91µ¼º½

Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 5:30 p.m. - To the Gates of Richmond: The Civil War in Virginia Featured Speaker: Assistant Professor at Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society Briana Frakes (https://chasecenter.osu.edu/user-profile/54 ) Virginia boasts the highest concentration of Civil War battlefields in the country. Considered the "gateway to the Confederacy" and home to the Confederate capital at Richmond, capturing Virginia or defending it was a paramount goal for both the Union and Confederate armies. The 1862 Peninsula Campaign marked the first significant action the Union Army took into Confederate heartland. Culminating in the Seven Days Battles, this campaign was the closest the Union Army came to capturing Richmond until the war's end in 1865. Their inability to take the Confederate capital in 1862 forced Lincoln to recalibrate the Union's military and political goals around emancipation, making this the most consequential campaign during the entire Civil War.