Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia was the site of several battles

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)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured article

Fort Scott National Historic Site is a historical area under the control of the United States National Park Service in Bourbon County, Kansas, United States. Named after General Winfield Scott, who achieved renown during the Mexican–American War, during the middle of the 19th century the fort served as a military base for US Army action in what was the edge of settlement in 1850. For the next quarter century, it was used as a supply base and to provide security in turbulent areas during the opening of the West to settlement, a period which included Bleeding Kansas and the American Civil War.

The current national historic site protects 20 historic structures, a parade ground, and five acres (20,000 m²) of restored tallgrass prairie, inside the city of Fort Scott. It is open to visitors most days of the year. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

The area that eventually became the U.S. state of Montana played little direct role in the American Civil War. The closest the Confederate States Army ever came to the area was New Mexico and eastern Kansas, each over a thousand miles away. There was not even an organized territory using "Montana" until the Montana Territory was created on May 26, 1864, three years after the Battle of Fort Sumter. In 1861, the area was divided between the Dakota Territory and the Washington Territory, and in 1863, it was part of the Idaho Territory.

Nevertheless, Confederate sympathizers did have a presence in what is now the U.S. state of Montana. Those in the Montana Territory who supported the Confederate side were varied. Among them were Confederate sympathizers who were determined that some of Montana's gold would go into the Southern instead of Northern coffers. But most were those who would rather not fight in the war, which ranged from pure drifters to actual Confederate deserters. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

Portrait c. 1870–1875

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as he was vice president at that time. Johnson was a Southern Democrat who ran with Abraham Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved, as well as pardoning ex-Confederates. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.

Johnson was born into poverty and never attended school. He was apprenticed as a tailor and worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee, serving as an alderman and mayor before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. After briefly serving in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. He became governor of Tennessee for four years, and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. During his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. Southern slave states seceded to form the Confederate States of America, including Tennessee, but Johnson remained firmly with the Union. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not promptly resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as Military Governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign, and became vice president after a victorious election in 1864. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
... 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 at the Battle of La Haye-du-Puits in July 1944, a Confederate flag dating to the American Civil War was raised over the town?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?