Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Winfield Scott commanded all Union armies until November, 1861

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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A contemporary sketch of USS Winnebago

USS Winnebago was a double-turret Milwaukee-class river monitor, named for the Winnebago tribe of Siouan Indians, built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The ship participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, during which she was lightly damaged, and the bombardments of Forts Gaines and Morgan as Union troops besieged the fortifications defending the bay. In early 1865, Winnebago again supported Union forces during the Mobile Campaign as they attacked Confederate fortifications defending the city of Mobile, Alabama. She was placed in reserve after the end of the war and sold in 1874. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, the northwestern state of Wisconsin raised 91,379 soldiers for the Union Army, organized into 53 infantry regiments, 4 cavalry regiments, a company of Berdan's sharpshooters, 13 light artillery batteries and 1 unit of heavy artillery. Most of the Wisconsin troops served in the Western Theater, although several regiments served in Eastern armies, including three regiments within the famed Iron Brigade. 3,794 were killed in action or mortally wounded, 8,022 died of disease, and 400 were killed in accidents. The total mortality was 12,216 men, about 13.4 percent of total enlistments. (Full article...)

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Tubman in 1895

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known collectively as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.

Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by enslavers as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight, intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that at the Battle of La Haye-du-Puits in July 1944, a Confederate flag dating to the American Civil War was raised over the town?
... that after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?
... that Byron Root Pierce was Michigan's last living Civil War general?
... 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 Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?