AP US History Notes: Period 5 (1844-1877)

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Five Things to Know about Period 5:

1. Americans enthusiastically supported Western expansion in hopes of finding new economic opportunities. The philosophy of “Manifest Destiny” emerged as motivation for this westward migration. America’s expansionist philosophy extended into foreign policy as well, as evidenced by conflict over the Oregon territory with Britain and involvement in the Mexican-American War.
2. The Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision were all important attempts made by national leaders and the courts to resolve the issues surrounding slavery.
3. Debates about slavery—as well as economic, political, and cultural differences—led to a widening gap between the North and South. Despite various efforts at compromise, the South (11 states in all) seceded from the United States to form The Confederate States of America. America would soon afterwards become embroiled in the Civil War.
4. Due to superior military strategy, more resources, a larger population, and stronger infrastructure, the Union defeated the Confederacy. During the war, President Lincoln declared an end to slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, and after the war, worked to rebuild the country. After his assassination, many questions remained, however, about the role of the federal government and citizens’ rights, including women, African Americans, and other minorities.
5. After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment officially ended slavery, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments further expanded the rights of African Americans. Despite these efforts, African Americans faced great hardships in gaining equal rights and employment.

Key Topics-- Period 5 (1844-1877 C.E.)

Remember that the AP US History exam tests you on the depth of your knowledge, not just your ability to recall facts. While we have provided brief definitions here, you will need to know these terms in even more depth for the AP US History exam, including how terms connect to broader historical themes and understandings.

The Impacts of Manifest Destiny

• Manifest Destiny: Coined by journalist John O’Sullivan in 1845 to describe the belief that it was God’s will for the United States to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean. It also describes a more general expansionism, such as the dispute over the Oregon Territory that Polk campaign on and the U.S. expansion into the Southwest following the Mexican-American War.
• Oregon Trail: Throughout the 1840s, a flood of settlers began traversing the dangerous Oregon Trail. Families traveled up to six months in caravans, covering only about 15 miles per day with good weather. While living on the trail, some women began to run prayer meetings and schools to maintain some vestiges of home. Women also began to take on new roles outside of homemaking and childcare, such as repairing wagon wheels and tending to livestock.
• Martin Van Buren: Eighth President. Served 1837–1841. Van Buren’s presidency was marred by an economic depression resulting from the policies of his predecessor, Andrew Jackson. The Panic of 1837 dogged his administration. Van Buren was the first president to be born a U.S. citizen, and the only president to speak English as a second language (Dutch being the primary language spoken in his childhood home).
• Panic of 1837: A financial crisis that last from 1837 until the mid 1840s. Caused, in part, by Andrew Jackson killing the Bank of the United States and issuing the Specie Circular, the latter of which caused the value of paper money to plummet.
• Whig Party: The Whig Party was born out of opposition to Jacksonian Democrats. The Whigs favored economic nationalism, a strong central government, and rechartering the national bank. They believed in protectionist measures such as tariffs to support American industrialization. They also promoted Clay’s American System as a way to improve the roads, canals, and infrastructure of the country. The party collapsed over the question of slavery’s expansion into newly acquired territories.
• William Henry Harrison: Ninth President. Served from March 4 to April 4, 1841, famously dying after 31 days in office. A hero of the War of 1812, specifically the Battle of Tippecanoe, his lively campaign saw the Whigs cart model log cabins to towns and distribute hard cider to boast of Harrison’s “poor” background. His “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too” ticket easily defeated Van Buren in 1840. However, he gave his Inaugural Address on a cold, rainy day and neglected to wear a warm coat. He contracted pneumonia and died. See: John Tyler.
• John Tyler: Tenth President. Served April 4, 1841 to 1845. A Virginian Whig, Tyler was that first vice president to ascend to the presidency upon the death of the incumbent. This act set the precedent that all future vice presidents would follow, as the issue was something of a legal gray area constitutionally. Tyler sought the annexation of Texas but was unable to secure it. Nicknamed His Accidency.
• Daniel Webster: U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1827–1841, 1845–1850) and Secretary of State under Harrison and Tyler (1841–1843) and Fillmore (1850–1852). A Whig politician and member of the Great Triumvirate. During the debate over the Tariff of 1816, he complained that New England had not developed enough to withstand interruptions in its ability to trade freely with Britain. He opposed nullification. He often sought the presidency but never won. He resigned his Senate seat over the negative reception to his support for the Compromise of 1850.
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty: An 1842 treaty that divided a contested territory in northern Maine between the United States and Britain, settling Maine’s northern boundary.
• James K. Polk: Eleventh President. Served 1845–1849. An heir of sorts to Andrew Jackson, he advocated for Manifest Destiny. His campaign slogan was “Fifty-four forty or fight!” Yet while that slogan advocated a hardline position on the disputed Oregon Territory, he instead reached a diplomatic agreement with Britain. The border was drawn at the 49th parallel, which ceded what is now British Columbia, including Vancouver Island. He then oversaw the controversial Mexican-American War, expanding the U.S. into the Southwest. Having pledged to only serve one term, he declined to run for reelection in 1848.
• Mexican-American War: A conflict between the United States and Mexico. It took place from April 1846 to February 1848. Following the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered a wayward province whose independence was a legal fiction created under duress, war broke out between the two nations. The war was deeply controversial in its time, illustrating the deepening divide between free and slave states. Many political and military leaders of the Civil War fought in this war. It also led to a major U.S. territorial expansion. See: John Slidell, Santa Anna, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Wilmot Proviso.
• Sam Houston: As President of Texas, he advocated annexation by the United States. Later, as Texas governor, he resisted efforts at secession to join the Confederacy and was removed from office.
• Alamo: The site of a famous battle in San Antonio, Texas. A small force of Texans found themselves under siege from February 23 to March 6, 1836. Mexican forces led by Santa Anna eventually took the Alamo, killing all the defenders in the process. However, news of the resistance inspired other Texans to rebel, especially thanks to an open letter—To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World—by the Alamo’s commander, William B. Travis.
• Republic of Texas (Lone Star Republic): A republic declared in 1836. Santa Anna was forced to signed a peace treaty recognizing its independence from Mexico while in custody of Sam Houston’s forces. Its initial attempts to join the United States were rebuffed under Jackson and Van Buren for fear of tipping political power toward the slave states. Congress rejected Tyler’s efforts to absorb it in 1844. It was finally annexed under the Polk administration.

