Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Currier & Ives lithograph of the Second Battle of Bull Run

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, circa 1863.

The 211th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment of the Union Army in the American Civil War. Raised in western Pennsylvania in September 1864, the regiment initially served with the Army of the James during the Siege of Petersburg, holding trenches at Bermuda Hundred. In late November it transferred to the Army of the Potomac and during the northern hemisphere spring campaign fought in the counterattack during the Battle of Fort Stedman and the Union breakthrough at Petersburg. During the last days of the Appomattox Campaign it guarded trains, and participated in the Grand Review of the Armies following the end of the war before mustering out. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The state of Iowa played a significant role during the American Civil War in providing food, supplies, troops and officers for the Union army. (Full article...)

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Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American Prohibition advocate and politician. Nicknamed the "Napoleon of Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", Dow was born to a Quaker family in Portland, Maine. From a young age, he believed alcohol to be the cause of many of society's problems and wanted to ban it through legislation. In 1850, Dow was elected president of the Maine Temperance Union, and the next year he was elected mayor of Portland. Soon after, largely due to Dow's efforts, the state legislature banned the sale and production of alcohol in what became known as the Maine law. Serving twice as mayor of Portland, Dow enforced the law with vigor and called for increasingly harsh penalties for violators. In 1855, his opponents rioted and he ordered the state militia to fire on the crowd. One man was killed and several wounded, and when public reaction to the violence turned against Dow, he chose not to seek reelection.

Dow was later elected to two terms in the Maine House of Representatives, but retired after a financial scandal. He joined the Union Army shortly after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general. He was wounded at the siege of Port Hudson and later captured. After being exchanged for another officer in 1864, Dow resigned from the military and devoted himself once more to prohibition. He spoke across the United States, Canada, and Great Britain in support of the cause. In 1880, Dow headed the Prohibition Party ticket for President of the United States. After losing the election, he continued to write and speak on behalf of the prohibition movement for the rest of his life until his death in Portland at the age of 93. (Full article...)

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

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 some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... 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 Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?