Terms & Names: Chapter 16

Contraband: property of the enemy that is legit to steal-- the big deal was that slaves could count and thereby be released

Vicksburg: June 1862 battle, confederate victory, then Union victory later that gave North control of the entire length of the Mississippi River

Copperheads: N. Opposition to Lincoln, believed war was a failure and should be abandoned, won control of Illinois and Indiana legislatures in fall, called for immediate armistice and a peace conference, affected morale in North

Chickamauga: Initial Union victory, confederate counterattack succeeded for a while, union eventually regained momentum and scored victory

Battle of Antietam: September 1862, called Sharpsburg by the Confederacy, single bloodiest day in American history, besides the third fallout, of course, McClellan’s caution resulted in draw rather than the win the Union could have achieved

54th Massachusetts Infantry: my brothers, one of the first official black units in the United States armed forces, proved to non-believers that black soldiers could be legit.

Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln not happy with equivocal Union victor, did prevent British and French recognition of Confederacy, Lincoln issued preliminary emancipation proclamation in September, signed on New Year’s Day 1863, excluded border states, plus Tennessee and those portions of Louisiana and Virginia under federal occupation, essentially made Union soldiers an army of liberation, however reluctant

Ulysses S. Grant: Union grand poohbah, in charge of stuff, not afraid to take risks

Ambrose E. Burnside: sideburns, apparently, replaced McClellan, and was also timid, cautious and EPIC FAIL.

William T. Sherman: led siege of Atlanta, thought breaking the south's morale was the goal, the burning of the confederacy is attributed to him.

Joseph Hooker: remembered for his stunning defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.

Andersonville Prison: argest Confederate military prison during the American Civil War, holocaust-like conditions

Clement L. Vallandigham: Peace Democrat, planned to run for governor of Ohio in 1863, arrested and convicted of treason and aiding and abetting the enemy, Lincoln commuted sentence to banishment to Confederacy, escaped to Canada

Philip Sheridan: after routing Confederate forces, Philip Sheridan set about destroying the valley’s crops and mills,

Battle of Cedar Creek: Shenandoah valley, battle of Cedar Creek ended Confederate power in the valley, solidified Lincoln’s reelection

Homestead Act: granted land to farmers who lived on and improved land

Morrill Land-grant College Act: gave land to states for establishment of public colleges

Pacific Railroad Act: granted land for construction of transcontinental railroad

United States Sanitary Commission: agency to coordinate the volunteer efforts of women who wanted to contribute

Thirteenth Amendment: officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude

Battle of Chancellorsvile: Brilliant victory for Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy, morale buster in North, where Lincoln worried how it would affect public opinion, emboldened Lee, who planned another invasion of the North

Battle of Gettysburg: "Greatest battle in American history," resulted in more than 50,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, great Northern victory, coincided with other Union victories in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee

Pickett's Charge: Confederate attempt to strike in the "center" of Union forces on the third day of Gettysberg, EPIC FAIL, a moral blow which the South never recovered from

Benjamin Butler: his administration of occupied New Orleans, his policies regarding slaves as contraband, his ineffectual leadership in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, and the fiasco of Fort Fisher rank him as one of the most controversial political generals

George McClellan: cautious Union general, made Antietam a draw rather than Union victory, replaced with Burnside, nominated for president in '64 election

Fredricksburg: Burnside v. Lee: confederate victory, super one-sided, Union had major losses, in spotsylvania county

William S. Rosecrans: Union general, victor at prominent Western Theater, but career ended after disastrous loss at Battle of Chickamauga in 1863

Richmond Bread Riots: triggered by Sherman's having burned everything, and Union control of Southern railroads and supply lines, and inflation, peaceful protest of thousands of people covered ten square blocks

New York Draft Riots: new measures in the summer of 1862 came close to a nationwide draft in North inspired unrest among peace democrats, government arrested dissenters

Dr.Elizabeth Blackwell: FIRST WOMAN DOCTOR!

George Thomas: principal commander in the Western Theater, defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 saved the Union Army, "Rock of Chickamauga," breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga, won in battle of Nashville

Braxton Bragg: Confederate commander, on western front, invaded Kentucky, but was a strategic failure

Port Hudson: small town in Louisiana, site of Union Siege of Port Hudson.

Fort Wagner: a fortification on Morris Island, South Carolina, that covered the southern approach to Charleston harbor.

Wilderness: renewed determination to fight emerged by spring of 1864, army would fight a war of attrition on Southern soil, might thereby weaken Union morale and compel peace talks,might work, given growing desire for peace in North, two days of military confrontation in woods of Virginia in May, confederates halted Union offensive and claimed victory

Spotsylvania: Confederates at Spotsylvania fought from an elaborate network of trenches and log breastworks, Grant could claim no more than a stalemate at Spotsylvania

Cold Harbor: Grant mistakenly advanced. and Confederates suffered a tremendous defeat

John Bell Hood: Confederate General with reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness, lost in the Atlanta Campaign and the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.

Horace Greeley: peace talks, pursued discussions with Confederacy in summer of 1864

Fort Pillow: Confederate victory, April 1864, ended in the killing of 229 Black Union soldiers out of 262 engaged in the battle, Confederates: Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, labeled a massacre.

"March to the Sea": Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah, December 22, burned and destroyed everything in path.

Peace Initiatives: South wanted recognition of Confederate independence, North wanted restoration of Union and abandonment of slavery, after War, conflict over prisoner exchanges, generous peace terms in war treaty

Appomattox: amy of Northern Virginia was only entity keeping Confederacy alive by March 1865, but it was on verge of disintegration, after abandonment of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee had no choice but to surrender to Grant in April, peace terms were generous

John Wilkes Booth: lame guy. Killed Lincoln at the theater, and was later caught and executed.
...Read more