5.8-5.11 Test Terms

Confederate States of America

A republic of 11 Southern U.S. states that seceded from the Union between 1860 and 1861, existing from 1861 to 1865.

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States during the Civil War, leading the Confederacy throughout its existence and advocating for states' rights.

Alexander H. Stephens

Vice President of the Confederate States, known for his "Cornerstone Speech" advocating for the Confederacy's principles.

Bull Run

The first major battle of the American Civil War, fought in July 1861, resulting in a Confederate victory and highlighting the war's intensity.

Winfield Scott

A Union general during the American Civil War, known for developing the Anaconda Plan to defeat the Confederacy and for his leadership in key early battles.

Anaconda Plan

A strategic Union military plan during the Civil War aimed at suffocating the Confederate economy by blockading southern ports and controlling the Mississippi River.

Antietam

The bloodiest single-day battle in American history, fought on September 17, 1862, resulting in a tactical draw but giving the Union a strategic advantage and leading to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general during the American Civil War, known for his leadership at major battles and his role as the final commander of Union forces, later serving as the 18th President of the United States.

Gettysburg

A pivotal battle in the American Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, resulting in a Union victory and marking a turning point in the war.

Sherman’s March

Union General Tecumseh Sherman's campaign (1864) to destroy the Confederacy's resources from Atlanta to Savannah, impacting civilian morale.

William Tecumseh Sherman

A Union General during the American Civil War, known for his 'March to the Sea', which aimed to destroy the South's will to fight.

Appomattox Court House

The Virginia site where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the Civil War.

Greenbacks

The fiat paper currency issued by the United States federal government during the Civil War to finance the war effort.

Morrill Land Grant Act

A federal law that donated public lands to states to establish colleges focused on agriculture, mechanical arts, and military training.

Homestead Act

A federal law that accelerated Western expansion by granting 160 acres of public land to settlers for a small fee and they improved the land by farming or building on it for five years.

Pacific Railway Act

A landmark piece of legislation passed by Congress during the Civil War, authorizing federal bonds and land grants to companies for building the first transcontinental railroad.

Federal Land Grants

The massive transfer of over 155 million acres of public land by the US government to railroad companies and western settlers to encourage westward expansion, economic development, and infrastructure construction.

Habeas Corpus

A fundamental legal principle and constitutional right that protects citizens from arbitrary arrest and detention.

Confiscation Acts

A series of laws passed by the U.S. Congress during the Civil War that authorized Union forces to seize property and enslaved people to be used to support the Confederate war effort.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War, declaring all enslaved people are free in the Confederate states still in rebellion.

Gettysburg Address

A 272-word speech by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War that redefined the war as a struggle for equality and a "new birth of freedom," not just a fight to preserve the Union.

Copperheads

A faction of Northern Democrats who opposed the American Civil War that advocated for an immediate negotiated peace settlement with the Confederacy.

Massachusetts 54th Regiment

One of the first official African American units in the United States Armed Forces during the Civil War commanded by Col. Robert Shaw.

13th Amendment

An amendment that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the United States.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

A law passed after the Civil War that granted citizenship and equal legal rights to all people born in the United States except Native Americans to protect formerly enslaved African Americans from discriminatory Black Codes in the South

14th Amendment

Amendment that granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S. and guaranteed them equal protection under the law.

Equal protection of the laws

A foundational constitutional guarantee that all individuals must be treated equally by the law, regardless of race, gender, or background.

15th Amendment

Amendment that prohibited federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Civil Rights Act of 1875

A law that guaranteed African Americans equal access to public accommodations such as hotels, theaters, and railroads, although it was later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Credit Mobilier

A corruption scandal during the Grant administration in which railroad company insiders bribed congressmen with stock to cover up the overcharging of the federal government for building the transcontinental railroad.

William Tweed

Known as “Boss Tweed,” he was a corrupt New York political boss who controlled Tammany Hall and became a symbol of political corruption during the Gilded Age.

