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.

More about the American Civil War...

Featured article

Cannons on the site of Fort Stedman where the 29th saw heavy combat on March 25, 1865.

The 29th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army of the United States during the American Civil War. The regiment was organized in December 1861 when three new companies were attached to a battalion of seven Massachusetts companies that had been in active service since May 1861. These seven companies had been recruited to fill out the 3rd Massachusetts and 4th Massachusetts regiments and had signed on for three years of service. When the 3rd and 4th Massachusetts were mustered out in July 1861, the seven companies that had signed on for three years were grouped together to form a battalion known as the Massachusetts Battalion. Finally, in December 1861, three more companies were added to their roster to form a full regiment and the unit was designated the 29th Massachusetts.

The regiment took part in 29 battles and four sieges in a variety of theaters of the war. After their early service at Fortress Monroe in Virginia, the 29th was attached, in the spring of 1862, to the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign as part of the famed Irish Brigade. The 29th had the distinction of being the only regiment of non-Irish ethnicity to serve in that brigade. In January 1863, the IX Corps (including the 29th Massachusetts) was transferred to Kentucky and engaged in operations against Confederate guerillas. In the summer of 1863, the IX Corps was again transferred and took part in the Siege of Vicksburg and the Siege of Jackson, Mississippi. In the fall of 1863, IX Corps took part in the Knoxville Campaign which resulted in the defeat of Confederate forces in eastern Tennessee. The spring of 1864 saw the IX Corps and the 29th Massachusetts once again returned to duty with the Army of the Potomac, just in time to take part in the Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg. During the Siege of Petersburg, the unit suffered their worst casualties of the war in the Battle of Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865. Read more...

Grand Parade of the States

U.S. President Lincoln insisted that construction of the United States Capitol continue during the Civil War.

Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War was the nerve-center of the Union war effort, which rapidly turned it from a small city into a major capital with full civic infrastructure and strong defenses.

The shock of Union defeat at First Bull Run, with demoralized troops wandering the streets of the capital, caused President Lincoln to order extensive fortifications and a large garrison. This required an influx of troops, military suppliers and building contractors, which would set up a new demand for accommodation, including military hospitals. The abolition of slavery in D.C. in 1862 also attracted many freedmen to the city. Except for one attempted invasion by Confederate cavalry leader Jubal Early in 1864, the capital remained impregnable. Read more...

Featured biography

John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He was a member of the Democratic party. He served in the U.S. Senate during the outbreak of the American Civil War, but was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. He was appointed Confederate secretary of war in 1865.

Breckinridge was born near Lexington, Kentucky to a prominent local family. After serving as a non-combatant during the Mexican–American War, he was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1849, where he took a states' rights position against interference with slavery. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1851, he allied with Stephen A. Douglas in support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. After reapportionment in 1854 made his re-election unlikely, he declined to run for another term. He was nominated for vice president at the 1856 Democratic National Convention to balance a ticket headed by James Buchanan. The Democrats won the election, but Breckinridge had little influence with Buchanan and, as presiding officer of the Senate, could not express his opinions in debates. He joined Buchanan in supporting the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, which led to a split in the Democratic Party. In 1859, he was elected to succeed Senator John J. Crittenden at the end of Crittenden's term in 1861. Read more...

WikiProjects

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that Marye fought for both the United States Army and the Confederate States during the American Civil War?
... that in 1865, Confederate losses during the American Civil War were characterized as "blessings in disguise"?
... that during John Early's presidency of Georgetown University, the school was occupied three times by the Union Army but never ceased classes?
... that Francis Augustus Silva was promoted to captain in the American Civil War and later dishonorably discharged by mistake?
... that during the American Civil War, Barney Prine made money by running races against fellow soldiers in the 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment?
... that Thomas Sturgis was a prisoner of war in the American Civil War, a prominent cattle grower, and New York City Fire Commissioner?