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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Colross in 2015

Colross (also historically known as Belle Air and Grasshopper Hall) is a Georgian style mansion built around 1800 as the center of a large plantation in what is now the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, and moved circa 1930 to Princeton, New Jersey, where it is currently the administration building of Princeton Day School.

The Colross property originally occupied the entire 1100 block of Oronoco Street; Alexandria merchant John Potts developed it as a plantation and began building the mansion in 1799–1800. In 1803, Jonathan Swift—also an Alexandria merchant and a city councilman—purchased the property and during his ownership continued constructing the mansion. After Swift died in 1824, Colross was purchased by Thomson Francis Mason (1785–1838), son of Thomson Mason (1759–1820) and grandson of Founding Father George Mason (1725–1792) of Gunston Hall. Mason served as a judge of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia and as mayor of Alexandria. Mason, who made Colross his chief homestead, modified and enlarged the mansion. After successive ownerships, the area around Colross became heavily industrialized. The mansion was bought by John Munn in 1929; between that year and 1932, it was transported brick-by-brick to Princeton, where in 1958 it was sold to Princeton Day School, which uses it as a school administration building housing its admission and advancement offices. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Despite some popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland did not secede during the Civil War. Governor Thomas H. Hicks, despite his early sympathies for the South, helped prevent the state from seceding.

Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the opposing factions within the state strongly desired to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865) suspended the constitutional right of habeas corpus from Washington to Philadelphia. Lincoln ignored the ruling of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in "Ex parte Merryman" decision in 1861 concerning freeing John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer arrested by the military. (Full article...)

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McCreary in 1914

James Bennett McCreary (July 8, 1838 – October 8, 1918) was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky. He represented the state in both houses of the U.S. Congress and served as its 27th and 37th governor. Shortly after graduating from law school, he was commissioned as the only major in the 11th Kentucky Cavalry, serving under Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan during the American Civil War. He returned to his legal practice after the war. In 1869, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives where he served until 1875; he was twice chosen Speaker of the House. At their 1875 nominating convention, state Democrats chose McCreary as their nominee for governor, and he won an easy victory over Republican John Marshall Harlan. With the state still feeling the effects of the Panic of 1873, most of McCreary's actions as governor were aimed at easing the plight of the state's poor farmers.

In 1884, McCreary was elected to the first of six consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a legislator, he was an advocate of free silver and a champion of the state's agricultural interests. After two failed bids for election to the Senate, McCreary secured the support of Governor J. C. W. Beckham, and in 1902, the General Assembly elected him to the Senate. He served one largely undistinguished term, and Beckham then successfully challenged him for his Senate seat in 1908. The divide between McCreary and Beckham was short-lived, however, and Beckham supported McCreary's election to a second term as governor in 1911. (Full article...)

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

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 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 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 singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... 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?