Portal:American Civil War

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The American Civil War Portal

The 54th Massachusetts assaulted Fort Wagner

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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Colross in 2015

Colross (also historically known as Belle Air and Grasshopper Hall) is a Georgian style mansion built around 1800 as the center of a large plantation in what is now the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, and moved circa 1930 to Princeton, New Jersey, where it is currently the administration building of Princeton Day School.

The Colross property originally occupied the entire 1100 block of Oronoco Street; Alexandria merchant John Potts developed it as a plantation and began building the mansion in 1799–1800. In 1803, Jonathan Swift—also an Alexandria merchant and a city councilman—purchased the property and during his ownership continued constructing the mansion. After Swift died in 1824, Colross was purchased by Thomson Francis Mason (1785–1838), son of Thomson Mason (1759–1820) and grandson of Founding Father George Mason (1725–1792) of Gunston Hall. Mason served as a judge of the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia and as mayor of Alexandria. Mason, who made Colross his chief homestead, modified and enlarged the mansion. After successive ownerships, the area around Colross became heavily industrialized. The mansion was bought by John Munn in 1929; between that year and 1932, it was transported brick-by-brick to Princeton, where in 1958 it was sold to Princeton Day School, which uses it as a school administration building housing its admission and advancement offices. (Full article...)

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Grand Parade of the States

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Maryland, a slave state, was one of the border states, straddling the South and North. Despite some popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland did not secede during the Civil War. Governor Thomas H. Hicks, despite his early sympathies for the South, helped prevent the state from seceding.

Because the state bordered the District of Columbia and the opposing factions within the state strongly desired to sway public opinion towards their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the war. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865) suspended the constitutional right of habeas corpus from Washington to Philadelphia. Lincoln ignored the ruling of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in "Ex parte Merryman" decision in 1861 concerning freeing John Merryman, a prominent Southern sympathizer arrested by the military. (Full article...)

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Winfield Scott Hancock (February 14, 1824 – February 9, 1886) was a United States Army officer and the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1880. He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican–American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his Army colleagues as "Hancock the Superb," he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. His military service continued after the Civil War, as Hancock participated in the military Reconstruction of the South and the U.S.'s western expansion and war with the Native Americans at the Western frontier. This concluded with the Medicine Lodge Treaty. From 1881 to 1885 he was president of the Aztec Club of 1847 for veteran officers of the Mexican-American War.

Hancock's reputation as a war hero at Gettysburg, combined with his status as a Unionist and supporter of states' rights, made him a potential presidential candidate. When the Democrats nominated him for president in 1880, he ran a strong campaign, but was narrowly defeated by Republican James A. Garfield. Hancock's last public service involved the oversight of President Ulysses S. Grant's funeral procession in 1885. (Full article...)

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

Did you know...

... 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?
... that The Land We Love, a little magazine that merged into Southern Magazine, printed American Civil War recollections, poetry, agricultural material, and many works by female authors?
... that after the Little Rock campaign, Union forces held three-quarters of Arkansas?
... that CSS Beaufort fought USS Albatross in the first ship-versus-ship action of the American Civil War?
... 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 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?