The Mexican-American War

• John Slidell: A special envoy sent by President Polk to to inform the Mexican government of U.S. desires to draw the Texas border at the Rio Grande, rather than the Nueces River farther south, and to purchase California. In anticipation of Mexican resistance to Slidell’s proposal, Polk amassed the U.S. Army, led by Zachary Taylor, along the disputed southern border of Texas at the Rio Grande River in January of 1846. See: Mexican-American War.
• Zachary Taylor: Twelfth President. Served 1849–1850. Died of a stomach ailment. Tyler was a Mexican-American War general. The Whigs nominated him in the 1848 election. While a slave-owner, he did not advocate the expansion of slavery, believing that the practice wasn’t economically viable in the West. See: Millard Fillmore.
• Abraham Lincoln: Sixteenth President. Served 1861 to his assassination on April 15, 1865. A former Whig who had opposed the Mexican-American War, he joined the newly formed Republican Party. His 1860 election triggered the secession of several states, and he deftly led the Union through the ensuing Civil War.
• Wilmot Proviso: Following the Mexican-American War, Representative David Wilmot proposed that slavery would be forbidden in any new lands acquired by the war with Mexico. The final bill passed in the House but failed in the Senate. This bill, the Wilmot Proviso, signaled the start of an even deeper crisis that would pit the North against the South over issues of slavery’s expansion, states’ rights, and government representation.
• Bear Flag Republic: An unrecognized independant California that existed from June 14 to July 9, 1846. Led by John C. Fremont, and annexed into the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Named for its flag, which featured a bear.
• John C. Fremont: Temporary leader of the Bear Flag Republic and later governor of California. Fremont is perhaps best remembered for his role in the 1856 presidential election, where he served as the very first nominee of the newly founded Republican Party. He came in second with a little over 33 percent of the popular vote. During the Civil War, he served as a Union major general, fighting mainly in the Midwest.
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Signed in February 1848, it ended the Mexican-American War. The treaty granted California and most of the Southwest (including current-day New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada) to the United States. The U.S. government agreed to pay war reparations in the sum of $15 million to the Mexican government. Despite continued bitter debate over the expansion of slavery, the treaty was ratified. See: Gadsden Purchase.

