History

Acquisition of western Territories

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Educational Opportunities for freed slaves during reconstruction

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Labor relations, unions/ strikes during the reconstruction period

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New politcial alignments in the south during reconstruction

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Northern Civil War

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The Woman's sufferage movement

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The battles of Shiloh and Antietam

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The election of 1876

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The struggle between P. Johnson & Radical Republicans over Reconstruction

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Treaties with forgein powers during reconstruction

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Battle of the Little Bighorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-76) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. When a number of tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations, the U.S. Army, including Custer and his 7th Calvary, was dispatched to confront them. Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting under the command of Sitting Bull (c.1831-90) at Little Bighorn, and his forces were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer's Last Stand.

Radical Republicans

The Radical Republicans believed blacks were entitled to the same political rights and opportunities as whites. They also believed that the Confederate leaders should be punished for their roles in the Civil War. Leaders like Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner vigorously opposed Andrew Johnson's lenient policies. A great political battle was about to unfold. Americans had long been suspicious of the federal government playing too large a role in the affairs of state. But the Radicals felt that extraordinary times called for direct intervention in state affairs and laws designed to protect the emancipated blacks. At the heart of their beliefs was the notion that blacks must be given a chance to compete in a free-labor economy. In 1866, this activist Congress also introduced a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau and began work on a Civil Rights Bill

The Emancipation Proclamation

When the American Civil War (1861-65) began, President Abraham Lincoln carefully framed the conflict as concerning the preservation of the Union rather than the abolition of slavery. Although he personally found the practice of slavery abhorrent, he knew that neither Northerners nor the residents of the border slave states would support abolition as a war aim. But by mid-1862, as thousands of slaves fled to join the invading Northern armies, Lincoln was convinced that abolition had become a sound military strategy, as well as the morally correct path. On September 22, soon after the Union victory at Antietam, he issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." While the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom.

The Election of 1860 Candidates

Abe Lincoln was elected president. inherited a mess/ Southern states did not want a republincan president / south carolina suceeds from the union

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a Confederate general during the Civil War (1861-65). Despite having no formal military training, Forrest rose from the rank of private to lieutenant general, serving as a cavalry officer at numerous engagements including the Battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Brice's Crossroads and Second Franklin. Known for his maxim "get there first with the most men," Forrest was relentless in harassing Union forces during the Vicksburg Campaign in 1862 and 1863, and conducted successful raiding operations on federal supplies and communication lines throughout the war. In addition to his ingenious cavalry tactics, Forrest is also remembered for his controversial involvement in the Battle of Fort Pillow in April 1864, when his troops massacred black soldiers following a Union surrender. After the Civil War Forrest worked as a planter and railroad president, and served as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He died in 1877 at the age of 56.

Reconstruction Amendments

1865 -1870The Thirteenth Amendment was the Amendment that installed and legally abolished slavery in the United States. This was an important step in the unification of the north and south, as well as the progressive movement towards other legalactions. The Fourteenth Amendment, yet another of the Reconstruction Amendments, was the one that helped to redefine what was considered citizenship in the United States. This is also where the liberties and the rights of individuals were extendedand defined a bit more in order to encompass the broadening population of U.S. Citizens. The Fifteenth Amendment was the final installation in the Civil War Amendments. This Amendment gave people, only males at this time, the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous status in the United States. These Reconstruction Amendments helped to move the United States into a more unified and progressive nation.

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), the 17th U.S. president, assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Johnson, who served from 1865 to 1869, was the first American president to be impeached. A tailor before he entered politics, Johnson grew up poor and lacked a formal education. He served in the Tennessee legislature and U.S. Congress, and was governor of Tennessee. A Democrat, he championed populist measures and supported states' rights. During the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), Johnson was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. Six weeks after Johnson was inaugurated as U.S. vice president in 1865, Lincoln was murdered. As president, Johnson took a moderate approach to restoring the South to the Union, and clashed with Radical Republicans. In 1868, he was impeached by Congress, but he was not removed from office. He did not run for a second presidential term.

Charles J Giteau

Charles J. Guiteau Shot President Garfield July 2, 1881 The president's been shot, but he's not dead...yet. No, it would take much dirtier hands than Charles J. Guiteau's to kill President Garfield. When Guiteau, a lawyer with a history of mental illness, shot Garfield in the back on July 2, 1881, he thought God had told him to shoot the president. He also thought he had killed the president, but it wasn't the bullet that did the job. Over the next few weeks, surgeons tried to locate the bullet in the president's back. Even Alexander Graham Bell tried to help by inventing a metal detector. Unfortunately for the president, the bullet was imbedded so deeply in his body that the metal detector could not locate it. Even more unfortunate was that the importance of sterilization in the operating room hadn't been realized yet. It was the infection, caused by doctors probing the president's wound with unwashed hands, that eventually killed James A. Garfield.

