What were the Civil War amendments?

The so-called "Civil War" amendments were the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth. Taken as a whole, they were intended to provide equality under the U.S. Constitution for the millions of African-Americans in the South. The Thirteenth, ratified a few months after the end of the war, formally abolished slavery. The Fourteenth, ratified in 1868, established standards for citizenship that automatically included freedmen, and the Fifteenth, ratified in 1870, banned all qualifications for voting based on race. These amendments were perhaps more accurately called the "Reconstruction" Amendments since they occurred in the wake of the Civil War and amid the ideological and political ferment of Reconstruction. Sadly, these amendments failed in their goal of bringing equality to African-Americans. Southern whites, through violence, fraud, intimidation, and legal means, managed to maintain white supremacy as Reconstruction came to an end. The Supreme Court, in a series of decision, ruled that these amendments could not be used to negate discriminatory state laws. But in the long run, the Fourteenth Amendment in particular was used to enforce equal protection under law.