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Compromise of 1850
A series of resolutions presented to the Senate by Henry Clay to tackle the issue of the statehood of the expanding state of California. To please the North, California would be admitted to the Union as a free state and to please the South, the compromise proposed a new and more effective fugitive slave law. To please both, a provision allowed popular sovereignty.
It defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North. -
The Kansas Nebraska Act
It would divide the are of the Nebraska territory into two territories: Kansas in the south and Nebraska in the north, establishing both with popular sovereignty. Created Kansas and Nebraska, repealed Missouri compromise, allowed popular sovereignty. -
Bleeding Kansas
The namesake given Kansas due to the violence that erupted in 1855 over the vote on slavery in the territory.
The heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state. -
The Dred Scott Decision
This brought about a major Supreme Court decision, whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois, and back to Missouri. The court ruled against him. This was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that African Americans, whether slave or free, could not be American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court. -
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; thus Lincoln and Douglas were trying for their respective parties to win control of the Illinois legislature. The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his victory in the 1860 presidential election. -
Lincoln's Election
Before Lincoln's inauguration, seven Southern states declared their secession and later formed the Confederacy. Secessionists from four additional Border states joined them when Lincoln's call to restore federal property in the South forced them to take sides, and two states, Kentucky and Missouri, attempted to remain neutral. -
Fort Sumter
The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots which started the American Civil War were fired. On Saturday, April 13, the fort was surrendered and evacuated. During the attack, the Union colors fell. -
Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Both armies were sobered by the fierce fighting and many casualties, and realized the war was going to be much longer and bloodier than either had anticipated. -
Harper's Ferry
As Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army invaded Maryland, a portion of his army under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson surrounded, bombarded, and captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Lee planned to capture the garrison and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, not only to seize its supplies of rifles and ammunition, but to secure his line of supply back to Virginia. -
Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, 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 Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with 22,717 dead, wounded, and missing on both sides combined. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln, freeing the slaves in all regions behind Confederate lines. This was good for the North as freed slaves became U.S. soldiers to fight against the South. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. -
Gettysburg Address
Lincoln's address followed the oration by Edward Everett who spoke for two hours prior to Lincoln. On the train ride there, Lincoln mentioned to his secretary, John G. Nicolay, his assistant secretary, John Hay, the three members of his Cabinet who accompanied him, William Seward, John Usher and Montgomery Blair, several foreign officials that he was not feeling well. He was later diagnosed with a mild case of small pox. -
Andersonville Prison
The prison, which opened in February 1864, originally covered about 16.5 acres. In June 1864 it was enlarged to 26.5 acres. Camp Sumter (also known as Andersonville Prison), a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War. Of the approximately 45,000 Union prisoners, nearly 13,000 died of starvation, malnutrition, diarrhea or communicable diseases. -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
It was the first time Lee and Grant had seen each other face-to-face in almost two decades. The terms were as generous as Lee could hope for, Lee said it would have a very happy effect among the men and do much toward reconciling the country. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The assassination of Lincoln was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause. Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.. He died early the next morning. -
Reconstruction
In the history of the United States, the term Reconstruction Era has two senses: the first covers the complete history of the entire country from 1865 to 1877 following the Civil War; the second sense focuses on the transformation of the Southern United States from 1863 to 1877, as directed by Washington, with the reconstruction of state and society.
