1860-1877 Civil War-Reconstruction

Fort Sumter

Union fort in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired (April 1861)

Battle of Bull Run

(aka the First Battle of Manassas) first major battle of the Civil War; July 21, 1861 in Virginia; proved that the war was going to be a larger, longer conflict

Battle of Antietam

bloodiest single day of the Civil War; neither side technically won; gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863; declared that all slaves in Confederate-controlled territory were free

Battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg

(July 3 and 4, 1863) turning points of the Civil War. Gettysburg stopped Lee’s invasion of the North; Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi River

Anaconda Plan

Union’s military strategy during the Civil War, designed to “squeeze” the Confederacy into surrendering by cutting off its resources and dividing its territory

blockade

Union naval strategy of sealing off Southern ports to prevent the Confederacy from trading cotton abroad or importing weapons and supplies

Homestead Act

federal law that encouraged westward expansion by granting 160 acres of free land to settlers who agreed to live on and improve the land for at least five years

Morrill land grant

federal law that provided land to states to fund colleges focused on agriculture and mechanical arts

transcontinental railroad

rail line that connected the East Coast with the West Coast; symbolized the nation’s industrial growth and westward expansion

Gettysburg Address

short but powerful speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863; redefined the Civil War as a struggle not only to preserve the Union but also to uphold the principle that “all men are created equal.”

Ulysses S. Grant

leading Union general during the Civil War and later became the 18th President of the United States

Robert E. Lee

leading Confederate general during the Civil War, known for his military strategy but ultimately for surrendering to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in 1865

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union General known for his “March to the Sea” in 1864, where he used total war tactics to destroy the South’s ability to fight; marched from Atlanta to Savannah, destroying railroads and crops

total war

military strategy in which armies target not only enemy soldiers but also the resources, infrastructure, and civilian support systems that sustain them; causes the opponents to lose their will fight

Wilderness Campaign

Union offensive led by General Ulysses S. Grant against Robert E. Lee’s Army in dense Virginia woods, resulting in heavy casualties and no clear victory

Appomattox Courthouse

where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War (April 9, 1865)

Civil War

fought between the Union (North) and the Confederacy (South) over slavery, states’ rights, and the future of the United States; lasted 5 years

Reconstruction 

period after the Civil War when the U.S. government worked to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union and define the rights of newly freed African Americans

10% Plan

Abraham Lincoln’s Reconstruction plan (1863) that allowed a Southern state to rejoin the Union once 10% of its voters (from the 1860 election) swore loyalty to the Union and accepted the end of slavery

Tenure of Office Act

law passed by Congress during Reconstruction that restricted the president’s power to remove certain federal officials without Senate approval

impeached

government official is formally charged with misconduct by the House of Representatives; the Senate then holds a trial to determine whether to convict and remove the official

13th Amendment

freed the slaves

14th Amendment

granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S. (slaves became citizens)

15th Amendment

every man had the right to vote regardless of race (didn’t include women)

Freedmen’s Bureau

federal agency created to help ex-slaves transition to freedom after the Civil War

scalawags

white Southerners who supported Reconstruction

carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War during Reconstruction, often to seek political or economic opportunities

Ku Klux Klan

(1865) white supremacist organization founded in Tennessee that used terror and violence to oppose Reconstruction and suppress African American rights

sharecropping

labor system that emerged in the South after the Civil War where freedmen (and poor whites) farmed land owned by others in exchange for a share of the crops

tenant farming

agricultural system where farmers rented land from landowners and paid rent (in cash or crops) rather than working for wages or owning the land themselves

exodusters

African Americans who migrated from the South to Kansas and other western states, seeking freedom from racial oppression and economic opportunity (aka the First Great American migration)

redeemer’s government

Southern Democratic regimes that regained control after Reconstruction

Jim Crow laws