Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Battle of Mobile Bay, by Louis Prang

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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Mahopac at anchor on the Appomattox River, 1864

[[USS Mahopac (1864)|USS Mahopac (1864)]] was a Canonicus-class monitor built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The vessel was assigned to the James River Flotilla of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron upon completion in September 1864. The ship spent most of her time stationed up the James River where she could support operations against Richmond and defend against sorties by the Confederate ironclads of the James River Squadron. She engaged Confederate artillery batteries during the year and later participated in both the first and second battles of Fort Fisher, defending the approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina, in December 1864 – January 1865. Mahopac returned to the James River after the capture of Fort Fisher and remained there until Richmond, Virginia was occupied in early April.

A few days later, the monitor was transferred to Washington, D. C. and decommissioned in June and recommissioned in early 1866 for service on the East Coast and in the Caribbean. Mahopac generally remained active until 1889 when she was permanently placed in reserve. She was sold for scrap in 1902. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, North Carolina joined the Confederacy with some reluctance, mainly due to the presence of Unionist sentiment within the state. A popular vote in February, 1861 on the issue of secession was won by the unionists but not by a wide margin. This slight lean in favor of staying in the Union would shift towards the Confederacy in response to Abraham Lincoln's April 15 proclamation that requested 75,000 troops from all Union states, leading to North Carolina's secession. Similar to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, North Carolina wished to remain uninvolved in the likely war but felt forced to pick a side by the proclamation. Throughout the war, North Carolina widely remained a divided state. The population within the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state contained large pockets of Unionism. Even so, North Carolina would help contribute a significant amount of troops to the Confederacy, and channel many vital supplies through the major port of Wilmington, in defiance of the Union blockade.

Fighting occurred sporadically in the state from September 1861, when Union Major General Ambrose Burnside set about capturing key ports and cities, notably Roanoke Island and New Bern. In 1864, the Confederates assumed the offensive, temporarily reconquering Plymouth, while the Union Army launched several attempts to seize Fort Fisher. The last remaining major Confederate army, under Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered at Bennett Place, near Durham, to William Tecumseh Sherman in April 1865. Troops from North Carolina played major roles in dozens of battles in other states, including Gettysburg, where Tar Heels were prominent in Pickett's Charge. (Full article...)

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William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was an American politician who served as the 25th president of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. He presided over victory in the Spanish–American War of 1898; gained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Cuba; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs.

McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man, and ended it as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, McKinley was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican expert on the protective tariff, which he believed would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial and, together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests. He secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 amid a deep economic depression and defeated his Democratic rival William Jennings Bryan after a front porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity. Historians regard McKinley's victory as a realigning election in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, beginning with the Progressive Era. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Francis Orray Ticknor was a country doctor whose fame as a poet relies on "Little Giffen", a poem about one of his patients who died in 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 Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?
... 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?