Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Soldier pretending to "fire" a Quaker Gun

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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A watercolor of the Battle of Malvern Hill by Robert Sneden

The Battle of Malvern Hill, also known as the Battle of Poindexter's Farm, was fought on July 1, 1862, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Gen. Robert E. Lee, and the Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. It was the final battle of the Seven Days Battles during the American Civil War, taking place on a 130-foot (40 m) elevation of land known as Malvern Hill, near the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia and just one mile (1.6 km) from the James River. Including inactive reserves, more than fifty thousand soldiers from each side took part, using more than two hundred pieces of artillery and three warships.

The Seven Days Battles were the climax of the Peninsula Campaign, during which McClellan's Army of the Potomac sailed around the Confederate lines, landed at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, southeast of Richmond, and struck inland towards the Confederate capital. Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston fended off McClellan's repeated attempts to take the city, slowing Union progress on the peninsula to a crawl. When Johnston was wounded, Lee took command and launched a series of counterattacks, collectively called the Seven Days Battles. These attacks culminated in the action on Malvern Hill. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

Indiana, a state in the Midwest, played an important role in supporting the Union during the American Civil War. Despite anti-war activity within the state, and southern Indiana's ancestral ties to the South, Indiana was a strong supporter of the Union. Indiana contributed approximately 210,000 Union soldiers, sailors, and marines. Indiana's soldiers served in 308 military engagements during the war; the majority of them in the western theater, between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. Indiana's war-related deaths reached 25,028 (7,243 from battle and 17,785 from disease). Its state government provided funds to purchase equipment, food, and supplies for troops in the field. Indiana, an agriculturally rich state containing the fifth-highest population in the Union, was critical to the North's success due to its geographical location, large population, and agricultural production. Indiana residents, also known as Hoosiers, supplied the Union with manpower for the war effort, a railroad network and access to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, and agricultural products such as grain and livestock. The state experienced two minor raids by Confederate forces, and one major raid in 1863, which caused a brief panic in southern portions of the state and its capital city, Indianapolis.

Indiana experienced significant political strife during the war, especially after Governor Oliver P. Morton suppressed the Democratic-controlled state legislature, which had an anti-war (Copperhead) element. Major debates related to the issues of slavery and emancipation, military service for African Americans, and the draft, ensued. These led to violence. In 1863, after the state legislature failed to pass a budget and left the state without the authority to collect taxes, Governor Morton acted outside his state's constitutional authority to secure funding through federal and private loans to operate the state government and avert a financial crisis. (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 1Daniel McCallum, by the Brady National Photographic Art Gallery
Image 2Ambrose Burnside, by Matthew Brady
Image 3William Birney
Image 4Ulysses S. Grant, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 5Battle of Fort Sanders, by Kurz and Allison
Image 6Lithographic facsimile of the Bixby letter, by Huber's Museum
Image 7United States President (and former Brigadier-General) Benjamin Harrison
Image 8George Armstrong Custer, by George L. Andrews
Image 9Battle of Harpers Ferry, by Robert Knox Sneden
Image 10Francis B. Spinola, Brigadier General for the Union in the American Civil War, and Congressman from New York
Image 11Abner Doubleday
Image 12John Lorimer Worden, by Mathew Brady
Image 13Battle of Franklin, by Kurz and Allison
Image 14John A. Dahlgren, by Mathew Brady
Image 15Siege of Yorktown, by James F. Gibson
Image 16The print version of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville at McPhersonville, South Carolina, by William Waud
Image 17William H. Seward, United States Secretary of State during the American Civil War
Image 18First Battle of Bull Run map
Image 19Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Image 20John F. Reynolds, by Alfred Rudolph Waud
Image 21Confederate casualties at Chancellorsville during the American Civil War, by the National Archives and Records Administration
Image 22Robert E. Lee, by Levin Corbin Handy
Image 23Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and biographer John Hay
Image 24Allan Pinkerton, President Lincoln, and John A. McClernand in 1862 by Alexander Gardner
Image 25David Dixon Porter, by Mathew Brady
Image 26Atlanta roundhouse ruin at History of Atlanta, by George Barnard
Image 27Christian Fleetwood
Image 28African-American Civil War soldiers
Image 29The burning of Columbia at Columbia, South Carolina in the American Civil War, by William Waud
Image 30Andersonville Prison at Andersonville National Historic Site, by John L. Ransom
Image 31Harriet Tubman
Image 32Richmond, Virginia after the American Civil War
Image 33Charles Griffin
Image 34Andersonville survivor
Image 35Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, by Alfred Waud
Image 36President Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th President of the USA
Image 37Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers
Image 38Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 39Charles Pomeroy Stone
Image 40Pickett's Charge, by Thure de Thulstrup
Image 41Military execution of the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination
Image 42Quaker guns, by George Barnard and James F. Gibson
Image 43The original sketch of Sherman in South Carolina: The burning of McPhersonville, at and by William Waud
Image 44The Chickahominy – Sumner's Upper Bridge at Peninsula campaign, by William McIlvaine
Image 45George Atzerodt, by Alexander Gardner
Image 46Braxton Bragg

Did you know...

... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... 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 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 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 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 in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the only Black-led organization providing teachers to formerly enslaved people was the African Civilization Society?