Main cause of the Civil War: Disagreement over slavery and whether it could spread into new states and territories Union: The Northern states that stayed in the United States Confederacy: The eleven Southern states that left the Union Secession: A state's decision to leave the Union First state to secede: South Carolina, in December 1860 Abraham Lincoln: 16th president; his election in 1860 led Southern states to secede Jefferson Davis: President of the Confederacy Fort Sumter (1861): Confederate guns fired on this South Carolina fort, starting the war on April 12 Border states: Slave states that stayed in the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri Robert E. Lee: Commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia Ulysses S. Grant: Union general who led all Union armies and later became president William T. Sherman: Union general who led the March to the Sea through Georgia in 1864 Stonewall Jackson: Confederate general famous for standing like a stone wall at Bull Run George McClellan: Union general who trained the Army of the Potomac but moved cautiously Anaconda Plan: Union plan to squeeze the South by blockading ports and taking the Mississippi River Blockade: Using ships to keep supplies from reaching or leaving ports First Battle of Bull Run (1861): First big battle, in Virginia; showed the war would be long Ironclad: Warship covered in iron plates Monitor and Merrimack (1862): First battle between ironclad ships; neither side won clearly Battle of Shiloh (1862): Bloody Tennessee battle that showed how costly the war would be Battle of Antietam (1862): Fought in Maryland on September 17; the bloodiest single day in American history Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln's order, effective January 1, 1863, freeing enslaved people in areas in rebellion 54th Massachusetts: Famous regiment of Black soldiers led by white officers; attacked Fort Wagner in 1863 Black soldiers: About 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army Robert Gould Shaw: White colonel who led the 54th Massachusetts Harriet Tubman in the war: Served the Union as a scout, nurse and spy Battle of Fredericksburg (1862): Confederate victory in Virginia with heavy Union losses Battle of Chancellorsville (1863): Lee's bold victory in Virginia, though Jackson was fatally wounded Siege of Vicksburg (1863): Grant captured this Mississippi River city after weeks of siege Battle of Gettysburg (1863): Three-day battle in Pennsylvania; Lee's northern invasion was turned back Pickett's Charge: Failed Confederate assault on the last day at Gettysburg Turning points of 1863: Gettysburg and Vicksburg, both ending July 3-4 Gettysburg Address: Lincoln's short speech in November 1863 about equality and a 'new birth of freedom' Draft riots (1863): Violent protests in New York City against the military draft Habeas corpus: Right to challenge your imprisonment; Lincoln suspended it during the war Clara Barton: Nurse who helped wounded soldiers and later founded the American Red Cross Dorothea Dix in the war: Led the Union Army's nurses Women in the war: Served as nurses and spies, ran farms and businesses, and a few disguised themselves to fight Soldier's diet: Hardtack, a hard cracker, was a common food Hardtack: A hard, dry biscuit given to soldiers Minie ball: A cone-shaped rifle bullet that made battles deadlier Disease in the war: More soldiers died of illness than of wounds Mathew Brady: Photographer whose team showed the war's reality to the public Telegraph in the war: Let Lincoln and generals send orders quickly Railroads in the war: Moved troops and supplies quickly, especially for the Union Sherman's March to the Sea (1864): Union army cut through Georgia, destroying railroads and supplies Atlanta captured (1864): Sherman took Atlanta in September 1864, helping Lincoln win re-election Election of 1864: Lincoln won a second term Thirteenth Amendment: Ended slavery in the US; passed by Congress in 1865 and ratified that December Siege of Petersburg: Months-long Union siege in Virginia in 1864-65 Appomattox Court House: Virginia town where Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865 Lee's surrender: April 9, 1865, effectively ended the war in the East Lincoln's assassination: John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on April 14, 1865; he died the next day Andrew Johnson: Became president after Lincoln's death Casualties: About 620,000 soldiers died in the war Dred Scott decision (1857): Supreme Court ruled Black people could not be citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories Missouri Compromise: 1820 plan that tried to balance slave and free states Compromise of 1850: Package of laws including California as a free state and a stronger Fugitive Slave Act Fugitive Slave Act: Law requiring that escaped enslaved people be returned Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): Let settlers vote on slavery in those territories, leading to 'Bleeding Kansas' Bleeding Kansas: Violent fighting in Kansas over slavery in the 1850s John Brown's raid (1859): Abolitionist John Brown attacked the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia Uncle Tom's Cabin: 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that turned many against slavery Harriet Beecher Stowe: Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858): Illinois Senate debates that made Lincoln famous Stephen Douglas: Illinois senator who debated Lincoln over slavery Republican Party: Founded in 1854 to oppose spreading slavery into territories Sectionalism: Loyalty to a region more than to the whole country States' rights: Idea that states hold powers the federal government should not control Cotton in the South: The Southern economy depended heavily on cotton grown by enslaved labor North's economy: Based more on factories, trade and smaller farms Frederick Douglass in the war: Urged Lincoln to free enslaved people and let Black men fight Contrabands: Name for enslaved people who fled to Union lines Homestead Act and Morrill Act (1862): Laws passed during the war that gave land to settlers and colleges Greenbacks: Paper money the Union printed to pay for the war Gettysburg National Cemetery: Burial place for Union dead, where Lincoln spoke Battle of Mobile Bay (1864): Union naval victory under Admiral David Farragut that closed a key Confederate port Clara Barton's Red Cross: Founded in 1881 after her war work Juneteenth: June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free; now a national holiday Civil War: War within one country between two sides Free flashcards from Peabody at peabody.kids/flashcards/us-civil-war