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Civil War Theaters
One of the most debated questions about the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) is:
     What was the most important theater of war during the Civil War?

While there are many subjective criteria that can be used to compare the importance of one theater over another, there are also quantitative methods of comparison. One approach is to compare the number and sizes of battles in each theater. The analysis below uses this approach to provide one perspective on answering this challenging question.

Many experts divide Civil War military operations into three theaters: the Eastern Theater (the area north of North Carolina and east of the Appalachian Mountains); the Western Theater (the area south of Virginia, west of the Appalachians, and east of the Mississippi river); and the Trans-Mississippi Theater (the area west of the Mississippi river). For more details, see the complete break-down here.

Number of Battles
According to Dyer's Compendium, there were 10,455 military actions during the Civil War. Of these actions, 29 were identified as campaigns, 76 as battles, and 310 as engagements. The other 10,000 or so were considered minor actions such as skirmishes, reconnaissances, etc.

The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission (appointed by Congress and by the Secretary of the Interior) identified 384 of these actions "as the principal battles and classified [them] according to their historical significance." The commission classified the battles into four categories (A, B, C, & D): 45 engagements in group A for "having a decisive influence on a campaign and a direct impact on the course of the war;" 104 engagements in group B for "having a direct and decisive influence on their campaign;" 128 engagements in group C for "having observable influence on the outcome of a campaign;" and 107 engagements in group D for "having a limited influence on the outcome of their campaign or operation but achieving or affecting important local objectives."

If we focus on the most important engagements on the Civil War (categories A and B) then we are left 149 battles. From this number, we subtract six battles: five because they were primarily naval actions and one because it did not involve troops from the Confederate army (Sand Creek). Below is a chart of the distribution of these 143 engagements across the three theaters of war.

Number of Engagements by Theater - Overview

	1861	1862	1863	1864	1865	Totals
Eastern Theater	4	19	9	25	9	66
Western Theater	1	15	13	22	6	57
Trans-Mississippi Theater	2	6	4	8	0	20
Totals	7	40	26	55	15	143

For example, in 1862, 15 category A and B engagements (or battles) were fought in the Western Theater.

If we expand this chart and view more detail on a three month basis for each year, the following graphic is produced:

Number of Engagements by Theater - Detail

Therefore, we can make a number of observations:

• The years with the most battles are 1864 and 1862.
• Most of the battles were fought in the Eastern and Western Theaters.
• The Eastern Theater had about 15% more engagements than the Western Theater and 230% more engagements than the Trans-Mississippi Theater.