Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

James Shields at the First Battle of Winchester

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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Asian Americans, who are Americans of Asian descent, have fought and served on behalf of the United States since the American Revolutionary War. During the American Civil War Asian Americans fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Afterwards Asian Americans served primarily in the U.S. Navy until the Philippine–American War.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Asian Americans began to attend U.S. military academies, and the first Asian Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor. World War I saw Asian Americans serving as "non-whites" in the National Army. After World War I, Asian American service fell into obscurity until World War II when significant contributions by Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean Americans were documented. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, North Carolina joined the Confederacy with some reluctance, mainly due to the presence of Unionist sentiment within the state. A popular vote in February, 1861 on the issue of secession was won by the unionists but not by a wide margin. This slight lean in favor of staying in the Union would shift towards the Confederacy in response to Abraham Lincoln's April 15 proclamation that requested 75,000 troops from all Union states, leading to North Carolina's secession. Similar to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, North Carolina wished to remain uninvolved in the likely war but felt forced to pick a side by the proclamation. Throughout the war, North Carolina widely remained a divided state. The population within the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state contained large pockets of Unionism. Even so, North Carolina would help contribute a significant amount of troops to the Confederacy, and channel many vital supplies through the major port of Wilmington, in defiance of the Union blockade.

Fighting occurred sporadically in the state from September 1861, when Union Major General Ambrose Burnside set about capturing key ports and cities, notably Roanoke Island and New Bern. In 1864, the Confederates assumed the offensive, temporarily reconquering Plymouth, while the Union Army launched several attempts to seize Fort Fisher. The last remaining major Confederate army, under Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered at Bennett Place, near Durham, to William Tecumseh Sherman in April 1865. Troops from North Carolina played major roles in dozens of battles in other states, including Gettysburg, where Tar Heels were prominent in Pickett's Charge. (Full article...)

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William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was an American politician who served as the 25th president of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. He presided over victory in the Spanish–American War of 1898; gained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs.

McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man, and ended it as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, McKinley was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican expert on the protective tariff, which he believed would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial and, together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests. He secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 amid a deep economic depression and defeated his Democratic rival William Jennings Bryan after a front porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity. Historians regard McKinley's victory as a realigning election in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, beginning with the Progressive Era. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... 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?