Chapter 13 Summary - Key Terms and People

King Cotton

The Confederates’ belief during the Civil Wear that their cotton was so important to the British and French economies that those governments would recognize the South as an independent nation and supply it with loans and arms.

habeas corpus

A legal writ forcing government authorities to justify their arrest and detention of an individual. During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus to stop protests against the draft and other anti-Union activities.

Contrabands

Enslaved people who fled plantations and sought protection behind Union lines during the Civil War.

Radical Republicans

The members of the Republican Party who were bitterly opposed to slavery and to southern slave owners since the mid-1850’s. With the Confiscation Act in 1861, Radical Republicans began to use wartime legislation to destroy slavery.

Emancipation Proclamation

President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation issued on January 1, 1863, that legally abolished slavery in all states that remained out of the Union. While the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single enslaved person, it signaled an end to the institution of slavery.

Greenbacks

Paper money issued by the U.S. Treasury during the Civil War to finance the war effort.

one-tenth tax

A tax adopted by the Confederacy in 1863 that required all farmers to turn over a tenth of their crops and livestock to the government for military use. The tax demonstrated the southern government’s strong use of centralized power; it caused great hardship for poor families.

draft (conscription)

The system for selecting individuals for conscription, or compulsory military service, first implemented during the Civil War.

twenty-Negro rule

A law adopted by the Confederate Congress that exempted one man from military conscription for every twenty enslaved people owned by a family. The law showed how dependence coerced slaver labor could be a military disadvantage, and it exacerbated class resentments among nonslaveholding whites who were required to serve in the army.

draft riots

Violent protests against military conscription that occurred in the North, most dramatically in New York City led by the working-class men who could not buy exemption from the draft.

Lieber Code

Union guidelines for the laws of war, issued in April 1863. The code ruled that soldiers and prisoners must be treated equally without respect to color or race; justified a range of military actions if they were based on “necessity” that would “hasten surrender”; and outlawed use of torture. The code provided a foundation for later international agreements on the laws of war.

U.S. Sanitary Commission

An organization that supported the Union war effort through professional and volunteer medical aid.

Woman’s Loyal National League

An organization of Unionist women that worked to support the war effort, hoping the Union would recognize women’s patriotism with voting rights after the war.

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln’s November 1863 speech dedicating a national cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield. Lincoln declared the nation’s founding ideal to be that “all men are created equal,” and he urged listeners to dedicate themselves out of carnage of war to a “new birth of freedom” for the United States.

hard war

The philosophy and tactics used by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, by which he treated civilians as combatants.

Miscegenation

A derogatory word for interracial sexual relationships coined by Democrats in the 1864 election, as they claimed that emancipation would allow African American men to gain sexual access to white women and produce multiracial children.

Special Field Order No. 15

An order by General Wiliam T. Sherman, later reversed by policymakers, that granted confiscated lands to formerly enslaved families in Georgia and South Carolina so they could farm independently.

Abraham Lincoln

President of the Union, elected in 1860, had a speech to Congress on July 4, 1861 portraying secession as an attack on representative government. Fired McClellan after the Battle of Antietam, wanted an aggressive commanding general, worried about the danger of a lengthy war. He and allied in Congress began building a political legal framework for ending slavey. Created the emancipation proclamation.

Jefferson Davis

Provisional President of the Confederated states, compared southern cause to that of the Patriots in 1776 (fighting for rights of self-government and slavery was at the forefront of the argument), denounced the proclamation of emancipation. Exerted centralized authority to harness resources in the Confederacy. Faced opposition from wealthy slave owners (Confederated congress) on his government initiatives.

George McClellan

Replaced General McFowell after confederate defeat at Bull Run, Union General, mishandled opportunities he had which led to the failure of trying to take Richmond and not a full victory and Antietam, fired by Lincoln after Antietam, masterful organizer of men and supplies who refused to risk his troops fearing heavy casualties would undermine public support of the war. Sought to restore the Union while leaving the institution of slavery untouched. Removed twice from military commands by Lincoln, first for excess caution and then for his opposition to emancipation. Elected by Democratic Party to run for president. If he won promised to recommend to Congress an immediate armistice and peace convention, even though he himself was a war democrat.

Robert E. Lee

Confederate General, able to stop Union army from capturing Richmond with Jackson’s help, Second Battle of Bull run led to Battle of Antietam which he was able to successfully retreat from, got Confederate victories in Virginia, in Fredericksburg (December 1862) and Chancellorsville (May1863). Planned to attack the north to try and draw Union’s forces east or give the Confederacy a major victory that would destroy the North’s will to fight. Was marching his troops north through Maryland to Pennsylvania in June 1863 when the Union’s army of the Potomac and his army accidentally met at Gettysburg, PA and it was a huge confederate loss.

Ulysses S. Grant

Commander of volunteer army that drove confederates out of Kentucky, a General of the Union army, used innovative technology in Feb 1862 (riverboats clad with iron plates) to capture fort Donelson on the Cumberland River and Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Moved south to seize railroad lines, but his army got caught by surprise by Confederate troops under Albert Sidney Johnston and P. G. T. Beaureguard near a small log church at Shiloh, Tennessee. Relentlessly committed troops and forced a Confederate withdraw (battle of Shiloh). Suggested that the Union retaliate by shooting Confederate prisoners, man for man, and forcing a prisoner into hard labor for every Black soldier the South re-enslaved. When discussing the reopening of prisoner exchanges he and Lee couldn’t agree, but he was guided by the Union’s Liber Code. When northern hopes were falling launched a major offensive to split the confederacy in two, defeated two Confederate armies and laid siege to the city at Vicksburg, Mississippi July 4th, 1863. Five days later took Port Hudson, Louisiana, and seized control of the entire Mississippi river cutting off Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. Placed in charge of all Union armies in March 1864.

William Tecumseh Sherman

A General of a Union army, shared Grant’s harsh approach to invade Georgia and take Atlanta, sympathized with the planter class in the south and felt that slavery upheld social stability, but secession meant anarchy and he believed if a war came he would have to fight in it. One of the biggest developers of the philosophy and tactics of hard war. Believed that southern men caused the war by voting for secession so he would “male them sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it”. During the siege at Petersburg he and his men started to move toward Atlanta, a rail hub at the heart of the Confederacy.