Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Graves of soldiers at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery

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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State flag of Pennsylvania, c. 1863

The 91st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union infantry regiment which fought in multiple key engagements of the American Civil War, including the Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Chancellorsville and Battle of Gettysburg. It was established through the combined efforts of Edgar M. Gregory, who had received approval from the U.S. War Department to begin recruiting soldiers for an entirely new regiment during the fall of 1861, and Edward E. Wallace, who had initiated his own recruitment efforts that October. Their recruits were volunteers, the majority of whom initially enlisted for three-year terms of service from their hometown of Philadelphia; they were divided into 10 lettered companies upon muster in during early December 1861: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and K. (In later years, as the war dragged on and the need for reinforcements arose, additional men were drafted from communities across the state.)

The men who enrolled with the 91st Pennsylvania wore modified Zouave uniforms (dark blue Zouave-style jacket and vest with yellow trim, sky blue sash, sky blue pantaloons, and red fez with blue tassel). The regiment's leaders were presented with the unit's First State Color on December 6, a flag which had been manufactured by Horstmann Brothers and Company. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma was designated as the Indian Territory. It served as an unorganized region that had been set aside specifically for Native American tribes and was occupied mostly by tribes which had been removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Indian Territory was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles involving both Native American units allied with the Confederate States of America and Native Americans loyal to the United States government, as well as other Union and Confederate troops.

Most tribal leaders in Indian Territory aligned with the Confederacy. A total of at least 7,860 Native Americans from the Indian Territory participated in the Confederate Army, as both officers and enlisted men; most came from the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations. The Union organized several regiments of the Indian Home Guard to serve in the Indian Territory and occasionally in adjacent areas of Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. (Full article...)

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Photograph by Mathew Brady, c. 1859

Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party before the American Civil War. He was the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857.

Davis, the youngest of ten children, was born in Fairview, Kentucky, but spent most of his childhood in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. His eldest brother Joseph Emory Davis secured the younger Davis's appointment to the United States Military Academy. Upon graduating, he served six years as a lieutenant in the United States Army. After leaving the army in 1835, Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of general and future President Zachary Taylor. Sarah died from malaria three months after the wedding. Davis became a cotton planter, building Brierfield Plantation in Mississippi on his brother Joseph's land and eventually owning as many as 113 slaves. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that The Land We Love, a little magazine that merged into Southern Magazine, printed American Civil War recollections, poetry, agricultural material, and many works by female authors?
... that Byron Root Pierce was Michigan's last living Civil War general?
... 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?