First Battle of Bull Run
July 1861 - first major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory; Lincoln suggested to attack the Confederate forces here as an easy win but he was disappointed; made Southerners overconfident
Yankees
recruits from the Washington in the First Battle of Bull Run who were overconfident in their abilities
Stonewall Jackson
Confederate General who kept a firm hold during the First Battle of Bull Run and awaited Confederate reinforcements; earned nickname "Stonewall" for refusing to budge
General George McClellan
Union General in charge of the Army of the Potomac; brilliant military commander; fought in Mexican War and observed Crimean War; idolized by his men; overcautious during a war in which risks needed to be taken; Peninsula Campaign was a complete failure;
Army of the Potomac
Union force near Washington led by General George B. McClellan; idolized their commander; later led by A. E. Burnside
Peninsula Campaign
1862 - reluctant advance on Richmond by Union General George B. McClellan; failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate Capital; had McClellan taken Richmond and toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some ti
Jeb Stuart
led his Confederate cavalry to scout the area around McClellan's army during the Peninsula Campaign
General Robert E. Lee
prominent Confederate General; launched the Seven Days' Battles against McClellan's army during the Peninsula Campaign, driving the Union Army back to sea; his triumph ensured a lengthy war; led offense at the Second Battle of Bull Run and was victorious;
Seven Days' Battles
launched against McClellan's army during the Peninsula Campaign, driving the Union Army back to sea; led by Robert E. Lee, who lost 20,000 men to McClellan's 10,000
components of Union's total war
six components: suffocate the South by blockading its coasts; liberate the slaves and undermine the economic foundations of the South; cut the Confederacy in half by controlling the Mississippi River; chop the Confederacy into pieces by sending troops thr
Union blockade
at first it was hard to control; difficult for the Northern Navy to block 3,500 miles of coastline; able to block important ports; Britain, although capable of breaking the blockade, chose not to intervene and create conflict
Nassau, Bahamas
West Indies port where Union steamers took on cargoes of arms brought in by British ships, leave for Canada with fraudulent papers, and return a few days later with a cargo of cotton
ultimate destination
Yankee captains part of the blockade captured British ships bound for Nassau; justified it by saying the were "ultimately destined" for the Confederacy; also known as continuous voyage
Merrimack
1862 - Confederate ironclad later known as the Virginia whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warship; posed a threat against the blockade; fought in an historic, though inconsequential battle against the Union's Monitor in 1862
Monitor
1862 - Union ironclad whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warship; fought in an historic, though inconsequential battle against the Confederate's Merrimack in 1862; prevented the Merrimack from destroying the blockade
Second Battle of Bull Run
August 1862 - Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for the Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push further in to the North
General John Pope
Union General badly defeated by Robert E. Lee in the Second Battle of Bull Run
Battle of Antietam Creek
September 1862 - landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention and giving Lincoln the "victory" he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation; the Uni
Emancipation Proclamation
1863 - declared all slave in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States; it close the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines; Lincoln felt it
border states
Lincoln had these states full support when he launched the Emancipation Proclamation
Thirteenth Amendment
1865 - constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude; former Confederate Sates were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union; previewed by the Emancipation Proclamation and its support
Butternut region
located in the Old Northwest and Border states; people here claimed that Lincoln had gone too far with the Emancipation Proclamation
Congressional Elections of 1862
went against Lincoln administration; opposition in NY, PA, and DE; people were upset by Emancipation Proclamations
War Department
refused to accept blacks who volunteered for the war effort
black enlistments in North
Lincoln wanted to enlist black in the Northern armed forces; as manpower ran low and emancipation was proclaimed, more blacks were accepted; 180,000 total which is about 10% of the total Union enlistments; had their hearts in the war because they were aga
General A. E. Burnside
replaced George McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac; led rash frontal attack on Lee's army at Fredericksburg; 10,000 of his soldiers were killed; yielded his commanded to Joe Hooker
Battle of Fredericksburg
December 1862 - decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines; rash frontal Union attack led by A. E. Burnside
Fighting Joe Hooker
replaced A. E. Burnside who gave him command of the army; beaten by Lee and Jackson at the Battle of Chancellorsville
Battle of Chancellorsville
1863 - Lee and Jackson strategically beat Joe Hooker's army here; Jackson was mistakenly shot by one of his own men and died a few days later; Lee lost his "right arm" when Jackson died
General George G. Meade
replaced Joe Hooker as commander of the Union army; fought in Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
July 1863 - Civil War battle in Pennsylvania that ended in Union victory, spelling doom for the Confederacy, which never again managed to invade the North; site of General George Pickett's daring but doomed charge on the Northern lines
General George Pickett's Charge
George Pickett's charge on the Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg; broke the Confederate cause and allowed Union to win the battle; last real chance for South to win the war was stopped
Gettysburg Address
1863 - 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
General Ulysses S. Grant
