Portal:American Civil War

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The American Civil War Portal

The 54th Massachusetts assaulted Fort Wagner

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

An ammunition magazine similar to those built at Fort Stanton.

Fort Stanton was a Civil War-era fortification constructed in the hills above Anacostia in the District of Columbia, USA, and was intended to prevent Confederate artillery from threatening the Washington Navy Yard. It also guarded the approach to the bridge that connected Anacostia (then known as Uniontown) with Washington. Built in 1861, the fort was expanded throughout the war and was joined by two subsidiary forts: Fort Ricketts and Fort Snyder. Following the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, it was dismantled and the land returned to its original owner. It never saw combat. Abandoned after the war, the site of the fort was planned to be part of a grand "Fort Circle" park system encircling the city of Washington. Though this system of interconnected parks never was fully implemented, the site of the fort is today a park maintained by the National Park Service, and a historical marker stands near the fort's original location. (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 an American politician who served as the 17th president of the United States 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 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. 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 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 original sketch of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville, at and by William Waud
Image 2The print version of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville at McPhersonville, South Carolina, by William Waud
Image 3Siege of Yorktown, by James F. Gibson
Image 4George Atzerodt, by Alexander Gardner
Image 5Battle of Franklin, by Kurz and Allison
Image 6United States President (and former Brigadier-General) Benjamin Harrison
Image 7Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, by Alfred Waud
Image 8Richmond, Virginia after the American Civil War
Image 9David Dixon Porter, by Mathew Brady
Image 10First Battle of Bull Run map
Image 11Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Image 12Atlanta roundhouse ruin at History of Atlanta, by George Barnard
Image 13Ulysses S. Grant, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 14Charles Griffin
Image 15Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers
Image 16Harriet Tubman
Image 17Robert E. Lee, by Levin Corbin Handy
Image 18Battle of Fort Sanders, by Kurz and Allison
Image 19Battle of Harpers Ferry, by Robert Knox Sneden
Image 20Andersonville Prison at Andersonville National Historic Site, by John L. Ransom
Image 21Quaker guns, by George Barnard and James F. Gibson
Image 22Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and John A. McClernand in 1862 by Alexander Gardner
Image 23John F. Reynolds, by Alfred Rudolph Waud
Image 24George Armstrong Custer, by George L. Andrews
Image 25Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and biographer John Hay
Image 26Andersonville survivor
Image 27Military execution of the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination
Image 28John A. Dahlgren, by Mathew Brady
Image 29Charles Pomeroy Stone
Image 30Pickett's Charge, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 31Ambrose Burnside, by Matthew Brady
Image 32William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State during the American Civil War
Image 33Lithographic facsimile of the Bixby letter, by Huber's Museum
Image 34William Birney
Image 35African-American Civil War soldiers
Image 36President Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the USA
Image 37The burning of Columbia at Columbia, South Carolina in the American Civil War, by William Waud
Image 38Daniel McCallum, by the Brady National Photographic Art Gallery
Image 39Christian Fleetwood
Image 40Confederate casualties at Chancellorsville during the American Civil War, by the National Archives and Records Administration
Image 41Francis B. Spinola, Brigadier General for the Union in the American Civil War, and Congressman from New York
Image 42Abner Doubleday
Image 43The Chickahominy – Sumner's Upper Bridge at Peninsula campaign, by William McIlvaine
Image 44Braxton Bragg
Image 45John Lorimer Worden, by Mathew Brady
Image 46Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, by Thure de Thulstrup

Did you know...

... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... 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 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 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?