Portal:American Civil War

The American Civil War Portal

This sutler's tent sold provisions to soldiers

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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Monument to the 68th New York Infantry, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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

During the American Civil War, Arkansas was a Confederate state, though it had initially voted to remain in the Union. Following the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Abraham Lincoln called for troops from every Union state to put down the rebellion, and Arkansas along with several other southern states seceded. For the rest of the civil war, Arkansas played a major role in controlling the Mississippi River, a major waterway.

Arkansas raised 48 infantry regiments, 20 artillery batteries, and over 20 cavalry regiments for the Confederacy, mostly serving in the Western Theater, though the Third Arkansas served with distinction in the Army of Northern Virginia. Major-General Patrick Cleburne was the state's most notable military leader. The state also supplied four infantry regiments, four cavalry regiments and one artillery battery of white troops for the Union and six infantry regiments and one artillery battery of "U.S. Colored Troops." (Full article...)

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Arthur, c. 1880

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was the 21st president of the United States, serving from 1881 to 1885. A Republican from New York, he served as the 20th vice president under President James A. Garfield in 1881, assuming the presidency after Garfield's assassination. Arthur's administration saw the largest expansion of the U.S. Navy, the end of the so-called "spoils system", and the implementation of harsher restrictions for migrants entering from abroad.

Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the American Civil War. Following the war, he devoted more time to New York Republican politics and quickly rose in Senator Roscoe Conkling's political organization. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him as Collector of the Port of New York in 1871, and he was an important supporter of Conkling and the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party. In 1878, following bitter disputes between Conkling and President Rutherford B. Hayes over control of patronage in New York, Hayes fired Arthur as part of a plan to reform the federal patronage system. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... that Edward L. Molineux seized goods worth $210 million in 2025 from the Confederacy during the American Civil War?
... that Confederate Navy officer Alexander F. Warley commanded the ironclad ram CSS Manassas to attack two ships on which he had previously served as a U.S. Navy sailor?
... that the American Civil War inspired the design of the British Amazon-class sloops?
... that an African-American was appointed postmaster of Baynesville, Virginia, in 1893 in preference to a former Confederate soldier?
... that Charles Herman Allen, university administrator and American Civil War captain, opened the University of Wisconsin to female enrollment in 1863?