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Key Events of the Civil War Era
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Mexican War
The Mexican War ended in Feb. 2nd 1848 and its effects were that Zachary Taylor was elected President and under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexico ceded the American SW to the United States. This was an important event leading up to the Civil War because it led to debate over whether new territories would be added as slave or free states. -
Compromise of 1850; Fugitive Slave Laws
Admitted California as a free state, organized Utah and New Mexico without restrictions on slavery, adjusted Texas/New Mexico border, passed tougher fugitive slave laws. Increased tensions about slavery between the North and the South especially because the harsher fugitive slave laws targeted at ending the Underground Railroad. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin to show the evils of slavery. Called the greatest American propaganda novel ever written, Uncle Tom's Cabin helped further the cause of the abolitionists and increased anti-slavery sentiment in the North. It is important because the popularity of the novel strengthened the abolitionists' cause and led to the Civil War to abolish slavery. -
Bleeding Kansas
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, pro-slavery forces from Missouri known as Border Ruffians crossed the Kansa border and attacked anti-slavery settlers.These settlers retaliated with attacks, the most famous of which was John Brown's attack on the settlement at Pottawattomie Creek. It was a key event prior to the Civil War because the violence over the slavery issued riled up Pro and Anti slavery sentiments and prepared the nation to fight for their side on issue. -
Panic of 1857
The Panic of 1857 was caused by the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance Company and had the greatest impact on the Unrban East and wheat belt more than the South. Southerners believed that the Northern economy was weaker and that they could secede from the Union because they wee stronger. It made them overconfident that they could withstand secession from the union because they believed that their agrarian economy was the strongest. -
Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that having lived in free territory for 4 years made him free after his master died. The Court ruled that he couldn't sue because he was property not a citizen. The Dred Scott Decision fueled the abolitionist cause as they fought harder against the injustices of slavery. -
Abraham Lincoln's election as President
Lincoln's election is one of the reasons that prompted South Carolina to secede. Lincoln's anti-slavery stance caused SC and 6 other southern states to secede from the Union. This was a significant event because it directly led to secession which caused the Union to declare war to regain its territories. -
Battle of Antietam
The first day of the Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American history. Results of the battle were inconclusive but the Union gained a strategic advantage because the Confederate troops crossed the Potomac river and left Maryland. Gave Abraham Lincoln credibility to declare the Emancipation Proclamation and did not gain the Confederacy any foreign recognition or assistance from Great Britain or France. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all the slaves in the South free. This is significant because Lincoln didn't free the slaves in the Union, which included the border states. This changed the war from one to regain territory, to one to end slavery. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was thhe turning point of the Civil War. Up until this point in the war, the South was winning most of the battle, and it was demoralizing for the South to lose such an importnant battle on Union Soil. The Confederacy led Pickett's Charge against the Union's center line and was mowed down by artillery and rifle fire. -
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Key Events of the Post-Civil War Era
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Wade-Davis Bill, veto, and Wade Davis Maifesto
The Wade-Davis Bill declared that theReconstruction of the South was a legislative, not an executive matter. This was an attempt to weaken the President's power. President Lincoln vetoed it and the Wade-Davis Manifesto claimed that Licoln was acting like a dictator by vetoeing it. -
Lincoln's 10% Plan
All Southerners could be U.S. citizens if they take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the Union
All Southerners would be pardoned if promised to abide by emancipation. However army and Navy officers and U.S. judges and congressmen who supported the Confederacy were not pardoned. Once 10% of a state’s voting population pledged to abide by the oath, the state could be readmitted to the Union -
13th Ammendment approved
The thirteenth ammendment was ratified in December, 1864 and approved by January of 1865. The thirteenth abolished slavery in the United States. Congress also established Freedmen's Bureau in March to provide assistance to emancipated slaves. -
Surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse
Confederate General Lee was attempting to get his troops to the South Side Railroad at Appomattox Courthouse where they could get their food supplies. The Union army trapped the Confederates before they could reach their supplies and General Lee was forced to surrender at the McLean House.
The Union victory forced the Confederacy to surrender and this caused the end of the Civil War
Union victory -
Lincoln's Assasination
Abraham Lincoln was assasinated on April 15th, 1865, less than a week after the Union forced the Confederacy to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, at Ford's Theatre. He was later found in a barn and shot either by himslef or by a soldier. -
The Congressional Plan
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction rejected Johnson’s Plan and claimed only Congress could determine guidelines for Reconstruction. The Northern Republicans didn’t want to give up political advantage by allowing Confederates to reclaim their position in Congress. Passed laws like the 14th amendment and the Military Reconstruction Act. -
New Orleans Riot
Radical republicans became angry because of the Black Codes in Louisiana, andthe fact that the legislature's refused to give black men the right to vote. So they called the constitutional convention of 1864 to meet and 100 people were injured in the fighting . 34 blacks and 3 white Radicals were killed -
Military Reconstruction Act
Congress passed the Military Reconstruction Act because several states refused to ratify the 14th amendment which granted citizenship and protection of personal liberties for all people. The former Confederacy was divided into 5 military regions overseen by a Union general and his troops in order to maintain order and protect civil rights. They also forced all Southern states to ratify 14th amendment. -
14th Ammendment ratification
Th 14th amendment granted all people born or naturalized in the U.S. citizenship. Protected hte rights of life. liberty and property of all; claimed that state governments could not revoke these privileges from individuals without due process. -
15th Amendment ratification
The15th amendment granted universal male suffrage. This was directed at states that would try to deprive black Americans from the right to vote. It specifically stated that all adult males could vote regardless of color or former servitude.