Unit 1: Civil War and Reconstruction (Module 1, Lessons 5/6/7)

Vicksburg

Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River which fell to the forces of Union General Grant in July 1863, thus splitting the Confederacy into two parts.

Clara Barton

Dedicated Union nurse who founded the American Red Cross after the war.

Stephen Douglas

Democratic incumbent running opponent against Abraham Lincoln in the 1858 race for US Senate.

Franklin Pierce

Democratic presidential candidate who gained victory in 1852 when the Whig vote in the South fell dramatically.

Harriet Tubman

One of the most famous conductors of the Underground Railroad who was born a slave in Maryland in 1820 or 1821 and helped 300 slaves flee to freedom.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Published a novel called Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, which stressed that slavery was not just a political contest, but also a great moral struggle.

Abraham Lincoln

Republican candidate who ran against Stephen Douglas in 1858 race for US Senate.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

Secret organization that used terrorist tactics for white supremacy in the south after the civil war.

Stonewall

Nickname given to Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson after his brave conduct at the Battle of Bull Run.

Appomattox Court House

Virginia town where Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865.

scalawag

White southerner who joined the Republican Party after the civil war

Reconstruction

(1865-1877) period during which the U.S. began to rebuild after the Civil War.

Andrew Johnson

17th President of U.S.; from Tennessee; Lincoln's successor who tried to break the planters' power by excluding high ranking former Confederates and wealthy southern landowners from taking oath needed to restore their voting privileges; believed that "white man alone must manage the South."

John Wilkes Booth

26-year-old actor and southern sympathizer who assassinated Abraham Lincoln

carpetbagger

A northerner who moved to the south after the civil war

Dred Scott

A slave who appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that that living in a free state (Illinois) and a free territory (Wisconsin) had made him a free man.

Income tax

A tax that takes a specified percentage of an individual's income.

Fourteenth Amendment

Adopted in 1868 and makes all persons born, naturalized, or former slave in the U.S. to be citizens and guarantees equal protection under the law.

Fifteenth Amendment

Adopted in 1870 and prohibits denial of voting rights to people for race or for being former slaves.

Thirteenth Amendment

Amendment adopted in 1865 that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.

Robert E. Lee

Commanding general of the Confederate armies in the east; from Virginia and was determined to save the Confederate capital; kept Union armies at bay for three years using expert military defensive tactics.

Freedman's Bureau

Established by Congress to provide food, clothing, hospitals, legal protection, and education for former slaves and poor whites in the south in 1865.

Emancipation Proclamation

Executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing slaves in all regions behind Confederate lines.

Gettysburg Address

Famous speech by Abraham Lincoln in November 1863, at the dedication of a national cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Hiram Revels

First African American senator

secession

Formal withdrawal of a state from the Union.

Jefferson Davis

Former senator of Mississippi who was unanimously elected as president by the Confederates.

William Tecumseh Sherman

Important Union general who served under Ulysses S. Grant in both the west and east; famous for his "March to the Sea" through Georgia in 1864

Bull Run

Location of first bloodshed on the battlefield during the Civil War; only 25 miles from Washington, DC

Antietam

Maryland creek where forces of Union General McClellan met Confederate General Lee's army, leading to a battle on September 17 that proved to be the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history.

Radical Republicans

Minority of Republicans in Congress who wanted to destroy the political power of former slaveholders and give full citizenship and voting rights to African Americans

Fort Sumter

Most important out of four southern forts which is located on an island in Charleston Harbor.

Gettysburg

Sleepy town in southern Pennsylvania where the most decisive battle of the war was fought in July 1863.

popular sovereignty

System in which the residents vote to decide an issue.

Underground Railroad

System of routes along which runaway slaves were helped to escape to Canada or to safe areas in the free states.

sharecropping

System which landowners give farm workers land, seed, and tools in return for a part of the crops they raise.

Confederacy

The Confederate States of America, a confederation formed in 1861 by the Southern states after their secession from the Union.

conscription

The drafting of citizens for military service.

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general and decisive military commander whose forces captured two western forts in just eleven days; Lincoln gave him command of the Union army in the east which led to Union victory