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

Union areas are shown in blue; Confederate areas are gray

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

Wappocomo viewed from Cumberland Road (West Virginia Route 28) in July 2013.

Wappocomo is a late 18th-century Georgian mansion and farm overlooking the South Branch Potomac River north of Romney, Hampshire County, West Virginia, USA. It is located along Cumberland Road (West Virginia Route 28) and the South Branch Valley Railroad.

The original section of the mansion at Wappocomo was built in 1774 by Nicholas Casey (1745–1833), using bricks that had been used as ballast to stabilize ships loading tobacco in the James River. The Wappocomo property had been a part of the South Branch Survey of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron's Northern Neck Proprietary. The Parsons family, prominent in Virginia and West Virginia politics in the 18th and 19th centuries, acquired Wappocomo and continue to maintain ownership of the property into the 21st century. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

The role of Washington Territory in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was the most remote from the main battlefields of the conflict. The territory raised a small number of volunteers for the Union Army, who did not fight against the Confederate States Army but instead maintained defensive positions against possible foreign naval or land attacks. Although the Indian Wars in Washington were recent, there were no Indian hostilities within the area of modern Washington, unlike the rest of the western states and territories, during the Civil War. At the start of the American Civil War, modern-day Washington was part of the Washington Territory. On March 3, 1863, the Idaho Territory was formed from that territory, consisting of the entirety of modern-day Idaho, Montana, and all but southwest Wyoming, leaving the modern-day Washington as Washington Territory. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

Thaddeus Stevens (April 4, 1792 – August 11, 1868) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, being one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against black Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, leading the opposition to U.S. President Andrew Johnson. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the American Civil War, he played a leading role, focusing his attention on defeating the Confederacy, financing the war with new taxes and borrowing, crushing the power of slave owners, ending slavery, and securing equal rights for the freedmen.

Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty, and with a club foot, which left him with a permanent limp. He moved to Pennsylvania as a young man and quickly became a successful lawyer in Gettysburg. He interested himself in municipal affairs and then in politics. He was an active leader of the Anti-Masonic Party, as a fervent believer that Freemasonry in the United States was an evil conspiracy to secretly control the republican system of government. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he became a strong advocate of free public education. Financial setbacks in 1842 caused him to move his home and practice to the larger city of Lancaster. There, he joined the Whig Party and was elected to Congress in 1848. His activities as a lawyer and politician in opposition to slavery cost him votes, and he did not seek reelection in 1852. After a brief flirtation with the Know-Nothing Party, Stevens joined the newly formed Republican Party and was elected to Congress again in 1858. There, with fellow radicals such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, he opposed the expansion of slavery and concessions to the South as the war came. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

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 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 Enoch Marvin Banks resigned from the University of Florida because of public outrage over his belief that the American Civil War was caused by slavery?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... 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?