Continued Debate over Slavery

• Gadsden Purchase: An 1853 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico. It was ratified in 1854. The treaty resolved a border issue lingering from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In exchange for $10 million, the U.S. purchased a chunk of modern-day Arizona and a small portion of southwest New Mexico. This was the last notable expansion of the continental U.S.
• Abolitionists: Advocates for ending slavery. Aside from the influence of Enlightenment ideas about freedom, many abolitionists believed that slavery was sinful and, therefore, must be eliminated. As Charles Sumner said in 1860: “[God] set an everlasting difference between man and a chattel, giving to man dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth:—that fight we hold By His donation; but man over men He made not lord, such title to Himself Reserving, human left from human free.”
• George Fitzhugh: A notable proslavery intellectual. His sociology books detailed the allegedly happy lives of Southern slaves who were clothed, fed, and housed by benevolent slave owners. Fitzhugh argued in his book Cannibals All (1857) that African American slaves were much better off than the “Northern wage slave,” who was not provided with basic living needs for him and his family. Fitzhugh also argued that slavery itself could easily be applicable to whites.
• Free Soil Party: Inspired by the Wilmot Proviso, antislavery advocates from various political parties founded the Free Soil Party to oppose the expansion of slavery into the new Western territories. Martin Van Buren ran for president as a Free Soil candidate in 1848. The Free Soil Party’s membership was later absorbed into the new Republican Party.
• Lewis Cass: The Democratic nominee in the 1848 election. Cass advocated the use of “popular sovereignty” to resolve the slavery issue in the new territories, which would enable citizens of the territories to vote on whether slavery would be permitted. Taylor won the election, largely due to the emergent Free Soil Party taking many Northern Democratic votes from Cass.
• Gold Rush: Commonly refers to the California Gold Rush, which took place between 1848 and roughly 1855. The population of California ballooned as prospectors flocked to the state to seek a fortune in mining gold. Over 100,000 American Indians died as settlers and prospectors violently displaced them. See: Forty-Niners.
• Forty-Niners: Nickname for an influx of immigrants to California in 1849 seeking riches in the gold rush. A number of immigrants were Chinese.
• Henry Clay: A statesman and orator from Kentucky, Clay was known as “The Great Compromiser” for brokering multiple deals over nullification and slavery. He was also a proponent of infrastructure development that he called the American System. Clay notably ran for president on several occasions but never won. See: Compromise of 1850, Great Triumvirate.
• Compromise of 1850: A package of several bills that alleviated some of the tension between the North and South, delaying the Civil War for another decade. Orchestrated by Henry Clay. Its key points were: California was admitted as a free state; it created the New Mexico and Utah Territories, and popular sovereignty would determine slavery’s status in them; it banned the slave trade in Washington, D.C.; it enacted a stricter Fugitive Slave Act; it give Texas monetary compensation to drop its claims to part of New Mexico’s territory. See: Great Triumvirate, Millard Fillmore, Stephen A. Douglas, William H. Seward.
• Fugitive Slave Act: A controversial law that constituted part of the Compromise of 1850. It required that escaped slaves, upon their capture, would be returned to their masters, and that the authorities in a free state had to cooperate with this process. Nicknamed the “Bloodhound Law” by abolitionists for the common use of such dogs in hunting down slaves.
• Great Triumvirate: The collective label for Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster Webster. These three statesmen dominated U.S. politics in the nineteenth century prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. They would play roles in everything from the Nullification Crisis to the Compromise of 1850. As was often the case with early American politics, the name was a reference to Ancient Roman history, specifically the First and Second Triumvirates.
• William H. Seward: A radical abolitionist New York senator (1849–1861). He argued that slavery should be banned on moral grounds. Initially a Whig, he joined the Republican Party in 1855. Seward served as Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869. He was one of the officials targeted by John Wilkes Booth’s conspiracy but narrowly survived multiple stab wounds. He masterminded the purchase of Alaska in 1867, an act initially nicknamed Seward’s Folly.
• Millard Fillmore: Thirteenth President. Served 1850–1853. Took office after the sickness and death of Zachary Taylor. A longtime House member, Fillmore worked to help pass the Compromise of 1850. Notably, he dispatched the Perry Expedition to Japan. After failing to gain the Whig nomination in 1852, he served as the Know-Nothing Party nominee in 1856.
• Stephen A. Douglas: A senator from Illinois nicknamed the “Little Giant.” He is notable for creating the Kansas-Nebraska Act as well as participating in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. He initially supported the Dred Scott decision until it proved politically unpopular. He opposed the Lecompton Constitution. A staunch Unionist, he supported Lincoln during the Civil War, even holding the man’s stovepipe hat during the Inauguration ceremony. However, he died in June 1861 of typhoid fever. See: Freeport Doctrine.
• Underground Railroad: An attempt by abolitionist to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act, which assisted slaves escaping to the North.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe: American abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), an influential work of abolitionism.
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, this novel expressed Northern abolitionist frustrations with the Fugitive Slave Act. In the North, the novel quickly gained fame and convinced many that slavery was morally wrong. Meanwhile in the South, the commitment to protecting the institution of slavery intensified.
• Kansas-Nebraska Act: Proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas in 1854, it functionally repealed the Missouri Compromise. The act proposed the Nebraska Territory be divided into two regions, Nebraska and Kansas, and each would vote by popular sovereignty on the issue of slavery. It was presumed that Nebraska would become a free state, while Kansas would become a slave state. Douglas was able to push his bill through Congress, and President Pierce signed it into law in 1854. It helped spur the formation of the Republican Party.
• Republican Party: Also known as the GOP, for “Grand Old Party,” it emerged from the renewed sectional tension of the 1850s. The GOP was founded in 1854 by antislavery Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and Know-Nothings from the North and West. Although the GOP lost the 1856 presidential election, the popular John C. Fremont garnered many votes and won 11 of the 16 free states in the Electoral College.
• James Buchanan: Fifteenth President. Serve 1857–1861. A Pennsylvania Democrat, Buchanan had a storied career as a U.S. senator and representative, a Secretary of State, and an ambassador to both Russia and Britain. He essentially won his party’s nomination due to being abroad for so long, meaning he wasn’t tied to any of the contentious domestic issues of the 1850s. He supported the Dred Scott ruling, and the entry of Kansas into the Union as a slave state. Declined to run for a second term. Often ranked as the worst president for exacerbating regional tensions in the runup to the Civil War and then doing nothing to stop secession.
• Henry Ward Beecher: An abolitionist and clergyman. In response to proslavery “border ruffians” moving into Kansas from Missouri, he helped antislavery settlers establish footholds in the state and also funneled them rifles. Beecher attacked the Compromise of 1850 in Shall We Compromise, arguing that a Christian’s duty to feed and shelter slaves meant that liberty and slavery were compatible. During the Civil War, Lincoln sent him on a European speaking tour, rallying public support in order to prevent Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy.
• Bleeding Kansas: The nickname for a period of bloody conflict in what became Kansas. Lasted 1855–1859. Proslavery and antislavery forces engaged in a number of battles, massacres, and raids in order to determine whether Kansas would be a free or slave state. Due to decrying slavery in Kansas, Senator Charles Sumner was nearly beaten to death on the Senate floor by Preston Brooks. Due to the objections of Southern states, Kansas would not be admitted to the United States until the start of the Civil War. See: John Brown.
• Lecompton Constitution: A proposed proslavery constitution for Kansas. It protected slaveholders and excluded free African Americans from the protections of the Bill of Rights. It encountered intense debate in Congress, as President Buchanan supported it and Senator Douglas vehemently opposed it. Antislavery forces boycotted the ratification process, prompting a re-vote; this second vote was then boycotted by the proslavery forces, allowing Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a free state.
• Dred Scott v. Sandford: A landmark 1857 Supreme Court case that was a major contributing factor to the outbreak of the Civil War. Dred Scott, a slave in Missouri, spent years in Wisconsin and Illinois with his master. After his master’s death, Dred Scott sued for freedom. The Court ruled that all African Americans (free or slave) were not citizens. Taney also ruled that Congress had no right to deny citizens of their individual property, and therefore the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional for stripping slave owners of their rightful property once they moved north.
• Roger Taney: Fifth Chief Justice. Served 1836–1864. He also served as Attorney General (1831–1833). Appointed to both posts by Andrew Jackson, Taney is infamous for his majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Taney is also notable as the first Roman Catholic (and first non-Protestant generally) appointed to either a Presidential cabinet or the Supreme Court. His attempt to overturn Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in Maryland (Taney’s home state) was ignored by Lincoln. He died in October 1864, hated by the North for Dred Scott just as the South loathed him for siding with the Union.
• John Brown: An abolitionist who believed that arming slaves was the only way to get rid of slavery. He first became famous for leading a small band of fighters in Bleeding Kansas, killing several proslavery supporters. In 1859, he led a raid on Harpers Ferry, intending to takes its weapons to equip slaves on nearby plantations. Brown’s raid was quickly squashed, but it excited national furor, especially after he was executed.
• Harper’s Ferry: A federal arsenal in Virginia. John Brown planned to use it to arm slaves on surrounding plantations with the hope of generating a slave rebellion. Ultimately, he aimed to overthrow the institution of slavery. In October 1859, Brown led a march to Harper’s Ferry and seized the arsenal. However, Brown and his followers were captured by the Virginia militia, tried for treason, and hanged. Robert E. Lee was in command of opposition forces.