Horace Greeley

A newspaper editor and abolitionist who used his newspaper, the New-York Tribune, to support antislavery causes and other reform movements before and during the Civil War.

Panic of 1873

A major economic depression caused by railroad overexpansion and bank failures that weakened support for Reconstruction and shifted national attention to economic issues.

Liberal Republicans

Republicans in the 1870s who opposed corruption in Ulysses S. Grant’s administration and supported civil service reform and a less strict Reconstruction policy toward the South.

Reconstruction

A period after the Civil War from 1865–1877 when the United States worked to rebuild the South and integrate formerly enslaved African Americans into society and politics.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 plan to reunite the nation by offering pardons to most Confederates who swore loyalty to the Union and allowing Southern states to rejoin once 10% of voters took the oath.

Wade-Davis Bill

A Radical Republican Reconstruction plan that required a majority of white Southern men to swear loyalty to the Union before former Confederate states could rejoin the United States.

Andrew Johnson

The 17th President of the U.S. who took office after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and clashed with Radical Republicans over Reconstruction because he favored lenient policies toward the South.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A federal agency created in 1865 to help formerly enslaved people and poor Southern whites by providing food, education, medical care, and assistance transitioning to freedom after the Civil War.

Congressional Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War when Radical Republicans in Congress controlled Reconstruction and imposed stricter requirements on Southern states to protect the rights of formerly enslaved African Americans.

Radical Republicans

A group of Republican lawmakers during Reconstruction who pushed for harsh punishment of the South and full civil rights and voting rights for formerly enslaved African Americans.

Thaddeus Stephens

A Radical Republican congressman who pushed for harsh Reconstruction policies against the South and stronger rights and protections for formerly enslaved African Americans.

Reconstruction Acts

Laws passed by Congress in 1867 that divided the South into military districts and required former Confederate states to guarantee African American voting rights before rejoining the Union.

Tenure of Office Act

A law passed by Congress in 1867 that limited President Andrew Johnson’s power to remove federal officials without Senate approval, contributing to his impeachment.

Edwin Stanton

Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War who later clashed with President Andrew Johnson during Reconstruction, leading to Johnson’s impeachment crisis.

Impeachment

The constitutional process by which Congress formally charges a government official, including the president, with misconduct that could lead to removal from office.

Scalawags

White Southern Republicans during Reconstruction who supported the Republican Party and worked with freedmen and Northern Republicans to rebuild the South.

Carpetbaggers

Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction to seek economic or political opportunities and were often viewed negatively by white Southerners.

Hiram Revels

The first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress, elected as a senator from Mississippi during Reconstruction after the Civil War.

Women’s Suffrage

The movement to secure women’s right to vote, gaining momentum in the mid-1800s through reform activism and eventually leading to the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Redeemers

Conservative white Southern Democrats during Reconstruction who sought to regain political control of the South and restore white supremacy after Republican rule.

Rutherford B Hayes

The president elected after the disputed Election of 1876 who ended Reconstruction by removing federal troops from the South as part of the Compromise of 1877.

Samuel J Tilden

The Democratic candidate in the disputed election of 1876 who won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes after the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction.

Election of 1876

A disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden that led to the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction.

Compromise of 1877

An agreement that resolved the disputed 1876 election by making Rutherford B. Hayes president in exchange for the removal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.

Force Acts

Laws passed during Reconstruction that gave the federal government power to use military force to protect African Americans’ voting rights and suppress the Ku Klux Klan.

Black Codes

Restrictive laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War to limit the freedom and rights of formerly enslaved African Americans and maintain white control over labor and society.

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist terrorist organization formed during Reconstruction that used violence and intimidation to oppose African American rights and Republican governments in the South.

Sharecropping

A farming system after the Civil War in which freed African Americans and poor whites rented land from landowners in exchange for giving a share of their crops, often trapping them in debt.