Vanmore Civil War Review

Abolitionist

A person who wanted to end slavery

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States (Elected 1860)

Bleeding Kansas

(1856) a series of violent fights between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in Kansas who had moved to Kansas to try to influence the decision of whether or not Kansas would a slave state or a free state.

Compromise of 1850

the agreements made in order to admit California into the Union as a free state. These agreements included allowing the New Mexico and Utah territories to decide whether to allow slavery, outlawing the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and creating a stronger fugitive slave law.

Dred Scott

United States slave who sued for liberty after living in a non-slave state

Election of 1860

Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won because the Democratic party was split over slavery. As a result, the South no longer felt like it has a voice in politics and a number of states seceded from the Union.

Ft. Sumter

April 12th, 1861- Confederate soldiers firing on this fort initiated the Civil War.

Fugitive Slave Act

(1850) a law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves

allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders

John Brown

An abolitionist who attempted to lead a slave revolt by capturing Armories in southern territory and giving weapons to slaves, was hung in Harpers Ferry after capturing an Armory

Kansas-Nebraska Act

an act passed in 1854 that created the Kansas and Nebraska territories and abolished the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers to determine whether slavery would be allowed in the new territories

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

1858 Senate Debate, Lincoln forced Douglas to debate issue of slavery, Douglas supported pop-sovereignty, Lincoln asserted that slavery should not spread to territories, Lincoln emerged as strong Republican candidate

Missouri Compromise

(1820) an agreement proposed by Henry Clay that allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state and outlawed slavery in any territories or states north of 36°30´ latitude

Nat Turner's rebellion

(1831) Led by Nat Turner, the rebels killed between 55 and 65 White people, making it the deadliest slave revolt in U.S. history.

Popular Sovereignty

Rule by the people

Railroads

Important during the civil war because it deported Northern troops and their materials without them having to walk all the way to the South

secession

Formal withdrawal of states or regions from a nation

South Carolina secedes

1860: first state to secede from Union--Began Forming Confederate States(Along with six other states) Jefferson Davis elected as president of Confederacy

slavery

the treatment of people as property. People who are denied freedom in this way are said to be enslaved.

Tallmadge Amendment

The amendment said that Missouri could join the Union, but only as a free state. Southerners managed to defeat this amendment.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

(1852) A novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the North, Uncle Tom's Cabin made millions of people even more angry about the cruelties of slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Union

north

Confederacy

the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861

How did the battle of Ft. Sumter begin

Confederates in Charleston, South Carolina, forced the issue. On April 12, 1861, they opened fire on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor. The union took it as a declaration of war.

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

Set up a network of white and African American abolitionists who helped slave escape to freedom in the North or Canada. She was the most famous and successful conductor.

Cotton gin

A machine for cleaning the seeds from cotton fibers, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. Increased the need of slaves.

Antietam

(1862) Took place in Maryland. It was the bloodiest day of the war.

Anaconda Plan

Created by Winfield Scott.
1. surround the South by sea to cut off its trade.
2. divide the Confederacy into sections so that one region could not help another
3.capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, and destroy the Confederate government

Appomattox Courthouse

April 9, 1865 General Lee surrendered to General Grant at the Appomattox Court house.
Grant's terms of surrender:
Confederate soldiers could go home if they promised to fight no longer. They could take with them their own horses and mules, which they would need for spring plowing. Officers could keep their swords and weapons. Grant also ordered that food be sent to Lee's men.

Border States

Slave states that did not secede

Bull Run

(1861) Took place in Manassas Virginia. Confederate victory, proved the civil war would last longer than expected. Stonewall Jackson earned his nickname.

Clara Barton

Nurse during the Civil War

founder of the American Red Cross, developed safer practices and idea of staying calm when treating soldiers.

Confederacy (Confederate States of America)

the nation formed by the southern states when they seceded from the Union. 11 states in total.

Copperheads

Copperheads, also known as Peace Democrats, were a faction of the Democratic Party in the Union who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates.

Emancipation Proclamation (IDENTIFY SECTIONS OF THIS)

an order issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declaring slaves in the Confederate states to be free

Gen. George McClellan

Union General

Gettysburg

(1863) Took place in Pennsylvania. Turning point in the war. Bloodiest battle. Union Victory.

Gettysburg Address (IDENTIFY THIS)

(1863) A short address by Lincoln at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in memory of the Union soldiers who had died trying to protect the ideals of freedom upon which the nation was founded.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America

Minie Ball

new bullet created before the Civil War, led to a high number of casualties during the war

MA 54th Regiment

The regiment was one of the first official African-American units in the United States during the Civil War. They were sent on a suicide mission to claim Fort Wagner. At first they did not receive equal pay and they also faced the added fear that if captured, they might be sold into slavery..

