Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

This flag flew over Fort Sumter during the bombardment

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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An ammunition magazine similar to those built at Fort Stanton.

Fort Stanton was a Civil War-era fortification constructed in the hills above Anacostia in the District of Columbia, USA, and was intended to prevent Confederate artillery from threatening the Washington Navy Yard. It also guarded the approach to the bridge that connected Anacostia (then known as Uniontown) with Washington. Built in 1861, the fort was expanded throughout the war and was joined by two subsidiary forts: Fort Ricketts and Fort Snyder. Following the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, it was dismantled and the land returned to its original owner. It never saw combat. Abandoned after the war, the site of the fort was planned to be part of a grand "Fort Circle" park system encircling the city of Washington. Though this system of interconnected parks never was fully implemented, the site of the fort is today a park maintained by the National Park Service, and a historical marker stands near the fort's original location. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

After the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Kingdom of Hawaii under King Kamehameha IV declared its neutrality on August 26, 1861. However, many Native Hawaiians and Hawaii-born Americans (mainly descendants of the American missionaries), abroad and in the islands, enlisted in the military regiments of various states in the Union and the Confederacy. (Full article...)

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James Wood Bush (c. 1844–45 – April 24, 1906) was an American Union Navy sailor of British and Native Hawaiian descent. He was among a group of more than one hundred Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants in the American Civil War, at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation.

Enlisting in the Union Navy in 1864, Bush served as a sailor aboard USS Vandalia and the captured Confederate vessel USS Beauregard, which maintained the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. He was discharged from service in 1865 after an injury, which developed into a chronic condition in later life. The impoverished Bush was unable to return to Hawaii for more than a decade, during which time he traveled through New England and much of the Pacific. Back in Hawaii, he worked as a government tax collector and road supervisor for the island of Kauai, where he settled down. In later life, he converted to Mormonism and became an active member of the Hawaiian Mission. After the annexation of Hawaii to the United States, Bush was recognized for his military service, and in 1905 was granted a government pension for the injuries he received in the Navy. He died at his home on Kauai on April 24, 1906. (Full article...)

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

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 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?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... that the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?
... 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 Francis Orray Ticknor was a country doctor whose fame as a poet relies on "Little Giffen", a poem about one of his patients who died in the American Civil War?