Portal:American Civil War

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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)

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The steam ram Dunderberg, Harper's Weekly, 1867

Dunderberg, which is a Swedish word meaning "thunder(ing) mountain", was an ocean-going casemate ironclad of 14 guns built for the Union Navy. She resembled an enlarged, two-masted version of the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS Virginia. She was originally designed to have both gun turrets and a casemate but the turrets were deleted while the ship was still being built. Construction began in 1862, but progress was slow and she was not launched until after the end of the American Civil War in 1865.

The ship was not accepted by the Union Navy so her builder began seeking buyers elsewhere; Otto von Bismarck expressed some interest, and the thought of Prussia armed with such a vessel prompted France to purchase her and commission her in 1867 with the name Rochambeau. She was initially placed in reserve, but was mobilized in 1870 to participate in the Franco-Prussian War. The ship saw no action and was decommissioned after the end of the war. Rochambeau was stricken from the Navy Directory in 1872 and scrapped in 1874. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

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Portrait, c. 1870–1880

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (/ˈrʌðərfərd/ ^ⓘ; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. A staunch abolitionist from Ohio, he was also a brevet major general for the Union army during the American Civil War.

As an attorney in Ohio, Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, he left a fledgling political career to join the Union army as an officer. Hayes was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. He earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he earned a reputation in the Republican Party as a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction. He served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Carter Moore Braxton fought for the Confederacy throughout the American Civil War and, according to one report, had seven horses killed under him but avoided any wounds?
... 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 Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... that Dethloff Willrodt fought for the Union army on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, having previously been a soldier in the Confederate army?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?