anaconda plan Winfield Scott’s plan to blockade southern parts and take control of the Mississippi River, thus splitting the Confederacy, cutting off southern trade, and causing an economic collapse

Andersonville Confederate prison-of-war camp in northern Georgia where some 14,000 Union prisoners died of disease and malnutrition

Andrew Johnson Tennessee senator who became Lincoln’s running mate in 1864 and who became president after Lincoln’s assassination

Antietam Creek Confederate forces invaded Maryland during this 1862 battle; both sides suffered heavy losses, and Lee retreated into Virginia

Army of the Potomac army created to guard the US capital after the Battle of Bull Run in 1861; it became the main Union army in the East






Battle of Shiloh 1862 Tennessee battle that ended with an unpursued Confederate withdrawal; both sides suffered heavy casualties for the first time, but neither side gained ground

belligerent status recognition that a participant in a conflict is a nation engaged in warfare rather than a rebel against a legally constituted government; full diplomatic recognition is one possible outcome

Bull Run site near DC where Confederate soldiers forced federal troops to retreat in the first major battle of the Civil war in July 1861






Chancellorsville Confederate troops led by Lee defeated a much larger Union force in May 1863

Clara Barton organizer of a volunteer service to aid sick and wounded Civil War soldiers; she later founded the American branch of the Red Cross

Cold Harbor Grant made an unsuccessful attempt to drive his forces through Lee’s center at this Virginia site

Conscription Act 1863 law that established a draft but allowed wealthy people to escape it by hiring a substitute or paying the government a $300 fee

Copperheads derogatory term applied to northerners who supported the South during the Civil War

courier messenger carrying official information, sometimes secretly






deploy positioning military resources in preparation for action






Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln’s order abolishing slavery as of 1 January 1864 in states “in rebellion” but not in border territories still loyal to the union






Fredericksburg 1862 Union defeat; demonstrated the incompetence of the new Union commander, Ambrose E. Burnside






George B. McClellan US general who replaced Winfield Scott as general in chief of Union forces; a skillful organizer but slow and indecisive as a field commander

Gettysburg Union forces defeated Lee’s Confederate forces in July 1863, turning back Lee’s invasion of the North

Greenbacks paper money issued by the Union; not backed by gold






hang in effigy to hang a crude likeness or dummy – an effigy – representing a hated person

Homestead Act 1862 law that promised ownership of 160 acres of public land to anyone who lived on and cultivated the land for 5 years

Horace Greeley journalist and politician who helped found the Republican Party; his newspaper, the New York Tribune, was known for its antislavery stance






insurrection uprising against a legitimate authority or government






John Ross Cherokee leader who reluctantly directed the forced removal of the Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma Territory in the 1830s; signed an alliance between some groups in Indian Territory and the Confederacy

John Wilkes Booth actor and southern sympathizer who shot President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater on 14 April 1865, five days after Lee’s surrender






March to the Sea Sherman’s march through Georgia from November 16 to December 20, 1864, during which Union soldiers carried out orders to destroy everything in their path






ordnance weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment






Peninsular Campaign McClellan’s attempt in 1862 to capture Richmond by advancing up the peninsula between the James and York Rivers; confederate forces under Robert E. Lee drove his troops back

percussion cap thin metal cap containing an explosive compound, needed to fire the guns used in the Civil War

pig iron crude iron, direct from a blast furnace, that is cast into rectangular molds called pigs in preparation for conversion into steel, cast iron, or wrought iron

Port Hudson Confederate garrison that surrendered to Union forces in July 1863, thus giving the Union unrestricted control of the Mississippi River






Radical Republicans Republican faction that tried to limit presidential power and enhance congressional authority during the civil war; opposed moderation toward the South or any toleration of slavery

rebellion open, armed, and organized resistance to a legally constituted government

revenue cutter small, lightly armed boat used by government customs agents to apprehend merchant ships violating customs laws






Second Battle of Bull Run Union defeat near Bull Run in August 1862; Lee’s Confederate troops outmaneuvered John Pope’s Union troops






Thaddeus Stevens Pennsylvania congressman who was a leader of the Radical Republicans

The Wilderness densely wooded region of Virginia that was the site of a devastating but inconclusive battle between Grant’s Union forces and Lee’s Confederate forces in May 1864

Thomas J. Jackson Confederate general nicknamed “Stonewall”; he commanded troops at both battles of Bull Run and was mortally wounded by his own soldiers at Chancellorsville in 1863

total war war waged with little regard for the welfare of troops on either side or for enemy civilians; the objective is to destroy both the human and the economic resources of the enemy

Twenty Negro Law Confederate law that exempted planters owning 20 or more slaves from the draft on the grounds that overseeing farm labor done by slaves was necessary to the war effort






Ulysses S. Grant US general who became commander in chief of the Union army in 1864 after the Vicksburg campaign; he later became the US president

United States Sanitary Commission government commission established by Lincoln to improve public health conditions in military camps and hospitals






vanguard foremost position in any army advancing into battle

Vicksburg Confederate-held city on the Mississippi River that surrendered on 4 July 1863 after a lengthy siege by Grant’s forces






William Tecumseh Sherman US general who captured Atlanta in 1864 and led a destructive march to the Atlantic coast