Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac on March 9, 1862

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 Confederate States of America financed its war effort during the American Civil War through various means, fiscal and monetary. As the war lasted for nearly the entire existence of the Confederacy, military considerations dominated national finance.

Early in the war the Confederacy relied mostly on tariffs on imports and on taxes on exports to raise revenues. However, with the imposition of a voluntary self-embargo in 1861 (intended to "starve" Europe of cotton and force diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy), as well as the blockade of Southern ports, declared in April 1861 and enforced by the Union Navy, the revenue from taxes on international trade declined. Likewise, the financing obtained through early voluntary donations of coins and bullion from private individuals in support of the Confederate cause, which early on proved quite substantial, dried up by the end of 1861. As a result, the Confederate government had to resort to other means of financing its military operations. A "war-tax" was enacted but proved difficult to collect. Likewise, the appropriation of Union property in the South and the forced repudiation of debts owed by Southerners to Northerners failed to raise substantial revenue. The subsequent issuance of government debt and substantial printing of the Confederate dollars contributed to high inflation, which plagued the Confederacy until the end of the war. Military setbacks in the field also played a role by causing loss of confidence and by fueling inflationary expectations. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Michigan made a substantial contribution to the Union during the American Civil War. While the state itself was far removed from the combat theaters of the war, Michigan supplied many troops and several generals, including George Armstrong Custer. When, at the beginning of the war, Michigan was asked to supply no more than one regiment, Governor Austin Blair sent seven. (Full article...)

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Hay in 1897

John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 – July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and an assistant for Abraham Lincoln, he became a diplomat. He served as United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also a biographer of Lincoln, and wrote poetry and other literature throughout his life.

Born in Salem, Indiana to an anti-slavery family that moved to Warsaw, Illinois, Hay showed great potential from an early age, and his family sent him to Brown University. After graduation in 1858, Hay read law in his uncle's office in Springfield, Illinois, adjacent to that of Lincoln. Hay worked for Lincoln's successful presidential campaign and became one of his private secretaries in the White House. Throughout the American Civil War, Hay was close to Lincoln and stood by his deathbed after the President was shot. In addition to his other literary works, Hay co-authored, with John George Nicolay, a ten-volume biography of Lincoln that helped shape the assassinated president's historical image. (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 2Daniel McCallum, by the Brady National Photographic Art Gallery
Image 3Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, by Alfred Waud
Image 4Atlanta roundhouse ruin at History of Atlanta, by George Barnard
Image 5The Chickahominy – Sumner's Upper Bridge at Peninsula campaign, by William McIlvaine
Image 6Quaker guns, by George Barnard and James F. Gibson
Image 7George Atzerodt, by Alexander Gardner
Image 8Siege of Yorktown, by James F. Gibson
Image 9John Lorimer Worden, by Mathew Brady
Image 10Andersonville survivor
Image 11William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State during the American Civil War
Image 12Robert E. Lee, by Levin Corbin Handy
Image 13Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and biographer John Hay
Image 14Battle of Fort Sanders, by Kurz and Allison
Image 15Battle of Harpers Ferry, by Robert Knox Sneden
Image 16John F. Reynolds, by Alfred Rudolph Waud
Image 17Military execution of the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination
Image 18David Dixon Porter, by Mathew Brady
Image 19Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and John A. McClernand in 1862 by Alexander Gardner
Image 20Ambrose Burnside, by Matthew Brady
Image 21John A. Dahlgren, by Mathew Brady
Image 22Christian Fleetwood
Image 23Battle of Franklin, by Kurz and Allison
Image 24African-American Civil War soldiers
Image 25Confederate casualties at Chancellorsville during the American Civil War, by the National Archives and Records Administration
Image 26Braxton Bragg
Image 27Charles Griffin
Image 28Ulysses S. Grant, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 29Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers
Image 30Richmond, Virginia after the American Civil War
Image 31Francis B. Spinola, Brigadier General for the Union in the American Civil War, and Congressman from New York
Image 32Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 33Pickett's Charge, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 34First Battle of Bull Run map
Image 35Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Image 36Harriet Tubman
Image 37United States President (and former Brigadier-General) Benjamin Harrison
Image 38William Birney
Image 39Charles Pomeroy Stone
Image 40Andersonville Prison at Andersonville National Historic Site, by John L. Ransom
Image 41President Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the USA
Image 42The burning of Columbia at Columbia, South Carolina in the American Civil War, by William Waud
Image 43George Armstrong Custer, by George L. Andrews
Image 44The print version of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville at McPhersonville, South Carolina, by William Waud
Image 45Abner Doubleday
Image 46Lithographic facsimile of the Bixby letter, by Huber's Museum

Did you know...

... 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 Emma Dean Powell received a pass from General Ulysses S. Grant to accompany her husband to battlefield camps during the American Civil War after he lost his arm?
... that actor George Kunkel portrayed in blackface the character of Uncle Tom, using it at first to promote slavery during the American Civil War but later to attack it, after his views had changed?
... 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 some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... 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?