Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

Birdseye view of Andersonville prison camp

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

Watercolor of Missouri

CSS Missouri was a casemate ironclad built by the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Her propulsion machinery was taken from an existing steamboat, her armor was railroad T-rails, and she was armed with three captured cannon. She was difficult to steer and leaked badly. Additional equipment had to be added to allow her to reach her intended speed. Completed during 1863 on the Red River, she was trapped in the Shreveport, Louisiana, area by low water and never saw combat. The vessel's crew had desertion issues and some of her crewmen were pulled from the army. After traveling downriver for the first time, the ship was surrendered in June 1865 to the United States Navy—the last Confederate ironclad to be handed over—and sold in November. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Oregon had no organised militia and had sold most of the equipment bought for the Rogue River Wars. The state's governor, John Whiteaker, was pro-slavery and opposed to Oregon's involvement in the conflict. As such, it was only in late 1862 with a new governor that the state raised any troops: the 1st Oregon Cavalry served until June 1865.

During the Civil War, emigrants to the newfound gold fields in Idaho and Oregon continued to clash with the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada until relations degenerated into the bloody 1864–1868 Snake War. The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed in 1864 and its last company was mustered out of service in July 1867. Both units were used to guard travel routes and Indian reservations, escort emigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Indian raiders. Several infantry detachments also accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

Samuel Jackson Randall (October 10, 1828 – April 13, 1890) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who represented the Queen Village, Society Hill, and Northern Liberties neighborhoods of Philadelphia from 1863 to 1890 and served as the 44th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1876 to 1881. He was a contender for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in 1880 and 1884.

Born in Philadelphia to a family active in Whig politics, Randall shifted to the Democratic Party after the Whigs' demise. His rise in politics began in the 1850s with election to the Philadelphia Common Council and then to the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district. Randall served in a Union cavalry unit in the American Civil War before winning a seat in the federal House of Representatives in 1862. He was re-elected every two years thereafter until his death. The representative of an industrial region, Randall became known as a staunch defender of protective tariffs designed to assist domestic producers of manufactured goods. While often siding with Republicans on tariff issues, he differed with them in his resistance to Reconstruction and the growth of federal power. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?