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The Civil War (1861-1865)
Causes, battles, leaders and turning points of the American Civil War.
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- Main cause of the Civil WarTerm or eventDisagreement over slavery and whether it could spread into new states and territories
- UnionTerm or eventThe Northern states that stayed in the United States
- ConfederacyTerm or eventThe eleven Southern states that left the Union
- SecessionTerm or eventA state's decision to leave the Union
- First state to secedeTerm or eventSouth Carolina, in December 1860
- Abraham LincolnTerm or event16th president; his election in 1860 led Southern states to secede
- Jefferson DavisTerm or eventPresident of the Confederacy
- Fort Sumter (1861)Term or eventConfederate guns fired on this South Carolina fort, starting the war on April 12
- Border statesTerm or eventSlave states that stayed in the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri
- Robert E. LeeTerm or eventCommanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
- Ulysses S. GrantTerm or eventUnion general who led all Union armies and later became president
- William T. ShermanTerm or eventUnion general who led the March to the Sea through Georgia in 1864
- Stonewall JacksonTerm or eventConfederate general famous for standing like a stone wall at Bull Run
- George McClellanTerm or eventUnion general who trained the Army of the Potomac but moved cautiously
- Anaconda PlanTerm or eventUnion plan to squeeze the South by blockading ports and taking the Mississippi River
- BlockadeTerm or eventUsing ships to keep supplies from reaching or leaving ports
- First Battle of Bull Run (1861)Term or eventFirst big battle, in Virginia; showed the war would be long
- IroncladTerm or eventWarship covered in iron plates
- Monitor and Merrimack (1862)Term or eventFirst battle between ironclad ships; neither side won clearly
- Battle of Shiloh (1862)Term or eventBloody Tennessee battle that showed how costly the war would be
- Battle of Antietam (1862)Term or eventFought in Maryland on September 17; the bloodiest single day in American history
- Emancipation ProclamationTerm or eventLincoln's order, effective January 1, 1863, freeing enslaved people in areas in rebellion
- 54th MassachusettsTerm or eventFamous regiment of Black soldiers led by white officers; attacked Fort Wagner in 1863
- Black soldiersTerm or eventAbout 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army
- Robert Gould ShawTerm or eventWhite colonel who led the 54th Massachusetts
- Harriet Tubman in the warTerm or eventServed the Union as a scout, nurse and spy
- Battle of Fredericksburg (1862)Term or eventConfederate victory in Virginia with heavy Union losses
- Battle of Chancellorsville (1863)Term or eventLee's bold victory in Virginia, though Jackson was fatally wounded
- Siege of Vicksburg (1863)Term or eventGrant captured this Mississippi River city after weeks of siege
- Battle of Gettysburg (1863)Term or eventThree-day battle in Pennsylvania; Lee's northern invasion was turned back
- Pickett's ChargeTerm or eventFailed Confederate assault on the last day at Gettysburg
- Turning points of 1863Term or eventGettysburg and Vicksburg, both ending July 3-4
- Gettysburg AddressTerm or eventLincoln's short speech in November 1863 about equality and a 'new birth of freedom'
- Draft riots (1863)Term or eventViolent protests in New York City against the military draft
- Habeas corpusTerm or eventRight to challenge your imprisonment; Lincoln suspended it during the war
- Clara BartonTerm or eventNurse who helped wounded soldiers and later founded the American Red Cross
- Dorothea Dix in the warTerm or eventLed the Union Army's nurses
- Women in the warTerm or eventServed as nurses and spies, ran farms and businesses, and a few disguised themselves to fight
- Soldier's dietTerm or eventHardtack, a hard cracker, was a common food
- HardtackTerm or eventA hard, dry biscuit given to soldiers
- Minie ballTerm or eventA cone-shaped rifle bullet that made battles deadlier
- Disease in the warTerm or eventMore soldiers died of illness than of wounds
- Mathew BradyTerm or eventPhotographer whose team showed the war's reality to the public
- Telegraph in the warTerm or eventLet Lincoln and generals send orders quickly
- Railroads in the warTerm or eventMoved troops and supplies quickly, especially for the Union
- Sherman's March to the Sea (1864)Term or eventUnion army cut through Georgia, destroying railroads and supplies
- Atlanta captured (1864)Term or eventSherman took Atlanta in September 1864, helping Lincoln win re-election
- Election of 1864Term or eventLincoln won a second term
- Thirteenth AmendmentTerm or eventEnded slavery in the US; passed by Congress in 1865 and ratified that December
- Siege of PetersburgTerm or eventMonths-long Union siege in Virginia in 1864-65
- Appomattox Court HouseTerm or eventVirginia town where Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865
- Lee's surrenderTerm or eventApril 9, 1865, effectively ended the war in the East
- Lincoln's assassinationTerm or eventJohn Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on April 14, 1865; he died the next day
- Andrew JohnsonTerm or eventBecame president after Lincoln's death
- CasualtiesTerm or eventAbout 620,000 soldiers died in the war
- Dred Scott decision (1857)Term or eventSupreme Court ruled Black people could not be citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories
- Missouri CompromiseTerm or event1820 plan that tried to balance slave and free states
- Compromise of 1850Term or eventPackage of laws including California as a free state and a stronger Fugitive Slave Act
- Fugitive Slave ActTerm or eventLaw requiring that escaped enslaved people be returned
- Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)Term or eventLet settlers vote on slavery in those territories, leading to 'Bleeding Kansas'
- Bleeding KansasTerm or eventViolent fighting in Kansas over slavery in the 1850s
- John Brown's raid (1859)Term or eventAbolitionist John Brown attacked the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia
- Uncle Tom's CabinTerm or event1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that turned many against slavery
- Harriet Beecher StoweTerm or eventAuthor of Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858)Term or eventIllinois Senate debates that made Lincoln famous
- Stephen DouglasTerm or eventIllinois senator who debated Lincoln over slavery
- Republican PartyTerm or eventFounded in 1854 to oppose spreading slavery into territories
- SectionalismTerm or eventLoyalty to a region more than to the whole country
- States' rightsTerm or eventIdea that states hold powers the federal government should not control
- Cotton in the SouthTerm or eventThe Southern economy depended heavily on cotton grown by enslaved labor
- North's economyTerm or eventBased more on factories, trade and smaller farms
- Frederick Douglass in the warTerm or eventUrged Lincoln to free enslaved people and let Black men fight
- ContrabandsTerm or eventName for enslaved people who fled to Union lines
- Homestead Act and Morrill Act (1862)Term or eventLaws passed during the war that gave land to settlers and colleges
- GreenbacksTerm or eventPaper money the Union printed to pay for the war
- Gettysburg National CemeteryTerm or eventBurial place for Union dead, where Lincoln spoke
- Battle of Mobile Bay (1864)Term or eventUnion naval victory under Admiral David Farragut that closed a key Confederate port
- Clara Barton's Red CrossTerm or eventFounded in 1881 after her war work
- JuneteenthTerm or eventJune 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free; now a national holiday
- Civil WarTerm or eventWar within one country between two sides
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