Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

The Confederate Navy Jack or "Southern Cross"

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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Main façade (north elevation) from U.S. Route 50, July 2016

The Sloan–Parker House, also known as the Stone House, Parker Family Residence, or Richard Sloan House, is a late-18th-century stone residence near Junction, Hampshire County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It was built on land vacated by the Shawnee after the Native American nation had been violently forced to move west to Kansas following their defeat at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 1975, becoming Hampshire County's first property to be listed on the register. The Sloan–Parker House has been in the Parker family since 1854. The house and its adjacent farm are located along the Northwestern Turnpike (US 50/WV 28) in the rural Mill Creek valley.

The original fieldstone section of the house was erected in about 1790 for Richard Sloan and his wife Charlotte Van Horn Sloan. Originally from Ireland, Sloan arrived in the United States after the American Revolutionary War and became an indentured servant of David Van Horn. Sloan eloped with Van Horn's daughter Charlotte and they settled in the Mill Creek valley, where they built the original stone portion of the house. The Sloans had ten children, including John and Thomas Sloan, who each (later) represented Hampshire County in the Virginia House of Delegates. Richard Sloan and his family operated a successful weaving business from the stone house and their Sloan counterpanes (woven coverlets with block designs) became well known in the South Branch Valley region. (Full article...)

Grand Parade of the States

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John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States. Serving from 1857 to 1861, he took office at the age of 36. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and ran for president in 1860 as a Southern Democrat. He served in the U.S. Senate during the outbreak of the American Civil War, but was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. He was appointed Confederate Secretary of War in 1865.

Breckinridge was born near Lexington, Kentucky, to a prominent local family. After serving as a noncombatant during the Mexican–American War, he was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1849, where he took a pro-slavery stance. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1851, he allied with Stephen A. Douglas in support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. After reapportionment in 1854 made his re-election unlikely, he declined to run for another term. He was nominated for vice president at the 1856 Democratic National Convention to balance a ticket headed by James Buchanan. The Democrats won the election, but Breckinridge had little influence with Buchanan, and as presiding officer of the Senate, could not express his opinions in debates. He joined Buchanan in supporting the proslavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, which led to a split in the Democratic Party. In 1859, he was elected to succeed Senator John J. Crittenden at the end of Crittenden's term in 1861. (Full article...)

WikiProjects

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the only Black-led organization providing teachers to formerly enslaved people was the African Civilization Society?
... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Enoch Marvin Banks resigned from the University of Florida because of public outrage over his belief that the American Civil War was caused by slavery?
... that Charles Herman Allen, university administrator and American Civil War captain, opened the University of Wisconsin to female enrollment in 1863?
... 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?