Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Charleston, South Carolina suffered late in 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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Monument to the 68th New York Infantry, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The 68th New York Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Also known as the Cameron Rifles or the Second German Rifle Regiment, the men were mostly German immigrants. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, the 68th saw service in the Eastern and Western theaters.^[1]

As a part of the Army of the Potomac, it was initially assigned to the defenses of Washington, D.C. Later, the 68th was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley and fought at the Battle of Cross Keys. The men of the 68th were then reassigned to central Virginia and found themselves in the thick of the fighting at Second Bull Run. After returning to the nation's capital, the regiment fought in Chancellorsville and was routed by Confederate forces. At Gettysburg, they saw battle on two of the three days and took heavy losses. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, Arkansas was a Confederate state, though it had initially voted to remain in the Union. Following the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Abraham Lincoln called for troops from every Union state to put down the rebellion, and Arkansas along with several other southern states seceded. For the rest of the civil war, Arkansas played a major role in controlling the Mississippi River, a major waterway.

Arkansas raised 48 infantry regiments, 20 artillery batteries, and over 20 cavalry regiments for the Confederacy, mostly serving in the Western Theater, though the Third Arkansas served with distinction in the Army of Northern Virginia. Major-General Patrick Cleburne was the state's most notable military leader. The state also supplied four infantry regiments, four cavalry regiments and one artillery battery of white troops for the Union and six infantry regiments and one artillery battery of "U.S. Colored Troops." (Full article...)

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Portrait by Abraham Bogardus, c. 1880

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was the 21st president of the United States, serving from 1881 to 1885. He was a Republican lawyer from New York who previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A. Garfield. Assuming the presidency after Garfield's assassination, Arthur's presidency saw the largest expansion of the U.S. Navy, the end of the so-called "spoils system", and the implementation of harsher restrictions for migrants entering from abroad.

Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the American Civil War. Following the war, he devoted more time to New York Republican politics and quickly rose in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political organization. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him as Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, and he was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party. In 1878, following bitter disputes between Conkling and President Rutherford B. Hayes over control of patronage in New York, Hayes fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system. In June 1880, the extended contest between Grant, identified with the Stalwarts, and James G. Blaine, the candidate of the Half-Breed faction, led to the compromise selection of Ohio's Garfield for president. Republicans then nominated Arthur for vice president to balance the ticket geographically and to placate Stalwarts disappointed by Grant's defeat. Garfield and Arthur won the 1880 presidential election and took office in March 1881. Four months into his term, Garfield was shot by an assassin; he died 11 weeks later, and Arthur assumed the presidency. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of 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 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 Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
... 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?