Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Battle of Mobile Bay, by Louis Prang

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 68th New York Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Also known as the Cameron Rifles or the Second German Rifle Regiment, the men were mostly German immigrants. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, the 68th saw service in the Eastern and Western theaters.^[1]

As a part of the Army of the Potomac, it was initially assigned to the defenses of Washington, D.C. Later, the 68th was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley and fought at the Battle of Cross Keys. The men of the 68th were then reassigned to central Virginia and found themselves in the thick of the fighting at Second Bull Run. After returning to the nation's capital, the regiment fought in Chancellorsville and was routed by Confederate forces. At Gettysburg, they saw battle on two of the three days and took heavy losses. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The history of Idaho in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was far from the battlefields.

At the start of the Civil War, modern-day Idaho was part of the Washington Territory. On March 3, 1863, the Idaho Territory was formed, consisting of the entirety of modern-day Idaho, Montana, and all but southwest Wyoming. However, there were concerns about Confederate sympathizers in the eastern half of the territory, in what is present-day Montana. As a result, in 1863 Sidney Edgerton traveled quickly to see President Abraham Lincoln about the situation; this was one reason to split the Montana Territory from the Idaho Territory. The split also resulted in most of Idaho Territory's land consisting of modern-day Wyoming being reassigned to the Dakota Territory. (Full article...)

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James Wood Bush (c. 1844–45 – April 24, 1906) was an American Union Navy sailor of British and Native Hawaiian descent. He was among a group of more than one hundred Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants in the American Civil War, at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation.

Enlisting in the Union Navy in 1864, Bush served as a sailor aboard USS Vandalia and the captured Confederate vessel USS Beauregard, which maintained the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. He was discharged from service in 1865 after an injury, which developed into a chronic condition in later life. The impoverished Bush was unable to return to Hawaii for more than a decade, during which time he traveled through New England and much of the Pacific. Back in Hawaii, he worked as a government tax collector and road supervisor for the island of Kauai, where he settled down. In later life, he converted to Mormonism and became an active member of the Hawaiian Mission. After the annexation of Hawaii to the United States, Bush was recognized for his military service, and in 1905 was granted a government pension for the injuries he received in the Navy. He died at his home on Kauai on April 24, 1906. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... 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 the state of Illinois erected both the Illinois Memorial and the Illinois Monument on American Civil War battlefields in the early 1900s?
... that Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... that after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?