Anaconda Plan

Definition: The Anaconda Plan was the initial strategy devised by Union leaders to put down the rebellion by the Confederacy in 1861. In April 1861 General Winfield Scott came up with the plan, which was basically to blockade the saltwater ports of the South and to stop all commerce on the Mississippi River so no cotton could be exported and no war supplies could be imported. The strategy was devised to weaken the south without invading it. It was nicknamed the Anaconda Plan because it would strangle the Confederacy the way the anaconda snake constricts its victim. Lincoln had doubts about the plan, and rather than wait for a slow strangulation of the Confederacy to occur, he chose to do battle with the Confederacy in ground campaigns. Yet elements of the Anaconda Plan, such as the naval blockade, did become a reality.

George McClellan

George Brinton McClellan was a major general during the American Civil War and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1864. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Born: December 3, 1826, Philadelphia, PA Died: October 29, 1885, Orange, NJ Spouse: Mary McClellan George B. McClellan (1826-1885) was a U.S. Army officer, railroad president and politician who served as a major general during the Civil War (1861-65). McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac in 1861 and briefly served as general-in-chief of the Union Army. McClellan was well liked by his men, but his reticence to attack the Confederacy with the full force of his army—despite a significant numerical advantage—put him at odds with President Abraham Lincoln. In 1862, McClellan's Peninsula Campaign unraveled after the Seven Days Battles, and he also failed to decisively defeat Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army at the Battle of Antietam later that year. Frustrated by McClellan's overly cautious tactics, Lincoln removed him from command of the Army of the Potomac in late 1862. McClellan would go on to mount a failed presidential campaign against Lincoln in 1864, and would later serve as the governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881.

The Compromise is 1877

Immediately after the presidential election of 1876, it became clear that the outcome of the race hinged largely on disputed returns from Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina--the only three states in the South with Reconstruction-era Republican governments still in power. As a bipartisan congressional commission debated over the outcome early in 1877, allies of the Republican Party candidate Rutherford Hayes met in secret with moderate southern Democrats in order to negotiate acceptance of Hayes' election. The Democrats agreed not to block Hayes' victory on the condition that Republicans withdraw all federal troops from the South, thus consolidating Democratic control over the region. As a result of the so-called Compromise of 1877 (or Compromise of 1876), Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina became Democratic once again, effectively marking the end of the Reconstruction era.

Gettysburg

It's the summer of 1863, more than two years into our nation's devastating Civil War, and the stakes have never been higher. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee, crosses into Pennsylvania. Trailed by the Union's Army of the Potomac, Lee's 75,000-strong army heads toward Harrisburg, but the forces meet instead near Gettysburg, a quiet farm town that would become synonymous with the epic battle that all but decided the outcome of the American Civil War. For three long days, the two sides clashed in one of the war's bloodiest engagements to decide the ultimate question:

The Panic of 1873

Jay Cooke and Co., a major Philadelphia investment firm, set off the Panic of 1873 when it declared bankruptcy on September 18. The boom in railroad reconstruction in the South coupled with successful westward expansion projects such as the Union Pacific Railroad had caused investors and speculators to bet heavily on new transportation projects (like a second transcontinental railroad, the Northern Pacific). Once Cooke realized his firm had overextended itself financially in rail investments and was unable to meet its debt obligations (loans), he had to declare bankruptcy. Fearing more defaults, banks around the country began calling in loans, causing more firms and investors to default, cutting off the rail industry's cash flow, causing more banks to call in more loans, and so on to cause a major financial depression; the New York Stock Exchange was closed for 10 days. Between 1873 and 1879, employment reached a high of 14%, 89 of the nation's 364 railroads went under, and 18,000 businesses failed.

John Wilkes Booth Conspiracy

Lincoln (Pres) Killed shot in head Ulysses S Grant Declined to go ( Andrew Johnson ( Vice Pres) George Atzerot The guy got drunk and chickened out and William Seward ( Sec of State) Lewis Powell Stabbed several times

Ft. Sumter

On Thursday, April 11, 1861, Confederate Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard dispatched aides to Maj. Anderson to demand the fort's surrender. Anderson refused. The next morning, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter and continued for 34 hours. The Civil War had begun! Anderson did not return the fire for the first two hours. The fort's supply of ammunition was not suited for an equal fight and Anderson lacked fuses for his exploding shells--only solid shot could be used against the Rebel batteries. At about 7:00 A.M., Union Capt. Abner Doubleday, the fort's second in command, was afforded the honor of firing the first shot in defense of the fort.On Saturday, April 13, Anderson surrendered the fort. Incredibly, no soldiers were killed in battle. The generous terms of surrender, however, allowed Anderson to perform a 100-gun salute before he and his men evacuated the fort the next day. The salute began at 2:00 P.M. on April 14, but was cut short to 50 guns after an accidental explosion killed one of the gunners and mortally wounded another. Carrying their tattered banner, the men marched out of the fort and boarded a boat that ferried them to the Union ships outside the harbor. They were greeted as heroes on their return to the North.

Thomas " Stonewall" Jackson

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-63) was a war hero and one of the South's most successful generals during the American Civil War (1861-65). After a difficult childhood, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in time to fight in the Mexican War (1846-48). He then left the military to pursue a teaching career. After his home state of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Jackson joined the Confederate army and quickly forged his reputation for fearlessness and tenacity during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign later that same year. He served under General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) for much of the Civil War. Jackson was a decisive factor in many significant battles until his mortal wounding by friendly fire at the age of 39 during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.