Portal:American Civil War

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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 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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The Confederate government of Kentucky was a shadow government established for the Commonwealth of Kentucky by a self-constituted group of Confederate sympathizers and delegates sent by Kentucky counties, during the American Civil War. The shadow government never replaced the elected government in Frankfort, in which the state legislature had strong Union sympathies while the governor was pro-Confederate. Neither was it able to gain the whole support of Kentucky's citizens; its jurisdiction extended only as far as Confederate battle lines in the Commonwealth, which at its greatest extent in 1861 and early 1862 encompassed over half the state. Nevertheless, the provisional government was recognized by the Confederate States of America, and Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy on December 10, 1861. Kentucky, the final state admitted to the Confederacy, was represented by the 13th (central) star on the Confederate battle flag.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, was designated the Confederate capital of Kentucky at a convention in nearby Russellville. Due to the military situation in the state, the provisional government was exiled and traveled with the Army of Tennessee for most of its existence. For a short time in the autumn of 1862, the Confederate Army controlled Frankfort, the only time a Union capital was captured by Confederate forces. During this occupation, General Braxton Bragg attempted to install the provisional government as the permanent authority in the Commonwealth. However, Union General Don Carlos Buell ambushed the inauguration ceremony and drove the provisional government from the state for the final time. From that point forward, the government existed primarily on paper and was dissolved at the end of the war. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

California's involvement in the American Civil War included sending gold east to support the war effort, recruiting volunteer combat units to replace regular U.S. Army units sent east, in the area west of the Rocky Mountains, maintaining and building numerous camps and fortifications, suppressing secessionist activity (many of these secessionists went east to fight for the Confederacy) and securing the New Mexico Territory against the Confederacy. The State of California did not send its units east, but many citizens traveled east and joined the Union Army there, some of whom became famous.

Democrats had dominated the state from its inception, and Southern Democrats were sympathetic to secession. Although they were a minority in the state, they had become a majority in Southern California and Tulare County, and large numbers resided in San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Monterey, and San Francisco counties. California was home for powerful businessmen who played a significant role in Californian politics through their control of mines, shipping, finance, and the Republican Party but Republicans had been a minority party until the secession crisis. The Civil War split in the Democratic Party allowed Abraham Lincoln to carry the state, albeit by only a slim margin. Unlike most free states, Lincoln won California with only a plurality as opposed to the outright majority in the popular vote. (Full article...)

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Benjamin, c. 1856

Judah Philip Benjamin, QC (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was an American lawyer and politician. He was a United States senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister. Benjamin was the first Jew to hold a Cabinet position in North America and the first to be elected to the United States Senate who had not renounced his faith.

Benjamin was born to Sephardic Jewish parents from London, who had moved to St. Croix in the Danish West Indies when it was occupied by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars. Seeking greater opportunities, his family immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Charleston, South Carolina. Judah Benjamin attended Yale College but left without graduating. He moved to New Orleans, where he read law and passed the bar. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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 Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... that after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?
... that Byron Root Pierce was Michigan's last living Civil War general?
... 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 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?