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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The Battle of Garnett's and Golding's Farms took place June 27–28, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Seven Days Battles of the American Civil War's Peninsula Campaign. While the battle at Gaines's Mill raged north of the Chickahominy River, the forces of Confederate general John B. Magruder conducted a reconnaissance in force that developed into a minor attack against the Union line south of the river at Garnett's Farm. The Confederates attacked again near Golding's Farm on the morning of June 28 but in both cases were easily repulsed. The action at the Garnett and Golding farms accomplished little beyond convincing McClellan that he was being attacked from both sides of the Chickahominy. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Nevada's entry into statehood in the United States on October 31, 1864, in the midst of the American Civil War, was expedited by Union sympathizers in order to ensure the state's participation in the 1864 presidential election in support of President Abraham Lincoln. Thus Nevada became one of only two states admitted to the Union during the war (the other being West Virginia) and earned the nickname that appears on the Nevada state flag today: "Battle Born".

Because its population at statehood was less than 40,000, Nevada was only able to muster 1,200 men to fight for the Union Army, but Confederate forces never posed any serious threat of territorial seizure, and Nevada remained firmly in Union control for the duration of the war. Largely isolated from the major theaters of the conflict, Nevada nonetheless served as an important target for political and economic strategists before and after gaining statehood. Its main contribution to the cause came from its burgeoning mining industry: at least $400 million in silver ore from the Comstock Lode was used to finance the federal war effort. In addition, the state hosted a number of Union military posts. (Full article...)

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J. R. Kealoha (died March 5, 1877) was a Native Hawaiian and a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, who became a Union Army soldier during the American Civil War. Considered one of the "Hawaiʻi sons of the Civil War", he was among a group of more than one hundred documented Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-born combatants who fought in the American Civil War while the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was an independent nation.

Kealoha enlisted in the 41st United States Colored Infantry, a United States Colored Troops regiment formed in Pennsylvania. Participating in the siege of Petersburg, he and another Hawaiian soldier met the Hawaiʻi-born Colonel Samuel Chapman Armstrong, who recorded their encounter in a letter home. With the 41st USCT, Kealoha was present at the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. After the war, Kealoha returned to Hawaiʻi. He died on March 5, 1877, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Honolulu's Oʻahu Cemetery. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Chinese-born Joseph Pierce enlisted as a Union Army soldier, fought at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, and was made a corporal?
... 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?
... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?