Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

CSS Alabama destroyed many U.S. merchant vessels

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)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured article

A contemporary lithograph of Manhattan at sea

USS Manhattan was a single-turreted Canonicus-class monitor built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. After commissioning in 1864 the ship was assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron and participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay. At the end of the battle, Manhattan took the surrender of the Confederate casemate ironclad ram Tennessee. She bombarded Fort Morgan during the Siege of Fort Morgan and later blockaded the mouth of the Red River until the end of the war.

The ship was placed in reserve after the end of the war and Manhattan was only occasionally recommissioned before being sold for scrap in 1902. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, North Carolina joined the Confederacy with some reluctance, mainly due to the presence of Southern 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 channeled many vital supplies through the major port of Wilmington, in defiance of the Union blockade. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving 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. McKinley successfully led the U.S. in the Spanish–American War and oversaw a period of American expansionism, with the annexations of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and American Samoa.

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, believing protectionism 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. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... 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 Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?