Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Specifications of the third Confederate national flag

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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The steam ram Dunderberg, Harper's Weekly, 1867

Dunderberg, which is a Swedish word meaning "thunder(ing) mountain", was an ocean-going casemate ironclad of 14 guns built for the Union Navy. She resembled an enlarged, two-masted version of the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS Virginia. She was originally designed to have both gun turrets and a casemate but the turrets were deleted while the ship was still being built. Construction began in 1862, but progress was slow and she was not launched until after the end of the American Civil War in 1865.

The ship was not accepted by the Union Navy so her builder began seeking buyers elsewhere; Otto von Bismarck expressed some interest, and the thought of Prussia armed with such a vessel prompted France to purchase her and commission her in 1867 with the name Rochambeau. She was initially placed in reserve, but was mobilized in 1870 to participate in the Franco-Prussian War. The ship saw no action and was decommissioned after the end of the war. Rochambeau was stricken from the Navy Directory in 1872 and scrapped in 1874. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

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Hay in 1897

John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 – July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and an assistant for Abraham Lincoln, he became a diplomat. He served as United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also a biographer of Lincoln, and wrote poetry and other literature throughout his life.

Born in Salem, Indiana to an anti-slavery family that moved to Warsaw, Illinois, Hay showed great potential from an early age, and his family sent him to Brown University. After graduation in 1858, Hay read law in his uncle's office in Springfield, Illinois, adjacent to that of Lincoln. Hay worked for Lincoln's successful presidential campaign and became one of his private secretaries in the White House. Throughout the American Civil War, Hay was close to Lincoln and stood by his deathbed after the President was shot. In addition to his other literary works, Hay co-authored, with John George Nicolay, a ten-volume biography of Lincoln that helped shape the assassinated president's historical image. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... 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 CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... 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 after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?