USVA History - Unit 5 Vocab Test Review

Anaconda Plan

The Union plan to cut off the CSA in the Atlantic and Mississippi

Missouri Compromise

An agreement in 1820 between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States concerning the extension of slavery into new territories

Total War

The Union plan to destroy as much of the South as possible in order to demoralize the Confederacy

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout America was both justified and inevitable.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle used by the US government to determine Kansas' slave-state status

Kansas-Nebraska Act

a law that allowed voters in Kansas and Nebraska to choose whether to allow slavery

Bleeding Kansas

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.

Stephen Douglas

Senator from Illinois who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln. Wrote the Kansas-Nebreaska Act and the Freeport Doctrine

Dred Scott decision

Supreme Court ruling that declared slaves were not viewed as citizens but as property

Harper's Ferry

Federal arsenal in Virginia seized by abolitionist John Brown in 1859. Though Brown was later captured and executed, his raid alarmed Southerners who believed that Northerners shared in Brown's extremism.

Homestead Act

1862 law that gave 160 acres of land to citizens willing to live on and cultivate it for five years in order to combat the loss of agriculture from the secession of the southern states.

Frederick Douglass

Abolitionist who escaped from slavery and became an influential writer and lecturer, founded the publication "The North Star"

Abraham Lincoln

16th president of the United States; helped preserve the United States by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederacy; an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery.

Jefferson Davis

A former US Senator who served as President of the Confederate States of America

Robert E. Lee

Commander of the Confederate Army, considered one of the best military minds of his time. Originally asked to lead the Union Army but seceded with his home state, Virginia.

Ulysses S. Grant

The leading Union general after McCormick was booted from the job. Future US president.

Battle of Antietam

Bloodiest battle of the war. The victory Lincoln needed to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation.

Emancipation Proclamation

Document issued by Lincoln, freeing all slaves in states engaged in rebellion against the Union. This did not free any enslaved people in the border states.

Battle of Gettysburg

Turning point of the War that made it clear the North would win. 50,000 people died, and the South lost its chance to invade the North.

Gettysburg Address

A speech given by Abraham Lincoln in which he praised the bravery of Union soldiers and renewed his commitment to winning the Civil War; supported the ideals of self-government and human rights

Appomattox Court House

Famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Meant to help heal and restore the country after four years of civil war. Lincoln declared that he would not punish the South at the end of the Civil War.

Lincoln's Assassination

Incident at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., April 14, 1865

54th Massachusetts Regiment

All-African American unit in the Union Army, famously centered in the film, "Glory"

Served as spies and scouts

Major contribution of freed African Americans to the Union war effort. Harriet Tubman famously served this role.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

A novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 which portrayed slavery as brutal and immoral

Caning of Charles Sumner

An incident in which a Massachusetts senator was assaulted on the floor of the Senate by South Carolina congressman Preston S. Brooks over the accusation that a distant cousin of Brooks' had taken ''the harlot slavery'' as his mistress.

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.

Border States

States that were slave states, but did not secede. Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri.

Cotton Diplomacy

Confederate efforts to use the importance of southern cotton to Britain's textile industry to persuade the British to support the Confederacy in the Civil War

~4/9 million people were enslaved African Americans

Major con faced by the Confederacy.

Homefield advantage- majority of battles fought in the South

Major pro faced by the Confederacy

Controlled 10x the industry as the South, 95% of war-time factories.

Major pro faced by the Union

Initial lack of motivating cause.

Major con faced by the Union

Militia Act

1862 law that allowed African American soldiers to serve in the Union military

Battle of Bull Run

1861, 1st major battle, proved war was going to be long and costly

Battle of Vicksburg

Split the south in two and gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.

Sherman's March to the Sea

Union general's destructive march across Georgia that destroyed major cities like Savannah and Atlanta.

Compromise of 1850

Agreement designed to ease tensions caused by the expansion of slavery into western territories. California admitted as a free state.

John Wilkes Booth

was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre.