The "Plumbing" of Government
This clause in the Constitution acts as the "differentiator" in a Federal system, ensuring national law trumps state law.
What is the Supremacy Clause?
These new naval vessels, like the Monitor and the Merrimack, proved that wooden navies were instantly obsolete.
What are Ironclads?
This 47-day siege ended on July 4th and gave the Union total control of the Mississippi River.
What is the Battle of Vicksburg?
This General led a "March to the Sea," carving a 60-mile wide path of destruction through Georgia.
Who is William Tecumseh Sherman?
This Amendment officially made slavery illegal in the United States.
What is the 13th Amendment?
Lincoln suspended this legal right, which normally requires a prisoner be brought before a judge to determine if their detention is lawful.
What is Habeas Corpus?
This specific type of bullet had a hollow base that expanded into the barrel's rifling, vastly increasing accuracy and range.
What is the Minie Ball?
Known as the "High Water Mark" of the Confederacy, this battle ended Lee’s ability to ever go on the offensive again.
What is the Battle of Gettysburg?
This term describes a war strategy that targets the enemy's infrastructure, industry, and ability to wage war, not just soldiers.
What is Total War?
ohn Wilkes Booth shouted this Latin phrase, meaning "Thus always to tyrants," after shooting Lincoln.
What is "Sic Semper Tyrannis"?
Historian Frank Owsley famously claimed the Confederacy didn't just lose to the Union, but was actually "Dying of" this.
What is States' Rights?
Because doctors lacked this "theory," they often used the same bloody tools on multiple patients, leading to rampant infection.
What is Germ Theory?
This "Border State" saw intense "brother vs. brother" fighting due to its status as a slave state that stayed in the Union.
What is Missouri?
This 1863 legal document provided the "basis" for the Union to seize private property if it was a military necessity.
What is the Lieber Code?
These sneaky local laws, such as Vagrancy Laws, were used to re-enslave Black Southerners through fines and forced labor.
What are Black Codes?
While Union leaders could make decisions in 30 seconds, this "built-in weakness" of the CSA often led to political paralysis.
What is the requirement for a 2/3 majority of governors to agree?
This invention allowed Lincoln to read front-line dispatches instantly, though the wires were easily cut by spies.
What is the Telegraph?
This Union victory in September 1862 was the bloodiest single day in U.S. history and gave Lincoln the "win" needed for the Emancipation Proclamation.
What is the Battle of Antietam?
In Missouri, this order forced the evacuation of four counties to stop "invisible" pro-Confederate guerrillas.
What is General Order No. 11?
This group in Congress believed secession was a crime and wanted to use "Military Districts" to transform Southern society.
Who are the Radical Republicans?
These two Southern governors (GA and NC) exemplified the "fatal flaw" by hoarding rifles and uniforms in state warehouses.
Who are Joseph Brown and Zebulon Vance?
While generals still used Napoleonic massed bayonet charges, this new tech increased defensive accuracy from 100 yards to over 400.
What is the Rifled Musket?
This overall Union strategy aimed to "squeeze" the South by blockading ports and splitting the Confederacy in two.
What is the Anaconda Plan?
These were the foragers in Sherman’s army who often went beyond orders to steal jewelry or burn homes out of spite.
Who are "Bummers"?
This Amendment guarantees "Equal Protection" and citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S.
What is the 14th Amendment?