first truly able general of the Union Army; determined fighter; successful at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson; lost initial Battle at Shiloh, put up a decent counterattack, but Confederates confirmed there would be no quick end to the war in the West; took o
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
key victory for Union General Ulysses S. Grant on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, it secured the North's hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant's attacks deeper into Tennessee
Battle at Shiloh
April 1862 - bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23,000 soldiers and ended in a marginal Union victory; Ulysses S. Grant v. the Confederacy
Admiral David G. Farragut
Union admiral who seized New Orleans
siezing of New Orleans
taken by Union Admiral David G. Farragut; Union was taking over the Mississippi River
Battle of Vicksburg
1863 - two-and-a-half month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee; it finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863, giving the Union Army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the South in two
Port Hudson
last southern bastion on the Mississippi River; this port fell to the Union 5 days after Vicksburg surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant
Chattanooga
Confederates pushed Union forces from the battlefield at Chickamauga to this city, to which they laid siege; part of the Tennessee theater; Grant won at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain around this area; opened up Georgia for invasion
Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain
Grant defeated the Confederates in Chattanooga during a series of engagements in November 1863, including these 2 confrontations
General William Tecumseh Sherman
Union general in charge of the Georgia conquest; captured and burned Atlanta in 1864; reached Savannah on the sea; along with his army completely decimated a sixty-mile radius in Georgia
Sherman's March
1864-1865 - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia; an early instance of "total war," purposely targeting infrastructure and civilian property to diminish morale and undercut the Confederate war effort; wanted to destro
Sherman's bummers
Sherman's army during his march in Georgia; at times they got out of hand while pillaging and destroying Confederate homes and property
Salmon Chase
secretary of Treasury who led a group which openly criticized Lincoln's efforts in the war around the time of the election of 1864
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of War
1861-1865 - established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs; largely under the control of Radical Republicans, the committee agitated for a more vigorous war effort and actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation
Radical Republicans
political party who resented the expansion of presidential power in wartime and who pressed Lincoln on emancipation; dominated the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of War
War Democrats
part of the divided northern Democratic Party; patriotically supported the Lincoln administration
Peace Democrats
part of the divided northern Democratic Party; did not support the Lincoln adminstration
Copperheads
Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort by attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft and, after 1863, emancipation; had major support and political strength in the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
Clement L. Vallandigman
congressman from Ohio; part of the Copperheads; good at stirring up trouble; publicly demanded an end to the "wicked and cruel war"; should have been tried for sedition; sentenced to prison after being convicted for treasonable utterances; banished from t
The Man Without a Country
1863 - Edward Everett Hale's fictional account of a treasonous soldier's journeys in exile; the book was widely read in the North, inspiring greater devotion to the Union
Election of 1864
Lincoln was renominated by the Union Party with Andrew Johnson for vice president; Democrats nominated General George McClellan; noisy and nasty election; Lincoln won the electoral vote by a wide margin, but the popular vote was closer; last chance for a
Union Party
1864 - a coalition part of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Northern Democrats; renominated Lincoln during the election
Republican Party
temporarily passed out of existence when it combined with the War Democrats to create the Union Party during the election of 1864
Andrew Johnson
loyal War Democrat from Tennessee on the Union Party ticket with presidential candidate Lincoln; attracted War Democrats and Border States
Wilderness Campaign
1864-1865 - a series of brutal clashes between Ulysses S. Grant's and Robert E. Lee's armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant's capture of Richmond in April of 1865; Grant lost 50,000 troops and Lee lost the same in proportion; having lost Richmond, Lee s
Battle of Cold Harbor
bloody frontal attack on Cold Harbor led by Union General Grant; soldiers advanced to almost certain death; Lee lost 1 in 5 while Grant lost 1 in 10; Lee could no longer seize the offensive
Hampton Roads negotiations
expecting defeat, Confederate representatives met with Lincoln in Virginia to discuss peace terms; Lincoln would accept nothing but Union and emancipation; South would accept nothing but independence; conflict continued
Appomattox Courthouse
site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after almost a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the "Wilderness Campaign"; negotiated terms of surrender; southerners allowed to keep horses for spring plowing
Ford's Theater
place where Lincoln was assassinated by pro-Southern actor John Wilkes Booth who shot him in the head
John Wilkes Booth
man who assassinated President Lincoln at the Ford's Theater by shooting him the head; rumored to be plotted by Jefferson Davis
Reconstruction
1 million men dead or injured because of the war; lost generation of young men and future leaders; $15 billion was the cost of the war not including continuing expenses; Civil War tested American democracy and showed that the nation could endure; emancipa
Reform Bill of 1867
granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramatically expanding the electorate; the success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced bu the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the Bill