Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Fort Monroe, Virginia was a Union Army post during the war

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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Theatrical release poster

The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.

The Birth of a Nation is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first non-serial American 12-reel film ever made. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro-Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy (Southern) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. It helped to pioneer closeups and fadeouts, and it includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands. It came with a 13-page Souvenir Program. It was the first motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson, his family, and members of his cabinet. (Full article...)

Grand Parade of the States

As a fervently abolitionist and strongly Republican state, Maine contributed a higher proportion of its citizens to the Union armies than any other, as well as supplying money, equipment and stores. No land battles were fought in Maine. The only episode was the Battle of Portland Harbor (1863) that saw a Confederate raiding party thwarted in its attempt to capture a revenue cutter.

Abraham Lincoln chose Maine's Hannibal Hamlin as his first Vice President. The future General Joshua L. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment played a key role at the Battle of Gettysburg, and the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment lost more men in a single charge during the siege of Petersburg than any Union regiment in the war. (Full article...)

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Grant c. 1870–1880

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War.

Grant was born in Ohio and graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1843. He served with distinction in the Mexican–American War, but resigned from the army in 1854 and returned to civilian life impoverished. In 1861, shortly after the Civil War began, Grant joined the Union Army and rose to prominence after securing victories in the western theater. In 1863, he led the Vicksburg campaign that gave Union forces control of the Mississippi River and dealt a major strategic blow to the Confederacy. President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general and command of all Union armies after his victory at Chattanooga. For thirteen months, Grant fought Robert E. Lee during the high-casualty Overland Campaign which ended with the capture of Lee's army at Appomattox, where he formally surrendered to Grant. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson promoted Grant to General of the Army. Later, Grant broke with Johnson over Reconstruction policies. A war hero, drawn in by his sense of duty, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and then elected president in 1868. (Full article...)

WikiProjects

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... 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 Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... 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 the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?