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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USS Neosho (1863–1873) – Watercolor by Dr. Oscar Parkes

USS Neosho, the lead ship of her class, was an ironclad river monitor laid down for the Union Navy in the summer of 1862 during the American Civil War. After completion in mid-1863, the ship spent time patrolling the Mississippi River against Confederate raids and ambushes as part of Rear Admiral David Porter's Mississippi Squadron. She participated in the Red River Campaign in March–May 1864. Neosho resumed her patrols on the Mississippi after the end of the campaign. She supported the Union Army's operations on the Cumberland River and provided fire support during the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. Neosho was decommissioned after the war and remained in reserve until sold in 1873. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania played a critical role in the Union, providing a substantial supply of military personnel, equipment, and leadership to the Federal government. The state raised over 360,000 soldiers for the Federal armies. It served as a significant source of artillery guns, small arms, ammunition, armor for the new revolutionary style of ironclad types of gunboats for the rapidly expanding United States Navy, and food supplies. The Phoenixville Iron Company by itself produced well over 1,000 cannons, and the Frankford Arsenal was a major supply depot.

Pennsylvania was the site of the bloodiest battle of the war, the Battle of Gettysburg, which became widely known as one of the turning points of the Civil War. Numerous more minor engagements and skirmishes were also fought in Pennsylvania during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, as well as the following year during a Confederate cavalry raid that culminated in the burning of much of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. (Full article...)

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William Franklin Raynolds (March 17, 1820 – October 18, 1894) was an American explorer, engineer and U.S. army officer who served in the Mexican–American War and American Civil War. He is best known for leading the 1859–60 Raynolds Expedition while serving as a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers.

During the 1850s and again after his participation in the Civil War, Raynolds was the head engineer on numerous lighthouse construction projects. He oversaw riverway and harbor dredging projects intended to improve accessibility and navigation for shipping. As a cartographer, Raynolds surveyed and mapped the islands and shorelines on the Great Lakes and other regions. At least six lighthouses whose construction he oversaw are still standing. Some are still in use and of these, several are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Full article...)

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

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 Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... 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 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?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?