Chapter 14

Conscription Acts

a Confederate law that subjected all Southern men aged 18-35 (Later changed to 17-50) to military service

attrition warfare/ war of atrition

a military strategy in which a belligerent attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and materiel. The war will usually be won by the side with greater such resource

Total War

a war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded

Sherman

an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-65), for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy; policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States

Radical Republicans

Led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. Wanted to disenfranchise large numbers of Southern whites, protect black civil rights, confiscate the property of wealthy whites who aided the confederacy, and distribute the land among the freedmen

Apptomatox

Lee forced to totally surrender at this court house in 1865; Union treated enemy with respect and allowed Lee's men to return home to their families with their horses

Battle of Antietam

Lee, after winning at Bull Run, led army across the Potomac into enemy territory in MD; if they won , then Britain would recognize them and support them; McClellan was back in command of the Union army and he had the advantage of knowing Lee's battle plan, because a copy had been dropped by a Confederate officer; bloodiest single day of combat in entire war, where 22000 ppl killed or wounded; technically a draw but was decisive in that it stopped Confederacy from getting British support; Lincoln used this battle to announce plans for the Emancipation Proclamation

Battle of Vicksburg

spring of 1863, Grant began siege of the heavily fortified city, Mississippi; union artillery bombarded this city for seven weeks before the Confederates finally surrendered the city on July 4, giving full control of Mississippi River to the Union

First Battle of Bull Run/ Manassas

(1861) First major battler of the war (July 1861), 30000 federal troops marched from D.C. to attack Confederate forces; just as Union was going to win, General Stonewall Jackson countered and sent inexperienced Union troops in a scattered flight by to D.C.; battle ended the illusion of a short war

Confiscation Act

* Two Acts Passed on August 6, 1861 and stated that any property belonging to confederates used in war could be seized by federal forces. Any slaves used by their masters to benefit the war would be freed. Second Confiscation Act July 1862, authorized the seizure of all property of persons of rebellion and said slaves that came to Union lines were free forever

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

Peace Democrats/ Copperheads

A group of Democrats opposed any effort to support the fighting. The group planned to get enough followers elected to win control of Congress and force peace negotiations. Although they were not considered disloyal to the Union, they did not generate much support from Northerners who had friends and family members in the military

Battle of Gettysburg

A turning point in the Civil war that made it clear who the winner of the war was .A large battle in the American Civil War, took place in southern Pennsylvania from July 1 to July 3, 1863. Union General George G. Meade led an army of about 90,000 men to victory against General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army of about 75,000. Is the war's most famous battle because of its large size, high cost in lives, location in a northern state, and for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Homestead Acts

Act that allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30 - instead of public land being sold primarily for revenue, it was now being given away to encourage a rapid filling of empty spaces and to provide a stimulus to the family farm, turned out to be a cruel hoax because the land given to the settlers usually had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation, many farms were repo'd or failed until "dry farming" took root on the plains , then wheat, then massive irrigation projects

Burnside

Became general of Union army after Mclellan was fired. In 1862, Lincoln approved of his plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg. Lincoln relieved him of his duty because of his failure of another offensive campaign in January of 1863 and transferred him to the Western Theater

John Wilkes Booth

Attending Ford's Theater in Washington on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, less than a week after General Lee's surrender, Lincoln was shot in the head by this man, a radical pro-Southern actor.

Battle of shiloh

Confederate forces suprised union troops & drove them across the Tennesee river; union got backup and won the battle but it was one of the most bloody battles in the civil war

Habeas Corpus

Definition: the writ to know why you are being arrested and the writ to a speedy trial Lincoln suspended this so that he could place those for the south in jail in order to diminish opposers of the war.

Jefferson Davis

Elected the president of the Confederacy in 1861. According to the Confederate Constitution, he was provided a six-year nonsuccessive term and presidential item veto. He tried to gain more executive powers but other southern governors resisted.

Grant

General-in-chief of the Union Army from 1864 to 1869 during the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877. His presidency is know to be the most corrupt

Emancipation Proclmiation

Lincoln's 1863 declaration freeing slaves in the Confederacy

Moderate Republicans

Mainly wanted economical opportunities and white rights

Seige of Atlanta

September 1864. Hood was given command of Western Rebel forces to attack Union forces around Atlanta, but he is outnumbered and wastes men. Hood leaves Atlanta to launch an attack on Tennessee. Sherman launches "March to the Sea" and uses destructive war tactics.

McCellan

Served briefly as the General-in-Chief of the Union army after Winfield Scott retired from 1961-1862. He wanted his troops to be trained for a long time before the Peninsula Campaign (invasion of Virginia) in March 1862, which failed. He was replaced by John Pope, but was restored by the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. However, even knowing Lee's plan, McClellan failed to pursue Lee successfully, and Lincoln removed him for a final time.

Robert E. Lee

The Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia who was promoted to General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army in 1865. He was involved in most of the major battles of the Civil War.

13 Amenment

The constitutional amendment ratified after the Civil War that forbade slavery and involuntary servitude.

The monitor and the Merrimac

These two ships participated in history's first fight between armored ships. The powerful ironclads battled to a standstill when the one of the ships began taking on water and returned to Norfolk.

Sherman's March to Sea

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman led a force of 100,000 men to destroy and burn everything in Georgia and South Carolina that the Southerners might use to survive. He took Atlanta in September 1864 and completed his campaign in February 1865 in Columbia. As a pioneer in the tactics of total war, Sherman broke the will of the Confederacy to fight on.

The Morill Traiff/ Land Grant

This was an act passed by Congress in 1861 to meet the cost of the war. It raised the taxes on shipping from 5 to 10 percent however later needed to increase to meet the demanding cost of the war. This was just one the new taxes being passed to meet the demanding costs of the war.

Anaconda Plan

Winfield Scott's three-part plan to defeat the Confederates: 1) Use of the U.S navy to blockade the Southern ports and thus cut them off from essential supplies 2)Taking control of the Mississippi River to divide the Confederacy into two 3) Take Richmond with an army of 500,000 men

Fort Sumter

fort at Charleston harbor in SC, cut off from vital supplies and reinforcements by southern control; Lincoln sent provisions of food to the federal garrison and the Southern army attacked the envoy; this was the start of the war; captured after 2 days of incessant fire

Stonewall Jackson

he was a confederate general who was known for his fearlessness in leading rapid marches bold flanking movements and furious assaults. he earned his nickname at the battle of first bull run for standing courageously against union fire. During the battle of chancellorsville his own men accidentally mortally wounded him.

Clement Vallandigham

leader of the Copperheads during the Civil War. He was briefly imprisoned in 1863 for maintaining in a speech that the war was being fought to free African-American and enslave whites. The 1864 Democratic platform reflected his pro-Southern views

Greenbacks

paper currency; their value fluctuated according to to fortunes of the Northern armies