Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

Allan Pinkerton and his detectives at Antietam

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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Milwaukee with a mine rake attached to her bow

The first USS Milwaukee, a double-turreted Milwaukee-class river monitor, the lead ship of her class, built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The ship supported Union forces during the Mobile Campaign as they attacked Confederate fortifications defending the city of Mobile, Alabama in early 1865. She struck a mine in March and sank without loss. Her wreck was raised in 1868 and broken up for scrap that was used in the construction of a bridge in St. Louis, Missouri. (Full article...)

Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, the State of Ohio played a key role in providing troops, military officers, and supplies to the Union army. Due to its central location in the Northern United States and burgeoning population, Ohio was both politically and logistically important to the war effort. Despite the state's boasting a number of very powerful Republican politicians, it was divided politically. Portions of Southern Ohio followed the Peace Democrats and openly opposed President Abraham Lincoln's policies. Ohio played an important part in the Underground Railroad prior to the war, and remained a haven for escaped and runaway slaves during the war years.

The third most populous state in the Union at the time, Ohio raised nearly 320,000 soldiers for the Union army, third behind only New York and Pennsylvania in total manpower contributed to the military and the highest per capita of any Union state. Several leading generals were from Ohio, including Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan. Five Ohio-born Civil War officers would later serve as the President of the United States. The Fighting McCooks gained fame as the largest immediate family group ever to become officers in the U.S. Army. (Full article...)

Featured biography

Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792 – August 11, 1868) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, being one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against black Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, leading the opposition to U.S. President Andrew Johnson. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the American Civil War, he played a leading role, focusing his attention on defeating the Confederacy, financing the war with new taxes and borrowing, crushing the power of slave owners, ending slavery, and securing equal rights for the freedmen.

Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty, and with a club foot, which left him with a permanent limp. He moved to Pennsylvania as a young man and quickly became a successful lawyer in Gettysburg. He interested himself in municipal affairs and then in politics. He was an active leader of the Anti-Masonic Party, as a fervent believer that Freemasonry in the United States was an evil conspiracy to secretly control the republican system of government. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he became a strong advocate of free public education. Financial setbacks in 1842 caused him to move his home and practice to the larger city of Lancaster. There, he joined the Whig Party and was elected to Congress in 1848. His activities as a lawyer and politician in opposition to slavery cost him votes, and he did not seek reelection in 1852. After a brief flirtation with the Know-Nothing Party, Stevens joined the newly formed Republican Party and was elected to Congress again in 1858. There, with fellow radicals such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, he opposed the expansion of slavery and concessions to the South as the war came. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... that Emma Dean Powell received a pass from General Ulysses S. Grant to accompany her husband to battlefield camps during the American Civil War after he lost his arm?
... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?

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American Civil War

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Aftermath of the American Civil War

Confederate States of America

Cultural history of the American Civil War

Economic history of the American Civil War

Historiography of the American Civil War

Military awards and decorations of the American Civil War

Military history of the American Civil War

Military units and formations of the American Civil War

American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places

Origins of the American Civil War

People of the American Civil War

Politics of the American Civil War

Secession crisis of 1860–61

Social history of the American Civil War

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Attention needed: ...to referencing and citation • ...to coverage and accuracy • ...to structure • ...to grammar • ...to supporting materials
Popular pages: Full list
Cleanup needed: The West Tennessee Raids
Requested articles: James Ashby (soldier) • Bluffton expedition • Benjamin D. Fearing • Charles A. Hickman • Richard Henry Jackson • James B. Speers • Charles S. Steedman • Battle of Barton's Station • Lawrence P. Graham • Thomas John Lucas • Daniel Henry Rucker • James Hughes Stokes • Frederick S. Sturmbaugh • Davis Tillson • Action at Nineveh (currently a redirect) • International response to the American Civil War • Spain and the American Civil War • Savannah Campaign Confederate order of battle • Native Americans in the American Civil War (currently disambiguation after deletion) • 1st Battalion, Mississippi Mounted Rifles (Union) • Battle of Lafayette • Requested American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients
Expansion needed: Battle of Boonsborough • Battle of Guard Hill • Battle of Rice's Station • Battle of Simmon's Bluff • Battle of Summit Point • Charleston Arsenal • Edenton Bell Battery • First Battle of Dalton • Blackshear Prison • Edwin Forbes • Hiram B. Granbury • Henry Thomas Harrison • Louis Hébert (colonel) • Benjamin G. Humphreys • Maynard Carbine • Hezekiah G. Spruill • Smith carbine • Edward C. Walthall • Confederate States Secretary of the Navy • Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury • David Henry Williams • Battle of Rome Cross Roads • Delaware in the American Civil War • Ironclad Board • United States Military Railroad • Kansas in the American Civil War • Rufus Daggett • Ebenezer Magoffin • Confederate Quartermaster-General's Department • First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia • Francis Laurens Vinton • Henry Maury • Other American Civil War battle stubs • Other American Civil War stubs
Images needed: Battle of Lone Jack • Preston Pond, Jr. • Melancthon Smith
Merging needed: 1st Regiment New York Mounted Rifles and 7th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry
Citations needed: 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment (Union) • 4th Maine Battery • 33rd Ohio Infantry • 110th New York Volunteer Infantry • Battle of Hatcher's Run • Camp Dennison • Confederate colonies • CSS Resolute • Dakota War of 1862 • Florida in the American Civil War • Ethan A. Hitchcock (general) • Fort Harker (Alabama) • Gettysburg (1993 film) • Iowa in the American Civil War • Second Battle of Fort Sumter • Samuel Benton
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