Civil War and Pre-War Era Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering the lead-up to the American Civil War and major political and military events during the conflict (1860-1865).

Missouri Compromise (1820)

An agreement made in Congress to keep peace between free states and slave states by entering Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state, and banning slavery in new states north of the 36°30′ line across the Louisiana Territory.

Popular Sovereignty

The principle that the status of slavery in a territory should be determined directly by the vote of the people living there, rather than by Congress.

Stephen A. Douglas

A Democratic Senator from Illinois who wanted a transcontinental railroad built across western U.S. territory, believed in popular sovereignty, and crafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

A law crafted by Stephen A. Douglas and passed in 1854 that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allowed their residents to vote on allowing slavery using popular sovereignty.

Bleeding Kansas

A period of violence resulting from the Kansas-Nebraska Act where people fought over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or a slave state.

Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

A conflict that expanded U.S. borders by acquiring California, Texas, and territory that would become Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah.

Compromise of 1850

A group of laws passed by Congress that admitted California as a free state, allowed Utah and New Mexico Territories to vote on slavery, and enacted a stricter Fugitive Slave Act.

Fugitive Slave Act

A law included in the Compromise of 1850 that forced Northern states to assist in returning escaped enslaved people to their enslavers.

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

A Supreme Court ruling that declared enslaved people were not citizens, living in a free state did not make an enslaved person free, and Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories.

Union Slave States (Border States)

The four slave states—Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri (along with West Virginia)—that remained in the Union throughout the Civil War.

Election of 1860

The election on November 6, 1860, in which Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th president and the first Republican president, supported entirely by the North and West.

Confederate States of America

The nation organized in February 1861 in Montgomery, Alabama by seceded southern states, with Jefferson Davis appointed as its president.

Fort Sumter

A fort in South Carolina where Confederate forces fired upon Union troops on April 12, 1861, formally beginning the Civil War.

West Virginia

A state created on June 20, 1861, when northwest counties of Virginia broke away due to local farmers being less supportive of slavery than the rest of the state.

Battle of Antietam

A battle on September 17, 1862, that resulted in over 20,000 casualties as the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, convincing Britain and France to postpone recognizing the Confederacy.

Emancipation Proclamation

An order issued on January 1, 1863, declaring enslaved people in rebelling states free, authorizing the enlistment of Black troops, and aiming to build a Union without slavery.

Vicksburg Campaign

A military siege led by Union General Grant from May 22 to July 4, 1863, resulting in the surrender of 30,000 Confederate men and giving the Union full control of the Mississippi River.

Battle of Gettysburg

A battle fought July 1–3, 1863, that stopped Confederate General Lee's invasion of the Union, caused the largest number of casualties in the war, and served as its major turning point.

General Sherman's March to the Sea

A destructive campaign against a civilian population from November 15 to December 21, 1864, in which Union forces destroyed factories, bridges, railroads, and public buildings across Georgia.

Appomattox Courthouse

The location where the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The event on April 14, 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, leading to Vice President Andrew Johnson assuming the presidency.

Map of U.S. Civil War Divisions (1861-1865)

A map showing the territorial divisions during the Civil War, distinguishing between Union free states, Union slave states (border states), territories, and slave states that seceded before or after Fort Sumter.