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The American Civil War Portal

Specifications of the third Confederate national flag

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 Long Bridge and two of its guards, as seen from the Washington side of the Potomac River.

Fort Jackson was an American Civil War-era fortification in Virginia that defended the southern end of the Long Bridge, near Washington, D.C. Long Bridge connected Washington, D.C. to Northern Virginia and served as a vital transportation artery for the Union Army during the war. Fort Jackson was named for Jackson City, a seedy suburb of Washington that had been established on the south side of the Long Bridge in 1835. It was built in the days immediately following the Union Army's occupation of Northern Virginia in May 1861. The fort was initially armed with four cannon used to protect the bridge, but these were removed after the completion of the Arlington Line, a line of defenses built to the south. After 1862, the fort lacked weapons except for small arms and consisted of a wooden palisade backed by earthworks. Two cannon were restored to the fort in 1864 following the Battle of Fort Stevens. The garrison consisted of a single company of Union soldiers who inspected traffic crossing the bridge and guarded it from potential saboteurs.

Following the final surrender of the Confederate States of America in 1865, Fort Jackson was abandoned. The lumber used in its construction was promptly salvaged for firewood and construction materials and, due to its proximity to the Long Bridge, the earthworks were flattened in order to provide easier access to Long Bridge. In the early 20th century, the fort's site was used for the footings and approaches to several bridges connecting Virginia and Washington. Today, no trace of the fort remains, though the site of the fort is contained within Arlington County's Long Bridge Park, and a National Park Service 2004 survey of the site indicated some archaeological remnants may still remain beneath the park. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, Missouri was a hotly contested border state populated by both Union and Confederate sympathizers. It sent armies, generals, and supplies to both sides, maintained dual governments, and endured a bloody neighbor-against-neighbor intrastate war within the larger national war.

A slave state since statehood in 1821, Missouri's geographic position in the central region of the country and at the rural edge of the American frontier ensured that it remained a divisive battleground for competing Northern and Southern ideologies in the years preceding the war. When the war began in 1861, it became clear that control of the Mississippi River and the burgeoning economic hub of St. Louis would make Missouri a strategic territory in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. (Full article...)

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Hindman in uniform, c. 1862

Thomas Carmichael Hindman Jr. (January 28, 1828 – September 28, 1868) was an American lawyer, politician, and a senior officer of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he later moved to Mississippi and became involved in politics. He served in the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848. Hindman practiced law and in 1853 was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives. After his term expired in 1854, he moved to Helena, Arkansas where there were more opportunities for his political ambitions. Hindman opposed the Know-Nothing party and Arkansas's ruling Conway-Johnson dynasty. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1858, and supported slavery (and was a slaveholder himself) and secession. He was assassinated during the Reconstruction era.

Once the American Civil War began in 1861 and Arkansas seceded, Hindman joined the Confederate States Army, first commanding the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment, then a brigade, and then an ad-hoc division at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862; he was wounded during the battle. Following Shiloh, Hindman was promoted to major general and sent to the Trans-Mississippi Department to command Arkansas, Missouri, the Indian Territory, and part of Louisiana. As commander of the region, his policies were sometimes legally questionable and were unpopular, although they were successful in building up the district from a basically indefensible state. Public outcry led to Hindman's removal from his regional command. He was defeated at the Battle of Prairie Grove in December. Transferred to the Army of Tennessee in 1863, he led a division at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, where he was again wounded. After recovering, he commanded a division during the early stages of the Atlanta campaign although he wished to be transferred elsewhere. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... 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 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 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?