Unit 5 Flashcards
Fort Sumter
A fort in SE South Carolina, guarding Charleston Harbour. Its capture by Confederate forces (1861) was the first action of the Civil War.
Habeas Corpus
The right not to be held in prison without first being charged with a specific crime; during the Civil War Abraham Lincoln suspended this
Border States
The slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which refused to secede from the Union in 1860-61.
First Bull Run
Fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia, it was the first major land battle of the American Civil War.
Thomas J. Jackson
Stonewall Jackson; A confederate general who was known for his fearlessness in leading rapid marches bold flanking movements and furious assaults. He earned his nickname at the battle of first bull run for standing courageously against union fire. During the battle of chancellorsville his own men accidently mortally wounded him.
Winfield Scott/Anaconda Plan
Union war plan by Winfield Scott, called for blockade of southern coast, capture of Richmond, capture Mississippi R, and to take an army through heart of south
George McClellan
A major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, he played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union
Robert E. Lee
Confederate general who had opposed secession but did not believe the Union should be held together by force.
Antietam
Fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, as part of the Maryland Campaign, it was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties.
Fredericksburg
It was fought December 11-15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. The Union army's futile frontal assaults on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the American Civil War, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates.
Monitor/Merrimac
The first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She is most famous for her participation in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, the first-ever battle fought between two ironclads.; A frigate and sailing vessel of the United States Navy, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship, CSS Virginia was constructed during the American Civil War. The it took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads and is noted as the first ironclad warship ever built.
Ulysses S. Grant
A general and political leader of the nineteenth century. He became commanding general of the Union army during the Civil War. He accepted the unconditional surrender of the commanding general of the main Confederate army, Robert E. Lee, at Appomattox Court House. A Republican, he later became president.
Trent Affair
In 1861 the Confederacy sent emissaries James Mason to Britain and John Slidell to France and Britain to lobby for recognition. A Union ship captured both men and took them to Boston as prisoners. The British were angry and Lincoln ordered their release. The South did not get recognition from Britain or France in the end.
Alabama Claims
A series of claims for damages by the government of the US against the government of the United Kingdom for the perceived covert assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War
Confiscation Acts
Series of laws passed by federal government designed to liberate slaves in seceded states; authorized Union seizure of rebel property, and stated that all slaves who fought with Confederate military services were freed of further obligations to their masters; virtually emancipation act of all slaves in Confederacy
Emancipation Proclamation
An executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War under his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation’s 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced.
13th Amendment
An amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolishing slavery.
Gettysburg
Fought July 1-3, 1863, it was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, and is often described as the wars turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee’s invasion of the North.
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.
