Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

This drawing depicts John Wilkes Booth shooting Abraham Lincoln

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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Depiction of the fighting near Dunker Church by Thure de Thulstrup

The Battle of Antietam (/ænˈtiːtəm/ an-TEE-təm), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union Major General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek. Part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It remains the bloodiest day in American history, with a tally of 22,727 dead, wounded, or missing on both sides. Although the Union Army suffered heavier casualties than the Confederates, the battle was a major turning point in the Union's favor.

After pursuing Confederate General Robert E. Lee into Maryland, Major General George B. McClellan of the Union Army launched attacks against Lee's army who were in defensive positions behind Antietam Creek. At dawn on September 17, Major General Joseph Hooker's corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank. Attacks and counterattacks swept across Miller's Cornfield, and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church. Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up. In the afternoon, Union Major General Ambrose Burnside's corps entered the action, capturing a stone bridge over Antietam Creek and advancing against the Confederate right. At a crucial moment, Confederate Major General A. P. Hill's division arrived from Harpers Ferry and launched a surprise counterattack, driving back Burnside and ending the battle. Although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout September 18, while removing his battered army south of the Potomac River. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The state of Iowa played a significant role during the American Civil War in providing food, supplies, troops and officers for the Union army. (Full article...)

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Joseph Benson Foraker (July 5, 1846 – May 10, 1917) was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as the 37th governor of Ohio from 1886 to 1890 and as a United States senator from Ohio from 1897 until 1909.

Foraker was born in rural Ohio; he enlisted at age 16 in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He fought for almost three years, attaining the rank of captain. After the war, he was a member of Cornell University's first graduating class, and became a lawyer. He was elected a judge in 1879 and became known as a political speaker. He was defeated in his first run for the governorship in 1883, but was elected two years later. As Ohio governor, he built an alliance with the Republican Party "boss" Mark Hanna, but fell out with him in 1888. Foraker was defeated for reelection in 1889, but was elected U.S. senator by the Ohio General Assembly in 1896, after an unsuccessful bid for that office in 1892. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... 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 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 the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?