Civil War Reconstruction Vocab

Abraham Lincoln

1. 16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated.

Jefferson Davis

1. President of the Confederate States of America

Battle of Bull Run

1. First major land battle of the Civil War...Union believed it

would quickly defeat the Confederates...instead, the green Union troops got whooped when Confederate Reinforcements arrived by train. Citizens of Washington came to watch, only to get overrun by the retreating Union Army.

Battle of Antietam

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

Battle of Gettysburg

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...the South would never invade the North again.

Battle of Vicksburg

1. 1863, Union victory under general Grant that secured the Mississippi River for the Union. 

Appomattox Court House

Famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S Grant

Northern commanding general who brought an end to the war

Robert E Lee

Commander of the Confederate forces. Surrendered to Grant

Union

northern half of the divided US

Confederacy

 the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861

Anaconda Plan

1. 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:

1.  Proclamation issued by Lincoln, freeing all slaves in areas

still at war with the Union.

Gettysburg Address

1. (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

John Wilkes Booth

was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.

Ford's Theater

1.  site where Lincoln was assassinated by Booth on April 14, 1865

Reconstruction

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

Freedmen's Bureau

1.  Government agency helping those recently freed from slavery 

Black Codes

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

Carpetbaggers

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

Scalawags

1. Name given to Southerners who helped with Reconstruction 

Sharecropping

1. 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

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

Grandfather Clause

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