Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Charleston, South Carolina suffered late in the war

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 Confederate States of America financed its war effort during the American Civil War of 1861–1865 through various means, fiscal and monetary. As the war lasted for nearly the entire existence of the Confederacy, military considerations dominated national finance.

Early in the war the Confederacy relied mostly on tariffs on imports and on taxes on exports to raise revenues. However, with the imposition of a voluntary self-embargo in 1861 (intended to "starve" Europe of cotton and force diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy), as well as the blockade of Southern ports, declared in April 1861 and enforced by the Union Navy, the revenue from taxes on international trade declined. Likewise, the financing obtained through early voluntary donations of coins and bullion from private individuals in support of the Confederate cause, which early on proved quite substantial, dried up by the end of 1861. As a result, the Confederate government had to resort to other means of financing its military operations. A "war-tax" was enacted but proved difficult to collect. Likewise, the appropriation of Union property in the South and the forced repudiation of debts owned by Southerners to Northerners failed to raise substantial revenue. The subsequent issuance of government debt and substantial printing of the Confederate dollars contributed to high inflation, which plagued the Confederacy until the end of the war. Military setbacks in the field also played a role by causing loss of confidence and by fueling inflationary expectations. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Michigan made a substantial contribution to the Union during the American Civil War. While the state itself was far removed from the combat theaters of the war, Michigan supplied many troops and several generals, including George Armstrong Custer. When, at the beginning of the war, Michigan was asked to supply no more than one regiment, Governor Austin Blair sent seven. (Full article...)

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1896 portrait

Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was an American politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a Founding Father.

Harrison was born on a farm by the Ohio River and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After moving to Indianapolis, he established himself as a prominent local attorney, Presbyterian church leader, and politician in Indiana. During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army as a colonel, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a brevet brigadier general of volunteers in 1865. Harrison unsuccessfully ran for governor of Indiana in 1876. The Indiana General Assembly elected Harrison to a six-year term in the Senate, where he served from 1881 to 1887. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... 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 the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?
... 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 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?