• Photo of cannon at Antietam National Battlefield

    The Civil War

4,000,000 freed.  620,000 dead.  1 nation saved.

From 1861 to 1865, the American union was broken as brother fought brother in a Civil War that remains a defining moment in our nation's history. Its causes and consequences, including the continuing struggle for civil rights for all Americans, reverberate to this day. From the battlefields to the homefront, the cost of the war was steep…its lessons eternal.

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Timeline: Key Moments of the Civil War

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Highlights

  • Small image of John Brown leading the anti-slavery moment in Kansas Territory before the Civil War.

    Fort Scott National Historic Site

    Bleeding Kansas

    Violence reigned in Kansas from 1854-1858 during the debate to determine whether the state would be slave or free.

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  • Small image showing Hispanic soldiers in battle

    On the storied battlefields and the homefront

    Hispanics and the Civil War

    More than 20,000 Hispanics fought on both sides in the Civil War; thousands more civilians lent hearts and hands on the homefront.

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  • Small image of a scientist at work on the H.L. Hunley recovery

    Birth of submarine warfare

    Warren Lasch Conservation Center

    The H. L. Hunley was a Civil War engineering marvel and the first submarine used successfully in combat.

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  • Small preview image of Then and Now page

    Civil War 150th Anniversary

    Then and Now

    We cannot escape history. Compare the events of today with those of the Civil War.

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  • Small image of the armory at Harpers Ferry

    Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

    Archeology at the U.S. Armory

    An excavation reveals much about 19th century manufacturing in general, and arms production in particular.

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  • Small image of the Battle of Shiloh

    Shiloh National Military Park

    The Hornet's Nest

    Recent research reinterprets the iconic Shiloh battlefield site and places it into the context of the battle as a whole.

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  • Small image of tombstones and fall foliage at the cemetery

    Antietam National Battlefield

    Antietam National Cemetery

    Nearly 4,800 Union soldiers are buried in the Antietam National Cemetery, dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the battle by President Andrew Johnson.

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  • Small image of Frederick Douglass

    Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

    Frederick Douglass

    Escaping slavery, Frederick Douglass became a leader of the abolition movement, a noted orator, and confidant of President Lincoln.

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