Chapter 20 Flashcards
First major battle of the Civil War and a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory.
Bull Run (Manassas Junction)
Union general George B. McClellan’s 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 time.
Peninsula Campaign
Key victory for Union general Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North’s hold on Kentucky and paved the way for Grant’s attacks deeper into Tennessee.
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that left more than twenty-three thousand soldiers dead, wounded, or missing, and ended in a marginal Union victory.
Shiloh
Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought a historic though inconclusive battle in 1862.
Merrimack
Confederate and Union ironclads, respectively, whose successes against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought a historic though inconclusive battle in 1862.
Monitor
Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate general Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push farther into the North.
Second Battle of Bull Run
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.
Antietam
Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in nonrebelling Border States. The proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South and encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee to Union lines.
Emancipation Proclamation
Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate states were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union.
Thirteenth Amendment
Decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines.
Fredericksburg
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.
Gettysburg
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.
Gettysburg Address
Two-and-a-half-month siege of a Confederate fort on the Mississippi River in Tennessee. This place 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.
Vicksburg
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.
Sherman’s march
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.
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War
Northern Democrats who obstructed the war effort by attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft, and, after 1863, emancipation.
Copperheads
A coalition party of pro-war Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat antiwar Northern Democrats.
Union party
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. Having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.
Wilderness Campaign
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.”
Appomattox Courthouse
Granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramatically expanding the electorate. The success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the bill.
Reform Bill of 1867
Daring Confederate general and brilliant tactician, who routinely took men on long marches to outflank Union lines. He led his troops to victory at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) and protected Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley from Northern invasion in the first year of the Civil War. Joining Lee at Richmond, he helped halt the Union’s Peninsula Campaign in 1862. Jackson was killed by friendly fire at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863.
Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson
(1826-1885) Union general in command of the Army of the Potomac from 1861 to 1862, he led the failed Peninsula Campaign in 1861 and later fought Lee to a virtual stalemate at Antietam. He boosted the morale and confidence of his troops but tested Lincoln’s patience by routinely hesitating to send men into battle. In 1864, he ran against Lincoln as the Democratic nominee, campaigning against emancipation and the harsh treatment of the South while repudiating the antiwar stance of the Copperheads.
George B. McClellan
Confederate general in command of the Confederate army during the Civil War. A bold tactician, he kept his army on the offensive throughout most of the war, skillfully outmaneuvering Union armies in key battles. He fortunes reversed after his defeat at Gettysburg, though he continued to battle Union forces throughout Virginia until his surrender at Appomattox. After the war, he was indicted for treason but never charged, and he actively worked to bring about a peaceful reunion of North and South.
Robert E. Lee
