Measured in physical devastation and human lives, the American Civil
War was the costliest war in the experience of the American people. When it ended, 620,000 men
(in a nation of 35 million) had been killed and at least that many more had been wounded. More
men died of disease and sickness than on the battlefield; the ratio was about four to one.
The physical devastation was largely limited to the South, where almost all the fighting took
place. Large sections of Richmond, Charleston, Atlanta, Mobile, and Vicksburg lay in ruins.
The countryside through which the contending armies had passed was littered with gutted
plantation houses and barns, burned bridges, and uprooted railroad lines. Many crops were
destroyed or confiscated, and much livestock was slain. More than $4 billion worth of property
had been wiped out through emancipation, the repudiation of Confederate bonds and currency, the
confiscation of cotton, and war damage.
The war settled the question of the permanence of the Union; the abolition of slavery through
the Emancipation Proclamation; the doctrine of
secession was discredited, and after 1865 states would find other ways to manifest their
grievances. The war expanded the authority of the federal government, with the executive branch
in particular exercising broader jurisdiction and powers than at any other time in its history.
Letters and Diaries of the Civil War
- Alice
Williamson's Diary - diary of a Tennessee schoolgirl
chronicles life during the Civil War.
- Civil
War Diary - Clayton's Octavo for 1861
- Civil War
Diary of Bingham Findley Junkin, 100th Pennsylvania
- Diaries
of Various Civil War Personalities - William Heyser,
Joseph Waddell, Clay Mac Cauley, Rachel Cormany, and
Samuel Cormany.
- Ingram
Diary of 1861 - diary kept by a young man who was
overseer for his Aunt's plantation in Fowlstown, Georgia.
The diary is a good example of life in a remote area of
the deep south about as far removed from battles as one
could get.
- Civil
War Letters Of Richard W. Burt of the 76th Ohio Infantry
- Civil
War letters of Samuel S. Dunton - to his family while
serving in 114th NY Infantry during the North American
Conflict of 1861 - 1865.
- Letter from Sgt.
Joseph Fisher - dated November 3, 1862. A member of
the 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company A.
- Letters
from Captain Richard W. Burt - member of the 76th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
- Letters
Home from a Soldier in the U. S. Civil War - part of a collection
written by Newton Scott, Private, Company A, of the 36th
Infantry, Iowa Volunteers, from 1862 thru 1865.
- Letters
of the Civil War
- Letters
to and from Civil War Participants
- Overall
Family Civil War Letters - letters home from a
soldier in the 36th OVI during his service in the Civil
War.
- Papers of
Jefferson Davis, The
Letters and Personal Documents
Battles and Campaigns of the Civil War
- 55 SITES
- Assault
of Battery Wagner, The - July 18, 1863.
- Wilderness
Campaign - Lt. General U.S. Grant and Major General
G.G. Meade met the Confederate forces commanded by
General Robert E. Lee from May 5-7, 1864.
- Confederate
Order of Battle for The Wilderness
- Union
Order of Battle for The Wilderness
- Battle
of Allatoona Pass - Confederate General John Bell
Hood, after losing Atlanta, attacked the Western &
Atlantic railroad, Union General William Tecumseh
Sherman's supply line on October 5, 1864.
- Antietam - A
Photographic Tour
- Antietam
[earthlink.net]
- Antietam National
Battlefield
- Antietam
on the Web - comprehensive view of the American Civil
War battle at Antietam.
- Battlefield
Map
- Order
of Battle - Confederate - Army of Northern Virginia,
commanded by General Robert E. Lee.
- Order
of Battle - Union - Army of the Potomac, commanded by
Major General George B. McClellan.
- Battle
of Bloody Bridge (Burden's Causeway) - July 7-9,
1864.
- Battle
of Britton's Lane - September 1, 1862.
- Battle of
Chancellorsville - May 1-4, 1863. Union Major General
Joseph Hooker was defeated by the Confederate forces
commanded by General Robert E. Lee and Major General
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Noted as the battle
in which Jackson was killed.
- Battle
of Chickamauga - A summary of the Battle of
Chickamauga (Sept 19-20, 1863) as seen by the 19th
Alabama Infantry Regiment C.S.A.
- Chickamauga
to Athens - text discussing the battle, casualties,
missing people, and prisoners.
- Chickamauga:
Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report - a
concise description.
- Prelude
to Chickamauga - events leading up to the second
bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
- Battle
of Corinth
- Battle of Corinth
- Battle
of Gettysburg [Brian Williams]
- Battlefield of
Gettysburg Map
- Geology
and Battle of Gettysburg
- Gettysburg - The
Turning Point in the Civil War
- Gettysburg
Order of Battle - Confederates - the Army of Northern
Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee.
- Gettysburg
Order of Battle - Union - the Army of the Potomac,
commanded by Major General George G. Meade.
- Battle
of Mill Springs / Fishing Creek - early battle in
Kentucky, 19 January 1862, also called battle of Logan's
Crossroads and Somerset; history, maps, photos, soldiers,
unit rosters and more.
