Portal:American Civil War

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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)

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The United States Zouave Cadets (also known as the Chicago Zouaves and Zouave Cadets of Chicago) was a short-lived zouave unit of the Illinois militia that has been credited as the force behind the surge in popularity of zouave infantry in the United States and Confederate States in the mid-19th century. The United States Zouave Cadets were formed by Elmer Ellsworth in 1859 from the National Guard Cadets of Chicago, established three years earlier. The unit's 1860 tour of the eastern United States popularized the distinctive zouave appearance and customs, directly and indirectly inspiring the formation of dozens of similar units on the eve of the American Civil War.

During the governorship of William Henry Bissell, the United States Zouave Cadets were granted the ceremonial designation of Governor's Guard of Illinois on 23 January 1860. Its march was the "Zouave Cadets Quickstep". (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The history of Idaho in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was far from the battlefields.

At the start of the Civil War, modern-day Idaho was part of the Washington Territory. On March 3, 1863, the Idaho Territory was formed, consisting of the entirety of modern-day Idaho, Montana, and all but southwest Wyoming. However, there were concerns about Confederate sympathizers in the eastern half of the territory, in what is present-day Montana. As a result, in 1863 Sidney Edgerton traveled quickly to see President Abraham Lincoln about the situation; this was one reason to split the Montana Territory from the Idaho Territory. The split also resulted in most of Idaho Territory's land consisting of modern-day Wyoming being reassigned to the Dakota Territory. (Full article...)

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James Wood Bush (c. 1844–45 – April 24, 1906) was an American Union Navy sailor of British and Native Hawaiian descent. He was among a group of more than one hundred Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants in the American Civil War, at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation.

Enlisting in the Union Navy in 1864, Bush served as a sailor aboard USS Vandalia and the captured Confederate vessel USS Beauregard, which maintained the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. He was discharged from service in 1865 after an injury, which developed into a chronic condition in later life. The impoverished Bush was unable to return to Hawaii for more than a decade, during which time he traveled through New England and much of the Pacific. Back in Hawaii, he worked as a government tax collector and road supervisor for the island of Kauai, where he settled down. In later life, he converted to Mormonism and became an active member of the Hawaiian Mission. After the annexation of Hawaii to the United States, Bush was recognized for his military service, and in 1905 was granted a government pension for the injuries he received in the Navy. He died at his home on Kauai on April 24, 1906. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... that The Land We Love, a little magazine that merged into Southern Magazine, printed American Civil War recollections, poetry, agricultural material, and many works by female authors?
... that Emma Dean Powell received a pass from General Ulysses S. Grant to accompany her husband to battlefield camps during the American Civil War after he lost his arm?
... that Francis Orray Ticknor was a country doctor whose fame as a poet relies on "Little Giffen", a poem about one of his patients who died in the American Civil War?
... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?