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Copperhead Democrats
were a faction of Democrats in the Union who opposed the American Civil War and wanted an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads", likening them to the venomous snake. -
Anaconda Plan
military strategy proposed by Union General Winfield Scott early in the American Civil War. The plan called for a naval blockade of the Confederate littoral, a thrust down the Mississippi, and the strangulation of the South by Union land and naval forces. -
Battle of Antietam
The battle ended the Confederate invasion of Maryland in 1862 and resulted in a Union victory. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Militia Act
was legislation enacted by the 37th United States Congress during the American Civil War that allowed African-Americans to participate as war laborers and soldiers for the first time since the Militia Act of 1792. -
Homestead Act
provided that any adult citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S. government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. Claimants were required to “improve” the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land. -
Morrill Land Grant College Act
Act of the U.S. Congress that provided grants of land to states to finance the establishment of colleges specializing in “agriculture and the mechanic arts.” Named for its sponsor, Vermont Congressman Justin Smith Morrill, it granted each state 30,000 acres for each of its congressional seats. -
Battle of Vicksburg
The siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. -
Battle of Gettysburg
Gettysburg is the war's most famous battle because of its large size, high cost in lives, location in a northern state, and for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. American soldier, he refused Lincoln's offer to head the Union army and agreed to lead Confederate forces. -
The Thirdteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
Election of 1864
The Presidential election of 1864 took place during the American Civil War. The election was noteworthy for occurring at all, an unprecedented democratic exercise in the midst of a civil war.