Merrimac v. Monitor (Ironclads)

In March 1862, the Merrimac, which the Confederates had renamed the Virginia, steamed into Chesapeake Bay to attack Union ships. The Virginia was met by the Monitor. The two ironclads exchanged shots for hours before withdrawing. Neither could claim victory, and neither was harmed.
The battle of the Merrimac and the Monitor showed that iron-clad ships were superior to wooden vessels. After that, both sides added ironclads to their navies. The South, however, was never able to build enough ships to end the Union blockade of Southern harbors.

Gen. Robert E. Lee

South's greatest general. He was asked by Lincoln to lead the Union Army but refused and succeded with the Virginia

Sherman's March to the Sea

Started from Georgia and destroyed everything of use in their path. Led by General Sherman.

Battle of Shiloh

(1862) a Civil War battle in Tennessee in which the Union army gained greater control over the Mississippi River valley

"Stonewall" Jackson

Confederate General. Earned his nickname at Bull Run.

Total war

Strategy used by General Grant - war on the enemy's will to fight and its ability to support an army.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

Union general who captured the upper Mississippi River area and became Lincoln's general in chief. Used Total War.

Vicksburg

1863-the union forces wanted to capture Vicksburg in order to control to Mississippi River. (Union) Gen. Grant surrounded Vicksburg and bombed it for a month. The people and Confederate soldiers starved until they surrendered.

Gen. William T. Sherman

general whose march to sea caused destruction to the south

Women in the war (their different roles)

Worked in factories, Worked jobs men usually would (farms , businesses) ,worked in the war effort (spies, disguised soldiers, nurses, produced supplies)

Amnesty Act of 1872

gave forgiveness to former Confederates and Whites in the South and allowed them to vote again

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as he was vice president at that time. He was always overruled by Congress as the republicans had full control. He was almost impeached by one vote because he tried to overthrow an official. He lost all his power.

Black Codes

Southern laws designed to restrict the rights of the newly freed black slaves.
1. limit the rights of freedmen
2.help planters find workers to replace their slaves.
3.keep freedmen at the bottom of the social order in the South

Buffalo soldiers

Nickname for African-American soldiers who fought in the wars against Native Americans.

Carpetbaggers

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War

especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states

Civil Rights Act

(1866) struck at the black codes by declaring freedmen to be full citizens with the same civil rights as whites.

Compromise of 1877

Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress agreed to a compromise. The Democrats accepted the electoral commission's decision, allowing Hayes to become president. In return, Hayes agreed to withdraw the remaining federal troops still occupying Southern states.

Freedman's Bureau

an agency established by Congress at the end of the Civil War to help and protect newly freed black Americans

"grandfather clause"

This clause said the taxes and tests did not apply to any man whose father or grandfather could vote on January 1, 1867. Since no blacks could vote on that date, the grandfather clause applied only to whites.

Jim Crow Laws

Limited rights of blacks. Literacy tests, grandfather clauses and poll taxes limited black voting rights

John Wilkes Booth

Assassinated Abraham Lincoln

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

(1867) This plan divided the South into five military districts, each governed by a general supported by federal troops. The state governments set up under Johnson's Reconstruction plan were declared illegal. New governments were to be formed by Southerners loyal to the United States—both black and white. Southerners who had supported the Confederacy were denied the right to vote.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

African Americans argued that segregation laws violated the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws. Homer Plessy, who was arrested for refusing to obey a Jim Crow law, took his protest all the way to the Supreme Court.

Poll taxes

required citizens of a state to pay a special tax in order to vote. Majority African Americans because of grandfather clause.

Radical Republicans

Lawmakers that had an additional goal for Reconstruction. They believed that the South would not be completely rebuilt until freedmen were granted the full rights of citizenship. Did not agree with Pres. Johnson.

Reconstruction

rebuilding of the South after the Civil War

Sectionalism

Loyalty to one's own region of the country, rather than to the nation as a whole

Scalawags

A derogatory term for Southerners who were working with the North to buy up land from desperate Southerners

Segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

Sharecropping

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a portion of the crops. Very unfair.

13th Amendment (1865)

abolished slavery

14th Amendment

a change to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guaranteeing all citizens (EXCEPT NATIVE AMERICANS) equal protection of the law

15th Amendment (1870)

a change to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, declaring that states cannot deny anyone the right to vote because of race or color, or because the person was once a slave