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Civil War Vocabulary List
- Missouri Compromise of 1820- Missouri
Economic, Social & Political Events
- Anti-Slavery Movement- Main
became slave state, Maine a free state, territories
above 36’30 would be free
- Dred Scott v. Sanford- Scott sued for
freedom on basis of living in free territory with
his owner; Supreme Court ruled against Scott;
also ruled that Congress could not prohibit
slavery in any federal territory
- Compromise of 1850- Resolution by
Henry Clay that temporarily settled the slavery
issue between the North and South; Included:
1. California would be a free state
2. New Mexico & Utah would decide the slavery
issue themselves (popular sovereignty)
3. Sale of slaves in DC abolished
4. Texas gave up claims to New Mexico for 10
million dollars
5. A stronger Fugitive Slave Act was passed
- Fugitive Slave Law- All citizens in the US
had to assist in the return of runaway slaves
- Raid on Harper’s Ferry- Attack on the
federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in an
attempt to arm the slaves for an uprising; led by
John Brown who was captured and hanged
organization was American Antislavery Society
- Slave Codes- Passed by Southerners to
further restrict slaves because of rebellions such
as Nat Turner’s
- Underground Railroad- Network of escape
routes to the North
- Harriet Tubman- Escaped slave who
became a conductor on the Underground
Railroad
- Kansas-Nebraska Act- 1854 federal law
that established popular sovereignty in newly
organized territories and overturned the Missouri
Compromise
- Popular Sovereignty- Idea by which the
people of a territory decide the slavery issue by
vote
- Bleeding Kansas- Nickname for Kansas
that resulted after proslavery and antislavery
forces began fighting over the slavery issue
- John Brown- First white American
abolitionist to advocate and practice insurrection
as a means to the abolition of slavery; belief in
confrontation led him to kill five pro-slavery
southerners in what became known as the
Pottawatomie Massacre in May 1856; response
to the raid of the "free soil" city of Lawrence
- Sumner-Brooks Incident- Cane beating of
Senator Charles Sumner by Congressman
Preston Brooks; resulted from Sumner’s remarks
about the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Brooks’
relative Senator Andrew Butler
- Free Soil Party- Political party formed by
antislavery Whigs and Democrats in 1848;
opposed the expansion of slavery into the
territories
- Republican Party- Formed as a direct
reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act; did not
want to see slavery expand into the territories
- Lincoln-Douglas Debates- Debates held
during Illinois Senate campaign; Lincoln
asserted his belief that slavery was “a moral,
social, and political wrong”; Douglas reaffirmed
his belief that the people could still prohibit
slavery in a territory by refusing to pass the local
laws to make it work
- Freeport Doctrine- Position held by
Stephen Douglas that people in a territory have
the power to prohibit slavery by refusing to pass
local laws necessary to make a slave system
work
Causes of the Civil War
- Election of 1860- Candidates: Stephen
Douglas, John Breckinridge, John Bell, and
Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln received only 40% of
the popular vote but his electoral vote was a
landslide with 180 votes; seven southern states
decided to secede because Lincoln won without
winning a single southern state
- Lincoln- Sixteenth President of the United
States (1861-1865); known for his effective
leadership during the Civil War and his
Emancipation Proclamation declaring the end of
slavery in Confederate-held territory
- Secession- After Lincoln was elected, but
before he was inaugurated, seven Southern states
withdrew from the US; Buchanan, the lame duck
president, decided to leave the problem for
Lincoln to take care of
- Fort Sumter, SC- Site of the opening
engagement of the Civil War; one of only two
forts in the South still under Union control; on
April 12, 1861, the Confederate Army began
bombarding the fort, which surrendered on April
14; Congress declared war on the Confederacy
the next day
- Confederacy- Joining of 11 southern states
into the Confederate States of America
- Jefferson Davis- Chosen as president of the
Confederacy in 1861
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Civil War Vocabulary List
- Western campaign- Union attempts to
The Civil War
- Robert E. Lee- General of Confederate
capture and control Mississippi River
-New Orleans- major port at mouth of
Mississippi- captured by Union in 1863
- Vicksburg- Site of battle in Mississippi in
which Grant besieged the city for six months
until the Confederates surrendered; allowed the
Union control of the Mississippi River
- Writ of Habeas Corpus- Lincoln
suspended this writ, which states that a person
cannot be arrested without probable cause and
must be informed of the charges against him and
be given an opportunity to challenge them;
throughout the war, thousands were arrested for
disloyal acts
- Election of 1864- Candidates: Abraham
Lincoln and George McClellan; Lincoln won
with 212 electoral votes to 21, the popular vote
was much closer; Lincoln had fired McClellan as
commanding general of Union troops
- William T. Sherman’s March- General
William T. Sherman’s march through the South
from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Savannah, and
back up to Bentonville and Durham, North
Carolina; Sherman launched a campaign of total
war, destroying anything the Confederates could
use in the war
- Anaconda Plan- U.S. General-in-Chief
Winfield Scott’s plan to defeat the Confederacy:
blockade the southern & eastern coasts, seize
control of the Mississippi River so as to break
the Confederacy in two and then strike from all
sides at once
- Copperheads- Lincoln believed that anti-war
Northern Democrats harbored traitorous ideas
and he labeled them “Copperheads”; poisonous
snakes waiting to get him
forces during the Civil War; surrendered
Confederate forces to Grant at Appomattox
Courthouse
- Thomas “Stonewall” JacksonConfederate general known for his swift strikes
against Union forces; earned nickname
Stonewall by holding his forces steady under
extreme pressure at the First Battle of Manassas;
died of pneumonia after being shot by one of his
own men at the Battle of Chancellorsville
- George McClellan- Early Union army
leader in the Civil War; careful organizer and
planner who moved too slowly for northern
politicians; ran against President Abraham
Lincoln in the election of 1864
- Ulysses S. Grant- Commander of Union
forces during the Civil War; accepted Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
- Eastern campaign- Union attempts to
capture Confederate capitol of Richmond
- First Battle of Bull Run/ManassasConfederate soldiers charged Union men who
were en route to besiege Richmond; Union
troops fled back to Washington; Confederates
didn’t realize their victory in time to follow; first
major battle of the Civil War – both sides were
ill-prepared
- Antietam- General Lee led his army into
enemy territory in Maryland, hoping to gain a
major victory in order to convince Britain to give
official recognition & support to the
Confederacy; Union troops intercepted the
Confederate troops and the bloodiest single day
of the war resulted; Lee retreated to Virginia
- Emancipation Proclamation- issued Sept.
22, 1862 after the Northern victory at the Battle
of Antietam; Lincoln freed all slaves in the states
that had seceded; Lincoln had no power to
enforce the law
- Chancellorsville- fought in VirginiaConfederacy wins but Stonewall Jackson killed
- Gettysburg- Considered bloodiest battle of
the war; major turning point; South invaded
North and lost; France & Great Britain would not
come in on the side of the Confederacy
- Gettysburg Address- A two-minute speech
by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War at the
dedication of a national cemetery on the site of
the Battle of Gettysburg (Nov. 19, 1863)
- African-American ParticipationApproximately 180,000 escaped slaves and
freemen served in Union Army
- Appomattox Courthouse- Location of
Confederate General Lee’s surrender to Union
General Grant ending the Civil War
- John Wilkes Booth- Shot Lincoln at Ford’s
Theatre on April 14, 1865; escaped by jumping
onto the stage (broke his leg) and fleeing town
on a waiting horse; later found in a barn and
refused to come out; barn was then set on fire;
Booth was shot, either by himself or a soldier
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