Civil War Study Guide

Richmond, VA

Capital of the Confederacy

Emancipation Proclamation

Document signed by Lincoln freeing the slaves in the Confederacy.

Draft

When Lincoln felt the time had come to pursue emancipation as a "military necessity," he read an initial draft of his Proclamation to his cabinet.

Anaconda Plan

a strategy created by Union General Winfield Scott in 1861, early on in the Civil War. It called for strangling the Southern Confederacy, much like an Anaconda. It was never officially adopted by the Union government. The Anaconda Plan was the Union's strategic plan to defeat the Confederacy at the start of the American Civil War. The goal was to defeat the rebellion by blockading southern ports and controlling the Mississippi river. This would cut off and isolate the south from the outside world. The plan was developed by General Winfield Scott at the beginning of the Civil War following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12th 1861. His problem was convincing fellow Union commanders that this was a good idea. Pretty much all of the Union commanders disliked this plan and referred to it as being too complacent. They wanted to attack the south and defeat them with the Union's overwhelming military and industrial might. General Scott's plan would require patience and time. The other generals wanted to crush the rebellion quickly and permanently as soon as possible. Union plan to cut the South in half making it difficult to supply the troops.

Washington, DC

capital of the union

Conscription

compulsory enlistment for state service, typically into the armed forces.

Draft riots

mob action to protest unfair Union conscription. The Union Conscription Act of Mar. 3, 1863, provided that all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 45 were liable to military service, but a drafted man who furnished an acceptable substitute or paid the government $300 was excused. A defective piece of legislation enforced amid great unpopularity, it provoked nationwide disturbances that were most serious in New York City, where for four days (July 13-16, 1863) there occurred large-scale, bloody riots.

Dred Scott Case

Dred Scott traveled, as a slave with his master, to Wisconsin, which was a free territory. When his master died without returning to a slave state he sued for freedom since he had lived in a free area in 1857. The Supreme Court ruled Africans were not citizens of the United States. They were property so they couldn't sue in court. It was also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in any territory.

Raid on Harper's Ferry (Harper's Ferry Arsenal 1859)

John Brown wanted to inspire slaves to fight for their own freedom He led the capture of the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry to provide weapons for a mass slave revolt. No slaves arrived to fight and John Brown was captured and executed by federal troops but his actions once again elevated tension between regions.

Bleeding Kansas

Kansas citizens were given the right to decide (popular sovereignty) the issue of slavery in their territory Both pro- and anti-slavery activists rushed to Kansas to influence the decision Pro-slavery activists destroyed Lawrence, Kansas. John Brown led the abolitionist revenge killing 5 men. Over the next 3 years over 200 people would be killed in the argument over slavery "Dress rehearsal for the Civil War" 1854-1858

Nat Turner Rebellion

Nat Turner was a slave who encouraged and led many slave rebellions Ultimately he led 70 slaves that killed 50 white men, women, and children. Even though Turner was executed when he was caught, fear of slave revolt spread in the south. As a result, slave codes became stricter, forbidding any slave meetings, slaves leaving their plantations, or possession of firearms or alcohol.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Written to oppose the Fugitive Slave Laws : it tells the story of the cruelty of slavery and dangerous escapes from slave patrols The book helped the abolitionist movement gain members and power The south decried it as a pack of lies and banned its sale.

Popular Sovereignty

A vote by the residents of a territory (in this case to decide the issue of slavery). This was used to win over the southerners.

Battle of Vicksburg

Battle Summary: Vicksburg, MS. Description: In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

Manifest Destiny

Belief that Americans had God given right.

Sectional differences

Economic: North= Industrial South=Agriculture/farming States' Rights: North=believed the federal government/Constitution are supreme throughout the nation South=believed in States' rights/believed that the federal government did not have the right to tell them what to do Sectionalism: North= wanted tariffs (taxes for imported or exported goods) on important goods, due to trade relationship with Great Britain.

Jefferson Davis

Elected president of the Confederacy.

Lincoln

Elected president of the U.S. in 1860. He was president during the Civil War. Also, he was the president of the Union.

Battle of Gettysburg Sherman's March

From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this "March to the Sea" was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman's soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. The Yankees were "not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people," Sherman explained; as a result, they needed to "make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."

rebels

Hotheads in Charleston SC forced secession. On April 12, 1861 they fired on Fort Sumter and after 33 hours of heavy shelling, the defenders took down the American flag and put up a white flag of surrender.

Battle of Fort Sumter

Hotheads in Charleston SC forced secession. On April 12, 1861 they fired on Fort Sumter and after 33 hours of heavy shelling, the defenders took down the American flag and put up a white flag of surrender. This angered people in the North. People had no doubts to save the Union by force. There was going to be no more compromise. The issues that have been dividing the nation would be settled by war. Robert Anderson and his garrison held onto Fort Sumter, but they were running out of supplies. If Lincoln supplied the garrison, he risked war, but if he ordered the troops to leave the fort, he would be giving into the rebels. Lincoln told SC that he was sending supply ships to Fort Sumter. Leaders of the Confederacy decided to prevent the federal government from holding onto the fort by attacking before the supply ships arrived. On April 12, 1861 at 4:30 PM, shore guns opened fire on the island fort. For 34 hours, the Confederates fired shells into the fort until Anderson was forced to surrender. No one was killed, but the attack on Fort Sumter was the beginning of the Civil War.

