Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

Union troops in trenches at Petersburg

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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Battle of Hampton Roads by Kurz and Allison

The Battle of Hampton Roads, also referred to as the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was a naval battle during the American Civil War.

The battle was fought over two days, March 8 and 9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it flows into Chesapeake Bay by the city of Norfolk. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities and major industrial centers, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade. This battle was significant in that it was the first combat between ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. The Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram Virginia (built from remnants of the burned steam frigate USS Merrimack) and several supporting vessels. On the first day of battle, they were opposed by several conventional, wooden-hulled ships of the Union Navy. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

New Hampshire was a member of the Union during the American Civil War.

The state gave soldiers, money, and supplies to the Union Army. It sent 31,657 enlisted men and 836 officers, of whom about 20% were killed in action or died from disease or accident.^[1] (Full article...)

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Matthew Stanley Quay (/kweɪ/; September 30, 1833 – May 28, 1904) was an American politician of the Republican Party who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1887 until 1899 and from 1901 until his death in 1904. Quay's control of the Pennsylvania Republican political machine for almost twenty years made him one of the most powerful and influential politicians in the country. As chair of the Republican National Committee and thus party campaign manager, he helped elect Benjamin Harrison as president in 1888. He was also instrumental in the 1900 election of Theodore Roosevelt as vice president.

Quay studied law and began his career in public office by becoming prothonotary of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in 1856. He became personal secretary to Governor Andrew Curtin in 1861 after campaigning for him the previous year. During the Civil War, he served in the Union Army, commanding the 134th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment as a colonel. Quay received the Medal of Honor for heroism at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He acted as Pennsylvania's military agent in Washington before returning to Harrisburg to assist Curtin and aid in his re-election in 1863. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1865 to 1868. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
... 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 an African-American was appointed postmaster of Baynesville, Virginia, in 1893 in preference to a former Confederate soldier?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Nereus Mendenhall led a delegation to the Confederate States Congress in April 1862 to allow military exemption in the Confederate Army for Quakers?
... that American Civil War chaplain Thomas Mooney was pulled from service after baptizing a cannon?