Chapter 19 Vocab

Border States

Five slave states—Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia—that did not secede during the Civil War. To keep the states in the Union, Abraham Lincoln insisted that the war was not about abolishing slavery but rather protecting the Union.

West Virginia

Mountainous region that broke away from Virginia in 1861 to form its own state after Virginia seceded from the Union. Most of the residents of the region were independent farmers and miners who did not own slaves and thus opposed the Confederate cause.

Bull Run (Manassas Junction)

First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South; it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory.

Peninsula Campaign

Union general George B. McClellan’s failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate capital. Had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time.

Writ of Habeas Corpus

Petition requiring law enforcement officers to present detained individuals before the court to examine the legality of the arrest. Protects individuals from arbitrary state action. Suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War.

Morrill Tariff Act

Increased duties back up to 1846 levels to raise revenue for the Civil War.

Homestead Act

A federal law that sold settlers 160 acres of land for about $30 if they lived on it for five years and improved it by, for instance, building a house on it. The act helped make land accessible to hundreds of thousands of westward-moving settlers, but many people also found disappointment when their land was infertile or they saw speculators grabbing up the best land.

Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act

Made federal grants available to the states to establish colleges for the advancement of the “agricultural and mechanic arts,” thus laying the foundation for the nation’s extensive system of public higher education.

Pacific Railroad Act

Helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds.

National Banking System

Network of member banks that could issue currency against purchased government bonds. Created during the Civil War to establish a stable national currency and stimulate the sale of war bonds.

New York draft riots

Uprising, mostly of working-class Irish Americans, in protest of the draft. Rioters were particularly incensed by the ability of the rich to hire substitutes or purchase exemptions.

Trent Affair

Diplomatic row that threatened to bring the British into the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, after a Union warship stopped a British steamer and arrested two Confederate diplomats on board.

Alabama

British-built and manned Confederate warship that raided Union shipping during the Civil War. One of many built by the British for the Confederacy, despite Union protests.

Laird rams

Two well-armed ironclad warships constructed for the Confederacy by a British firm. Seeking to avoid war with the United States, the British government purchased the two ships for its Royal Navy instead.

Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

Key victory for Union general Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North’s hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant’s attacks deeper into Tennessee.

Shiloh

Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that left more than twenty-three thousand soldiers dead, wounded, or missing, and ended in a marginal Union victory.

Merrimack

Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought a historic though inconclusive battle in 1862.

Monitor

Union ironclad warship famous for its 1862 duel with the Confederate Merrimack at the Battle of Hampton Roads. Ushered in a new era of naval warfare by demonstrating the effectiveness of ironclads over wooden ships.

Second Battle of Bull Run

Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate general Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push farther into the North.

Antietam

Landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the “victory” he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation

Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in nonrebelling Border States. The proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines.

Juneteenth

A national holiday recognized in 2021 to commemorate June 19, 1865, the first day of freedom for enslaved people in Texas, the last slave state to acknowledge the Emancipation Proclamation.

Thirteenth Amendment

Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate states were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union.

Fredericksburg

Site of one of the largest and deadliest battles of the Civil War, fought in mid-December 1862 in Virginia. A rash frontal attack by newly installed Union commander General A. E. Burnside resulted in more than ten thousand Northern casualties and a decisive victory for Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Gettysburg

A major turning point Civil War battle, where Union forces under General George Meade defeated Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army. It halted Lee’s invasion of the North, inflicted massive Confederate casualties, and weakened Southern morale. It is considered the bloodiest battle of the war, and Abraham Lincoln later honored the soldiers’ sacrifice in the Gettysburg Address, redefining the war’s purpose around preserving the Union and promoting equality.

Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln’s oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

Vicksburg

Two-and-a-half-month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. It finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863, giving the Union army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two.

Sherman’s March

Union general William Tecumseh Sherman’s destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of “total war,” purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort.

Congressional Committee on the Conduct of War

Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs. Largely under the control of radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation.

Copperheads

Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort by attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft, and, after 1863, emancipation.

National Union Party

A coalition party of prowar Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat antiwar Northern Democrats.

Wilderness Campaign

A series of brutal clashes between Ul ysses S. Grant’s and Robert E. Lee’s armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant’s capture of Richmond in April of 1865. Having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.

Appomattox Courthouse

Site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the “Wilderness Campaign.”

US Sanitary Commission

Government agency founded with the help of Elizabeth Blackwell that trained nurses, collected medical supplies, and equipped hospitals in an effort to help the Union army. The commission helped professionalize nursing and gave many women the confidence and organizational skills to propel the women’s movement in the postwar years.

Lincoln

16th U.S. president who led the Union during the Civil War, preserved the nation, and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, shifting the war's purpose toward ending slavery.

Adams

U.S. diplomat to Britain during the Civil War who prevented British recognition of the Confederacy and stopped foreign aid to the South, helping secure Union victory.

Napoleon III

Emperor of France who attempted to expand French influence in Mexico during the U.S. Civil War, but backed down after the war when the U.S. enforced the Monroe Doctrine.

Davis

President of the Confederate States; struggled to create a strong central government and maintain unity, contributing to Confederate weakness during the war.

Barton

Civil War nurse who later founded the American Red Cross; advanced battlefield medical care and organized relief efforts for wounded soldiers.

Jackson

Confederate general known for his skilled battlefield tactics and firm stand at the First Battle of Bull Run; killed in 1863 at Chancellorsville, a major loss for the Confederacy.

McClellan

Union general known for building the Army of the Potomac and being overly cautious; failed to decisively defeat Lee and was removed by Lincoln; Democratic presidential candidate in 1864.

Lee

Commander of the Confederate Army known for strategic brilliance; surrendered at Appomattox in 1865, ending the Civil War.

Grant

Union general who led the North to victory through aggressive strategy; later became 18th U.S. president. Known for Vicksburg, Overland Campaign, and accepting Lee’s surrender.

Sherman

Union general famous for “March to the Sea” and total war strategy, destroying Southern infrastructure and morale to hasten Confederate surrender.

Vallandigham

Ohio Congressman and leading “Copperhead” (Northern Democrat who opposed the war); arrested and exiled for anti-Union speeches, symbolizing wartime limits on civil liberties.

Booth

Actor and Confederate sympathizer who assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in 1865, hoping to revive the Confederate cause.