King Cotton Plan

King Cotton was a slogan summarizing the strategy used during the American Civil War by the Confederacy to show that secession was feasible and there was no need to fear a war by the United States. The idea was that control over cotton exports would make an independent Confederacy economically prosperous, ruin the textile industry of New England, and—most importantly—would force Great Britain and perhaps France to support the Confederacy militarily because their industrial economies depended on Southern cotton. The slogan was widely believed throughout the South and helped in mobilizing support for secession: by February 1861, the seven states whose economies were based on cotton plantations had all seceded and formed the Confederacy (C.S.A.). Meanwhile, the other eight slave states, with little or no cotton production, remained in the Union. Cotton was the most important agricultural product in the South. The South made a great deal of money on exporting cotton.

Robert E. Lee

Main commander of the confederate army.

Missouri Compromise

Maine asked to become a separate state. It wanted to enter the Union as a free state. This gave Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky the idea of the Missouri Compromise. Plan stated that Maine would enter the Union as a free state/Missouri as a slave state.

Yankees

Northerners

blockade

On the 19th of April, six days after the fall of Sumter, the President issued a proclamation declaring the blockade of the Southern States from South Carolina to Texas. On the 27th the blockade was extended to Virginia and North Carolina. "Blockades, to be binding, must be effective--that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy;" or, according to the general interpretation given to the treaty, sufficient to create an evident danger in entering or leaving the port. SCOTT'S GREAT SNAKE! An effort to cut off food, supplies, war material, or communications from a particular area by force. The union tried to blockade the Confederacy with the Anaconda.

Abolitionists

People who favor the abolition of a practice or institution, especially slavery.

Pro-slavery supporters

People who supported slavery.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Senator Stephen A. Douglas (IL) proposed to open Kansas/Nebraska for settlement. Both territories would be north of the Missouri Compromise line/ would not have slavery. To win over southerners, the decision about slavery would be settled by popular sovereignty-a vote by the residents of the territories. Congress repealed the Missouri Compromise/passed the Kansas-Nebraska. This outraged many Northerners/divided the Whigs Party. Southern Whigs= proslavery/support new law. Northern Whigs= opposed slavery Conscience Whigs=thought slavery was morally wrong and evil Others disliked slavery, but still supported compromise. The Whig Party couldn't agree, so it fell apart.

Slave spirituals

Slaves sang songs and hymns to make the hard, laborious work better and less miserable.

Compromise of 1850

Southerners loved Union but as 1800s came, they fell apart from the rest of the nation. Many people objected to attacks on slavery. California requested entry as a free state. This upset the balance between 15 free/15 slave states. Clay said that if Congress didn't reach a compromise, some southern states would secede from the Union. Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850 to satisfy the North: CA admitted as free state/Congress had to ban buying/selling slaves in DC. To satisfy South, clay suggested Utah/Mexico decide their slavery issues. He also asked Congress for a stronger fugitive slave law. This forced people in the North to return to runaway African slaves. Proposals didn't completely satisfy anyone. Finally, the compromise was passed (barely) but not for long.

Zebulon Vance

The "war governor" of NC

Battle of Appomattox

The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War. It was the final engagement of Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Lee, having abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, after the ten-month Siege of Petersburg, retreated west, hoping to join his army with the Confederate forces in North Carolina. Union forces pursued and cut off the Confederate retreat at the village of Appomattox Court House. Lee launched an attack to break through the Union force to his front, assuming the Union force consisted entirely of cavalry. When he realized that the cavalry was backed up by two corps of Union infantry, he had no choice but to surrender. The signing of the surrender documents occurred in the parlor of the house owned by Wilmer McLean on the afternoon of April 9. On April 12, a formal ceremony marked the disbandment of the Army of Northern Virginia and the parole of its officers and men, effectively ending the war in Virginia. This event triggered a series of surrenders across the South, signaling the end of the war. GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT

Confederate states

What the states that seceded called themselves (aka confederate states of America). Confederacy=south

Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history. Lincoln's famous speech given after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Middle passage

The Middle Passage was the route slaves took between Africa/America on the Triangular Trade Route. Slaves were traded for guns, rum, and tobacco. This impacted Africans, since they were mistreated and the conditions were crowded, hot, dark, unsanitary, and there was bad food. Also, when the slaves were sold, they were sometimes separated from their families.

Louisiana Purchase

The North surged ahead of the south by population (1800s). Each state was represented by population the House of Reps. Each state had two senators in the Senate. Due to this, Southerners waited to see what new states would enter the Union from Louisiana Purchase of 1803. a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

Battle of Antietam

The first battle fought in Union territory. Bloodiest single-day of the war.

Battle of Bull Run

The first major battle of the war

Ulysses S. Grant

The leading Union general at the end of the Civil War.

Antebellum

The time in history right before the Civil War.

Secede

To withdraw from or split away from

Union states

What the United States was called during the war. Union=North.

Border states

states between the North and the South-Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland.