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The American Civil War Portal

Artillery piece on the Antietam battlefield

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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Soldiers and Sailors, the monument at Lafayette Square

Lafayette Square (formerly Court House Park or Courthouse Square) is a park in the center of downtown Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States, that hosts a Civil War monument. The block, which was once square, is lined by many of the city's tallest buildings. The square was named for General Lafayette, who visited Buffalo in 1825.

The square was part of the original urban plan for the city as laid out by Joseph Ellicott in 1804. Its eastern edge has long been defined by important civic structures; first, the Erie County Courthouse, followed by the original Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Presidential history was made in Lafayette Square when former United States President Martin Van Buren received the Free Soil Party nomination for the 1848 election. President-elect Abraham Lincoln also spoke at the square. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The state of New York during the American Civil War was a major influence in national politics, the Union war effort, and the media coverage of the war. New York was the most populous state in the Union during the Civil War, and provided more troops to the U.S. army than any other state, as well as several significant military commanders and leaders. New York sent 400,000 men to the armed forces during the war. 22,000 soldiers died from combat wounds; 30,000 died from disease or accidents; 36 were executed. The state government spent $38 million on the war effort; counties, cities and towns spent another $111 million, especially for recruiting bonuses.

The voters were sharply divided politically. A significant anti-war movement emerged, particularly in the mid- to late-war years. The Democrats were divided between War Democrats who supported the war and Copperheads who wanted an early peace. Republicans divided between moderates who supported Lincoln, and Radical Republicans who demanded harsh treatment of the rebel states. New York provided William H. Seward as Lincoln's Secretary of State, as well as several important voices in Congress. (Full article...)

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McCreary in 1914

James Bennett McCreary (July 8, 1838 – October 8, 1918) was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky. He represented the state in both houses of the U.S. Congress and served as its 27th and 37th governor. Shortly after graduating from law school, he was commissioned as the only major in the 11th Kentucky Cavalry, serving under Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan during the American Civil War. He returned to his legal practice after the war. In 1869, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives where he served until 1875; he was twice chosen Speaker of the House. At their 1875 nominating convention, state Democrats chose McCreary as their nominee for governor, and he won an easy victory over Republican John Marshall Harlan. With the state still feeling the effects of the Panic of 1873, most of McCreary's actions as governor were aimed at easing the plight of the state's poor farmers.

In 1884, McCreary was elected to the first of six consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a legislator, he was an advocate of free silver and a champion of the state's agricultural interests. After two failed bids for election to the Senate, McCreary secured the support of Governor J. C. W. Beckham, and in 1902, the General Assembly elected him to the Senate. He served one largely undistinguished term, and Beckham then successfully challenged him for his Senate seat in 1908. The divide between McCreary and Beckham was short-lived, however, and Beckham supported McCreary's election to a second term as governor in 1911. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that Dubuque, Arkansas, was destroyed in the American Civil War and is now covered by the waters of Bull Shoals Lake?
... 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 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 some historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?