Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

Georgetown University

Soldiers guard the Potomac across from Georgetown University

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)

Featured article

The steam ram Dunderberg, Harper's Weekly, 1867

Dunderberg, which is a Swedish word meaning "thunder(ing) mountain", was an ocean-going casemate ironclad of 14 guns built for the Union Navy. She resembled an enlarged, two-masted version of the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS Virginia. She was originally designed to have both gun turrets and a casemate but the turrets were deleted while the ship was still being built. Construction began in 1862, but progress was slow and she was not launched until after the end of the American Civil War in 1865.

The ship was not accepted by the Union Navy so her builder began seeking buyers elsewhere; Otto von Bismarck expressed some interest, and the thought of Prussia armed with such a vessel prompted France to purchase her and commission her in 1867 with the name Rochambeau. She was initially placed in reserve, but was mobilized in 1870 to participate in the Franco-Prussian War. The ship saw no action and was decommissioned after the end of the war. Rochambeau was stricken from the Navy Directory in 1872 and scrapped in 1874. (Full article...)

Grand Parade of the States

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Featured biography

Hay in 1897

John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 – July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and an assistant for Abraham Lincoln, he became a diplomat. He served as United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also a biographer of Lincoln, and wrote poetry and other literature throughout his life.

Born in Salem, Indiana to an anti-slavery family that moved to Warsaw, Illinois, Hay showed great potential from an early age, and his family sent him to Brown University. After graduation in 1858, Hay read law in his uncle's office in Springfield, Illinois, adjacent to that of Lincoln. Hay worked for Lincoln's successful presidential campaign and became one of his private secretaries in the White House. Throughout the American Civil War, Hay was close to Lincoln and stood by his deathbed after the President was shot. In addition to his other literary works, Hay co-authored, with John George Nicolay, a ten-volume biography of Lincoln that helped shape the assassinated president's historical image. (Full article...)

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Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... 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 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 according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... 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 Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?

Subcategories

American Civil War

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American Civil War-related lists

Aftermath of the American Civil War

Confederate States of America

Cultural history of the American Civil War

Economic history of the American Civil War

Historiography of the American Civil War

Military awards and decorations of the American Civil War

Military history of the American Civil War

Military units and formations of the American Civil War

American Civil War on the National Register of Historic Places

Origins of the American Civil War

People of the American Civil War

Politics of the American Civil War

Secession crisis of 1860–61

Social history of the American Civil War

American Civil War timelines

Union (American Civil War)

American Civil War crimes

Works about the American Civil War

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Attention needed: ...to referencing and citation • ...to coverage and accuracy • ...to structure • ...to grammar • ...to supporting materials
Popular pages: Full list
Cleanup needed: The West Tennessee Raids
Requested articles: James Ashby (soldier) • Bluffton expedition • Benjamin D. Fearing • Charles A. Hickman • Richard Henry Jackson • James B. Speers • Charles S. Steedman • Battle of Barton's Station • Lawrence P. Graham • Thomas John Lucas • Daniel Henry Rucker • James Hughes Stokes • Frederick S. Sturmbaugh • Davis Tillson • Action at Nineveh (currently a redirect) • International response to the American Civil War • Spain and the American Civil War • Savannah Campaign Confederate order of battle • Native Americans in the American Civil War (currently disambiguation after deletion) • 1st Battalion, Mississippi Mounted Rifles (Union) • Battle of Lafayette • Requested American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients
Expansion needed: Battle of Boonsborough • Battle of Guard Hill • Battle of Rice's Station • Battle of Simmon's Bluff • Battle of Summit Point • Charleston Arsenal • Edenton Bell Battery • First Battle of Dalton • Blackshear Prison • Edwin Forbes • Hiram B. Granbury • Henry Thomas Harrison • Louis Hébert (colonel) • Benjamin G. Humphreys • Maynard Carbine • Hezekiah G. Spruill • Smith carbine • Edward C. Walthall • Confederate States Secretary of the Navy • Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury • David Henry Williams • Battle of Rome Cross Roads • Delaware in the American Civil War • Ironclad Board • United States Military Railroad • Kansas in the American Civil War • Rufus Daggett • Ebenezer Magoffin • Confederate Quartermaster-General's Department • First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia • Francis Laurens Vinton • Henry Maury • Other American Civil War battle stubs • Other American Civil War stubs
Images needed: Battle of Lone Jack • Preston Pond, Jr. • Melancthon Smith
Merging needed: 1st Regiment New York Mounted Rifles and 7th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry
Citations needed: 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment (Union) • 4th Maine Battery • 33rd Ohio Infantry • 110th New York Volunteer Infantry • Battle of Hatcher's Run • Camp Dennison • Confederate colonies • CSS Resolute • Dakota War of 1862 • Florida in the American Civil War • Ethan A. Hitchcock (general) • Fort Harker (Alabama) • Gettysburg (1993 film) • Iowa in the American Civil War • Second Battle of Fort Sumter • Samuel Benton
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