APUSH Chapter 20 Key Terms

Vocab

Bull Run (Manassas Junction), Battle of (July 1861)

First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory.

Peninsula Campaign (1862)

Union general George B. McClellan’s failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate capital. Had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time.

Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Battle of (February 1862)

Key victory for Union general Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North’s hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant’s attacks deeper into Tennessee.

Shiloh, Battle of (April 1862)

Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that left more than twenty-three thousand soldiers dead, wounded, or missing, and ended in a marginal Union victory.

Merrimack and Monitor (1862)

Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought a historic though inconclusive battle in 1862.

Second Battle of Bull Run (August 1862)

Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate general Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push farther into the North.

Antietam, Battle of (September 1862)

Landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the “victory” he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate states were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union.

Fredericksburg, Battle of (December 1862)

Decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines.

Gettysburg, Battle of (July 1863)

Civil War battle in Pennsylvania that ended in Union victory, spelling doom for the Confederacy, which never again managed to invade the North. Site of General George Pickett’s daring but doomed charge on the Northern lines.

Gettysburg Address (1863)

Abraham Lincoln’s oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

Vicksburg, Siege of (1863)

Two-and-a-half-month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. Vicksburg finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863, giving the Union army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two.

Sherman’s march (1864–1865)

Union general William Tecumseh Sherman’s destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of “total war,” purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort.

Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War (1861-1865)

Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs. Largely under the control of Radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation

Copperheads

Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort by attacking by Abraham Lincoln, the draft, and, after 1863, emancipation

Union Party (1864)

A coalition party of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Northern Democrats

Appomattox Courthosuse

Site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S.Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the “Wilderness Campaign”

Wilderness Campaign

A series of brutal clashes between Ulysses S. Grant’s and Robert E. Lee’s armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant’s capture of Richmond in April of 1865. Having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse

Reform Bill of 1867

Granted Suffrage to all male British citizens. dramatically expanding the electorate. The success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the bill.