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The Trent Affair
This affair was a diplomatic crisis that took place between the United States and Great Britain from November to December 1861. It showed that Britain wasn't willing to go to war in support of the Confederacy and maintain their neutrality with the United States and president Lincoln. -
Battle of Shiloh
Fought for two days on the 6th and 7th of April in 1862 in Shiloh, Tennessee. Another name for the battle was Pittsburg Landing. The Union forces were commanded by General Ulysses Grant and the confederates were commanded by General Albert Johnston. It was a Union victory. With the confederate loss and the immense loss of human life on both sides, leaders began to realize that the Civil War would not quickly end. -
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Seven Days Battle
The Seven Days Battle was fought in the Richmond, Virginia area across the Potomac river. The battle was to rid the Richmond area of a large union force, threatening from the peninisula near the confluence of the James and York rivers. General Robert E. Lee won the battles for Richmond, pushing back the Union army commanded by General McClellan. Back and forth, the days were long and hard between the north and south for this area. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam was fought for two days in Sharpsburg, Marlyand by generals, McCellan and Lee. The result of the battle was inclusive but gave the Union a much better advantage. The confederates were pushed back across the Potomac River and this boosted Union moral. It was a bloody battle with the casualities being around 23,000. Abraham Lincoln saw the significance of this battle beacuse of the confederates push back and issued the famous Emancipation Proclamtion four days later. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Soon after the Union victory at Antietam, president Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves in the southern states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” While the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a any slave,s it was an important turning point in the war because it transformed the fight to focus on preserving the nation into a battle for human liberty and freedom. -
Siege of Vicksburg
The Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, also called the Siege of Vicksburg, was the assortment of a long land and naval campaign by the Union army to capture a strategic position during the American Civil War. It also split the confederate army in half with the loss of Pemberton's army. Trying to seize Vicksburg took the whole summer of 1863. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought through July 1-3, 1863 and would be known as the turning point in the civil war. It became the turning point because Robert E. Lee's big invasion plan to the nort, failed. The confederates at this time were dominating the war, but losing the Battle of Gettysburg gave the Union confidence and they began to push the confederates back. -
New York Draft Riots
Congress passed a conscription law making all men between 20 and 45 years of age liable for military service. It was one of the most destructive civil disturbances in New York. Rioters torched government buildings and, two days later, fought with troops who had come up from Pennsylvania. -
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga was fought for two days in Chickamuaga, Georgia by Union General Rosecrans and Confederate General Longstreet. It was a confederate victory with the casualities of around 35,000. This was not a very important battle because the confederates won but didn't press their advantage to Chattanooga. Instead, the Confederat General, Longstreet, was sent to Knoxville to focus there. -
Gettysburg Address
The speech by Abraham Lincoln on the battlefield of Gettysburg redefined the Civil War. He discussed the struggle as one meant to witness the rebirth of freedom and people's power over the state. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the civil war, making the town a burial ground for over 7500 soldiers. Many mourned these young boys who fought in the war and angered many citizens. This speech was very inspiring to the country as a whole, negative or positive. -
Battles of Chattanooga
Union forces routed Confederate troops in Tennessee at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, combined as the Battles for Chattanooga. The victories of the Union forced the Confederates back into Georgia, ending the siege of Chattanooga, and paved the way for Union General William Sherman’s Atlanta campaign and march to Savannah, Georgia, later in 1864. -
Ten Percent Plan
This plan said that a state could be reintegrated into the Union if 10% of the 1860 vote count from that state had taken an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Union and pledged to abide by Emancipation Proclamation. Radical Republicans denied this because they thought it was too easy for the southern states, who had caused the war. They wanted the south to be more punished on the reconstruction of the country. -
Fort Pillow Massacre
After a confederacy win, more than 300 African-American soldiers were killed, and was one of the most controversial events of the American Civil War. Most of the Union soldiers surrendered and should've been take as POW's, but instead were all killed. This made the north angry and from them on the Union denied prisoner exchanges. -
Battle of the Wilderness
This battle marked the first stage of a major Union offensive toward the Confederate capital of Richmond, ordered by the newly named Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant in the spring of 1864. It was the first stage of attacks between Grant and Lee. Grant after horrendous fighting, pushed the confederates back to the defenses of Richmond and out of northern Virginia and surrounding areas. -
Wade-Davis Bill
Was a bill proposed for the Reconstruction of the South written by two Radical Republicans, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Representative Henry Winter Davis of Maryland in 1864. It was designed to allow former Confederate states to return to the union, if a majority of voters took an oath denying that they supported the Confederacy. This was in contrast to Lincoln's 10% plan. -
Battle/Fall of Atlanta
Was fought just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia with Union forces commanded by William Sherman. Sherman defeated the confederate forces, defending Atlanta, who were commanded by John B. Hood. After ordering the evacuation of Atlanta, Sherman burned down most of the city. After Atlanta fell so easily, Sherman marched his army down to Savannah, the beginning of his notorious, "March to the Sea." This would be the end of the war between the north and the south. -
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Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th)
The amendments were important in implementing the Reconstruction of the American South after the war. It brought absolute liberty to all Americans of ethnicities.the 13th amendment abolished slavery as a whole, the 14th amendment created the equal protection clause with many others, and the 15th amendment prohibits discrimination for race, color, gender, etc. -
Freedman's Bureau founded
Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in 1865 by Congress to help former black slaves and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. It also provided food, housing and medical aid, established schools and offered legal assistance to these people. -
Abraham Lincoln's Assassination
John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate supporter, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, which ended the American Civil War. -
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Black Codes
White southerners reestablished civil authority in the former Confederate states in 1865 and 1866. They enacted a series of restrictive laws known as “black codes,” which were designed to restrict freed blacks’ activities and ensure their availability as a labor force now that slavery had been abolished. Contracts were forced upon blacks wishing to work, and if they denied, some blacks could be arrested. -
KKK founded
The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. Originally founded as a social club for former Confederate soldiers, the Klan evolved into a terrorist organization. It would be responsible for thousands of deaths, and would help to weaken the political power of Southern blacks and Republicans. -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens to all male persons in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude." This was a step to ensuring safety for all blacks in the United States. -
1st Reconstruction Act
Is also known as the Military Reconstruction Act. The act applied to all the ex-Confederate states in the South, except Tennessee who had already ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It split the states into five military districts, each under the control of a Northern General whose responsibility was to protect life and property. It also demanded the need for new state delegates and constitutions, the ratification of the Fourteenth amendment, and the provisions of equal rights for each citizen. -
President Andrew Johnson Impeached
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, on April 15, 1865. He was a Union man, but his roots were in the South. Once he said, "This is a country for white men," as well as, "and as long as I am president, it shall be a government for white men." Johnson didn't believe in what Lincoln did, and soon began to turn the country back to where it started. -
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Ending of Reconstruction
By 1876, the nation was prepared to abandon its commitment to equality for all citizens regardless of race. As soon as blacks gained the right to vote, secret societies sprang up in the South, devoted to restoring white supremacy in politics and social life. Most notorious was the Ku Klux Klan. -
Hayes-Tilden Compromoise
The Compromise of 1877, was an informal, unwritten deal that settled the intense dispute within the 1876 U.S. presidential election. It pulled federal troops out of state politics in the South, and ended the Reconstruction Era. Through the Compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops whose support was essential for the survival of Republican state governments in SC, LA, and FL
