Battle of Middle Boggy Depot

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The American Civil War Portal

CSS Alabama destroyed many U.S. merchant vessels

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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Featured article

Bombardment and capture of Fort Henry, Tenn,
1860s lithograph by Currier and Ives

The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in Donelson, Stewart County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.

On February 4 and 5, Grant landed two divisions just north of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. (The troops serving under Grant were the nucleus of the Union's successful Army of the Tennessee, although that name was not yet in use.) Grant's plan was to advance upon the fort on February 6 while it was being simultaneously attacked by Union gunboats commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote. A combination of accurate and effective naval gunfire, heavy rain, and the poor siting of the fort, nearly inundated by rising river waters, caused its commander, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, to surrender to Foote before the Union Army arrived. (Full article...)

Grand Parade of the States

Georgia was one of the original seven slave states that formed the Confederate States of America in February 1861, triggering the U.S. Civil War. The state governor, Democrat Joseph E. Brown, wanted locally raised troops to be used only for the defence of Georgia, in defiance of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, who wanted to deploy them on other battlefronts. When the Union blockade prevented Georgia from exporting its plentiful cotton in exchange for key imports, Brown ordered farmers to grow food instead, but the breakdown of transport systems led to desperate shortages.

There was not much fighting in Georgia until September 1863, when Confederates under Braxton Bragg defeated William S. Rosecrans at Chickamauga Creek. In May 1864, William T. Sherman started pursuing the Confederates towards Atlanta, which he captured in September, in advance of his March to the Sea. This six-week campaign destroyed much of the civilian infrastructure of Georgia, decisively shortening the war. When news of the march reached Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia, whole Georgian regiments deserted, feeling they were needed at home. The Battle of Columbus, fought on the Georgia-Alabama border on April 16, 1865, is reckoned by some criteria to have been the last battle of the war. (Full article...)

Featured biography

Henry Cornelius Burnett (October 25, 1825 – October 1, 1866) was an American politician who served as a Confederate States Senator from Kentucky from 1862 to 1865. From 1855 to 1861, Burnett served four terms in the United States House of Representatives. A lawyer by profession, Burnett had held only one public office—circuit court clerk—before being elected to Congress. He represented Kentucky's 1st congressional district immediately prior to the Civil War. This district contained the entire Jackson Purchase region of the state, which was more sympathetic to the Confederate cause than any other area of Kentucky. Burnett promised the voters of his district that he would have President Abraham Lincoln arraigned for treason. Unionist newspaper editor George D. Prentice described Burnett as "a big, burly, loud-mouthed fellow who is forever raising points of order and objections, to embarrass the Republicans in the House".

Besides championing the secession in Congress, Burnett also worked within Kentucky to bolster the state's support of the Confederacy. He presided over a sovereignty convention in Russellville in 1861 that formed a Confederate government for the state. The delegates to this convention chose Burnett to travel to Richmond, Virginia to secure Kentucky's admission to the Confederacy. Burnett also raised a Confederate regiment at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and briefly served in the Confederate States Army. Camp Burnett, a Confederate recruiting post two miles west of Clinton in Hickman County, Kentucky, was named after him. (Full article...)

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Featured picture

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

Did you know...

... that in 1865, Confederate losses during the American Civil War were characterized as "blessings in disguise"?
... that the Battle of Mine Creek was one of the largest battles between mounted cavalry during the American Civil War?
... that more than 1,000 men fought in the 1st Missouri Infantry Regiment, the first unit from the state to officially enter the Confederate States Army?
... that the Confederate Army's 8th Missouri Infantry Regiment was considered a cavalry regiment, an infantry regiment, and an infantry battalion at different points of its existence?
... that 19-year-old Union Army colonel Charles R. Ellet ran two separate steam-powered ram ships past the batteries at Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the American Civil War?
... that at the Battle of Grand Gulf, men of the Confederate 3rd Missouri Infantry Regiment fired into the portholes of Union Navy ships?