The Rise of Lincoln and the Election of 1860

• Freeport Doctrine: During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln challenged Douglas to rationalize the concept of popular sovereignty with the decision of the Dred Scott case. Douglas stated that territories would have to pass and enforce laws to protect slavery. In essence, he argued that Dred Scott would still be the law of the land but that, by willfully choosing to not arm themselves with the means to police the issue, territories could still functionally be free soil. This attempt to appease both wings of the Democratic Party alienated supporters in the South, dwindling the chances of Douglas to win the presidency in 1860.
• John C. Breckenridge: Vice President under James Buchanan, he was the Democratic party’s nominee for president in the 1860 election. Breckenridge won the South and Maryland, but no Northern states. He supported the Confederacy, becoming a general in its army.
• Constitutional Union Party: A political party formed by conservative and moderate Whigs concerned that Lincoln’s victory would lead to the end the Union. It nominated John Bell of Tennessee as its candidate in the 1860 election. The party hoped to garner enough Republican votes to prevent the Southern states from seceding. It won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.
• John Bell: A Tennessee Whig nominated by the Constitutional Union Party in 1860. Bell had a storied career in both house of Congress, including a short stint as Speaker of the House. His argument that the Constitution protected slavery won him the electoral votes of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. After the Civil War broke out, Bell supported the Confederacy.

