APUSH Ch. 19 Vocab

Abraham Lincoln

President during the Civil War. Said the South being a separate country was infeasible. Weaponized the railroads and used telegraphs to fight the war on a different front that the south didn’t have. Freed all slaves.

Napoleon III

The legendary French general who saw the Civil War as an opportunity to invade and occupy Mexico City. Violated the Monroe Doctrine hoping the US would collapse. This failed and the North sent aid to the rebellion in Mexico City. After seeing his cause was doomed, Napoleon made the French evacuate.

Maximilian

An Austrian Archduke installed by Napoleon as emperor of Mexico City.

Jefferson Davis

Only president of the Confederacy. Not very popular with the public and tended to go against public opinion. Talks of his impeachment were thrown up.

Elizabeth Blackwell

America’s first female physician who helped organize the U.S. Sanitary Commission to assist the Union’s armies in the field. Helped women gain organization skills and self confidence that would propel the women's movement.

Clara Barton

A woman who turned nursing into a respectable profession and in the process opened a major area of employment for women. She served as a volunteer medic in the Civil War, and later started the Red Cross.

Sally Tompkins

Similar to Clara Barton but in the South. Ran an infirmary for wounded soldiers and was awarded the rank of captain.

Fort Sumter

South Carolina location where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in April of 1861, after Union forces attempted to provision the fort.

Border states

Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia. In order to keep them in the Union, Lincoln insisted the war wasn’t about abolishing slavery but 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 West Virginia were independent farmers and miners who did not own slaves and thus opposed the Confederate cause.

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

Writ of Habeas Corpus

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

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.

Greenbacks

Paper currency issued by the Union Treasury during the Civil War. Inadequately supported by gold, greenbacks fluctuated in value throughout the war, reaching a low of 39 cents on the dollar

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.

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.

Pacific Railroad Act

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