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 54^th 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

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

GROUPS

54^th 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

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