The Secession of the South

• Confederate States of America: An illegal, unrecognized state that existed from 1861 to 1865. It attempted to secede from the United States in order to preserve the institution of slavery, as explicitly stated in the secession declarations of several states. It was led by by Jefferson Davis and its capital was in Richmond, Virginia. Its members included: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. It attempted to lay claim to territory in the American Southwest, as well as to Kentucky and Missouri. Union loyalists in Virginia counter-seceded from the CSA to form West Virginia.
• Jefferson Davis: The sole President of the Confederate States. Served February 22, 1862 to May 10, 1865. Davis was a Democrat from Mississippi. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he had served in the House (1845–1856) and Senate (1847–1851, 1857–1861), as well as Secretary of War (1853–1857) under Franklin Pierce. Davis was a micromanager who hampered the Confederate war effort by refusing to delegate issues or authority to his subordinates. He also lacked the political skill to overcome the decentralized, states’ rights structure of the Confederacy, which made him reliant on state governors in a way Lincoln did not deal with.
• John Crittenden: A senator from Kentucky, Crittenden proposed in early 1861 an amendment to the Constitution to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific border, with slavery prohibited north of the line and protected south of it. President-elect Lincoln rejected the compromise, as the extension of slavery opposed Republican beliefs.
• John C. Calhoun: A South Carolina politician and member of the Great Triumvirate. Calhoun was an ardent supporter of states’ rights, nullification, and slavery. Calhoun, who had served as Andrew Jackson’s vice president, resigned from that office to return to the Senate, where he felt he could better defend the virtues of nullification. From his deathbed, Calhoun wrote fierce attacks upon the proposed Compromise of 1850 and affirmed the right of secession.

