Reasons For War
The war fought in 1846 - opposed by northerners due to its perceived victory for southern states and slavery
The Mexican-American War
A man whose Supreme Court case, arguing for his freedom, overturned the entire Missouri Compromise and put the idea of "free states" in jeopardy
Dred Scott
The site of the first shots of the Civil War
Fort Sumter
Commander of the Union army in the west; forerunner of Total War; designer of the March to the Sea
William Tecumseh Sherman
The Georgia capitol burned to the ground by Sherman's army during the March to the Sea
Atlanta
The General/President of Mexico, captured by the United States, and signatory of the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo
Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana
First state to secede from the Union
South Carolina
The city in which the first shots of the Civil War took place
Charleston, SC
First, last, and only President of the Confederate States of America - deeply unpopular and not powerful
Jefferson Davis
The bloodiest battle of the war, fought in Pennsylvania over three days; its result marked the end of offensive southern expeditions into the north
Gettysburg
Bleeding Kansas
Republican President and winner of the 1860 election
Abraham Lincoln
The edict of government, signed by Abraham Lincoln, that officially freed all enslaved people in all territories in rebellion against the Union
The Emancipation Proclamation
Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia; loser of Gettysburg; surrenders the AoNV to Grant at Appomattox Court House
Robert E Lee
The bloodiest single day in American history; the first southern invasion of the north; the battle after which McClellan was sacked by Lincoln
Antietam
The act of Congress, reinforced as part of the Compromise of 1850, that encouraged deportations of formally enslaved people from the north to the south
The Fugitive Slave Act
Illinois Democrat and future Presidential candidate who opposed slavery on economic, not moral, grounds - distinguished by his series of debates against future President Abraham Lincoln
Stephen A Douglas
The popular name of the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) and USS Monitor; the first ships of this type which changed warfare forever
Ironclad ships
By the end of the war, commander of the Army of the Potomac; elected President in 1868; accepts Lee's surrender; personal friend of William T Sherman
Ulysses S Grant
The Confederate prison famous for horribly cruel conditions, liberated by Sherman's army towards the end of the war
Andersonville
The unsuccessful legal attempt post-Mexican American War to ban slavery in new territory acquired from Mexico
Wilmot Provisio
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the 1850s; his majority opinion in Scott vs Sanford claimed that no person of African ancestry could ever hold American citizenship
Roger Taney
The name of the bullet fired from a rifled musket that was popular during the Civil War - a hit from this bullet would "splash" on contact and take an irregular path through the body, often curving through multiple organs
Minie Ball
Original Commander of the Army of the Potomac; notable for his personal dislike of Lincoln and consistent foot-dragging on attacks
George McClellan
The battle fought in Tennessee; one of the bloodiest of the war; where Grant and Sherman gained notoriety
Shiloh