Civil War Unit Study Guide

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Popular book by Harriet Beecher Stowe focusing on the negatives of slavery. Million copies sold. Caused Northerners to protest Fugitive Slave Act. Southerners criticized the book.

South Carolina

First state to leave the Union in 1860.

Secessionists

They believed that since the states voluntarily joined the Union, they can also choose to leave.

Jefferson Davis

Confederate President

13th Amendment

Outlaws Slavery (1865)

Ft. Sumter

April 12th, 1861- Firing on this property initiated the Civil War

Ulysses S. Grant

Commander of the Army of the Potomac (Union Army) from 1864-1865, had fought successfully in the West prior

Mississippi River

Control of this river would cut the Confederacy in half

Shiloh

April 6-7, 1862- Major Union Victory in the West. Grant wins due to the reinforcements from Don Carlos Buell.

Antietam

September 17th, 1862. Bloodiest single day in U.S. history. It is a Union Victory.

54th Massachusetts

African American Company responsible for leading an attack on Ft. Wagner.

Richmond, Virginia

Confederate Capital

Vicksburg

Town under siege in 1863. Citizens were forced to eat dogs, mules, rats. etc. Town surrenders on July 4th, 1863.

List two advantages of the Union and two advantages of the Confederacy during the war.

Union

1. Had more people

2. Had a functioning government

Confederate

1. Fighting on own territory

2. Good military general

List and explain two causes of the Civil War.

Slavery, states rights, Lincoln's election in 1860, Inability to compromise

Secession

A formal withdrawal of states from a nation. December 1860, a special convention in SC voted to secede; FL, GA, AL, MI, LA, TX did the same; the 7 states met in Montgomery, AL and created the Confederate States of America; President was Senator Jefferson Davis, leader of the Confederacy.

March to the Sea

Sherman's march from Atlanta, Georgia, to Savannah, Georgia which cut off confederate supplies received by the sea. They wanted to destroy the Southern economy and morale, leading to Southern surrender.

Civil War Dates

1861-1865.

telegraph

The communication technology vital to the Union in the Civil War.

Morse Code

The dot and dash code used by the telegraph operators.

Lincoln

The President of the United States during the Civil War.

Union

The side that won the Civil War.

north

The Union was the...

south

The Confederacy was the...

Minie Ball

An often-used bullet during the Civil War

Industrial

The "revolution" that made the Civil War so deadly.

embalming

The technology further developed during the Civil War to help families grieve.

slaves

Cotton was a labor-intensive crop. The labor was provided by...

Robert E. Lee

The commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and a veteran of the Mexican War.

railroads

The movement of troops and supplies was aided by this; the Union had an important advantage by having more of these.

amputations

Three-quarters of all operations in the Civil War were...

gangrene

An infection in wounds that may be deadly; bromine reduced the number of infections by the of the war.

Clara Barton

The Civil War nurse who founded the Red Cross.

cameras

The new portable ___ showed the gruesome aftermath of battles.

African-American

Many enlisted in the Union Army after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

copperheads

Northerners who wanted to negotiate peace with the South were called...

Abraham Lincoln

American leader whose election in 1860 led the Southern States to begin seceding from the United States. President throughout the U.S. Civil War, during two terms office until his assassination after the war in 1865.

Confederate States of America

(1860) A group of eight Southern states that seceded from the Union, beginning with South Carolina, The Confederacy was led by Jefferson Davis; He eventually attacked the federally controlled Fort Sumter on April 12th 1861, marking the first battle of the Civil War. The Confederacy struggled economically during the war, lagging behind the Union's industrialization. This desperately contribute to their defeat.

Anaconda Plan

A key point in the Union's war strategy was encircling the South as an anaconda squeezes its prey. This plan entailed a naval blockade and the capture of the Mississippi River corridor.

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by abraham lincoln on september 22, 1862 it declared that all slaves in the confederate states would be free

Battle of Gettysburg

1863, this three day battle was the bloodiest of the entire Civil War, ended in a Union victory, and is considered the turning point of the war

Gettysburg Address

A 3-minute address by Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War (November 19, 1963) at the dedication of a national cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.

John Wilkes Booth

26 year old actor and Southern sympathizer, assassinator of Abraham Lincoln