Reading Quiz (p.150-154) Terms Flashcards
Battle of Chattanooga
In late November 1863, Union forces routed Confederate troops in Tennessee at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, known collectively as the Battles for Chattanooga. The victories forced the Confederates back into Georgia, ending the siege of the vital railroad junction of Chattanooga, and paving the way for Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Atlanta campaign and march to Savannah, Georgia, in 1864.
As Vicksburg had sliced the Confederacy vertically, east from west, the Chattanooga victory allowed Sherman to initiate an invasion that would bisect the South horizontally, upper from lower.
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
December 8, 1863. Lincoln’s proclamation addressed three main areas of concern.
First, it allowed for a full pardon for and restoration of property to all engaged in the rebellion with the exception of the highest Confederate officials and military leaders.
Second, it allowed for a new state government to be formed when 10 percent of the eligible voters had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States.
Third, the Southern states admitted in this fashion were encouraged to enact plans to deal with the freed slaves so long as their freedom was not compromised.
General Ulysses S.Grant
Promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and given supreme command of the Union forces, Grant assumed control of the Army of the Potomac, now numbering over 100,000. On May5, 1864, he began his Wilderness (Overland) Campaign in Virginia against Lee. Both armies suffered heavy casualties. There was no way the Confederates could replace their losses. The war was coming to an inevitable end.
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
The second major battle in Grant’s 1864 Overland Campaign. Following the bloody but inconclusive Battle of the Wilderness, Grant’s army disengaged from Lee’s army and moved to the southeast, attempting to lure Lee into battle under more favorable conditions. Elements of Lee’s army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia and began entrenching. Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21, 1864, as Grant tried various schemes to break the Confederate line. In the end, the battle was tactically inconclusive, but with almost 32,000 casualties on both sides, it was the costliest battle of the campaign.
Battle of Cold Harbor
Fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864. It was one of the final battles of Grant’s Overland Campaign, and is remembered as one of American history’s bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Lee’s army.
Siege of Petersburg
Grant swung his army south to Petersburg, about twenty miles below Richmond, expecting to cut Lee’s supply lines. He was unable to capture Petersburg and so laid siege to the city in June 1864; the siege lasted nine months.
Wade-Davis bill
In Congress, Radical Republicans responded to Lincoln’s ten-percent plan by passing the Wade-Davis bill, which required a majority of the electorate—not ten percent—to swear to past and present loyaltybefore any government could be formed. It demanded the abolition ofslavery and stipulated that no one could vote who had held a state or Confederate office or who had borne arms against the United States.
Lincoln’s response to the Wade-Davis bill
Lincoln, who had already recognized Louisiana and Arkansas as restored to the Union under his ten-percent plan, pocket-vetoed the Wade-Davis bill. He said he was not committed to any single plan of reconstruction. He also denied that Congress had the authority to abolish slavery in the states. That would require a constitutional amendment.
Wade-Davis Manifesto
Radicals responded to Lincoln’s veto with the Wade-Davis Manifesto, in which theyasserted the absolute authority of Congress to deal with the rebellious states and instructed the President to execute the laws of the country, not legislate them.
Andrew Johnson
When Lincoln was renominated for President, he chose Andrew Johnson, a loyalist military governor of Tennessee, for Vice President.Johnson had been a particularly vociferous critic of secessionists when he served as a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. The purpose behind nominating Johnson was to form a National Union ticket that might attract Democratic voters and symbolize the restoration of the Union.
National Union Party
The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican Party for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election. The temporary name was used to attract War Democrats and Border State Unionists who would not vote for the Republican Party. The party nominated incumbent President Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Andrew Johnson, who were elected in a landslide.
1864 Presidential Election
RepublicanAbraham Lincolnranfor re-election against Democratic candidate George B. McClellan, who ran as the “peace candidate” without personally believing in his party’s platform, whichcalled for the immediate cessation of hostilities and the establishment of peace on the basisof a federated union of states. Lincoln was overwhelmingly reelected inNovember 1864, with an electoral vote of212to21and a popular vote of2,206,938to McClellan’s 1,803,787.
Thirteenth Amendment
Acting under presidential war powers, Lincoln issued theEmancipation Proclamationon January 1, 1863, which proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion.However, it did not affect the status of slaves in theborder statesthat had remained loyal to the Union.That December, Lincoln again used his war powers and issued a Proclamation for Amnesty and Reconstruction. Southern states did not readily accept the deal, and the status of slavery remained uncertain. After winning theelection of 1864, Lincoln made the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment his top legislative priority. When Congress reconvened, the President asked that an amendment ending slavery throughout the United States be adopted and sent to the states for ratification. The Senate had already passed it the previous spring. It was now up to the House. On January 31, 1865, the vote was called, with neither side being certain of the outcome. Every Republican supported the measure, as well as 16 Democrats, almost all of them lame ducks. The amendment passed, 119 to 56,narrowly reaching the required two-thirds majority.The House exploded into celebration. On December 18, 1965, three-fourths of the states ratified this Thirteenth Amendment.
The juggernaut of General William T. Sherman
Sherman served as a General in the Union Army, for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the “scorched earth” policies that he implemented in conducting “total war” against the Confederate States.
Sherman set out with 100,000 troops from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and headed toward Atlanta, Georgia. On September 2, 1864 he occupied Atlanta, destroying whatever supplies or materials that might prove helpful to the enemy. By late 1864 the war was clearly coming to an end. Sherman cut a 60-mile-wide, 300-milepath to the sea, destroying homes, buildings, and infrastructure, or confiscating anything that might assist the rebels. Savannah fell on December 22, after which Sherman headed north through the Carolinas, burning towns and cities in his wake. Sherman captured the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina, on February 17, 1865. As Sherman plowed straight ahead, an increasingly demoralized Confederate force could not bar his way.
Lincoln’s second inaugural address
March 4, 1865. Lincoln stated his intents for reconstruction: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right… let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
