ch 20-21 vocab

battle of bull run

battle of bull run

First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory.

peninsula campaign

Union General George B. McClellan's failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate Capital. Had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time.

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merrimack vs monitor

Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose success against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought an historic, tough inconsequential battle in 1862

second battle of bull run

Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push further into the North.

battle of antietam

Landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the "victory" he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

emancipation proclamation

Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines.

13th amendment

Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate States were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union.

battle of fredericksburg

Decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines.

battle of gettysburg address

abraham lincoln’s oft-quoted speech, delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold the values of liberty.

battle of fort henry and fort donelson

Key victory for Union General Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North's hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant's attacks deeper into Tennessee.

battle of shiloh

Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23,000 soldiers and ended in a marginal Union victory

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seige of vicksburg

2 and a half month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. Vicksburg finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863, giving the Union Army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two.

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sherman’s march

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of "total war," purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort.

congressional commitee on the conduct of the war

Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs. Largely under the control of Radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation.

copperheads

Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft and, after 1863, emancipation.

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the man without a country

Edward Everett Hale's fictional account of a treasonous soldier's journeys in exile. The book was widely read in the North, inspiring greater devotion to the Union.

union party

A coalition party of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Northern Democrats.

wilderness campaign

A series of brutal clashes between Grant and Lee's armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant's capture of Richmond in April of 1865, Having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.

appomattox courthouse

Site where Lee surrendered to Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the "Wilderness Campaign."

reform bill of 1867

Granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramatically expanding the electorate. The success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the Bill.

Freedmen’s bureau

Created to aid newly emancipated slaves by providing food, clothing, medical care, education, and legal support. Its achievements were uneven and depended largely on the quality of local administrators.

10 percent reconstrucion plan

1863): Introduced by President Lincoln, it proposed that a state be readmitted to the Union once 10 percent of its voters had pledged loyalty to the United States and promised to honor emancipation.

Wade davis bill

Passed by Congressional Republicans in response to Abraham Lincoln's "10 percent plan," it required that 50 percent of a state's voters pledge allegiance to the Union, and set stronger safeguards for emancipation. Reflected divisions between Congress and the President, and between radical and moderate Republicans, over the treatment of the defeated South.

Black codes

1865-1866): Laws passed throughout the South to restrict the rights of emancipated blacks, particularly with respect to negotiating labor contracts. Increased Northerner's criticisms of President Andrew Jackson's lenient Reconstruction policies.

Pacific railroad act

(1862): Helped fund the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad with the use of land grants and government bonds.

Civil rights bill

(1866): Passed over Andrew Johnson's veto, the bill aimed to counteract the Black Codes by conferring citizenship on African Americans and making it a crime to deprive blacks of their rights to sue, testify in court, or hold property.

14th amendment

ratified 1868): Constitutional amendment that extended civil rights to freedmen and prohibited states from taking away such rights without due process.

Reconstruction act

(1867): Passed by the newly elected Republican Congress, it divided the South into five military districts, disenfranchised former confederates, and required that Southern states both ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and write states constitutions guaranteeing freedmen the franchise before gaining readmission to the Union.

15th amendment

(ratified 1870): Prohibited states from denying citizens the franchise on account of race. It disappointed feminists who wanted the Amendment to include guarantees for women's suffrage.

Ex parte milligan

1866): Civil War Era case in which the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals could not be used to try civilians if civil courts were open.

Redeemers

Southern Democratic politicians who sought to wrest control from Republican regimes in the South after Reconstruction.

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Woman’s loyal leauge

(1863-1865): Women's organization formed to help bring about an end to the Civil War and encourage Congress to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery.

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Union league

Reconstruction-Era African American organization that worked to educate Southern blacks about civic life, built black schools and churches, and represented African American interests before government and employers. It also campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates and recruited local militias to protect blacks from white intimidation.

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Scalawags

Derogatory term for pro-Union Southerners whom Southern Democrats accused of plundering the resources of the South in collusion with Republican governments after the Civil War.

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Carpetbaggers

Pejorative used by Southern whites to describe Northern businessmen and politicians who came to the South after the Civil War to work on Reconstruction projects or invest in Southern infrastructure.

Ku klux klan

An extremist, paramilitary, right-wing secret society founded in the mid-nineteenth century and revived during the 1920s. It was anti-foreign, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-pacifist, anti-Communist, anti-internationalist, anti-evolutionist, and anti-bootlegger, but pro-Anglo-Saxon and pro-Protestant. Its members cloaked in sheets to conceal their identities, terrorized freedmen and sympathetic whites throughout the South after the Civil War. By 1890s, Klan-style violence and Democratic legislation succeeded in virtually disenfranchising all Southern blacks.

Force acts

(1870-1871): Passed by Congress following a wave of Ku Klux Klan violence, the acts banned clan membership, prohibited the use of intimidation to prevent blacks from voting, and gave the U.S. military the authority to enforce the acts.

Tenure of office act

(1867): Required the President to seek approval from the Senate before removing appointees. When Andrew Johnson removed his secretary of war in violation of the act, he was impeached by the house but remained in office when the Senate fell one vote short of removing him.

Seward’s folly

(1867): Popular term for Secretary of State William Seward's purchase of Alaska from Russia. The derisive term reflected the anti-expansionist sentiments of most Americans immediately after the Civil War.