War Outbreak & War Strategies
The political event in 1860 that triggered southern secession and signaled the shift toward war.
What was the election of Abraham Lincoln?
The military force essential for enforcing the blockade of Confederate coastlines and capturing key waterways.
What was the Union Navy?
President Lincoln’s presidential order that freed enslaved individuals only in areas currently in rebellion against the United States.
What was the Emancipation Proclamation?
The constitutional amendment that officially abolished slavery throughout the entire United States.
What was the 13th Amendment?
The political agreement that settled the disputed 1876 presidential election and officially ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops.
What was the Compromise of 1877?
The military location that marked the official beginning of the Civil War.
What was Fort Sumter?
The ground-breaking military unit made famous as one of the first official African American regiments in the Union Army.
What was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment?
President Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policy that allowed Southern states quick readmission with minimal protections for freedmen.
What was Presidential Reconstruction?
The constitutional amendment granting citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born in the U.S..
What was the 14th Amendment?
State and local laws enforced across the South that mandated legal racial segregation in public facilities.
What were Jim Crow laws?
The strategic Union plan designed to blockade southern ports and divide the Confederacy along the Mississippi River.
What was the Anaconda Plan?
The presidential address that redefined the Civil War as a struggle for human equality and a new birth of freedom.
What was the Gettysburg Address?
The legislative measure that divided the former Confederacy into five military districts governed by Union generals.
What was the Reconstruction Act of 1867?
The constitutional amendment prohibiting the denial of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
What was the 15th Amendment?
A post-war system where states leased prisoners to private contractors for forced labor, predominantly exploiting Black Americans.
What was Convict Leasing?
A major Northern advantage during the war that allowed for superior troop movement and resource supply.
What was a larger population (or greater industrial capacity / extensive railroad network)?
General Sherman’s destructive military campaign aimed at destroying southern infrastructure and civilian morale.
What was the "March to the Sea"?
The constitutional conflict between Andrew Johnson and Radical Republicans that resulted in Johnson’s trial in the Senate.
What was the impeachment of Andrew Johnson?
The federal agency established to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites in the South with education, food, and legal support.
What was the Freedmen's Bureau?
A voter suppression tool requiring citizens to pay a fee before casting a ballot.
What was a poll tax?
A major Southern advantage during the Civil War that bolstered military leadership and defense strategy.
What was fighting a defensive war on home territory (or superior military leaders / strong martial tradition)?
The overall impact that over 180,000 African American soldiers had on the Union war effort.
What was providing crucial manpower, tactical support, and moral momentum that hastened Union victory?
The Congressional plan for Reconstruction that sought strict conditions for readmission and full civil rights guarantees for freedmen.
What was Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction?
The white supremacist group organized during Reconstruction whose primary goal was restoring white Democratic dominance through terror.
What was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)?
A legal exemption allowing individuals to bypass voting restrictions if their ancestors had the right to vote prior to 1867.
What was the Grandfather Clause?