Portal:American Civil War
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The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a sectional rebellion against the United States of America by the Confederate States, formed of eleven southern slave 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.
Hindman then served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1854 to 1856. He was elected as the Democratic representative from Arkansas's 1st congressional district in the Thirty-sixth Congress from March 4, 1859 to March 4, 1861. He was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress, but declined to serve after the onset of the Civil War and Arkansas's secession from the Union. Instead, Hindman joined the armed forces of the Confederacy. He commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department, and later raised and commanded "Hindman's legion" for the Confederate States Army. He was promoted to brigadier general on September 28, 1861 and later to Major General on April 18, 1862. After the war, Hindman avoided surrender to the federal government by fleeing to Mexico City. He worked in Mexico as a coffee planter, and attempted to practice law. After the execution of Maximilian I of Mexico, Hindman submitted a petition for a pardon to President Andrew Johnson, but it was denied. Hindman, nonetheless, returned to his former life in Helena. He became the leader of the "Young Democracy", a new political organization that was willing to accept the Reconstruction for the restoration of the Union. Unexpectedly, he was assassinated by an unknown individual on September 27, 1868 at his Helena home.
Over 360,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Union Army, more than any other Northern state except New York. (some other states sent a larger proportion of their population but not a larger number). Beginning with President Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Pennsylvania mustered 215 infantry regiments, as well as dozens of emergency militia regiments that were raised to repel threatened invasions in 1862 and 1863 by the Confederate States Army. Twenty-two cavalry regiments were also mustered, as well as dozens of light artillery batteries.
The vast majority of Pennsylvania troops fought in the Eastern Theater, with only about 10% serving elsewhere. The thirteen regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserves fought as the only army division all from a single state, and saw action in most of the major campaigns and battles of the Army of the Potomac.
In the days leading up to the start of hostilities, Wigfall advocated an attack on Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens in Florida to prompt Virginia and other upper southern states to join the Confederacy. He arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, as the siege of Fort Sumter commenced. According to diarist Mary Chestnut, he was the only "thoroughly happy person I see." While serving as an aide to General Beauregard during the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and without authorization, he rowed a skiff out to the island fort and demanded its surrender from Major Robert Anderson. The incident was widely reported in the newspapers furthering his celebrity, but the story redacted the important detail that Wigfall hadn't spoken to Beauregard in two days. When the authorized emissaries arrived at the fort, they were dismayed upon learning that Wigfall had granted terms to Anderson which Beauregard had already rejected.
A Harper's Weekly illustration of the capture and burning of Columbia, South Carolina, an important political and supply center for the Confederate States Army
- ... that William Stewart Simkins, later professor emeritus at the University of Texas School of Law, may have fired the first shot of the US Civil War?
- ... that American Civil War leader William Tecumseh Sherman said, "No single body of men can claim more honor for the grand result than the officers and men of the Louisville Legion"?
- ... that George P. Kane, Marshall of Police in Baltimore, Maryland, was imprisoned in Fort McHenry along with Mayor George William Brown and pro-South members of the city council by the Northern Army during the American Civil War?
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- The West Tennessee Raids
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- George Yost Coffin • Charles F. Collins • Andrew Wills Gould • Ebenezer Magoffin • Henry Maury • James Ashby • Albemarle Cady • Henry Boynton Clitz • Benjamin D. Fearing • Moses Harris • Charles A. Hickman • Richard Henry Jackson • John H. King • John Love • Francis Lowe • Peter S. Michie • Thomas Grimke Rhett • James B. Speers • Charles S. Steedman • Battle at Cherokee Station • Battle of Barton's Station • Battle of Camp Davies • Battle of Rome Cross Roads • Requested American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients
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- 31st Maine Infantry Regiment • 56th Illinois Infantry • Battle of Amelia Springs • Battle of Berryville • Battle of Blair's Landing • 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 • Delaware in the American Civil War • Ironclad Board • United States Military Railroad • Kansas in the American Civil War • Other American Civil War battle stubs • Other American Civil War stubs
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- Battle of Lone Jack • James S. Rains
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- USS William G. Putnam (1857) and USS General Putnam (1857) • 1st Regiment New York Mounted Rifles and 7th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry
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