Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Soldiers guard the Potomac across from Georgetown University

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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Location of the battle.

The Battle of Marion (December 17–18, 1864) was a military engagement fought between units of the Union Army and the Confederate Army during the American Civil War near the town of Marion, Virginia. The battle was part of Union Maj. Gen. George Stoneman's attack upon southwest Virginia, aimed at destroying Confederate industrial infrastructure near Saltville and Marion. Union Cavalry and Infantry regiments—some 4,500 soldiers in total—left Tennessee on December 17 for southwestern Virginia.

Through two days of fighting, a Confederate force under the command of John C. Breckinridge—totalling 1,200–1,500 infantry and cavalry—was successful in holding defensive positions in and around the town of Marion. On the first day, successive Union attacks were defeated by a well-coordinated Confederate defenses near a covered bridge outside of Marion. By the end of the second day, dwindling ammunition supplies forced Confederate forces to withdraw from the area. With casualties for both sides approaching 300, Union forces proceeded to destroy the salt mines, lead works, and other beneficial Confederate infrastructure in Marion and Saltville. (Full article...)

Grand Parade of the States

Louisiana was a dominant population center in the southwest of the Confederate States of America, controlling the wealthy trade center of New Orleans, and contributing the French Creole and Cajun populations to the demographic composition of a predominantly Anglo-American country. In the antebellum period, Louisiana was a slave state, where enslaved African Americans had comprised the majority of the population during the eighteenth-century French and Spanish dominations. By the time the United States acquired the territory (1803) and Louisiana became a state (1812), the institution of slavery was entrenched. By 1860, 47% of the state's population were enslaved, though the state also had one of the largest free black populations in the United States. Much of the white population, particularly in the cities, supported slavery, while pockets of support for the U.S. and its government existed in the more rural areas.

Louisiana declared that it had seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. Civil-War era New Orleans, the largest city in the South, was strategically important as a port city due to its southernmost location on the Mississippi River and its access to the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. War Department early on planned for its capture. The city was taken by U.S. Army forces on April 25, 1862. Because a large part of the population had Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the U.S. government took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana then under U.S. control as a state within the Union, with its own elected representatives to the U.S. Congress. For the latter part of the war, both the U.S. and the Confederacy recognized their own distinct Louisiana governors. Similarly, New Orleans and 13 named parishes of the state were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation, which applied exclusively to states in rebellion against the Union. (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...)

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

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 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?
... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Carter Moore Braxton fought for the Confederacy throughout the American Civil War and, according to one report, had seven horses killed under him but avoided any wounds?
... 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?