Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Stone Mountain hosts the massive Confederate Memorial Carving

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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The Fishing Creek Confederacy took place in the vicinity of Fishing Creek

The Fishing Creek Confederacy was an alleged military uprising in northern Columbia County, Pennsylvania and southern Sullivan County, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. Residents of Columbia County strongly opposed military drafts that were being conducted there, leading to widespread desertion and draft evasion. In a Columbia County draft in July 1863, 618 people were drafted. Of these, approximately 75% evaded the draft. On July 30, 1864, several people rode into northern Columbia County from Luzerne County to search for deserters, and one of the riders was shot. By the summer of 1864, rumors had begun to circulate that these deserters and draft evaders, as well as Confederate sympathizers, had built a fort with cannons on North Mountain, not far from the headwaters of Fishing Creek. This fort was supposedly manned by 500 people. Upon hearing these rumors, 1000 soldiers gathered near Bloomsburg, in Columbia County.

On August 21, 1864, the soldiers began traveling up Fishing Creek. For the next week, they searched the northern portion of Columbia County for deserters and draft evaders. They were unable to find any, but on August 28 they arrested 100 local citizens. Most were released, although some were taken to Fort Mifflin. The soldiers continued heading into the northernmost reaches of the Fishing Creek watershed. Unable to find any evidence of a conspiracy, they returned to Bloomsburg and remained in the county until December 1864. The last of the prisoners were released from Fort Mifflin several months after their arrest. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Mississippi was the second southern state to declare its secession from the United States, doing so on January 9, 1861. It joined with six other southern states to form the Confederacy on February 4, 1861. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and transportation nodes.

Mississippian troops fought in every major theater of the American Civil War, although most were concentrated in the Western Theater. Confederate president Jefferson Davis was a Mississippi politician and operated a large cotton plantation there. Prominent Mississippian generals during the war included William Barksdale, Carnot Posey, Wirt Adams, Earl Van Dorn, Robert Lowry, and Benjamin G. Humphreys. (Full article...)

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Portrait, c. 1870–1880

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (/ˈrʌðərfərd/; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881.

As an attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the American Civil War, he left a fledgling political career to join the Union Army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. He earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he earned a reputation in the Republican Party as a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction. He served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... that Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army 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 The Land We Love, a little magazine that merged into Southern Magazine, printed American Civil War recollections, poetry, agricultural material, and many works by female authors?
... that Francis Orray Ticknor was a country doctor whose fame as a poet relies on "Little Giffen", a poem about one of his patients who died in the American Civil War?