The Civil War

• Fort Sumter: A sea fort near Charleston, South Carolina. On April 12–13, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired there. The Confederate Army fired upon the unarmed merchant vessel Star of the West, which was attempting to resupply the U.S. forces stationed at the fort.
• New York Draft Riots: New York City erupted into rioting from July 13 to July 16, 1863. Started primarily by Irish immigrants, hundreds were killed and entire city blocks were destroyed by fire. The rioters feared that newly emancipated African Americans would undercut them in the labor market, and they resented that wealthy men were able to buy exemptions from the military draft.
• Copperheads: Northern Democrats who demanded a peace settlement with the Confederacy. The term was initially a pejorative coined by Republicans, who likened the anti-war Democrats to the venomous copperhead snake, but was adopted by Democrats as a symbol of Liberty (owing to the Liberty Head large cent copper coins in circulation at the time).
• Civil War: Also known as the American Civil War, it was fought from 1861 to 1865. Several states seceded to form the Confederate States of America, an illegal act. The Confederacy sought to protect the institution of slavery from perceived interference by Lincoln, who had won the 1860 election without his name even being on the ballot in many Southern states, thus showcasing the relative declining power of the South over U.S. domestic policy. The war cemented the supremacy of the federal government over the states. The death toll is estimated to be over 620,000.
• Battle of Bull Run/Battle of Manassas: Known as Manassas in Confederate histories, the (First) Battle of Bull Run took place on July 21, 1861. It was an early Confederate victory in the Civil War, showing the North that this would be a long and bloody war, while Southerners felt emboldened by their victory. Union forces had expected an easy victory; many Congressman and D.C. elites actually brought their families along to hold picnics to watch the battle.
• “Stonewall” Jackson: A Confederate general who worked under Lee. Until his death in 1863, he was involved in every major battle in the eastern theater of the war. He is considered an able officer by military historians. Jackson was accidentally shot by Confederate soldiers in May 1863. He lost his arm and died from infection shortly thereafter.
• Winfield Scott: A U.S. Army general with a storied career in the nineteenth century. He commanded troops in the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. While too old for field service during the Civil War, he served as a strategist and masterminded the defense of Washington D.C. He ran for president in 1852 as a Whig but lost to Franklin Pierce. See: Anaconda Plan, Robert E. Lee.
• Anaconda Plan: Winfield Scott’s four phase plan to defeat the Confederacy. Phase 1 had the U.S. Navy blockaded all Southern ports. Phase 2 had the Navy split the Confederacy in half by taking control of the Mississippi River. Phase 3 had the Union Army cut through Georgia, and then travel up the coast to the Carolinas. Phase 4 saw the Union capture the Confederate capitol at Richmond.
• George McClellan: A veteran of the Mexican-American War, McClellan is most famous for his short tenure as general-in-chief of the Union Army during the Civil War. McClellan was a meticulous planner, taking care to plan his operations and train his men. However, he was timid on the battlefield, and frequently overestimated the strength of Confederate forces. Lincoln removed him as general-in-chief of the Union Army after Antietam. He was the Democratic nominee for president in 1864 election.
• Robert E. Lee: Lee served as an aide to Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War, where he gained experience in artillery and troop movements. During John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Lee commanded the mixed force of militia and soldiers that suppressed his attempted slave uprising. However, his legacy would be defined by betraying the U.S. and taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.
• Second Battle of Bull Run: A Confederate victory in August 1862. John Pope’s defeat created an opening for Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Antietam.
• John Pope: His defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run created an opening for Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Antietam.
• Antietam: A Civil War battle that took place on September 17, 1862. The bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history, it saw 22,717 killed. Despite stopping Lee’s invasion of Maryland, McClellan failed to exploit an opening to destroy Lee’s army and shorten the war, leading to Lincoln removing him as general-in-chief of the Union Army. Nevertheless, Antietam offered good enough news to allow Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
• Ambrose Burnside: Following Antietam, Lincoln selected him to replace General McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union Army. In turn, after the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was replaced by Joseph Hooker. Known for his distinctive facial hair, which provided the name for sideburns.
• Battle of Fredericksburg: A Civil War battle fought December 11–15, 1862. A lopsided Confederate victory, it saw Union forces suffer 3-to-1 casualties. Lincoln removed General Burnside as a result, replacing him with Joseph Hooker.
• Ironclads: A steam-powered warship that is armored (or “clad”) in iron plates. While an evolutionary halfway point between wooden sailing ships and all-metal ships, it represented a revolution in naval warfare. The South’s first ironclad was named Merrimac while the North’s first was called the Monitor. In a five-hour battle in March 1862, the two ships fought to a draw.
• Ulysses S. Grant: 18th President. Served 1869–1877. Grant served in the Mexican-American War, where he worked as a quartermaster. During the Civil War, he led Union forces in the West, winning famous victories at Shiloh and Vicksburg. He eventually was placed in command of the whole US Army in 1864, where he fought several engagements with Lee. He supervised Reconstruction and prosecuted efforts against the KKK. He served two terms as president, to decidedly mixed results. The cronyism of his administration led to a push for civil service reform.
• Battle of Gettysburg: Arguably the most significant battle of the Civil War. Fought July 1–3, 1863 in southern Pennsylvania. Over 50,000 men died there. It was the final major Confederate push into the North, and Lee’s defeat ended any hope of Britain or France recognizing the Confederacy as a legitimate nation. General Meade’s failure to chase and destroy Lee’s retreating army, however, lengthened the war.
• Gettysburg Address: A brief, poignant address by Abraham Lincoln commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg. It was delivered on November 19, 1863. Harkening back to the Declaration of Independence 87 years prior, Lincoln proposed the idea of equality—“all men are created equal”—as the core spirit of the Declaration and the Constitution. He goes on to reframe the context of the Civil War as a trial to see if equality can endure rather than being solely an issue of preserving the Constitution’s political framework (“the Union”).
• William Tecumseh Sherman: A Union general. Sherman’s army captured and destroyed Atlanta in September of 1864. Sherman then marched to South Carolina, and ordered troops to burn and destroy fields, homes, and cities as they marched through Georgia. His goal was to inflict misery on Southerners so they would be compelled to surrender. This strategy made the Civil War the first modern “total war,” with citizens as targets. Sherman was able to capture Savannah, Georgia in December 1864 and Columbia, South Carolina in February 1865. Famously disdained war itself, stating that its “glory is all moonshine.”
• Appomattox Court House: The site of the formal surrender of General Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Union forces led by General Grant. This act triggered a series of other Confederate forces surrendering, finally ending the Civil War. Took place on April 9, 1865, in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean.

The End of Slavery

• Confiscation Acts: Laws passed early in the Civil War that allowed Union troops to seize enemy property that could be used in an act of war. Slaves fit under the loose definition of property and could, thus, be confiscated. The second of these acts freed slaves in any territory that was currently in rebellion against the Union. These were the first steps in the emancipation.
• Emancipation Proclamation: Issued on January 1, 1863, it was an executive order that freed any slave in areas in open rebellion against the United States government. Slavery in the border states was still legal. Despite its limitations, the proclamation did much to bolster the morale of Union troops and supporters at home. However, some Unionists felt betrayed, believing they had been duped into fighting a war for emancipation instead of merely for the Union’s preservation. The Proclamation also served to dissuade Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy, as it reframed the moral context for the war as opposition to slavery. Abolitionism was popular with the voters in Britain and France.
• Thirteenth Amendment: It banned slavery and involuntary servitude, and functionally repealed the Three-Fifths Clause. Passed in early 1865 and ratified later that year, this amendment was one of Lincoln’s last major achievements prior to his assassination.
• John Wilkes Booth: While a famous actor in his own lifetime, Booth is best remembered for orchestrating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. Booth and his co-conspirators had tried on multiple occasions to assassinate Lincoln. In fact, other key cabinet figures were supposed to be killed simultaneously with Lincoln, but those plots failed for varying reasons. Shot while attempting to evade capture in the ensuing manhunt.

