Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia was the site of several battles

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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West Virginia honorable discharge medal

The 1st West Virginia Cavalry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although it started slowly, it became one of the most active and effective of the West Virginia Civil War regiments—and had 14 Medal of Honor recipients, the most for any West Virginia regiment during the war. It was originally called the 1st Virginia Cavalry, not to be confused with the Confederate 1st Virginia Cavalry. Some reports added "Union," "Loyal" or "West" when identifying this regiment. After the Unionist state of West Virginia was officially admitted to the Union in 1863, the regiment became the 1st West Virginia Cavalry Regiment. The National Park Service identifies it as the 1st Regiment, West Virginia Cavalry.

The regiment was organized in Wheeling, Morgantown and Clarksburg in 1861 and consisted of 13 companies, plus an additional company that was attached for most of the war. Members were predominately recruited from Ohio and Pennsylvania and the western Virginia counties of Marshall, Monongalia, Harrison and Ohio. The regiment was often split during the first two years of the war, with detachments spending time guarding the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and hunting bushwhackers. During July 1863, ten companies of the regiment fought at the Battle of Gettysburg as part of a division. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

The history of Idaho in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was far from the battlefields.

At the start of the Civil War, modern-day Idaho was part of the Washington Territory. On March 3, 1863, the Idaho Territory was formed, consisting of the entirety of modern-day Idaho, Montana, and all but southwest Wyoming. However, there were concerns about Confederate sympathizers in the eastern half of the territory, in what is present-day Montana. As a result, in 1863 Sidney Edgerton traveled quickly to see President Abraham Lincoln about the situation; this was one reason to split the Montana Territory from the Idaho Territory. The split also resulted in most of Idaho Territory's land consisting of modern-day Wyoming being reassigned to the Dakota Territory. (Full article...)

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James Wood Bush (c. 1844–45 – April 24, 1906) was an American Union Navy sailor of British and Native Hawaiian descent. He was among a group of more than one hundred Native Hawaiian and Hawaii-born combatants in the American Civil War, at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was still an independent nation.

Enlisting in the Union Navy in 1864, Bush served as a sailor aboard USS Vandalia and the captured Confederate vessel USS Beauregard, which maintained the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy. He was discharged from service in 1865 after an injury, which developed into a chronic condition in later life. The impoverished Bush was unable to return to Hawaii for more than a decade, during which time he traveled through New England and much of the Pacific. Back in Hawaii, he worked as a government tax collector and road supervisor for the island of Kauai, where he settled down. In later life, he converted to Mormonism and became an active member of the Hawaiian Mission. After the annexation of Hawaii to the United States, Bush was recognized for his military service, and in 1905 was granted a government pension for the injuries he received in the Navy. He died at his home on Kauai on April 24, 1906. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... that singer Frank Croxton performed a duet with his father for the unveiling of a monument to a Confederate States Army general?
... that according to one historian, James S. Rains made a "significant contribution to the Confederate war effort" by getting drunk?
... that some Confederate bullets were sourced from a silver mine?
... that Romeo and Juliet both served in the Union Navy?
... that Justus H. Rathbone, founder of the Knights of Pythias, served as a hospital steward during the American Civil War?
... 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?