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

Charles Pomeroy Stone and his 8 year-old daughter Hettie

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

The Confederate States of America financed its war effort during the American Civil War through various means, fiscal and monetary. As the war lasted for nearly the entire existence of the Confederacy, military considerations dominated national finance.

Early in the war the Confederacy relied mostly on tariffs on imports and on taxes on exports to raise revenues. However, with the imposition of a voluntary self-embargo in 1861 (intended to "starve" Europe of cotton and force diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy), as well as the blockade of Southern ports, declared in April 1861 and enforced by the Union Navy, the revenue from taxes on international trade declined. Likewise, the financing obtained through early voluntary donations of coins and bullion from private individuals in support of the Confederate cause, which early on proved quite substantial, dried up by the end of 1861. As a result, the Confederate government had to resort to other means of financing its military operations. A "war-tax" was enacted but proved difficult to collect. Likewise, the appropriation of Union property in the South and the forced repudiation of debts owed by Southerners to Northerners failed to raise substantial revenue. The subsequent issuance of government debt and substantial printing of the Confederate dollars contributed to high inflation, which plagued the Confederacy until the end of the war. Military setbacks in the field also played a role by causing loss of confidence and by fueling inflationary expectations. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

Michigan made a substantial contribution to the Union during the American Civil War. While the state itself was far removed from the combat theaters of the war, Michigan supplied many troops and several generals, including George Armstrong Custer. When, at the beginning of the war, Michigan was asked to supply no more than one regiment, Governor Austin Blair sent seven. (Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

1896 portrait

Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V, a Founding Father. A Union Army veteran and a Republican, he defeated incumbent Grover Cleveland to win the presidency.

Harrison was born on a farm by the Ohio River and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After moving to Indianapolis, he established himself as a prominent local attorney, Presbyterian church leader, and politician in Indiana. During the American Civil War, he served in the Union Army as a colonel, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a brevet brigadier general of volunteers in 1865. Harrison unsuccessfully ran for governor of Indiana in 1876. The Indiana General Assembly elected Harrison to a six-year term in the Senate, where he served from 1881 to 1887. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

edit

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... 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 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 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 the only functioning secondary school in Mississippi during the American Civil War was founded by Thomas S. Gathright?
... 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 after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?