Maryland Campaign, which culminated in his strategic defeat in the Battle of Antietam. In the summer of 1863, Lee's second invasion, the Gettysburg Campaign, reached Pennsylvania, farther north than any other major Confederate army. Following a Confederate attack on Washington, D.C., in 1864, Union forces commanded by Philip H. Sheridan launched a campaign in Shenandoah Valley, which cost the Confederacy control over a major food supply for Lee's army.