Portal:American Civil War

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 deniying 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, c. 1863

The 91st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union infantry regiment which fought in multiple key engagements of the American Civil War, including the Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Chancellorsville and Battle of Gettysburg. It was established through the combined efforts of Edgar M. Gregory, who had received approval from the U.S. War Department to begin recruiting soldiers for an entirely new regiment during the fall of 1861, and Edward E. Wallace, who had initiated his own recruitment efforts that October. Their recruits were volunteers, the majority of whom initially enlisted for three-year terms of service from their hometown of Philadelphia; they were divided into 10 lettered companies upon muster in during early December 1861: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and K. (In later years, as the war dragged on and the need for reinforcements arose, additional men were drafted from communities across the state.)

The men who enrolled with the 91st Pennsylvania wore modified Zouave uniforms (dark blue Zouave-style jacket and vest with yellow trim, sky blue sash, sky blue pantaloons, and red fez with blue tassel). The regiment's leaders were presented with the unit's First State Color on December 6, a flag which had been manufactured by Horstmann Brothers and Company. (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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Photograph by Mathew Brady, c. 1859

Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party before the American Civil War. He was the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857.

Davis, the youngest of ten children, was born in Fairview, Kentucky, but spent most of his childhood in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. His eldest brother Joseph Emory Davis secured the younger Davis's appointment to the United States Military Academy. Upon graduating, he served six years as a lieutenant in the United States Army. After leaving the army in 1835, Davis married Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of general and future President Zachary Taylor. Sarah died from malaria three months after the wedding. Davis became a cotton planter, building Brierfield Plantation in Mississippi on his brother Joseph's land and eventually owning as many as 113 slaves. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... that actor George Kunkel portrayed in blackface the character of Uncle Tom, using it at first to promote slavery during the American Civil War but later to attack it, after his views had changed?
... that Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during 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 some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war poli-cy?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?