Battle of Old Fort Wayne

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

The American Civil War Portal

Morgan's Raiders entering Washington, Ohio in August, 1863

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 Battle of Shiloh by Thulstrup

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield is located between a small, undistinguished church named Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General P. G. T. Beauregard.

The Confederate army hoped to defeat Grant's Army of the Tennessee before it could be reinforced and resupplied. Although it made considerable gains with a surprise attack during the first day of the battle, Johnston was mortally wounded and Grant's army was not eliminated. Overnight, Grant's Army of the Tennessee was reinforced by one of its divisions stationed farther north, and was also joined by portions of the Army of the Ohio, under the command of Major General Don Carlos Buell. The Union forces conducted an unexpected counterattack in the morning, which reversed the Confederate gains of the previous day. The exhausted Confederate army withdrew further south, and a modest Union pursuit started and ended on the next day. (Full article...)

More featured articles

Grand Parade of the States

(Full article...)

More states articles

Featured biography

John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States. Serving from 1857 to 1861, he took office at the age of 36. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and ran for president in 1860 as a Southern Democrat. He served in the U.S. Senate during the outbreak of the American Civil War, but was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. He was appointed Confederate Secretary of War in 1865.

Breckinridge was born near Lexington, Kentucky, to a prominent local family. After serving as a noncombatant during the Mexican–American War, he was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1849, where he took a states' rights position against interference with slavery. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1851, he allied with Stephen A. Douglas in support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. After reapportionment in 1854 made his re-election unlikely, he declined to run for another term. He was nominated for vice president at the 1856 Democratic National Convention to balance a ticket headed by James Buchanan. The Democrats won the election, but Breckinridge had little influence with Buchanan, and as presiding officer of the Senate, could not express his opinions in debates. He joined Buchanan in supporting the proslavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, which led to a split in the Democratic Party. In 1859, he was elected to succeed Senator John J. Crittenden at the end of Crittenden's term in 1861. (Full article...)

More featured biographies

WikiProjects

Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... 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 historians believe that Steele's Greenville expedition marked a shift in the Union's war policy?
... 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 Enoch Marvin Banks resigned from the University of Florida because of public outrage over his belief that the American Civil War was caused by slavery?
... that after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?