Portal:American Civil War

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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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The Long Bridge and two of its guards, as seen from the Washington side of the Potomac River.

Fort Jackson was an American Civil War-era fortification in Virginia that defended the southern end of the Long Bridge, near Washington, D.C. Long Bridge connected Washington, D.C. to Northern Virginia and served as a vital transportation artery for the Union Army during the war. Fort Jackson was named for Jackson City, a seedy suburb of Washington that had been established on the south side of the Long Bridge in 1835. It was built in the days immediately following the Union Army's occupation of Northern Virginia in May 1861. The fort was initially armed with four cannon used to protect the bridge, but these were removed after the completion of the Arlington Line, a line of defenses built to the south. After 1862, the fort lacked weapons except for small arms and consisted of a wooden palisade backed by earthworks. Two cannon were restored to the fort in 1864 following the Battle of Fort Stevens. The garrison consisted of a single company of Union soldiers who inspected traffic crossing the bridge and guarded it from potential saboteurs.

Following the final surrender of the Confederate States of America in 1865, Fort Jackson was abandoned. The lumber used in its construction was promptly salvaged for firewood and construction materials and, due to its proximity to the Long Bridge, the earthworks were flattened in order to provide easier access to Long Bridge. In the early 20th century, the fort's site was used for the footings and approaches to several bridges connecting Virginia and Washington. Today, no trace of the fort remains, though the site of the fort is contained within Arlington County's Long Bridge Park, and a National Park Service 2004 survey of the site indicated some archaeological remnants may still remain beneath the park. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, Missouri was a hotly contested border state populated by both Union and Confederate sympathizers. It sent armies, generals, and supplies to both sides, maintained dual governments, and endured a bloody neighbor-against-neighbor intrastate war within the larger national war.

A slave state since statehood in 1821, Missouri's geographic position in the central region of the country and at the rural edge of the American frontier ensured that it remained a divisive battleground for competing Northern and Southern ideologies in the years preceding the war. When the war began in 1861, it became clear that control of the Mississippi River and the burgeoning economic hub of St. Louis would make Missouri a strategic territory in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. (Full article...)

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Hindman in uniform, c. 1862

Thomas Carmichael Hindman Jr. (January 28, 1828 – September 28, 1868) was an American lawyer, politician, and a senior officer of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he later moved to Mississippi and became involved in politics. He served in the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848. Hindman practiced law and in 1853 was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives. After his term expired in 1854, he moved to Helena, Arkansas where there were more opportunities for his political ambitions. Hindman opposed the Know-Nothing party and the ruling Conway-Johnson dynasty. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1858, he supported slavery (and was a slaveholder himself) and secession. During Reconstruction he was assassinated.

Once the American Civil War began in 1861 and Arkansas seceded, Hindman joined the Confederate States Army, first commanding the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment, then a brigade, and then an ad-hoc division at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862; he was wounded during the battle. Following Shiloh, Hindman was promoted to major general and sent to the Trans-Mississippi Department to command Arkansas, Missouri, the Indian Territory, and part of Louisiana. As commander of the region, Hindman's policies were sometimes legally questionable and were unpopular, although they were successful in building up the district from a basically indefensible state. Public outcry led to Hindman's removal from his regional command. He was defeated at the Battle of Prairie Grove in December. Transferred to the Army of Tennessee in 1863, he led a division at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, where he was again wounded. After recovering, he commanded a division during the early stages of the Atlanta campaign although he wished to be transferred elsewhere. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 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 Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... 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 Enoch Marvin Banks resigned from the University of Florida because of public outrage over his belief that the American Civil War was caused by slavery?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?