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Unit 12
Civil War and Reconstruction Vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Election of 1860 | The election that led the southern states to leave the Union and form the Confederacy |
Fort Sumter | The first shots of the Civil War were fired here |
Jefferson Davis | President of the Confederate States of America |
Border States | Slave states that remained in the Union during the Civil War: Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and eventually West Virginia |
John C. Breckinridge | Southern Democratic candidate in the Election of 1860 |
Stephen Douglas | Northern Democratic candidate in the Election of 1860 |
Abraham Lincoln | Republican candidate and the winner of the Election of 1860; Opposed the spread of slavery into the territories |
John Bell | Presidential candidate in 1860 for the Constitutional Union Party; Stood for a peaceful compromise to hold the Union together in 1860 |
First Bull Run | First major battle of the Civil War; Southern victory; showed that the war would be long and costly for both sides |
Anaconda Plan | Union strategy for winning the war, blockade the South, divide the Confederacy, and capture Richmond, the CS capital |
Winfield Scott | Union general that was old bu he came up with the Anaconda Plan |
Blockade | To prevent a nation from trading or communicating with another nation by sea |
Shiloh | Battle in southwestern TN that shocked the country with its heavy casualties |
Antietam | Fought in Maryland, it is the single bloodiest day in American history; Battle that stopped the first Confederate invasion to the North; after this battle, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation |
Gettysburg | Turning point of the Civil War, stopped Lee's second invasion of the North; Battle that convinced England and France to not ally with the South; Confederate army suffered so many casualties at this battle, they could not invade the North again |
Vicksburg | Capture of this city led to the Union capturing the Mississippi River; Battle that officially divided the Confederacy in half; Grant won this siege on July 4, thus officially dividing the Confederacy in half |
March to the Sea | The Union army led by William Sherman waged total war on the people of Georgia to break their will to support the Confederate army |
William Tecumseh Sherman | Union general that used total warfare to destroy property, livestock, and transportation systems to force the Southern people to surrender |
Appomattox Courthouse | Lee and the Confederate Army officially surrendered to Grand and the Union army at his place on April 9, 1865 |
David Farragut | Union admiral from TN, responsible for the blockade of the Confederacy |
Nathan Bedford Forrest | Confederate cavalry commander that used guerilla warfare on the Union army Mississippi and TN |
Ulysses S. Grant | Union Commander that finally defeated Robert E. Lee and won the war; Won the battles of Forts Henry, Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga |
Robert E. Lee | Confederate General responsible for the forces defending Richmond; Won the Seven Days Battles, Second Bull Run, Fredricksburg, and Chancellorsville |
Stonewall Jackson | Confederate General that saved the day at First Bull Run and earned a famous nickname |
Emancipation Proclamation | Order issued by Lincoln that officially freed the slaves in the Confederate states but not the border states; Officially allowed African Americans to enlist and fight in the US army |
Gettysburg Address | Brief speech given by Abraham Lincoln that summed up the goals of the war and honored the dead |
54th Massachusetts | The first all-black regiment to fight in the Union Army |
Nashville | The 13th Colored Troops helped to destroy the Confederate Army in TN at his battle |
Sam Watkins | A soldier from Clarksville that kept a journal about his experiences in the Confederate Army |
Elisha Hunt Rhodes | He kept a diary about life as a soldier in the Union Army |
Fort Wagner | The 54th Massachusetts showed their bravery and earned the respect of the Union army when they charged this fort |
Henry and Donelson | The Capture of these two forts helped the Union control the TN River system |
John Wilkes Booth | Southerner that assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre |
13th Amendment | Officially abolished slavery in the USA |
14th Amendment | Defined citizenship and guaranteed equal protection under the law for African Americans |
15th Amendment | Gave African American men the right to vote |
Ten Percent Plan | The name of Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction, it was lenient and made it easy for the southern states to rejoin the Union |
Andrew Johnson | Democrat from TN; he was Lincolns vice president and became president after his assassination; His plan for reconstruction was too lenient, encouraged states to pass black codes; vetoed legislation passed by Congress |
Radical Republicans | Group of Congressmen whose Reconstruction plan was too harsh on the South; they also impeached Andrew Johnson |
Black Codes | Laws passed by individual states to limit the rights and freedoms of African Americans |
Military Reconstruction Act | Law passed by Congress that divided the southern states into five military districts until they ratified the 14th and 15th amendments |
Freedmen's Bureau | Government agency that was created to help newly freedmen and poor whites with jobs, medical, and education |
Poll Tax | State law that requires citizens to pay a fee before they are able to vote |
Tenure of Office Act | Law passed by Congress and vetoed by Andrew Johnson that said he had to get Congress' permission to fire any member of his cabinet |
Impeachment | To formally change the president with a crime; a trial is then held in the Senate |
Freedmen | Slaves that had been freed by the 13th Amendment |
Segregation | The separation of blacks and whites in public places like bathrooms and schools |
Jim Crow Laws | Laws passed by the southern states that enforced the segregation of public places |
William Brownlow | Republican governor of TN during Reconstruction, he was very hard on southerners that fought and served with the Confederacy; also owned his own newspaper |
Vigilante | A person that takes justice into their own hands and punishes others without a trial or due process |
Carpetbaggers | Northerners that moved south to help out with or profit from Reconstruction |
Scalawags | A southerner that were Republicans during the Reconstruction, often targets of violence |
Compromise of 1877 | Agreement that officially ended the Reconstruction |
Rutherford B. Hayes | Republican president that officially ended the Reconstruction of 1877 |
Reconstruction | Time period 1865-1877 following the Civil War in which the south was rebuilt politically, economically, and socially |