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The American Civil War Portal
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.
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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 Marshall, Monongalia, Harrison and Ohio County, West Virginia, with some additional men from western Pennsylvania and eastern 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...)
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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Capon Chapel ( /ˈkeɪpən/ KAY-pən), also historically known as Capon Baptist Chapel and Capon Chapel Church, is a mid-19th century United Methodist church located near to the town of Capon Bridge, West Virginia, in the United States. Capon Chapel is one of the oldest existing log churches in Hampshire County, along with Mount Bethel Church and Old Pine Church.
A Baptist congregation was gathering at the site of the present-day church by at least 1756. Primitive Baptist minister John Monroe (1750–1824) is credited for establishing a place of worship at this site; he is interred in the church's cemetery. The land on which Capon Chapel was built originally belonged to William C. Nixon (1789–1869), a member of the Virginia House of Delegates; later, it was transferred to the Pugh family. The first documented mention of a church at the Capon Chapel site was in March 1852, when Joseph Pugh allocated the land to three trustees for the construction of a church and cemetery. (Full article...)
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Did you know...
- ... that New York's Continental Iron Works, founded in 1861 by Thomas F. Rowland, built the Union Navy warship that engaged in the first battle between ironclads?
- ... that only three Confederate soldiers were killed at the Battle of Grand Gulf, but one of them was the commander of Fort Wade?
- ... that as a child, American Civil War historian Charles P. Roland heard first-hand accounts of the war from veterans who served in it?
- ... that The Minute Man was cast from the metal of ten cannons captured from the Confederate Army during the American Civil War?
- ... that after the American Civil War, Reconstruction-era laws enabled black suffrage, but in practice African Americans still faced obstacles to voting?
- ... that information provided by the Confederate draftsman Anton R. Roessler was used by the Union Army to determine the ordnance potential of Texas?
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- The West Tennessee Raids
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- • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Requested American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients • •
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- Battle of Boonsborough • Battle of Cabin Creek • Battle of Fort Sumter II • Battle of Guard Hill • Battle of Middle Boggy Depot • Battle of Rice's Station • Battle of Simmon's Bluff • Battle of Summit Point • Battle of Yellow Bayou • Charleston Arsenal • Edenton Bell Battery • Elmira Prison • First Battle of Dalton • Samuel Benton • Blackshear Prison • Orris S. Ferry • Edwin Forbes • Hiram B. Granbury • Henry Thomas Harrison • Ben Hardin Helm • Louis Hébert (colonel) • Benjamin G. Humphreys • Lunsford L. Lomax • Maynard Carbine • Daniel Ruggles • Thomas W. Sherman • Hezekiah G. Spruill • Smith Percussion Carbine • Edward C. Walthall • Confederate States Secretary of the Navy • Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury • David Henry Williams • Battle of Rome Cross Roads • Henry Boynton Clitz • Delaware in the American Civil War • Ironclad Board • United States Military Railroad • Kansas in the American Civil War • Salisbury National Cemetery • Rufus Daggett • Ebenezer Magoffin • Other American Civil War battle stubs • Other American Civil War stubs
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- Battle of Lone Jack • James S. Rains • Preston Pond, Jr. • Melancthon Smith • Franklin Stillman Nickerson • Thomas Gamble Pitcher • Lewis B. Parsons Jr. • Isaac Ferdinand Quinby • James W. Reilly • Isaac F. Shepard • Francis Trowbridge Sherman • James R. Slack • Joseph Pannell Taylor • Henry Goddard Thomas • Melancthon S. Wade • James M. Warner
- Merging needed
- 1st Regiment New York Mounted Rifles and 7th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry
- Citations needed
- 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment (Union) • 4th Maine Battery • 33rd Ohio Infantry • 110th New York Volunteer Infantry • Battle of Hatcher's Run • Camp Dennison • Confederate colonies • CSS Resolute • Dakota War of 1862 • Florida in the American Civil War • Ethan A. Hitchcock (general) • Fort Harker (Alabama) • Gettysburg (1993 film) • Iowa in the American Civil War • Fanny Titus Hazen
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