Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Specifications of the third Confederate national flag

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 Battle of Shiloh by Thulstrup

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield is located between a small, undistinguished church named Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General P. G. T. Beauregard.

The Confederate army hoped to defeat Grant's Army of the Tennessee before it could be reinforced and resupplied. Although it made considerable gains with a surprise attack during the first day of the battle, Johnston was mortally wounded and Grant's army was not eliminated. Overnight, Grant's Army of the Tennessee was reinforced by one of its divisions stationed farther north, and was also joined by portions of the Army of the Ohio, under the command of Major General Don Carlos Buell. The Union forces conducted an unexpected counterattack in the morning, which reversed the Confederate gains of the previous day. The exhausted Confederate army withdrew further south, and a modest Union pursuit started and ended on the next day. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

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Oliver Christian Bosbyshell (January 3, 1839 – August 1, 1921) was Superintendent of the United States Mint at Philadelphia from 1889 to 1894. He also claimed to have been the first Union soldier wounded by enemy action in the Civil War, stating that he received a bruise on the forehead from an object thrown by a Confederate sympathizer while his unit was marching through Baltimore in April 1861.

Bosbyshell was born in Mississippi. His parents were of old Philadelphia stock, and he was raised in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. After briefly working on the railroad and then studying law, Bosbyshell enlisted in the Union cause on the outbreak of war. Following a brief period of service in the 25th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, he joined the 48th Pennsylvania, remaining in that regiment for three years. He saw action in such battles as Second Bull Run and Antietam. He rose to the rank of major and led his regiment, but was mustered out upon the expiration of his term of service in October 1864, having been refused a leave of absence. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... that Carter Moore Braxton fought for the Confederacy throughout the American Civil War and, according to one report, had seven horses killed under him but avoided any wounds?
... that Byron Root Pierce was Michigan's last living Civil War general?
... 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?