Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

This sutler's tent sold provisions to soldiers

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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John Wilkes Booth assassinating Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theatre. Drawing from glass-slide depiction c. 1865–75.

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 a.m. in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.

Near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln's assassination was part of a larger political conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government. Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The state of New York during the American Civil War was a major influence in national politics, the Union war effort, and the media coverage of the war. New York was the most populous state in the Union during the Civil War, and provided more troops to the U.S. army than any other state,^[1] as well as several significant military commanders and leaders. New York sent 400,000 men to the armed forces during the war. 22,000 soldiers died from combat wounds; 30,000 died from disease or accidents; 36 were executed. The state government spent $38 million on the war effort; counties, cities and towns spent another $111 million, especially for recruiting bonuses.

The voters were sharply divided politically. A significant anti-war movement emerged, particularly in the mid- to late-war years. The Democrats were divided between War Democrats who supported the war and Copperheads who wanted an early peace. Republicans divided between moderates who supported Lincoln, and Radical Republicans who demanded harsh treatment of the rebel states. New York provided William H. Seward as Lincoln's Secretary of State, as well as several important voices in Congress. (Full article...)

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William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. McKinley successfully led the U.S. in the Spanish–American War and oversaw a period of American expansionism, with the annexations of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and American Samoa.

McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man and ended it as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, McKinley was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican expert on the protective tariff, believing protectionism would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial and, together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Charles Herman Allen, university administrator and American Civil War captain, opened the University of Wisconsin to female enrollment in 1863?
... 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 Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... that Dethloff Willrodt fought for the Union army on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, having previously been a soldier in the Confederate army?
... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... that Colonel Bradley Winslow was brevetted by US president Abraham Lincoln for "brave and gallant conduct" during the siege of Petersburg in the American Civil War?