Transcript Civil War and Reconstruction

Civil War and
Reconstruction
U.S. History
Secession, Dec. 1860 – June 1861
• Following the presidential election of
Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina seceded
from the United States. Other states
followed, and they formed the Confederate
States of America.
Fort Sumter, April 1861
• The first battle of the Civil War took place
at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, when
Confederates opened fire on the fort which
held U.S. artillery. There was return fire,
but it was ineffective. The fort surrendered
on April 13 and was evacuated.
First Battle of Bull Run
• (Also known as First Manassas because
of the town near it was fought) was the
first confrontation between the two armies
and a humiliating defeat for the Union
forces. Fought only 30 miles from
Washington, DC, it could have led to an
invasion of the capital by Confederate
forces had the southern troops been better
organized.
Anaconda Plan/Blockade, 18611865
• Union general Winfield Scot created a plan
to limit the South's ability to trade. Called
the Anaconda Plan, it called for the Union
to blockade the Confederacy's coastline to
keep the South from importing or exporting
goods and for the Union to take control of
the Mississippi to separate Texas,
Louisiana, and Arkansas from the eastern
Confederate states.
Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862
• Was the bloodiest single day of the war,
halting the Confederate advance.
McClellan hesitated, however, and Lee’s
army slipped away to fight another day.
Battle of Hampton Roads, March
1862
• Also called the Battle of Monitor and
Merrimack, Union ship USS Monitor and
Confederate ship CSS Virginia (it had
previously been named "Merrimack")
battled at Hampton Roads. The ships were
both ironclad, marking the first time this
kind of technology had been used in a
naval battle.
Emancipation Proclamation,
January 1863
• Lincoln declared all slaves in Confederate states
to be free. Slaves in the Union states of
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware
were not freed, as Lincoln wanted these states
to stay loyal to the Union. This proclamation
changes the goal of the war to ending slavery
instead of just preserving the Union. After the
Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, the
Union began allowing African Americans to join
the army. They were assigned to segregated
units and paid less than white soldiers.
Battle of Vicksburg, May-July 1863
• In a series of maneuvers, General Grant
and his army crossed the Mississippi River
and drove the Confederates into the city of
Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Confederate
army formed a defensive line around the
city; however, Grant besieged it until the
Confederates surrendered. The Union now
had control of the Mississippi River.
Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863
• Union leader Meade stopped the
Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania at
Gettysburg. This battle was one of the
bloodiest battles in the Civil War, with both
the North and South losing thousands of
soldiers.
Sherman’s March to the Sea, May
– Dec. 1864
• William T. Sherman made from
Chattanooga, Tennessee to capturing
Atlanta in September of 1864. Sherman
burned the city and continued his march to
the sea destroying bridges, factories, and
railroad lines. Union forces cut a nearly
300 mile path of destruction across
Georgia in route to the city of Savannah,
which surrendered without a fight.
Surrender, April 9, 1865
• Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox
Courthouse, which officially ended the
Civil War.
Lincoln’s Assassination, April 14,
1865
• While at Ford’s Theater, an actor named
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln
on April 14, less than a week after Lee had
surrendered to Grant and ended the Civil
War.
Reconstruction
Freedman’s Bureau, 1865
• Congress set up this bureau to assist
former slaves. The bureau set up schools
for African Americans and helped set up
farms at which the former slaves could
work.
13th Amendment, 1865
• This amendment abolished slavery in the
U.S. It is known as one of the
Reconstruction Amendments, which
extended rights to former slaves after the
Civil War.
Black Codes, 1865-68
• Black codes were a series of laws passed
by ex-Confederate states that restricted
the rights of blacks in the South. These
codes included segregation in public
spaces and restrictions on blacks' rights to
be free laborers, to own land and homes,
and to testify in court.
Civil Rights Act of 1866
• This act granted African Americans
citizenship and gave them the rights to
make contracts, sue, and own property.
The citizenship rights of African Americans
were also protected under the 14th
Amendment.