Social, Political, and Economic Consequences of the Civil War

• Writ of habeas corpus: During the Civil War, Lincoln exercised his executive power to limit Americans’ civil rights and liberties to protect the Union. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, which meant that the federal government could hold an individual in jail with no charges levied against him or her. For many alleged traitors, this meant long jail terms with no charges ever filed. Lincoln intended for this suspension to be only temporary, and the constitutional right would be restored after the war was over. When the Taney Court ruled his actions illegal, Lincoln ignored the court order.
• Homestead Act of 1862: A law that provided a settler with 160 acres of land if he promised to live on it and work it for at least five years. About 500,000 families took advantage of this Homestead Act, while many more bought land from private purveyors. Unfortunately, the parcels of land on the Great Plains were difficult to farm, owing to lack of rain and hard-packed soil. Many homesteaders left the land behind and returned home. See: sodbusters.
• Morrill Land Grant Act: Passed in 1862, this act gave federal lands to states for the purpose of building schools that would teach agriculture, engineering, and technical trades. It provided the foundation for the state university system still in use throughout the United States.
• Pacific Railway Act: This 1862 act approved building a transcontinental railroad that would transform the west by linking the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific. An example of infrastructure spending, it had been held up for several years by arguments over whether the route should be from the South or the North, given the economic opportunity such a rail line would provide.

