Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

The Bloody Angle at the Battle of Spotsylvania

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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USS Chickasaw

USS Chickasaw was an ironclad Milwaukee-class river monitor built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864, during which she was lightly damaged, and the bombardments of Forts Gaines and Morgan as Union troops besieged the fortifications defending the bay. In March–April 1865, Chickasaw again supported Union forces during the Mobile Campaign as they attacked Confederate fortifications defending the city of Mobile, Alabama.

She was placed in reserve after the end of the war and sold in 1874. Her new owners converted Chickasaw into a train ferry in 1881 and renamed her Gouldsboro. The ship was later converted into a barge and remained in use until she sank sometime during the 1950s. Her wreck was discovered in the Mississippi River in New Orleans in 2003, although there are no plans to raise her. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Despite some popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland did not secede during the Civil War. Governor Thomas H. Hicks, despite his early sympathies for the South, helped prevent the state from seceding.

Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the opposing factions within the state strongly desired to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865) suspended the constitutional right of habeas corpus from Washington to Philadelphia. Lincoln ignored the ruling of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in "Ex parte Merryman" decision in 1861 concerning freeing John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer arrested by the military. (Full article...)

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Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 – February 9, 1886) was a United States Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican–American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his Army as "Hancock the Superb," he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. His military service continued after the Civil War, as Hancock participated in the military Reconstruction of the South and the U.S.'s western expansion and war with the Native Americans at the Western frontier. This concluded with the Medicine Lodge Treaty. From 1881 to 1885 he was president of the Aztec Club of 1847 for veteran officers of the Mexican-American War.

Hancock's reputation as a war hero at Gettysburg, combined with his status as a Unionist and supporter of states' rights, made him a potential presidential candidate. When the Democrats nominated him for president in 1880, he ran a strong campaign, but was narrowly defeated by Republican James A. Garfield. Hancock's last public service involved the oversight of President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral procession in 1885. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?