DSST Civil War flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Fort Sumter

April 12-13, 1861, Confederate bombardment of the federal garrison at Charleston harbor; the first shots of the Civil War, prompting Lincoln's call for volunteers and four more states' secession.

Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863, executive order declaring slaves in rebelling states free; it exempted border states and Union-occupied areas but made emancipation a Union war aim and permitted Black enlistment.

Thirteenth Amendment

Ratified December 1865, it abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime, completing emancipation nationwide beyond the Proclamation's reach.

Fourteenth Amendment

Ratified July 1868, it granted citizenship to all born or naturalized in the U.S., guaranteed due process and equal protection, and barred former Confederates from office.

Fifteenth Amendment

Ratified February 1870, it barred denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude, though it did not prevent poll taxes or literacy tests.

Anaconda Plan

Winfield Scott's strategy to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy; the blockade was declared in April 1861 and tightened over the war.

Battle of Antietam

September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in American military history, with roughly 23,000 casualties; the Union victory gave Lincoln the occasion to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Battle of Gettysburg

July 1-3, 1863, Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania ended in defeat after Pickett's Charge; roughly 51,000 casualties and a turning point that ended Confederate offensives in the East.

Siege of Vicksburg

Grant's campaign ended with Vicksburg's surrender on July 4, 1863, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy in two.

Appomattox Court House

April 9, 1865, site where Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant on lenient terms, effectively ending the Civil War.

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency created in March 1865 to provide food, schooling, and legal aid to former slaves and white refugees; the first federal social welfare agency, dismantled by the early 1870s.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states in 1865-66 restricting freedpeople's mobility, labor contracts, and voting; they prompted the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Radical Reconstruction.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

First major federal law passed over a presidential veto; it declared Black citizens' rights to contract, sue, and own property, and was later reinforced by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Reconstruction Acts of 1867

Congressional laws dividing the South into five military districts, requiring new state constitutions with Black male suffrage and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment for readmission.

Tenure of Office Act

1867 law limiting Johnson's power to remove Senate-confirmed officials without Senate consent; his violation led to impeachment, though the Senate fell one vote short of conviction.

Compromise of 1877

Disputed Hayes-Tilden election resolved by awarding Hayes the presidency in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction and abandoning Southern Republicans.

Sharecropping

Post-emancipation labor system in which landless farmers worked land for a share of the crop, often borrowing against future harvests at high interest and falling into debt peonage.

Ku Klux Klan

White supremacist terrorist group founded in 1865-66 to suppress Black political participation through violence; the Enforcement Acts and Klan Act of 1870-71 allowed federal prosecution.

Dred Scott decision

1857 Supreme Court ruling that Black people were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in territories; it undercut the Republican platform and heightened sectional tension.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 law repealing the Missouri Compromise line and introducing popular sovereignty, prompting 'Bleeding Kansas' violence and the rise of the Republican Party.

Compromise of 1850

Admitted California free, enacted a stricter Fugitive Slave Act, settled the Texas boundary, and allowed popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico, delaying sectional conflict.

Election of 1860

Lincoln won with about 40 percent of the popular vote and no Southern electoral votes; the Democratic split and Bell's Constitutional Union candidacy ensured a sectional Republican victory.

Cornerstone Speech

March 1861 address by Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens declaring slavery and white supremacy the Confederacy's foundation, evidence that secession was about slavery.

Enrollment Act of 1863

Federal conscription law with commutation and substitution provisions; it sparked the New York City draft riots in July 1863, which killed over 100 people.

54th Massachusetts Infantry

Black Union regiment whose July 1863 assault on Fort Wagner became emblematic of Black military service and helped justify Black enlistment in the U.S. Colored Troops.

Sherman's March to the Sea

November-December 1864 Union campaign through Georgia to Savannah, applying total war against Confederate infrastructure and morale, a strategy Grant endorsed.

Ex parte Milligan

1866 Supreme Court ruling that military tribunals could not try civilians where civil courts were functioning, limiting Lincoln's and Johnson's use of military justice.

Slaughter-House Cases

1873 Supreme Court ruling narrowly reading the Fourteenth Amendment's privileges or immunities clause, weakening federal protection of Black civil rights and enabling state discrimination.

Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan

December 1863 plan offering readmission to states when 10 percent of voters swore loyalty and accepted emancipation; Radicals countered with the stricter Wade-Davis Bill in 1864.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

1868 House impeachment over violation of the Tenure of Office Act after removing Secretary of War Stanton; the Senate fell one vote short of conviction, preserving presidential removal power.

Border states

Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, slave states that stayed in the Union; Lincoln used martial law and arrests, especially in Maryland, to keep them loyal.

West Virginia statehood

Separated from Virginia during the war and entered the Union as a free state in June 1863, a direct wartime result of Virginia's secession.