US Civil War Vocabulary List: Key Terms, Battles, & Famous Figures

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, major battles, famous Union figures, famous Confederate figures, and additional important terms from the US Civil War.

Union

The northern states that remained part of the United States during the Civil War.

Confederacy

The eleven Southern states that seceded from the Union.

Secession

The act of leaving a nation; what Southern states did before the war.

Abolition

The movement to end slavery.

Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln's 1863 order freeing enslaved people in Confederate territories.

States' Rights

The belief that states should have more control than the federal government.

Reconstruction

The period after the Civil War when the nation was rebuilt.

Blockade

Sealing off a place to prevent goods from entering or leaving.

Ironclads

Armored ships used in naval battles.

Total War

A war strategy targeting an enemy's resources as well as its army.

Battle of Fort Sumter

The first battle of the Civil War, fought in April 1861.

First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)

First major land battle; Confederates won.

Battle of Antietam

Bloodiest single day in U.S. history; led to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Battle of Shiloh

Early Union victory in the West with heavy casualties, General Grant shows his command of the battlefield.

Battle of Gettysburg

Turning point of the war; major Union victory in July 3, 1863.

Siege of Vicksburg

Gave the Union control of the Mississippi River. July 4, 1863, coupled with Gettysburg pointed towards the Union victory in the war.

Battle of Fredericksburg

Costly Union defeat.

Battle of Chancellorsville

Confederate victory where Stonewall Jackson was accidentally killed.

Sherman's March to the Sea

Union campaign of "total war" across Georgia, burning and destroying anything that was considered part of the war effeort..

Appomattox Court House

Final battle; where General Lee surrendered to Grant, ending the war.

Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States during the Civil War, Savior of the Union, assassinated days after winning the war.

Ulysses S. Grant

Leading Union general whose strategy led to the Northern victory, who later became the 18th U.S. president.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union General known for the March to the Sea.

George McClellan

Early Union general known for organization but criticized for caution. Ran unsuccessfully against Lincoln in the Election of 1864

Clara Barton

Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.

Harriet Tubman

Former enslaved woman who led multiple escapes of other slaves, abolitionist, and Union spy.

Frederick Douglass

Former enslaved man and influential abolitionist, Owner of the Abolitionist Newspaper, the North Star..

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America.

Robert E. Lee

Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Brilliant Confederate general; earned nickname at Bull Run.

J.E.B. Stuart

Confederate cavalry commander known for scouting and raids.

James Longstreet

Senior Confederate general and advisor to Lee, believed in defensive warfare.

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Confederate general known for cavalry tactics, after the war was the founder of the Klu Klux Klan.

Abolitionist

A person who wants to end slavery.

Contraband

Escaped slaves who sought safety with Union forces.

Draft (Conscription)

Required military service.

Casualties

Soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or missing.

Infantry

Soldiers who fight on foot.

Artillery

Cannons and other large weapons.

Plantation

Large Southern farms that relied on enslaved labor.