Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

The capture of Rickett's battery during the First 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)

Featured article

USS New Ironsides under steam and sail

USS New Ironsides was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship spent most of her career blockading the Confederate ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1863–1865. New Ironsides bombarded the fortifications defending Charleston in 1863 during the First and Second Battles of Charleston Harbor. At the end of 1864 and the beginning of 1865 she bombarded the defenses of Wilmington in the First and Second Battles of Fort Fisher.

Although she was struck many times by Confederate shells, gunfire never significantly damaged the ship or injured the crew. Her only casualty in combat occurred when she was struck by a spar torpedo carried by the CSS David. Eight crewmen were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in 1865. The ship was destroyed by fire in 1865 after she was placed in reserve. (Full article...)

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...)

Featured biography

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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Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that the statue of Austin Blair, according to the newspaper City Pulse, is one of only two monuments in the United States to mention slavery as a cause of the American Civil War?
... that Edward L. Molineux seized goods worth $210 million in 2025 from the Confederacy during the American Civil War?
... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... that Dethloff Willrodt fought for the Union army on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, having previously been a soldier in the Confederate army?
... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... 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?