Reconstruction

• Reconstruction: A period (1865–1877) of rebuilding and reforming the South following the Civil War. It is considered a failure, as African Americans were left destitute and disenfranchised for another century. See: Black Codes, Civil Rights Bill of 1866, Civil Rights Act of 1875, Freedman’s Bureau, Military Reconstruction Act, Ten Percent Plan, Wade-Davis Bill.
• Andrew Johnson: Seventeenth President. Served 1865–1869. One of only two presidents to be impeached; like Bill Clinton, he was not convicted. Took office after Lincoln’s assassination. A Democrat who had run with the Republican Lincoln, he was disliked by Congress, especially for his mild terms for Reconstruction and disinterest in protecting newly freed slaves; this all led to Radical Republicans passing the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Ten Percent Plan: Also known as the “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction,” Lincoln proposed this plan in 1863 as a way to bring Southern states back under the wing of the federal government. The plan reestablished state governments and required at least 10 percent of the states’ voters to swear an oath of loyalty to the United States and the Constitution. Lincoln was also prepared to grant complete pardons to any former Confederate, but required an oath of allegiance and agreement to eliminate slavery. See: Wade-Davis Bill.
• Wade-Davis Bill: Passed by both houses in 1864 in response to Lincoln’s Ten Percent Plan. It required that 50 percent of Southern state voters take the loyalty oath, and it allowed only those citizens who had not been active members or supporters of the Confederacy to approve of the new state constitutions. Exercising his executive power, Lincoln pocket-vetoed the bill by refusing to sign it.
• Freedman’s Bureau: A government program created in 1865 to help manage and assist newly emancipated slaves. The bureau provided assistance in the form of food, shelter, and medical attention to African Americans. Eventually, the bureau would establish schools across the South to help educate large numbers of former slaves. The Freedman’s Bureau struggled as Congress refused to increase its funding, which expired in 1872.
• Black Codes: Laws passed by Southern legislatures in response to legal emancipation of slaves. These codes restricted the actions, movements, and freedoms of African Americans. Under these codes, African Americans could not own land, so they were tied instead to small plots leased from a landowner. This began the system of sharecropping. See: Jim Crow laws, Reconstruction.
• Sharecropping: Sharecroppers would lease land and borrow supplies to till their plots, while giving a significant portion of their harvest to the landowner as payment for the loan. This exploitative system ensured that farmers were never able to harvest enough to pay the landlord and feed their families. Generations of African Americans remained tied to their plot of land until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. See: Black Codes, Great Migration.
• Civil Rights Bill of 1866: It was designed to end the Black Codes by giving African Americans full citizenship. As expected, Johnson vetoed the bill, and Congress overturned his veto. Many Republicans were concerned that a future return of a Democratic majority might mean the end of the bill they had worked so hard to pass. Therefore, they needed a more permanent solution in the form of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Fourteenth Amendment: A response to the lackluster Reconstruction efforts by President Johnson. Proposed in 1866 and ratified in 1868, it protected the rights of all U.S. citizens, granted all African Americans full citizenship and civil rights, and required states to adhere to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. Furthermore, it disallowed former Confederate officers from holding state or federal office. It would decrease the proportional representation of any state that denied suffrage to any able citizen.
• Military Reconstruction Act: Passed in 1867 by a Radical Republican Congress, it placed the South under martial law, dividing the South into five districts that would be governed by a Union general stationed in each. The act further tightened the readmission requirements of former Confederate states by requiring petitioning states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and provide for universal manhood suffrage. The act was a response to the leniency displayed by President Johnson toward the Confederacy.
• Tenure of Office Act: An 1867 law. It disallowed the president (Johnson) from discharging a federal appointee without the Senate’s consent. With the act, Republicans in Congress attempted to protect their positions from Johnson. The president chose to ignore the act and fired Republican Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The House promptly submitted articles of impeachment to the floor by charging Johnson with 11 counts of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
• Edwin Stanton: Secretary of State (1862–1868) under the Lincoln and Johnson administrations. A Radical Republican, he supported Congress over Johnson when it came to Reconstruction. His firing violated the Tenure of Office Act, which provided the Radical Republican Congress an excuse to impeach the Johnson. The Senate also reappointed Stanton as Secretary of War, although he resigned following the failure to convict Johnson.
• Thaddeas Stephens: He was a Radical Republican member of the House, serving until his death in August 1868. A firebrand abolitionist and proponent of civil rights for African Americans, he was at the forefront of pushing a sterner Reconstruction agenda over President Johnson’s objections. He served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee during the Civil War, giving him significant leeway to tackle his goals.
• Charles Sumner: U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851–1874). A Radical Republican abolitionist, he pushed for the protection of civil rights in Southern states. Famously caned on the floor of the Senate by Preston Brooks.
• Fifteenth Amendment: Ratified in 1870, in barred any state from denying a citizen’s right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous servitude. However, it did not ban poll taxes or literacy tests, which would be a loophole exploited by whites after the end of Reconstruction to suppress African American voters.
• Civil Rights Act of 1875: The last of the Reconstruction-era civil rights reform made it a crime for any person to be denied full and equal use of public places, such as hotels, rail cars, restaurants, and theaters. Unfortunately, this act lacked any wording to enforce it, and it was therefore ignored by most states, both Northern and Southern. See: Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Scalawags: Coined by Southern Democrats, it was a derogatory term for Southern Republicans that meant they were pirates who sought to steal from state governments and line their own pockets. See: carpetbagger, Reconstruction.
• Carpetbaggers: A pejorative term for the stereotype of the Northerner who packed all of his worldly possessions in a suitcase made from carpet, with the aim of moving to the South during Reconstruction to make a fortune. In the present day, the term is used to describe politicians who move to an area they have no previous connection with in order to gain election.
• Ku Klux Klan: An underground society of whites who ruthlessly and successfully used terrorist tactics to frighten both white and black Republicans in the South. While quashed by the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871, the organization survived, resurfacing and spreading throughout the country in later years. See: Redeemers.
• Force Acts: Laws passed in 1870 and 19871 that authorized the use of federal troops to quell violence and enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. While these acts were moderately successful in limiting the KKK’s activities, the group continued to exist, resurfacing in the 1920s in response to an influx of Southern and Eastern European immigrants.
• Redeemers: A political movement that sought to return control of the former Confederacy to white Southerners. Their policy, Redemption, sought to purge the South of the influence of Republicans, carpetbaggers, and newly emancipated slaves. See: Compromise of 1877, Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan.
• Exodusters: A term for thousands of former slaves who uprooted their families and moved toward Kansas between 1878 and 1880. These migrants called themselves Exodusters, because they believed that their promised land lay somewhere in the West.

Compromise of 1877

• Rutherford B. Hayes: Nineteenth President. Served 1877–1881. While a Civil War veteran and a Republican, he ended Reconstruction as part of the Compromise of 1877 to resolve the disputed 1876 election. Enacted modest civil service reform. Ordered federal troops to break up the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Pledged not to run for reelection and returned to Ohio.
• Samuel Tilden: A Democratic governor from New York, he had a reputation for political reform, largely from fighting Tammany Hall corruption. With civil service reform a hot button issue after the corruption of the Grant administration, he became the Democratic nominee in the 1876 Presidential election. Won the popular vote but lost the election. See: Compromise of 1877.
• Filibuster: An act of obstructionism that prevents the normal workings of the legislature. An elected official while continue talking rather than allow debate on a bill to be closed, thus preventing a vote from taking place. In the U.S. Senate, it was never used until 18 37.
• Compromise of 1877: A deal that resolved the hung election of 1876. It provided that Rutherford B. Hayes would become president only if he agreed to remove the last remaining federal troops stationed in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The end of martial law in the South signaled the end of Reconstruction in the United States. See: Samuel Tilden.