APUSH Chapter 14 Vocab

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54th Massachusetts Infantry

One of the most famous elite African American regiments that fought for the Union; they were commanded by Robert Gould Shaw and their ranks included two of Frederick Douglass’ sons

Alexander Stephens

Vice president of the Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis who declared slavery the "cornerstone" of their new nation.

Antietam

Site of a Union victory on September 17, 1862, that stands as the single bloodiest day in American military history, blunted Confederate progress northward, and prompted Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Appomattox Court House

Site in Virginia where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, marking the effective end of the Civil War.

Confederate States of America

Also known as the Confederacy, those slave states that seceded from the Union and declared an independent nation.

Confiscation Acts

Two laws passed by the federal government during the Civil War, in 1861 and 1862, designed to free enslaved people held by Confederates.

Conscription

The practice of requiring citizens to serve in the military or other national service; the draft.

Crittenden Compromise

Unsuccessful last-ditch effort in Congress to provide Constitutional protections for slavery to avert the Civil War; proposed reestablishing the Missouri Compromise line and extending it westward to the Pacific

Election of 1864

Presidential election won by Lincoln over Democrat George McClellan, cementing determination to win the war.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln’s executive order of 1863 declaring that those held in slavery in the Confederate states were forever free.

First (and Second) Battle of Bull Run

Two key battles near Manassas where Confederate forces defeated Union attempts to capture Richmond.

Fort Sumter

Fort in Charleston, South Carolina, that was shelled by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861, forcing its surrender and marking the start of armed conflict in the Civil War.

George McClellan

Union general who ran unsuccessfully as a Northern Democrat in the 1864 presidential election against Lincoln.

Gettysburg

Pennsylvania town that was the site of a major Civil War battle on July 1–3, 1863, in which the Union Army turned back the Confederate march northward; often described as a turning point in the war

Greenbacks

Paper currency not backed by gold or silver, instead by good faith and credit of the government

Homestead Act (1862)

Federal legislation permitting any citizen or prospective citizen, including those who had once been enslaved, to purchase 160 acres of public land in the western United States for a small fee after living on it for five years.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederacy throughout the Civil War until capture by Union forces in 1865.

Monitor and Merrimac

The first ironclad warships used in the Civil War, fighting an inconclusive battle that marked the decline of wooden ships.

Morrill Land Grant College Act (1862)

Law transferring federal lands to states to fund public universities emphasizing agriculture and mechanics.

Robert E. Lee

Superintendent of West Point and later general of the Northern Army of Virginia, he won a string of early victories during the Civil War and later presided over the official surrender of the Confederacy.

Siege of Vicksburg

Lengthy 1863 siege won by General Grant, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy.

Shiloh

Battle site in southwestern Tennessee where, on April 6–7, 1862, Union forces won control of the upper Mississippi River.

Thirteenth Amendment

Passed on January 31, 1865, this constitutional amendment formally abolished slavery.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Confederate general who commanded troops in major Civil War engagements in the first half of war before being mortally wounded in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.

Transcontinental Railroad

Railroad system connecting the Eastern and Western United States, meeting at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869.

Ulysses S. Grant

Chief of the Union armies (at the beginning of 1864) and eighteenth president who supervised much of Reconstruction.

William T. Sherman

Union general who captured Atlanta and in late 1864 marched his troops across Georgia and the Carolinas, burning crops and buildings as he went and crippling the Confederacy.