Test Review:
The Civil War
Events
1861 Attack on Fort Sumter
- First shots fired in Civil War, 12 April 1861, at Union-controlled Fort Sumter in South Carolina
- Jefferson Davis, president of Confederacy, ordered strikes against Union forces
- At time of attack, neither North nor South had an official army
- Attack spurred President Lincoln to ask Congress to authorize a military draft to build an army
1861 Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
- First official battle of the Civil War; occurred west of Washington, D.C., 21 July 1861
- Smaller Confederate army stood strong against Union assaults
- Fierce battle disproved both sides' hopes of easy victory in Civil War
1862 Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing)
- Extremely bloody two-day battle in Tennessee began with Union troops in disarray but ended with Confederate retreat
- Union army lost some 13,000 men and Confederacy lost 10,000
- More American men died in this single battle than in all previous American wars
1863 Emancipation Proclamation
- Issued by President Lincoln during the Civil War, motivated less by abolitionist sentiment than by strategic desire to weaken the Confederacy
- Freed slaves in the Confederacy, but did not free slaves in states than had declared loyalty to the Union
1863 Draft Riots
- 4 days of rioting in New York City occurred in response to federal conscription laws passed in July
- Working class whites, especially Irish, rebelled because they worried that if they left for war, free blacks would take their jobs
- Also fueled by anger over the decision to allow wealthy men to buy their way out of military service
1863 Battle of Gettysburg
- One of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, fought in southern Pennsylvania over first 4 days in July
- Union troops defeated Confederate army led by Robert E. Lee, forcing southerners to retreat
- Marked the farthest advance of the Confederate Army into northern territory
- Turning point of the Civil War
1865 Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
- Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in western Virginia, 9 April 1865
- Marked the end of the Civil War
1865 Lincoln assassinated
- Actor John Wilkes Booth, a southern sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the head while the President and his wife were watching a play at Ford's Theater, Washington, D.C.
- Lincoln died the next day
- Assassination occurred five days after Confederate Army surrendered
Places
Appamattox Courthouse, Virginia
- Site of Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant, which ended the Civil War, 1865
Ford's Theater, Washington, D.C.
- Site of Abraham Lincoln's assassination by actor and southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, 1865
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- Site of the war's most decisive battle, a Union victory, 1863
- Site of Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, 1863
People
John Wilkes Booth
- Actor and southern sympathizer, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, 14 April 1865
- Tracked down, shot and killed after a 12-day manhunt
Jefferson Davis
- First and only President of Confederacy
- Also served as Secretary of War for the Confederacy
- His economic policies and military strategies failed to give the South what it needed to defeat the North
Ulysses S. Grant
- Union general who commanded the eastern front from 1864 to 1865
- Nicknamed "The Butcher" for his determination to destroy southern armies any way he could, regardless of human cost
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
- Confederate general during the Civil War
- Received his nickname "Stonewall" for resolute leadership at Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), 1861
- Mortally wounded when accidentally shot by Confederate soldiers at Battle of Chancellorsville, 1863
Robert E. Lee
- Confederate general; son of Revolutionary War hero from wealthy Virginia family
- First asked by Lincoln to command Union Army, but instead declared allegiance to the Confederacy
- Strong leader, but failed at the Battle of Gettysburg, the war's pivotal battle
- Surrendered to Grant's Union Army in April 1865, ending the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
- Anti-slavery Republican, elected U.S. President, 1860
- Moderate stance on emancipation; not abolitionist, but against slavery's expansion
- His election triggered secession crisis, which led to Civil War
- Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater, Washington D.C, 1865
George McClellan
- Ineffective Union general during Civil War
- Fired by President Lincoln in 1862
- Democratic presidential nominee in the 1864 election, running on a platform of peace and criticizing Lincoln's leadership
- Lost to Lincoln by only a small margin
Robert Gould Shaw
- White Union colonel who commanded the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry
- Originally displeased with his assignment to lead an all-black regiment
- Killed with his troops while storming a Confederate position at Fort Wagner in July 1863
Groups
54th Massachusetts Infantry
- All-black unit that fought for the Union during the Civil War
- Led by white colonel Robert Gould Shaw
- Led charge against Confederate forces at Fort Wagner, suffering overwhelming casualties
- Story dramatized in the 1989 film Glory
Concepts
Cash Crop
- Crop grown for sale and export rather than for food or animal feed
- Tobacco and cotton were major cash crops in the years leading up to the Civil War
- Once it had seceded and gone to war with the North, the South faced a disadvantage since its cash crops couldn't feed the southern population
"Greenbacks"
- Term for paper money printed by the Union when the government was in need of money to fund the war
- Originally backed by gold, then by government bonds
- Value of this money varied according to vitality of the Union Army, at times depreciating far below face value
Habeas Corpus
- Latin legal term for the right of prisoners to a fair trial
- During Civil War, President Lincoln, fearing subversion from southern sympathizers in the North, suspended the right of habeas corpus
- Lincoln's decision to suspend habeas was extremely controversial at the time
Pickett's Charge
- A failed Confederate assault against Union lines during the Battle of Gettysburg
- Named for Confederate General George Pickett, who led the attack
- Ended in defeat and death of 10,000 Confederate soldiers
- Marked "high-water mark" of Confederacy; southern troops never advanced farther north than Pickett's Charge
Secession Crisis
- Sequence of events that led to the creation of Confederate States of America
- Reaction to election of Republican Abraham Lincoln as president, 1860
- South Carolina was the first to secede, 20 December 1860
- SC's action triggered quick secession of 6 more states: MS, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX
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