US Civil War and Reconstruction: Key Laws, Battles, and Figures

Wilmot Proviso

Proposed ban on slavery in territories gained from the Mexican-American War; failed but increased sectional conflict

Compromise of 1850

Series of laws admitting California as a free state, strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, and allowing popular sovereignty in western territories

Fugitive Slave Act

Law requiring escaped slaves to be returned to their owners, even from free states

Underground Railroad

Secret network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom

Harriet Tubman

Former slave and leading conductor of the Underground Railroad

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Law allowing settlers to vote on slavery, repealing the Missouri Compromise

Stephen Douglas

Illinois senator who promoted popular sovereignty and debated Abraham Lincoln

Bleeding Kansas

Violent clashes between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas

Caning of Charles Sumner

Violent attack on an abolitionist senator that symbolized rising sectional violence

John Brown

Radical abolitionist who used violence to oppose slavery

Birth of the Republican Party

Political party formed to stop the expansion of slavery into territories

Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court ruling that slaves were property, not citizens, and Congress could not ban slavery in territories

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Public debates over slavery and popular sovereignty that made Lincoln nationally famous

The Raid on Harpers Ferry

John Brown's failed attempt to start a slave rebellion

The Election of 1860

Election of Abraham Lincoln that prompted Southern secession

Abraham Lincoln

16th president who led the Union during the Civil War

Habeas Corpus

Legal principle protecting against unlawful imprisonment; suspended by Lincoln during the war

Battle of Fort Sumter

Confederate attack that officially began the Civil War

Robert E. Lee

Top Confederate general and military leader of the South

First Battle of Bull Run

First major Civil War battle; showed the war would be long and brutal

Battle of Antietam

Bloodiest single day of the war; allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

Battle of Fredericksburg

Major Confederate victory against Union forces

Anaconda Plan

Union strategy to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi River

Ironclads

Armored warships that revolutionized naval warfare

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general who won key victories and later became president

Battle of Shiloh

Extremely bloody battle proving the war would be long and deadly

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's order freeing slaves in Confederate-controlled areas

Battle of Vicksburg

Union victory that gave control of the Mississippi River

David Farragut

Union naval commander who secured major Southern ports, including Mobile Bay

Battle of Gettysburg

Major Union victory and turning point of the war

New York Draft Riots

Violent protests against the military draft, marked by racial violence

Sherman's March to the Sea

Total war campaign that destroyed Southern infrastructure and morale

Surrender at Appomattox

Confederate surrender that effectively ended the Civil War

Assassination of Lincoln

Murder of Abraham Lincoln shortly after the war ended

Andrew Johnson

President after Lincoln; favored lenient Reconstruction

Radical Republicans

Congressional leaders who pushed for civil rights and strict Reconstruction

Freedmen's Bureau

Agency providing aid, education, and support to freed slaves

Fourteenth Amendment

Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Johnson was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act but not removed

Fifteenth Amendment

Guaranteed voting rights regardless of race

Hiram Revels

First African American U.S. senator during Reconstruction

Sharecropping

Labor system that trapped freedmen in cycles of debt

Patronage

Practice of giving government jobs to political supporters

Roscoe Conkling

Republican leader who supported the patronage system

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist group that used terror to suppress Black voting

Department of Justice

Federal agency created to enforce laws during Reconstruction

Panic of 1873

Economic depression that weakened Northern support for Reconstruction

Election of 1876

Disputed election that led to the end of Reconstruction