Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Winfield Scott commanded all Union armies until November, 1861

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 Marietta-class monitors were a pair of ironclad river monitors laid down in the summer of 1862 for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction was slow, partially for lack of labor, and the ships were not completed until December 1865, after the war was over. However the navy did not accept them until 1866 and immediately laid them up. They were sold in 1873 without ever having been commissioned. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The Utah Territory (September 9, 1850 - January 4, 1896) during the American Civil War was far from the main operational theaters of war, but still played a role in the disposition of the United States Army, drawing manpower away from the volunteer forces and providing its share of administrative headaches for the Lincoln Administration. Although no battles were fought in the territory, the withdrawal of Union forces at the beginning of the war allowed the Native American tribes to start raiding the trails passing through Utah. As a result, units from California and Utah were assigned to protect against these raids. Mineral deposits found in Utah by California soldiers encouraged the immigration of non-Mormon settlers into Utah. (Full article...)

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Crosshatch portrait, based on an 1890 gelatin silver print by Edward Bierstadt

Elliott Fitch Shepard (July 25, 1833 – March 24, 1893) was a New York lawyer, banker, and owner of the Mail and Express newspaper, as well as a founder and president of the New York State Bar Association. Shepard was married to Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt, who was the granddaughter of philanthropist, business magnate, and family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt. Shepard's Briarcliff Manor residence Woodlea and the Scarborough Presbyterian Church, which he founded nearby, are contributing properties to the Scarborough Historic District.

Shepard was born in Jamestown, New York, one of three sons of the president of a banknote-engraving company. He graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1855, and practiced law for about 25 years. During the American Civil War, Shepard was a Union Army recruiter and subsequently earned the rank of colonel. He was later a founder and benefactor of several institutions and banks. When Shepard moved to the Briarcliff Manor hamlet of Scarborough-on-Hudson, he founded the Scarborough Presbyterian Church and built Woodlea; the house and its land are now part of Sleepy Hollow Country Club. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... 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?
... that The Land We Love, a little magazine that merged into Southern Magazine, printed American Civil War recollections, poetry, agricultural material, and many works by female authors?
... that in the aftermath of the American Civil War, the only Black-led organization providing teachers to formerly enslaved people was the African Civilization Society?
... 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 some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?