Cornerstone Speech
a speech delivered by Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stephens in Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861. It laid out the Confederate causes for the American Civil War, and defended slavery.
Lincoln's First Inaugural Address
stated that no state can lawfully get out of the union but pledged there would be no war unless the south started it
Anaconda Plan
Northern Civil War strategy to starve the South by blockading seaports and controlling the Mississippi River
Fort Sumter
Federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the confederate attack on the fort marked the start of the Civil War
"Contraband of War" Policy
Ruled that if a slave crossed into the northern border during the civil war, they would be freed.
Emancipation Proclamation
Issued by abraham lincoln on september 22, 1862 it declared that all slaves in the confederate states would be free
Robert E. Lee
Commander of the Confederate Army
Ulysses S. Grant
an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869-1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War.
Gettysburg Address
(1863) a speech given by Abraham Lincoln 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 self-government and human rights
Sherman's March to the Sea
during the civil war, a devastating total war military campaign, led by union general William Tecumseh Sherman, that involved marching 60,000 union troops through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah and destroying everything along their way.
Special Field Order 15
Order by General William T. Sherman in January 1865 to set aside abandoned land along the southern Atlantic coast for forty-acre grants to freedmen; rescinded by President Andrew Johnson later that year.
Surrender at Appomattox
On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
13th Amendment
Abolition of slavery
14th Amendment
Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed equal protection of the laws
15th Amendment
Citizens cannot be denied the right to vote because of race, color , or precious condition of servitude
Radical Reconstruction
period beginning in 1867, when the Republicans who had control in both houses of Congress, took charge of Reconstruction
Freedmen's Bureau
Organization run by the army to care for and protect southern Blacks after the Civil War
Ku Klux Klan
A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights.
Military Reconstruction Act
It divided the South into five military districts that were commanded by Union generals. It was passed in 1867. It ripped the power away from the president to be commander in chief and set up a system of Martial Law
Panic of 1837
A financial crisis in the United States that led to an economic depression
Election of 1876
Race for the presidency between Republican Rutherford B Hayes and Democrat Samuel J Tilden.
bargain of 1877
Deal made by a Republican and Democratic special congressional commission to resolve the disputed presidential election of 1876; Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who had lost the popular vote, was declared the winner in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from involvement in politics in the South, marking the end of Reconstruction.
End of Reconstruction
Election of 1876 brought the Radical Republicans a loss of power and Northerners were tired of Reconstruction and wanted to forget the Civil War.