Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Phil Kearny's charge at the Battle of Chantilly

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 history of the United States Navy divides into two major periods: the "Old Navy", a small but respected force of sailing ships that became notable for innovation in the use of ironclads during the American Civil War, and the "New Navy" the result of a modernization effort that began in the 1880s and made it the largest in the world by 1943.

The United States Navy claims October 13, 1775 as the date of its official establishment, when the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Navy. With the end of the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy was disbanded. Under the Presidency of George Washington, merchant shipping came under threat while in the Mediterranean by Barbary pirates from four North African States. This led to the Naval Act of 1794, which created a permanent standing U.S. Navy. The original six frigates were authorized as part of the Act. Over the next 20 years, the Navy fought the French Republic Navy in the Quasi-War (1798–99), Barbary states in the First and Second Barbary Wars, and the British in the War of 1812. After the War of 1812, the U.S. Navy was at peace until the Mexican–American War in 1846, and served to combat piracy in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, as well as fighting the slave trade off the coast of West Africa. In 1845, the Naval Academy was founded at old Fort Severn at Annapolis, Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay. In 1861, the American Civil War began and the U.S. Navy fought the small Confederate States Navy with both sailing ships and new revolutionary ironclad ships while forming a blockade that shut down the Confederacy's civilian coastal shipping. After the Civil War, most of its ships were laid up in reserve, and by 1878, the Navy was just 6,000 men. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The state of New Jersey in the United States provided a source of troops, equipment and leaders for the Union during the American Civil War. Though no major battles were fought in New Jersey, soldiers and volunteers from New Jersey played an important part in the war, including Philip Kearny and George B. McClellan, who led the Army of the Potomac early in the Civil War and unsuccessfully ran for President of the United States in 1864 against his former commander-in-chief, Abraham Lincoln. (Full article...)

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James Longstreet (January 8, 1821 – January 2, 1904) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps commander for most of the battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Eastern Theater, and briefly with Braxton Bragg in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Longstreet served in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War. He was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec, and during recovery married his first wife, Louise Garland. Throughout the 1850s, he served on frontier duty in the American Southwest. In June 1861, Longstreet resigned his U.S. Army commission and joined the Confederate Army. He commanded Confederate troops during an early victory at Blackburn's Ford in July and played a minor role at the First Battle of Bull Run. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 actor George Kunkel portrayed in blackface the character of Uncle Tom, using it at first to promote slavery during the American Civil War but later to attack it, after his views had changed?
... that Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... 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?