Reconstruction Acts, 1867
• These acts divided the former Confederate
states into five military districts, except for
Tennessee. Tennessee was not included in this
because it had ratified the 14th amendment and
had been readmitted to the Union. A general
was in charge of each military district, and
soldiers occupied the states. Other
Reconstruction Acts included barring
Confederate leaders from voting or holding office
and making the Confederate states ratify the
14th Amendment before being readmitted to the
Union.
14th Amendment, 1868
• This amendment, passed in 1866 and
ratified in 1868, stated that all people born
in the U.S., except Native Americans, were
U.S. citizens. It is one of the
Reconstruction Amendments.
Johnson's impeachment &
Tenure of Office Act, 1868
• President Johnson was impeached after
removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton
from office without the approval of
Congress. This was in violation of the
Tenure of Office Act, which had been
passed in 1867. Johnson faced a trial in
the Senate in which he was one vote short
of being convicted and removed from
office.
15th Amendment, 1870
• This amendment gave African American
men the right to vote. It says that no
citizen of the U.S. can be denied the right
to vote based on race or color. It is one of
the Reconstruction Amendments, along
with the 13th and 14th amendments.
Election of 1876 & Compromise
of 1877
• In the 1876 presidential election, Democrat
Samuel Tilden won the majority of the popular
vote, but there was a dispute over who won the
electoral votes in several states. A committee
decided that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes
won those electoral votes, and he was elected
president. The Democrats said they would
accept Hayes as president if federal troops were
removed from the South. This agreement is
known as the Compromise of 1877, and it was
the official end of Reconstruction.
Jim Crow Laws, 1880s
• These were laws that segregated blacks
from whites. They began to appear in the
1880s, after Reconstruction had officially
ended. The laws forced blacks to sit on
separate areas on trains and attend
different schools than whites did, along
with having many other effects on daily
life.
Grandfather clause, 1895
• This clause was added to many Southern states'
voting laws to keep African Americans from
voting. Many Southern states required voters to
pay poll taxes or pass literacy tests, but this
clause stated that a person could vote anyway if
he or his ancestors had the right to vote as of
January 1, 1867. Because African Americans did
not have the right to vote until after 1867, the
clause allowed poor or illiterate whites to vote
while still keeping the vote from blacks.
Carpetbagger
• a Northerner who came to the South in the
Reconstruction period and carried bags
made out of carpet material. Most of them
were interested in making money in the
areas that needed to be rebuilt, but some
wanted to help the newly freed slaves.
Ku Klux Klan
• a group of white supremacists who wanted
to keep white control of the South and did
not want African Americans to vote or hold
office. They threatened African Americans
with violence to keep them from voting.
Radical Republicans
• a group of Republicans who supported
punishing the Confederate states. Radical
Republicans wanted to force the majority of
white males in the Confederate states to take an
oath to the U.S. and to exclude anyone who had
served in the Confederate government or army
from participating in new government. Radical
Republicans also wanted to take land away from
Southern plantation owners and distribute it
among the newly-freed slaves. Representative
Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania was one of
the leaders of the Radical Republicans.
Presidential Reconstruction
• refers to the policies favored by Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson in allowing
the Confederate states back into the
Union. Johnson wished to pardon anyone
in the Confederacy who swore an oath of
loyalty to the United States. Johnson's
policies were much more lenient than
those of the Radical Republicans.
Scalawag
• a Southern white who helped in the
Reconstruction effort. Some Southerners
viewed scalawags as traitors to the South.
Sharecropper
• a person who grew crops on land owned
by someone else and gave the landlord
(owner of the land) a share of the crop to
pay for expenses. Many of these people
were freed slaves who could not afford to
buy their own land. Tenant farmers are
similar to sharecroppers, except they may
pay their rent in cash.
Solid South
• the states of the Southern U.S. that
traditionally supported the Democratic
Party after the Civil War. By 1876, only
three Southern states (Florida, South
Carolina, Louisiana) were under Federal
occupation and Republican rule.