Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a sectional rebellion against the United States of America by the Confederate States, formed of eleven southern states' governments which moved to secede from the Union after the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. The Union's victory was eventually achieved by leveraging advantages in population, manufacturing and logistics and through a strategic naval blockade denying the Confederacy access to the world's markets.

In many ways, the conflict's central issues – the enslavement of African Americans, the role of constitutional federal government, and the rights of states – are still not completely resolved. Not surprisingly, the Confederate army's surrender at Appomattox on April 9,1865 did little to change many Americans' attitudes toward the potential powers of central government. The passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution in the years immediately following the war did not change the racial prejudice prevalent among Americans of the day; and the process of Reconstruction did not heal the deeply personal wounds inflicted by four brutal years of war and more than 970,000 casualties – 3 percent of the population, including approximately 560,000 deaths. As a result, controversies affected by the war's unresolved social, political, economic and racial tensions continue to shape contemporary American thought. The causes of the war, the reasons for the outcome, and even the name of the war itself are subjects of much discussion even today. (Full article)

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Engraving of Kalamazoo

The Kalamazoo-class monitors were a class of ocean-going ironclad monitors begun during the American Civil War. Unfinished by the end of the war, their construction was suspended in November 1865 and the unseasoned wood of their hulls rotted while they were still on the building stocks. If the four ships had been finished they would have been the most seaworthy monitors in the US Navy. One was scrapped in 1874 while the other three were disposed of a decade later. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The state of New Jersey in the United States provided a source of troops, equipment and leaders for the Union during the American Civil War. Though no major battles were fought in New Jersey, soldiers and volunteers from New Jersey played an important part in the war, including Philip Kearny and George B. McClellan, who led the Army of the Potomac early in the Civil War and unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1864 against his former commander-in-chief, Abraham Lincoln. (Full article...)

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James Longstreet (January 8, 1821 – January 2, 1904) was a Confederate general who served during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps commander for most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater, and briefly with Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Longstreet served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War. He was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec, and during recovery married his first wife, Louise Garland. Throughout the 1850s, he served on frontier duty in the American Southwest. In June 1861, Longstreet resigned his U.S. Army commission and joined the Confederate Army. He commanded Confederate troops during an early victory at Blackburn's Ford in July and played a minor role at the First Battle of Bull Run. (Full article...)

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Image 1The Chickahominy – Sumner's Upper Bridge at Peninsula campaign, by William McIlvaine
Image 2John F. Reynolds, by Alfred Rudolph Waud
Image 3Andersonville survivor
Image 4Battle of Fort Sanders, by Kurz and Allison
Image 5Charles Griffin
Image 6Military execution of the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination
Image 7Daniel McCallum, by the Brady National Photographic Art Gallery
Image 8President Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the USA
Image 9African-American Civil War soldiers
Image 10The print version of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville at McPhersonville, South Carolina, by William Waud
Image 11Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and biographer John Hay
Image 12United States President (and former Brigadier-General) Benjamin Harrison
Image 13Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, by Alfred Waud
Image 14George Armstrong Custer, by George L. Andrews
Image 15Confederate casualties at Chancellorsville during the American Civil War, by the National Archives and Records Administration
Image 16Battle of Harpers Ferry, by Robert Knox Sneden
Image 17Ambrose Burnside, by Matthew Brady
Image 18Quaker guns, by George Barnard and James F. Gibson
Image 19The burning of Columbia at Columbia, South Carolina in the American Civil War, by William Waud
Image 20Abner Doubleday
Image 21Charles Pomeroy Stone
Image 22Christian Fleetwood
Image 23Robert E. Lee, by Levin Corbin Handy
Image 24Braxton Bragg
Image 25Pickett's Charge, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 26Siege of Yorktown, by James F. Gibson
Image 27Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 28Lithographic facsimile of the Bixby letter, by Huber's Museum
Image 29Atlanta roundhouse ruin at History of Atlanta, by George Barnard
Image 30John A. Dahlgren, by Mathew Brady
Image 31William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State during the American Civil War
Image 32Battle of Franklin, by Kurz and Allison
Image 33William Birney
Image 34First Battle of Bull Run map
Image 35Andersonville Prison at Andersonville National Historic Site, by John L. Ransom
Image 36John Lorimer Worden, by Mathew Brady
Image 37George Atzerodt, by Alexander Gardner
Image 38Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and John A. McClernand in 1862 by Alexander Gardner
Image 39Francis B. Spinola, Brigadier General for the Union in the American Civil War, and Congressman from New York
Image 40Ulysses S. Grant, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 41The original sketch of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville, at and by William Waud
Image 42Harriet Tubman
Image 43Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Image 44Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers
Image 45Richmond, Virginia after the American Civil War
Image 46David Dixon Porter, by Mathew Brady

Did you know...

... that the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?
... that Byron Root Pierce was Michigan's last living Civil War general?
... that in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the only Black-led organization providing teachers to formerly enslaved people was the African Civilization Society?
... that Enoch Marvin Banks resigned from the University of Florida because of public outrage over his belief that the American Civil War was caused by slavery?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Colonel Bradley Winslow was brevetted by US president Abraham Lincoln for "brave and gallant conduct" during the siege of Petersburg in the American Civil War?