Portal:American Civil War

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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The Marietta-class monitors were a pair of ironclad river monitors laid down in the summer of 1862 for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction was slow, partially for lack of labor, and the ships were not completed until December 1865, after the war was over. However the navy did not accept them until 1866 and immediately laid them up. They were sold in 1873 without ever having been commissioned. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The Utah Territory (September 9, 1850 - January 4, 1896) during the American Civil War was far from the main operational theaters of war, but still played a role in the disposition of the United States Army, drawing manpower away from the volunteer forces and providing its share of administrative headaches for the Lincoln Administration. Although no battles were fought in the territory, the withdrawal of Union forces at the beginning of the war allowed the Native American tribes to start raiding the trails passing through Utah. As a result, units from California and Utah were assigned to protect against these raids. Mineral deposits found in Utah by California soldiers encouraged the immigration of non-Mormon settlers into Utah. (Full article...)

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First Sergeant Powhatan Beaty, of the 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, who was awarded the Medal of Honor, for taking command of his company at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, after all officers had been killed and/or wounded.

Powhatan Beaty (October 8, 1837 – December 6, 1916) was an African American soldier and actor. During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army's 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment throughout the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign. He received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for taking command of his company at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, after all officers had been killed or wounded.

Following the war, he became an orator and actor, appearing in amateur theater productions in his home of Cincinnati, Ohio. His most well-known stage performance was an 1884 appearance at Ford's Opera House on 9th Street in Washington, D.C., opposite Henrietta Vinton Davis. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that American Civil War chaplain Thomas Mooney was pulled from service after baptizing a cannon?
... that Nereus Mendenhall led a delegation to the Confederate States Congress in April 1862 to allow military exemption in the Confederate Army for Quakers?
... that the statue of Austin Blair, according to the newspaper City Pulse, is one of only two monuments in the United States to mention slavery as a cause of the American Civil War?
... that the statue of Austin Blair, according to the newspaper City Pulse, is one of only two monuments in the United States to mention slavery as a cause of the American Civil War?
... that an African-American was appointed postmaster of Baynesville, Virginia, in 1893 in preference to a former Confederate soldier?
... 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?