Portal:American Civil War

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The American Civil War Portal

A Rodman gun exhibited at the 1876 U.S. Centennial

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)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Featured article

Asian Americans, who are Americans of Asian descent, have fought and served on behalf of the United States since the American Revolutionary War. During the American Civil War Asian Americans fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Afterwards Asian Americans served primarily in the U.S. Navy until the Philippine–American War.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Asian Americans began to attend U.S. military academies, and the first Asian Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor. World War I saw Asian Americans serving as "non-whites" in the National Army. After World War I, Asian American service fell into obscurity until World War II when significant contributions by Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean Americans were documented. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War, North Carolina joined the Confederacy with some reluctance, mainly due to the presence of Southern Unionist sentiment within the state. A popular vote in February, 1861 on the issue of secession was won by the unionists but not by a wide margin.

This slight lean in favor of staying in the Union would shift towards the Confederacy in response to Abraham Lincoln's April 15 proclamation that requested 75,000 troops from all Union states, leading to North Carolina's secession. Similar to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, North Carolina wished to remain uninvolved in the likely war but felt forced to pick a side by the proclamation. Throughout the war, North Carolina widely remained a divided state. The population within the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state contained large pockets of Unionism. Even so, North Carolina would help contribute a significant amount of troops to the Confederacy, and channel many vital supplies through the major port of Wilmington, in defiance of the Union blockade. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. He presided over victory in the Spanish–American War of 1898; gained control of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; restored prosperity after a deep depression; rejected the inflationary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard; and raised protective tariffs.

McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man and ended it as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, McKinley was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican expert on the protective tariff, which he believed would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial and, together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests. He secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 amid a deep economic depression and defeated his Democratic rival William Jennings Bryan after a front porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity. Historians regard McKinley's victory as a realigning election in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, beginning with the Progressive Era. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Carter Moore Braxton fought for the Confederacy throughout the American Civil War and, according to one report, had seven horses killed under him but avoided any wounds?
... 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 Chinese-born Joseph Pierce enlisted as a Union Army soldier, fought at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, and was made a corporal?
... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army 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?