Portal:American Civil War

   The American Civil War Portal

Chain Bridge (Potomac River)

Washington D.C.'s chain bridge across the Potomac River

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)

   Featured article

Ozark serving in the Mississippi River Squadron in 1864–65

USS Ozark was a single-turreted river monitor built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship served in the Mississippi River Squadron during the war, and participated in the Red River Campaign shortly after she was commissioned in early 1864. Ozark patrolled the Mississippi River and its tributaries after the end of the campaign for the rest of the war. She was decommissioned after the war and sold in late 1865.

The ship's activities or owner are not known after her sale, but Ozark transported Federal troops and New Orleans police attempting to apprehend the white supremacists who killed numerous blacks during the Colfax Massacre in 1873. She ferried witnesses back and forth to their homes on the Red River during the subsequent trials in 1874. Her ultimate fate is unknown. (Full article...)

   Grand Parade of the States

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in December 1860, and was one of the founding member states of the Confederacy in February 1861. The bombardment of the beleaguered U.S. garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, is generally recognized as the first military engagement of the war. The retaking of Charleston in February 1865, and raising the flag (the same flag) again at Fort Sumter, was used for the Union symbol of victory.

South Carolina provided around 60,000 troops for the Confederate Army. As the war progressed, former slaves and free blacks of South Carolina joined U.S. Colored Troops regiments for the Union Army (most Blacks in South Carolina were enslaved at the war's outset). The state also provided uniforms, textiles, food, and war material, as well as trained soldiers and leaders from The Citadel and other military schools. In contrast to most other Confederate states, South Carolina had a well-developed rail network linking all of its major cities without a break of gauge. (Full article...)

   Featured biography

Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross (September 27, 1838 – January 3, 1898) was the 19th governor of Texas, a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and the 4th president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, now called Texas A&M University.

Ross was raised in the Republic of Texas, which was later annexed to the United States. Much of his childhood was spent on the frontier, where his family founded the town of Waco. Ross attended Baylor University (then located in Independence, Texas) and Florence Wesleyan University in Florence, Alabama. On one of his summer breaks, he suffered severe injuries while fighting Comanches. After graduation, Ross joined the Texas Rangers, and in 1860, led Texas Rangers in the Battle of Pease River, where federal troops recaptured Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been captured by the Comanches as a child in 1836. (Full article...)

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   Featured picture

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

   Did you know...

• ... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
• ... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
• ... 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 Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
• ... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
• ... that Charles Herman Allen, university administrator and American Civil War captain, opened the University of Wisconsin to female enrollment in 1863?

   Subcategories

American Civil War

American Civil War by state

American Civil War by location

American Civil War by year

American Civil War-related lists

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

American Civil War timelines

Union (American Civil War)

American Civil War crimes

Works about the American Civil War

American Civil War stubs

   American Civil War topics

   Things you can do

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) • Benjamin D. Fearing • James B. Speers • Charles S. Steedman • Battle of Barton's Station • Lawrence P. Graham • 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) • Battle of Lafayette • Battle of Sunshine Church • 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 • Smith's Expedition to Tupelo • 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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