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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Drawing of Monitor at sea

USS Monitor was an ironclad warship built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War and completed in early 1862, the first such ship commissioned by the Navy. Monitor played a central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March under the command of Lieutenant John L. Worden, where she fought the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia (built on the hull of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack) to a stalemate. The design of the ship was distinguished by its revolving turret, which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby; it was quickly duplicated and established the monitor class and type of armored warship built for the American Navy over the next several decades.

The remainder of the ship was designed by Swedish-born engineer and inventor John Ericsson, and built in only 101 days in Brooklyn, New York on the East River beginning in late 1861. Monitor presented a new concept in ship design and employed a variety of new inventions and innovations in ship building that caught the attention of the world. The impetus to build Monitor was prompted by the news that the Confederates were building an iron-plated armored vessel named the Virginia in the old Federal naval shipyard at Gosport, near Norfolk, that could effectively engage the Union ships blockading Hampton Roads harbor and the James River leading northwest to Richmond (capital of the Confederacy). They could ultimately advance unchallenged on Washington, D.C., up the Potomac River and other seacoast cities. Before Monitor could reach Hampton Roads, the Confederate ironclad had already destroyed the sail frigates USS Cumberland and USS Congress and had run the steam frigate USS Minnesota aground. That night, Monitor arrived and, just as Virginia set to finish off Minnesota and St. Lawrence on the second day, the new Union ironclad confronted the Confederate ship, preventing her from wreaking further destruction on the wooden Union ships. A four-hour battle ensued, each ship pounding the other with close-range cannon fire, although neither ship could destroy or seriously damage the other. This was the first battle fought between armored warships and marked a turning point in naval warfare. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Oregon raised the 1st Oregon Cavalry that was activated in 1862 and served until June 1865. During the Civil War, emigrants to the newfound gold fields in Idaho and Oregon continued to clash with the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada until relations degenerated into the bloody 1864–1868 Snake War. The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed in 1864 and its last company was mustered out of service in July 1867. Both units were used to guard travel routes and Indian reservations, escort emigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Indian raiders. Several infantry detachments also accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon.

Oregon's second United States Senator, Col. Edward Dickinson Baker was killed while leading Union troops at the Battle of Ball's Bluff near Leesburg, Virginia on October 21, 1861. His death in battle occurred exactly one month after another Oregonian, Captain James W. Lingenfelter of Company B, 71st Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, was killed while on the picket line. In civilian life, Captain Lingenfelter had been a practicing attorney in Jacksonville, Oregon. He had been visiting in the East when the war started and enlisted to serve with Colonel Baker. (Full article...)

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Samuel Jackson Randall (October 10, 1828 – April 13, 1890) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who represented the Queen Village, Society Hill, and Northern Liberties neighborhoods of Philadelphia from 1863 to 1890 and served as the 29th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1876 to 1881. He was a contender for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in 1880 and 1884.

Born in Philadelphia to a family active in Whig politics, Randall shifted to the Democratic Party after the Whigs' demise. His rise in politics began in the 1850s with election to the Philadelphia Common Council and then to the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 1st district. Randall served in a Union cavalry unit in the American Civil War before winning a seat in the federal House of Representatives in 1862. He was re-elected every two years thereafter until his death. The representative of an industrial region, Randall became known as a staunch defender of protective tariffs designed to assist domestic producers of manufactured goods. While often siding with Republicans on tariff issues, he differed with them in his resistance to Reconstruction and the growth of federal power. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the only Black-led organization providing teachers to formerly enslaved people was the African Civilization Society?
... 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 after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?
... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that Colonel Bradley Winslow was brevetted by US president Abraham Lincoln for "brave and gallant conduct" during the siege of Petersburg in 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?