Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Charles Pomeroy Stone and his 8 year-old daughter Hettie

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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Literary Hall, viewed from the south, facing West Main Street in Romney

Literary Hall is a mid-19th-century brick library, building and museum located in Romney, a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the intersection of North High Street (West Virginia Route 28) and West Main Street (U.S. Route 50). Literary Hall was constructed between 1869 and 1870 by the Romney Literary Society.

Founded in 1819, the Romney Literary Society was the first literary organization of its kind in the present-day state of West Virginia, and one of the first in the United States. In 1846, the society constructed a building which housed the Romney Classical Institute and its library. The Romney Literary Society and the Romney Classical Institute both flourished and continued to grow in importance and influence until the onset of the American Civil War in 1861. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The Colorado Territory was formally created in 1861 shortly before the bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked the American Civil War. Although sentiments were somewhat divided in the early days of the war, Colorado was only marginally a pro-Union territory (four statehood attempts were thwarted, largely by Confederate sympathizers in July 1862, February 1863, February 1864, and January 1866). Colorado was strategically important to both the Union and Confederacy because of the gold and silver mines there as both sides wanted to use the mineral wealth to help finance the war. The New Mexico Campaign (February to April 1862) was a military operation conducted by Confederate Brigadier General Henry Sibley to gain control of the Southwest, including the gold fields of Colorado, the mineral-rich territory of Nevada and the ports of California. The campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory and an attempt to cut the supply lines between California and the rest of the Union. However, the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico and were forced to retreat back to Texas, effectively ending the New Mexico Campaign. (Full article...)

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Portrait by Nicola Marschall, 1883

Luke Pryor Blackburn (June 16, 1816 – September 14, 1887) was an American physician, philanthropist, and politician from Kentucky. He was elected the 28th governor of Kentucky, serving from 1879 to 1883. Until the election of Ernie Fletcher in 2003, Blackburn was the only physician to serve as governor of Kentucky.

After earning a medical degree at Transylvania University, Blackburn moved to Natchez, Mississippi, and gained national fame for implementing the first successful quarantine against yellow fever in the Mississippi River valley in 1848. He came to be regarded as an expert on yellow fever and often worked pro bono to combat outbreaks. Among his philanthropic ventures was the construction of a hospital for boatmen working on the Mississippi River using his personal funds. He later successfully lobbied Congress to construct a series of similar hospitals along the Mississippi. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Emma Dean Powell received a pass from General Ulysses S. Grant to accompany her husband to battlefield camps during the American Civil War after he lost his arm?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that Francis Orray Ticknor was a country doctor whose fame as a poet relies on "Little Giffen", a poem about one of his patients who died in the American Civil War?
... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... 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 the Confederate States Navy ordered six Squib-class torpedo boats from England, but they were never delivered?