The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold and expand the institution of slavery. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate States president, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889),. Davis was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, on the Hudson River at West Point, New York, colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War (1846-1848). He had also been a United States senator from Mississippi and served as U.S. Secretary of War under 14th President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the new Confederate States government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia had besieged the longtime Federal Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison under the command of Major Robert Anderson. (1805-1871). By March 1861, the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States meeting in the temporary capital of Montgomery, Alabama, expanded the provisional military forces and established a more permanent regular Confederate States Army.
Raphael Semmes was an officer in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. He was previously a serving officer in the US Navy from 1826 to 1860.
Robert Anderson was a United States Army officer during the American Civil War. He was the Union commander in the first battle of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter in April 1861 when the Confederates bombarded the fort and forced its surrender, starting the war. Anderson was celebrated as a hero in the North and promoted to brigadier general and given command of Union forces in Kentucky. He was removed late in 1861 and reassigned to Rhode Island, before retiring from military service in 1863. In 1865, he returned to Fort Sumter to again raise the American flag that he had lowered during the 1861 surrender.
Thomas Lanier Clingman, known as the "Prince of Politicians," was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and from 1847 to 1858, and U.S. senator from the state of North Carolina between 1858 and 1861. During the Civil War, he refused to resign his Senate seat and was one of the many southern senators subsequently expelled from the Senate in absentia. He then served as a general in the Confederate States Army.
CSS Chicora was a Confederate ironclad ram that fought in the American Civil War. It was built under contract at Charleston, South Carolina in 1862. James M. Eason built it to John L. Porter's plans, using up most of a $300,000 State appropriation for construction of marine batteries; Eason received a bonus for "skill and promptitude." Its iron shield was 4 inches (102 mm) thick, backed by 22 inches (559 mm) of oak and pine, with 2-inch (51 mm) armor at its ends. Keeled in March, it was commissioned in November, Commander John Randolph Tucker, CSN assuming command.
James Johnston Pettigrew was an American author, lawyer, and soldier. He served in the army of the Confederate States of America, fighting in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and played a prominent role in the Battle of Gettysburg. Despite starting the Gettysburg Campaign commanding a brigade, Pettigrew took over command of his division after the division's original commander, Henry Heth, was wounded. In this role, Pettigrew was one of three division commanders in the disastrous assault known as Pickett's Charge on the final day of Gettysburg. He was wounded, in the right hand, during the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge on July 3, 1863, and was later mortally wounded during the Union Confederate rearguard action while the Confederates retreated to Virginia near Falling Waters, Virginia, on July 14, dying several days thereafter on July 17, 1863.
James Jay Archer was a lawyer and an officer in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War. He later served as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army (CSA) during the American Civil War.
Major-General Joseph Robert Davis was an American politician and lawyer who served as the commanding general of the Mississippi National Guard from 1888 to 1895. During the American Civil War, he served as aide-de-camp to the President of the Confederate States and commanded a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. He is best known for his role at Gettysburg. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Madison and Scott counties in the Mississippi Senate from 1860 to 1861.
During the American Civil War, North Carolina joined the Confederacy with some reluctance, mainly due to the presence of Unionist sentiment within the state. A popular vote in February, 1861 on the issue of secession was won by the unionists but not by a wide margin. This slight lean in favor of staying in the Union would shift towards the Confederacy in response to Abraham Lincoln's April 15 proclamation that requested 75,000 troops from all Union states, leading to North Carolina's secession. Similar to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, North Carolina wished to remain uninvolved in the likely war but felt forced to pick a side by the proclamation. Throughout the war, North Carolina widely remained a divided state. The population within the Appalachian Mountains in the western part of the state contained large pockets of Unionism. Even so, North Carolina would help contribute a significant amount of troops to the Confederacy, and channel many vital supplies through the major port of Wilmington, in defiance of the Union blockade.
States Rights Gist was a lawyer and militia general in South Carolina, and later a Confederate Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. He gained prominence during the war but was killed at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. Gist was named after the Southern states' rights doctrine of nullification, reflecting the political beliefs of his father, Nathaniel Gist, a follower of John C. Calhoun.
Marcus Joseph Wright was a lawyer, author, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was agent for collection of Confederate records for War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, a U.S. War Department publication.
The state of Rhode Island during the American Civil War remained loyal to the Union, as did the other states of New England. Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men to the Union Army, of which 1,685 died. The state used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials needed to win the war. Rhode Island's continued growth and modernization led to the creation of an urban mass transit system and improved health and sanitation programs.
John Horace Forney was a farmer, civil engineer, and major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Being promoted to the rank of major general on October 27, 1862, Forney participated in the Battles of First Bull Run and Vicksburg before being captured. He held several other commands until the end of the Civil War, living in Alabama until his death in 1902.
The Cherokee in the American Civil War were active in the Trans-Mississippi and Western Theaters. In the east, Confederate Cherokees led by William Holland Thomas hindered Union forces trying to use the Appalachian mountain passes of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Out west, Confederate Cherokee Stand Watie led primarily Native Confederate forces in the Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The Cherokee partnered with the Confederacy in order to get funds, as well as ultimately full recognition as a sovereign, independent state.
Gabriel Colvin Wharton was an American civil engineer and soldier who served as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. After the war he was a politician and later resumed his engineering work.
William Montgomery Gardner was a Confederate States Army brigadier general, during the American Civil War. Before the Civil War, he served in the U.S. Army for 15 years. He was a veteran of the Mexican–American War.
William Henry Wallace was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. Before the Civil War, he was a planter, newspaper publisher, lawyer and South Carolina legislator in 1860 who supported the state calling a secession convention. He served in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, including service as a brigade commander in the Army of Northern Virginia. After the Civil War, he was a lawyer, planter, South Carolina legislator and circuit judge.
The 1st Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery (USCHA) was a unit of the United States Army during the American Civil War.
Alfred Moore Rhett was a rice planter, a "volatile and controversial" Confederate artillery officer, victorious duelist, police chief, and the son of Fire-Eater Southern politician Robert Barnwell Rhett.
The Morgan–Storrs duel was a duel in the early days of the American Civil War between an Alabamian named George S. Storrs and a Tennesseean named St. Clair Morgan, near Fort McRee at Pensacola, Florida on the night of March 20, 1861. The weapons were Sharps rifles, and the result was that Storrs wounded Morgan. Both duelists had attended United States military service academies and, subsequent to the duel, served as officers in the Confederate States Army.
