Portal:American Civil War

Military Portals:

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)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured article

The Fishing Creek Confederacy took place in the vicinity of Fishing Creek

The Fishing Creek Confederacy was an alleged military uprising in northern Columbia County, Pennsylvania and southern Sullivan County, Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. Residents of Columbia County strongly opposed military drafts that were being conducted there, leading to widespread desertion and draft evasion. In a Columbia County draft in July 1863, 618 people were drafted. Of these, approximately 75% evaded the draft. On July 30, 1864, several people rode into northern Columbia County from Luzerne County to search for deserters, and one of the riders was shot. By the summer of 1864, rumors had begun to circulate that these deserters and draft evaders, as well as Confederate sympathizers, had built a fort with cannons on North Mountain, not far from the headwaters of Fishing Creek. This fort was supposedly manned by 500 people. Upon hearing these rumors, 1000 soldiers gathered near Bloomsburg, in Columbia County.

On August 21, 1864, the soldiers began traveling up Fishing Creek. For the next week, they searched the northern portion of Columbia County for deserters and draft evaders. They were unable to find any, but on August 28 they arrested 100 local citizens. Most were released, although some were taken to Fort Mifflin. The soldiers continued heading into the northernmost reaches of the Fishing Creek watershed. Unable to find any evidence of a conspiracy, they returned to Bloomsburg and remained in the county until December 1864. The last of the prisoners were released from Fort Mifflin several months after their arrest. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

Mississippi was the second southern state to declare its secession from the United States, doing so on January 9, 1861. It joined with six other southern states to form the Confederacy on February 4, 1861. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and transportation nodes.

Mississippian troops fought in every major theater of the American Civil War, although most were concentrated in the Western Theater. Confederate president Jefferson Davis was a Mississippi politician and operated a large cotton plantation there. Prominent Mississippian generals during the war included William Barksdale, Carnot Posey, Wirt Adams, Earl Van Dorn, Robert Lowry, and Benjamin G. Humphreys. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

Portrait, c. 1870–1880

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (/ˈrʌðərfərd/ ^ⓘ; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. A staunch abolitionist from Ohio, he was also a brevet major general for the Union army during the American Civil War.

As an attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, he left a fledgling political career to join the Union army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. He earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he earned a reputation in the Republican Party as a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction. He served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... 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 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 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 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 Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?