Quizlet Civil War Vocab

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  1. 54th Massachusetts Regiment: one of the first African-American regiments organzied to fight for the union
  2. Antietam: 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 almost 23,000 casualties. After this "win" for the North, Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation
  3. Appomattox Court House: famous as the site of the surrender of the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee to Union commander Ulysses S. Grant
  4. Battle of Bull Run/Manassas: the first real battle of the civil war
  5. Battle of Gettysburg: Turning point of war, the Union victory ends with Pickett's charge. 50,000 people died, and the South lost its chance to invade the North.
  6. Battle of Shiloh: Confederate forces suprised union troops & drove them across the Tennesee river; union got backup and won the battle but it was one of the most bloody battles in the civil war
  7. blockade: isolates some area of importance to the enemy
  8. Border State: a state that didn't secede, but it was in between a slave state and free state.
  9. bounty: given to soldiers who were willing to fight, sometimes up to $300
  10. cavalry: soldiers who ride horses
  11. Clara Barton: Nurse during the Civil War; started the American Red Cross
  12. Confederate States of America: the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861
  13. conscription: draft for soldiers
  14. Copperhead: is a northern democrat who was making peace with the Confederacy during the Civil War, a copperhead is also a type of venemous snake.
  15. Dred Scott: American slave who sued his master for keeping him enslaved in a territory where slavery was banned under the missouri Compromise
  16. Emancipation Proclamation: Issued by Abraham Lincoln on Septemeber 22, 1862, it declared that all slaves in the rebellious Confederate states would be free.
  17. Fort Sumter: marked the beginning of the civil war where the confeederates opened fired on the fort.
  18. Fugitive Slave Act: Law the provided for harsh treatment for escaped slaves and for those who helped them
  19. Harriet Beecher Stowe: In 1852 she wrote the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin about a fugitive slave. It talked badly about the Slave Act and it targeted slavery and the slave catchers.
  20. income tax: tax on the earnings/income
  21. ironclad: a warship covered in iron
  22. Jefferson Davis: 1st, last and the only president of the Confederate States of America, during 1861 to 1865
  23. John Brown: An abolitionist who attempted to lead a slave revolt by capturing Armories in southern territory and giving weapons to slaves, was hung in Harpers Ferry after capturing an Armory
  24. Kansas Nebraska Act: This Act set up Kansas and Nebraska as states. Each state would use popular sovereignty to decide what to do about slavery. People who were proslavery and antislavery moved to Kansas, but some antislavery settlers were against the Act.
  25. Lincoln/Douglas Debate: Lincoln and Douglas were both running for Illinois Senator. Douglas spoke of popular sovreignty in slave states and Lincoln spoke of the national government stepping in.
  26. minie ball: a ball/bullet a hallow base
  27. popular sovereignty: people hold the final authority in all matters of government, they can vote
  28. rifle: a gun with a grooved barrel that causes a bullet to spin through the air
  29. Robert E. Lee: General of the Confederates (South)
  30. secede: to break away
  31. Siege of Vicksburg: a Union victory that enabled the Union to control the entire Mississippi River
  32. Thirteenth Amendment: abolished slavery everywhere in the u.s.
  33. Ulysses S. Grant: leader of the Union troops, and won the Battle of Shiloh
  34. Uncle Tom's Cabin: antislavery novel that was written by harriet beecher stowe
  35. William Tecumseh Sherman: Union General who destroyed South during "march to the sea" from Atlanta to Savannah, example of total war