- Battle
of Olustee - Confederate Brigadier General Joseph
Finegan defeated Union Brigadier General Truman Seymour
on February 20-22, 1864.
- Battle of
Petersburg - from June 9, 1864 through April 2, 1865,
Union and Confederate forces fought numerous battles that
eventually resulted in a Union victory and the eventual
fall of Richmond, the Confederate capital.
- Battle
of Pickett's Mill - Confederate Major General Patrick
Cleburne defeated Union Major General Oliver Otis Howard
on May 27, 1864.
- Battle
of Secessionville - On June 16, 1862, Union Brigadier
General Henry Benham defied orders and launched an
unsuccessful frontal assault on the Confederate-held Fort
Lamar commanded by Brigadier General Nathan Evans.
- Battle
of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing) - Union forces,
commanded by Major Generals U.S. Grant and Don Carlos
Buell defeated Confederate forces commanded by Generals
Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard on April
6-7, 1862.
- Battle of
Spotsylvania Courthouse - After the Battle for the
Wilderness, Union Lt. General U.S. Grant and Major
General G.G. Meade continued their march on Richmond,
Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee tried to stop
them. The resultant battle lasted from May 8-21, 1864.
- Civil
War Battle Image Map
- Civil
War Battles by Campaign
- Civil
War Battles by State
- Fredericksburg
and Spotsylvania National Military Park
- Fredericksburg
Battlefield
- Fredericksburg
Order of Battle - Confederate - the Army of Northern
Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee.
- Fredericksburg
Order of Battle - Union - the Army of the Potomac,
commanded by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside. -
Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeated the Union
forces led by Major General Ambrose Burnside on December
11-15, 1862.
- First Battle
of Manassas (Bull Run) - Confederate Brigadier
Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard
defeated Union Brigadier General Irvin McDowell on July
18-22, 1861, in what would be the first major land battle
of the war.
- Second
Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) - Confederate General
Robert E. Lee and Major General Thomas
"Stonewall" Jackson defeated Union forces
commanded by Major General John Pope on August 28-30,
1862.
Museums and Memorials
- Camp
Dennison Civil War Museum - near Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Carter House Museum
- was at the center of the Civil War Battle of Franklin.
It now is a living history museum and a good starting
point for touring Williamson County, Tennessee.
- Cline's
United Methodist Church - a Civil War Era church near
Gettysburg, PA with a cemetery containing 11 marked
graves of veterans from that conflict.
- Confederate
Memorial Park - site of Alabama's only Confederate
Veterans Home.
- Fort Tejon Historical
Park - 19th Century fort where Civil War reenactment
battles are staged regularly.
- Hello
to Arms - heroic limbs displayed and memorialized
from the War Between the States.
- Kennesaw
Civil War Museum - formerly known as the Big Shanty
Museum.
- Male Academy Museum
- Civil War artifacts.
- Museum of the Confederacy
- a private, nonprofit institution that maintains the
world's largest and most comprehensive collection of
military, political and domestic artifacts and art
associated with the period of the Confederacy, 1861-1865.
- National Museum of
Civil War Medicine
- New
Bern Civil War Museum - largest private display of
authentic Civil War weapons, uniforms, relics, artifacts,
photos, and autographs in the South East US.
- Pearce
Civil War Document Collection at Navarro College, TX
- includes over 400 documents, manuscripts, and diaries.
- Stratford Hall
Plantation - historical Colonial house setting on a
high bluff above the Potomac River. It was the birthplace
of Robert E. Lee.
- United
Daughters of the Confederacy Museum - showing a
collection of Confederate artifacts.
- USS Constellation
- last surviving ship of the Civil War.
The Underground Railroad
- History
and Geography of the Underground Railroad -
information on the organization and operations of the
Underground Railroad.
- North
Carolina Discoveries: The Underground Railroad -
about this states role in the escape route for slaves.
- On An
Underground Railroad - lyrics and music by Kinny
Landrum. Stories from American history on music video, in
Real Player and Real Audio format.
- Studying
the Underground Railroad With Celia and Eleni -
information and links.
- Underground
Railroad - the results of a study by the National
Park Service of the Railroad. Includes a general
overview, a brief discussion of slavery and abolitionism,
escape routes used by slaves, and alternatives to
commemorate and interpret the signficance of the
phenomenon.
- Underground
Railroad in Rochester, The - an overview of slavery,
the Fugitive Slave Act, abolitionists, the Railroad and
its history in Rochester, New York.
- Underground
Railroad Project - from the Shelbyville (TN) Times
Gazette.
- Underground
Railroad Site - from UC Davis.
- Underground
Railroad Theme Study - a discussion amongst teachers
of a possible curriculum for a thematic study of the
Underground Railroad. Includes lists of fiction,
non-fiction, folklore, poetry, music and more.
- Walk to Canada -
Tracing the Underground Railroad - follow historian
Anthony Cohen as he traces by foot one of the routes of
the Underground Railroad, from Maryland to Canada. (Began
May 4, 1996).
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