Civil War and Reconstruction Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice cards covering the key people, battles, laws, and social changes of the Civil War and Reconstruction era.

Bleeding Kansas

nickname given to the Kansas Territory because of the repeated outbreaks of violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces resulting in the deaths of 55 people from 1855-1859.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 law that divided the Nebraska territory into two territories. Provided for the question of slavery in the territories to be decided by popular sovereignty.

Dred Scott Decision

Supreme Court decision in 1857 that stated that slaves were property, not citizens, and could be taken to any state or territory in the United States. It nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

John Brown

Abolitionist who attacked pro-slavery people at Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas and started the raid at Harper’s Ferry. Became a martyr for the Abolitionist movement.

Secede

to officially leave

Fort Sumter

fort in South Carolina that the Confederate soldiers shelled until the Union commander surrendered it; marked the beginning of the Civil War

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America

Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

First major land battle of the Civil War. Both sides thought it would be a quick and easy battle. Citizens of DC came to watch, only to get overrun by the retreating Union Army as the Confederates won the battle.

Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)

Civil War battle in which the North succeeded in stopping Lee's Confederate forces in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single day of the war resulting in nearly 23,000 deaths. Lincoln would issue the Emancipation Proclamation after this battle.

Battle of Gettysburg

July 1-3, 1863, this three day battle was the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War, ended in a Union victory, and is considered the turning point of the war because the South would never invade the North again.

Battle of Vicksburg

May 18-July 4, 1863, Union victory under general Grant that secured the Mississippi River for the Union.

Appomattox Court House

the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army on April 9, 1865

Ulysses S. Grant

Union commanding general who brought an end to the war

Robert E. Lee

Commanding General of the Confederacy

Union

northern half of the divided US

Confederacy

the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861

Anaconda Plan

Union war plan by Winfield Scott, called for blockade of southern coast, capture of Richmond, capture Mississippi River, and to take an army through heart of south

Emancipation Proclamation

Proclamation issued by Lincoln, freeing all slaves in areas still at war with the Union.

Gettysburg Address

a speech given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which he praised the bravery of Union soldiers and renewed his commitment to winning the Civil War; supported the ideals of basic human rights

John Wilkes Booth

was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln

Ford's Theater

site where Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865

Reconstruction

Era focused on putting the Union back together after the Civil War

Freedmen's Bureau

Government agency helping those recently freed from slavery

Black Codes

Laws passed in the South just after the Civil War, aimed at controlling freedmen

Carpetbaggers

Name given to Northern whites who moved to the south after the Civil War and supported the Republicans

Scalawags

Name given to Southerners who helped with Reconstruction

Sharecropping

System of farming in which a farmer works land for an owner, who provides equipment and seeds and receives a share of the crop’s profits

Poll Tax

A tax of a fixed amount per person that had to be paid before the person could vote

Grandfather Clause

A clause that allowed individuals, who did not pass the literacy test, to vote if their father or grandfather had voted before Reconstruction began