The Civil War Practice Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key people, battles, and strategies of the American Civil War as described in your lecture notes.

Confederate States of America

The new nation formed in 1861 by the southern states that seceded from the Union.

Civil War

A conflict between two groups of people in the same country.

Border States

The eight slave states located between the Confederacy and the free states, including Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which remained in the Union.

Abraham Lincoln

The President of the United States during the Civil War who insisted the Union was perpetual and could never be broken.

Jefferson Davis

The President of the Confederate States of America who resigned from the U.S. Senate to lead the South.

Anaconda Plan

A three-step Union strategy to surround the South by sea, divide the Confederacy by the Mississippi River, and capture Richmond.

Rose O'Neal Greenhow

A Washington social leader and Confederate spy who used coded messages to warn southern leaders of Union attack plans.

Battle of Bull Run

The first major battle of the war, fought at Manassas, which resulted in a shocking victory for the South and shattered hopes for a quick Union win.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

A Confederate general known for his refusal to give way during the Battle of Bull Run, standing like a stone wall.

Dorothea Dix

The director of the Union army's nursing service, known as "Dragon Dix" for her strict rules for female nurses.

Clara Barton

A nurse known as the "angel of the battlefield" who followed Union armies into battle and eventually founded the American Red Cross.

Battle of Antietam

The bloodiest single day of the Civil War, fought in Maryland, where more Americans were killed than in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined.

Emancipation Proclamation

A formal order issued by Lincoln on January 1, 1863, that declared all slaves in the Confederate states to be free.

Draft

A system of required military service, first passed by the Confederacy in 1862 and later by the Union in 1863.

Habeas Corpus

A constitutional right to a trial before being jailed, which Lincoln suspended to maintain order in the North.

Battle of Gettysburg

A three-day battle in July 1863 that ended Lee's invasion of the North and served as a major turning point in the war.

Gettysburg Address

A famous speech given by Abraham Lincoln in memory of the Union soldiers who died, relating the war to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

Ironclad

A type of warship covered with iron plates, first tested in the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac (Virginia).

Battle of Vicksburg

A six-week siege that ended in July 1863, giving the Union total control of the Mississippi River and cutting the Confederacy in two.

54th Massachusetts Infantry

One of the first state-organized black regiments, led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, celebrated for their bravery during the attack on Fort Wagner.

Total War

A strategy of war on the enemy's will to fight and its ability to support an army, utilized by General Grant and General Sherman.

Appomattox Courthouse

The village in Virginia where General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.