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Civil War 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 |
Border States | Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware and 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 winner of the Election of 1860 |
Abraham Lincoln | Opposed the spread of slavery into the territories |
John Bell | Presidential candidate in 1860 for the Constitutional Union Party. |
John Bell | 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, capture Richmond, the CS capital. |
Winfield Scott | Union general that was old but 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 Tennessee that shocked the country with its heavy casualties. |
Antietam | Fought in Maryland, it is the single bloodiest day in American history. |
Antietam | Battle that stopped the first Confederate invasion to the North |
Antietam | After this battle, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation |
Gettysburg | Turning point of the Civil War, stopped Lee's second invasion of the North. |
Gettysburg | Battle that convinced England and France not to ally with the South. |
Gettysburg | 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, |
Vicksburg | Battle that officially divided the Confederacy in half. |
Vicksburg | Grant won this siege on July 4 thus officially dividing the Confederacy |
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 |
Appomattox Courthouse | Lee and the Confederate Army officially surrendered to Grant and the Union army at his place on April 9 1865 |
David Farragut | Union admiral from Tennessee, responsible for the blockade of the Confederacy |
Nathan Bedford Forrest | Confederate cavalry commander that used guerilla warfare on the Union army Mississippi and Tennessee |
Ulysses S. Grant | Union commander that finally defeated Robert E Lee and won the war. |
Ulysses S. Grant | Won the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chatanooga for the Union |
Robert E. Lee | Confederate General responsible for the forces defending Richmond |
Robert E. Lee | Won the Seven Days Battles, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville |
Stonewall Jackson | Confederate General that saved the day at the First Bull run and earned a famous nickname |
Emancipation Proclamation | Order issues by Lincoln that officially, freed the slaves in the Confederate States but not the border states. |
Emancipation Proclamation | 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 Tennessee at this 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 Tennessee River system. |
John Wilkes Booth | Southerner that assassinated President Lincoln as Ford's Theatre. |
13th Amendment | Officially abolished slavery in the United States of America. |
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. | The name of Lincoln's vice-president and became president after his assassination. |
Andrew Johnson | His plan for reconstruction was too lenient, encouraged states to pass blackcodes; vetoed legislation passed by Congress. |
Radical Republicans | Group of Congressman 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 Amendment. |
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 required citizens to pay a fee before they are able to vote. |
Tenure of Office Act | Law passed by Congress and wetoes by Andrew Johnson that said he had to get Congress' permission to fire any member of his cabinet. |
Impeachment | To formally charge the president with a crime; a trial is 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 Tennessee 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 Reconstruction. |
Compromise of 1877 | Deal made between Democrats and Republicans in which Rutherford B Hayes was made president in exchange for Union troops being removed from the Southern States. |
Rutherford B. Hayes | Republican president that officially ended Reconstruction in 1877 |
Reconstruction | Time period 1865-1877 following the Civil War in which the south was rebuilt politically, economically and socially. |