Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

The 54th Massachusetts assaulted Fort Wagner

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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HMS Wivern in 1865, note that the funnel is retracted

The two Scorpion-class ironclads, HMS Scorpion and HMS Wivern, were ironclad warships ordered by the Confederate States Navy in 1862 and seized in 1863 by the British to prevent their delivery. This would have violated the Foreign Enlistment Act, which forbade British subjects to build or arm any ships for governments at war with governments friendly to Great Britain. The Scorpion class were masted turret ships, each with two gun turrets that were designed to mount a pair of heavy muzzle-loading guns. They were purchased for service in the Royal Navy in 1864 and served briefly with the Channel Fleet before they became guard ships at Bermuda and Hong Kong. Scorpion was sold in 1903 and sank under tow to be scrapped, while Wivern was sold for scrap in 1922. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, the State of Vermont gave strong support to the Union war effort, raising troops and money. According to Rachel Cree Sherman:

By the spring of 1865 Vermont was devastated, having sent one tenth of its entire population to war, with a loss of over 5,000 lives to battle, wounds, and disease. The state had dedicated nearly $10 million to support the conflict, half of that amount offered up by towns with no expectation of recompense.

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First Sergeant Powhatan Beaty, of the 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, who was awarded the Medal of Honor, for taking command of his company at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, after all officers had been killed and/or wounded.

Powhatan Beaty (October 8, 1837 – December 6, 1916) was an African American soldier and actor. During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army's 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment throughout the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign. He received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for taking command of his company at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, after all officers had been killed or wounded.

Following the war, he became an orator and actor, appearing in amateur theater productions in his home of Cincinnati, Ohio. His most well-known stage performance was an 1884 appearance at Ford's Opera House on 9th Street in Washington, D.C., opposite Henrietta Vinton Davis. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 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 singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Byron Root Pierce was Michigan's last living Civil War general?
... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... 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?