Portal:American Civil War

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The American Civil War Portal

Map of the positions of Federal troops at the Battle of Rich Mountain

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 Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, also known as Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, is a public artwork in Washington, D.C. honoring Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, founder of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization for Union veterans. The memorial is sited at Indiana Plaza, located at the intersection of 7th Street, Indiana Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The bronze figures were sculpted by J. Massey Rhind, a prominent 20th-century artist. Attendees at the 1909 dedication ceremony included President William Howard Taft, Senator William Warner, and hundreds of Union veterans.

The memorial is one of eighteen Civil War monuments in Washington, D.C., which were collectively listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The bronze sculptures of Stephenson and allegorical figures are displayed on a triangular granite shaft surmounting a concrete base. The memorial is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, a federal agency of the Interior Department. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

The American state of Virginia became a prominent part of the Confederacy when it joined during the American Civil War. As a Southern slave-holding state, Virginia held the state convention to deal with the secession crisis and voted against secession on April 4, 1861. Opinion shifted after the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, and April 15, when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union to put down the rebellion. For all practical purposes, Virginia joined the Confederacy on April 17, though secession was not officially ratified until May 23. A Unionist government was established in Wheeling and the new state of West Virginia was created by an act of Congress from 50 counties of western Virginia, making it the only state to lose territory as a consequence of the war. Unionism was indeed strong also in other parts of the State, and during the war the Restored Government of Virginia was created as rival to the Confederate Government of Virginia, making it one of the states to have 2 governments during the Civil War.

In May, it was decided to move the Confederate capital from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia, in large part because regardless of the Virginian capital's political status its defense was deemed vital to the Confederacy's survival. On May 24, 1861, the U.S. Army moved into northern Virginia and captured Alexandria without a fight. Most of the battles in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War took place in Virginia because the Confederacy had to defend its national capital at Richmond, and public opinion in the North demanded that the Union move "On to Richmond!" The successes of Robert E. Lee in defending Richmond are a central theme of the military history of the war. The White House of the Confederacy, located a few blocks north of the State Capitol, became home to the family of Confederate leader, former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

Portrait by Brady-Handy studio, c. 1865–1880

Nathaniel Prentice (or Prentiss) Banks (January 30, 1816 – September 1, 1894) was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks became prominent in local debating societies. He entered politics as a young adult. Initially a member of the Democratic Party, Banks's abolitionist views drew him to the nascent Republican Party, through which he won election to the United States House of Representatives and as Governor of Massachusetts in the 1850s. At the start of the 34th Congress, he was elected Speaker of the House in an election that spanned a record 133 ballots taken over the course of two months.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln appointed Banks as one of the first political major generals, over the heads of West Point regulars, who initially resented him, but came to acknowledge his influence on the administration of the war. After suffering a series of inglorious setbacks in the Shenandoah River Valley at the hands of Stonewall Jackson, Banks replaced Benjamin Butler at New Orleans as commander of the Department of the Gulf, charged with the administration of Louisiana and gaining control of the Mississippi River. He failed to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg, and badly handled the Siege of Port Hudson, taking its surrender only after Vicksburg had fallen. He then launched the Red River Campaign, a failed attempt to occupy northern Louisiana and eastern Texas that prompted his recall. Banks was regularly criticized for the failures of his campaigns, notably in tactically important tasks, including reconnaissance. Banks was also instrumental in early reconstruction efforts in Louisiana, intended by Lincoln as a model for later such activities. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... 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 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 the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?
... 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?