Portal:American Civil War

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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During the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 2, 1863) Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee attempted to capitalize on his first day's accomplishments. His Army of Northern Virginia launched multiple attacks on the flanks of the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. The assaults were unsuccessful, and resulted in heavy casualties for both sides.

Early in the afternoon, Union Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles repositioned his III Corps forward in a salient without authorization in the hopes of occupying slightly elevated ground to his front. After a short delay to assemble his forces and avoid detection in his approach march, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet attacked with his First Corps against the Union left flank. His division under Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood attacked Little Round Top and Devil's Den. To Hood's left, Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws attacked the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard. Although neither prevailed, the Union III Corps was effectively destroyed as a combat organization as it attempted to defend its salient over too wide a front. Gen. Meade rushed as many as 20,000 reinforcements from elsewhere in his line to resist these fierce assaults. The attacks in this sector concluded with an unsuccessful assault by the Confederate Third Corps division of Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson against the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Slavery had been a divisive issue in Delaware for decades before the American Civil War began. Opposition to slavery in Delaware, imported from Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania, led many slaveowners to free their slaves; half of the state's black population was free by 1810, and more than 90% were free by 1860. This trend also led pro-slavery legislators to restrict free black organizations, and the constabulary in Wilmington was accused of harsh enforcement of runaway slave laws, while many Delawareans kidnapped free blacks among the large communities throughout the state and sold them to plantations further south.

During the Civil War, Delaware was a slave state that remained in the Union. (Delaware voters voted not to secede on January 3, 1861.) Although most Delaware citizens who fought in the Civil War served in regiments on the Union side, some did, in fact, serve in Delaware companies on the Confederate side in the Maryland and Virginia Regiments. Delaware was the one slave state from which the Confederate States of America could not recruit a full regiment. (Full article...)

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John Young Brown (June 28, 1835 – January 11, 1904) was an American politician from the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky who represented the state in the United States House of Representatives and served as its 31st governor of Kentucky. Brown was elected to the House of Representatives for three non-consecutive terms, each of which was marred by controversy. He was first elected in 1859, despite his own protests that he was not yet twenty-five years old, the minimum age set by the Constitution for serving in the legislature. The voters of his district elected him anyway, but he was not allowed to take his seat until the Congress' second session, after he was of legal age to serve. After moving to Henderson, Kentucky, Brown was elected from that district in 1866. On this occasion, he was denied his seat because of alleged disloyalty to the Union during the Civil War. Voters in his district refused to elect another representative, and the seat remained vacant throughout the term to which Brown was elected. After an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 1871, Brown was again elected to the House in 1872 and served three consecutive terms. During his final term, he was officially censured for delivering a speech excoriating Massachusetts Representative Benjamin F. Butler. The censure was later expunged from the congressional record.

After his service in the House, Brown took a break from politics but re-entered the political arena as a candidate for governor of Kentucky in 1891. He secured the Democratic nomination in a four-way primary election, then convincingly won the general election over his Republican challenger, Andrew T. Wood. Brown's administration, and the state Democratic Party, were split between gold standard supporters (including Brown) and supporters of the free coinage of silver. Brown's was also the first administration to operate under the Kentucky Constitution of 1891, and most of the legislature's time was spent adapting the state's code of laws to the new constitution. Consequently, little of significance was accomplished during Brown's term. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that all five chaplains awarded the Medal of Honor since the American Civil War were Catholic priests?
... 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 at the Battle of La Haye-du-Puits in July 1944, a Confederate flag dating to the American Civil War was raised over the town?
... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... that actor George Kunkel portrayed in blackface the character of Uncle Tom, using it at first to promote slavery during the American Civil War but later to attack it, after his views had changed?
... that Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?