Before & During The Civil War

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Free Soil Party

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A former political party in the United States; formed in 1848 to oppose the extension of slavery into the territories; merged with the Liberty Party in 1848

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Fugitive Slave Law

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-required the return of runaway slaves
- Any black--even free blacks--could be sent south solely on the affidavit of anyone claiming to be his or her owner
-tripped runaway slaves of such basic legal rights as the right to a jury trial and the right to testify in one's own defense

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Harriet Tubman

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Harriet Ross Tubman (1820-1913) was a black American who
- an agent for the Underground Railroad, a clandestine escape route used to smuggle slaves to freedom in the North and Canada
-helped hundreds flee captivity
-Born in Dorchester County

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Ostend Manifesto

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communication from three U.S. diplomats to Secretary of State William L. Marcy
-advocating U.S. seizure of Cuba from Spain
-the incident marked the high point of the U.S. expansionist drive in the Caribbean in the 1850s

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Kansas Nebraska Act

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-passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854.
- allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery
-repeal of the ban on slavery in Northern territories galvanized angry opposition

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Wilmont Proviso

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-express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States
-brought forward by Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot
-stipulated that none of the Mexican Cession territory would be allowed to permit slavery

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William Lloyd Garrison

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-was the co-founder of the American Abolitionist Society
-wrote the Liberator

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Fredrick Douglas

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-was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
-After escaping from slavery became a leader of the abolitionist movement
-gaining renown for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing

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Popular Sovereignty

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-political doctrine which provided for the settlers of federal territorial lands to decide the status (free or slave) under which they would join the Union.

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Underground Railroad

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-informal network of secret routes and safe houses
-used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada
-with aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause

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Compromise of 1850

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-intricate package of five bills
-passed in September 1850
-defusing a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North
-that arose following the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) drafted by Whig Henry Clay
-brokered by Democrat Stephen Douglas avoided secession or civil war at the time
-quieted sectional conflict for four years

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Dred Scott Decision

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ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could never be U.S. citizens
-(or their descendants whether or not they were slaves)

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Panic of 1857

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-financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and overexpansion of the domestic economy

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Uncle Tom's Cabin

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-anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe
-published in 1852
-the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War"

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Bleeding Kansas

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-was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements
-took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858
-the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state

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Crittenden Compromise

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-an unsuccessful proposal by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden to resolve the U.S. secession crisis of 1860–1861
-by addressing the concerns that led the states in the Deep South of the United States to contemplate secession from the United States

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Fort Sumter

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-was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War

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Jefferson Davis

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-was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War
-serving as the President for its entire history

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Anaconda Plan

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-to an outline strategy for subduing the seceding states in the American Civil War
-proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott
-the plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports
-called for an advance down the Mississippi River to cut the South in two
-Because the blockade would be rather passive
-it was widely derided by the vociferous faction who wanted a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and who likened it to the coils of an anaconda suffocating its victim

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Robert E. Lee

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-commanding general of the Confederate army in the American Civil War
-postwar icon of the South's "lost cause"
-top graduate of West Point
-Lee distinguished himself as an exceptional soldier in the U.S
Army for 32 years
-best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War

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Ulysses S. Grant

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-commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods
-Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America

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Iron Clads

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-The first use of ironclads in action came in the U.S. Civil War
-The U.S. Navy at the time the war broke out had no ironclads
-its most powerful ships being six steam-powered unarmoured frigates
-Since the bulk of the Navy remained loyal to the Union, the Confederacy sought to gain advantage in the naval conflict by acquiring modern armored ships

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Battle of Antietam

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-fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign
-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

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Emancipation Proclamation

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-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
-immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced
-On September 22, 1862, Lincoln announced that he would issue a formal emancipation of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863.

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54th regiment

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-regiment was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil War
-The 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment
-recruited from freed slaves
-was the first Union Army regiment organized with African American soldiers in the Civil War
-though many had fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812 on both sides

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Morril Tariff Act 1861

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-major protectionist tariff bill instituted in the United States
-The act is informally named after its sponsor, Rep. Justin Morrill of Vermont, who designed the bill around recommendations by economist Henry C Carey
-The tax is significant for severely altering American commercial policy after a period of relative free trade to several decades of heavy protection
-It replaced the Tariff of 1857
-The Morrill Tariff is also remembered as a contentious issue that fueled sectional disputes on the eve of the American Civil War.

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Homestead Act 1862

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gave 160 acres of undevebloe land
-included slaves
-had to live on it for 5 yrs
-had to be 21

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Legal Tender Act 1862

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-paid for money for the Civil War
-w/out raising taxes

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Pacific Railway Act 1862

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-series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 489) was the original act.
-Some of its provisions were subsequently modified, expanded, or repealed by four additional amending Acts:
-Pacific Railway Act of 1863 (12 Stat. 807)
-Pacific Railway Act of 1864 (13 Stat. 356)
-Pacific Railway Act of 1865 (13 Stat. 504)
-Pacific Railway Act of 1866 (14 Stat. 66)

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National Bank Act 1863

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-established national charter for banks
-encourages development of national currency

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Battle of Vicksburg

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-final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War
-In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River
-drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

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Battle of Gettysburg

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-was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
-The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War
-it is often described as the war's 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.

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Copperheads

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-vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States (see also Union (American Civil War)) who opposed the American Civil War
-wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the poisonous snake

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New York Draft Riots 1863

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- known at the time as Draft Week
-were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War
-The riots were the largest civil insurrection in American history apart from the Civil War itself
-President Abraham Lincoln sent several regiments of militia and volunteer troops to control the city

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Appamattox

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-final major engagement of the Civil War. General Lee surrendered to General Grant and the American Civil War came to an end

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Trent Affair

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-international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War. On November 8, 1861
-the USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes
-intercepted the British mail packet Trent and removed as contraband of war two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell