Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

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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Fort Bayard was an earthwork fort constructed in 1861 northwest of Tenleytown in the District of Columbia as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War. It never faced major opposition during the conflict and was decommissioned following the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Named after Brigadier General George Dashiell Bayard, who was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg, the site of the fort is in Boundary Park, located at the intersection of River Road and Western Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. No trace of the fort remains, though a marker commemorating its existence has been erected by the Park Service. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Florida participated in the American Civil War as a member of the Confederate States of America. It had been admitted to the United States as a slave state in 1845. In January 1861, Florida became the third Southern state to secede from the Union after the November 1860 presidential election victory of Abraham Lincoln. It was one of the initial seven slave states which formed the Confederacy on February 8, 1861, in advance of the American Civil War.

Florida had by far the smallest population of the Confederate states with about 140,000 residents, nearly half of them enslaved people. As such, Florida sent around 15,000 troops to the Confederate army, the vast majority of which were deployed elsewhere during the war. The state's chief importance was as a source of cattle and other food supplies for the Confederacy, and as an entry and exit location for blockade-runners who used its many bays and small inlets to evade the Union Navy. (Full article...)

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Buckner, c. 1860–70

Simon Bolivar Buckner (/ˈsaɪmən ˈbɒlɪvər ˈbʌknər/ SY-mən BOL-i-vər BUK-nər; April 1, 1823 – January 8, 1914) was an American soldier, Confederate soldier, and politician. He fought in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He later fought in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as the 30th governor of Kentucky.

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Buckner became an instructor there. He took a hiatus from teaching to serve in the Mexican–American War, participating in many of its major battles. He resigned from the army in 1855 to manage his father-in-law's real estate in Chicago, Illinois. He returned to his native state of Kentucky in 1857 and was appointed adjutant general by Governor Beriah Magoffin in 1861. In this position, he tried to enforce Kentucky's neutrality policy in the early days of the Civil War. When the state's neutrality was breached, Buckner accepted a commission in the Confederate Army after declining a similar commission to the Union Army. In 1862, he accepted Ulysses S. Grant's demand for an "unconditional surrender" at the Battle of Fort Donelson. He was the first Confederate general to surrender an army in the war. He spent five months as a prisoner of war. After his release, Buckner participated in Braxton Bragg's failed invasion of Kentucky and near the end of the war became chief of staff to Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... 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?
... that the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?
... 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 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 some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?