Social Studies 5th Grade

Study Guide for 9 weeks test

Vocabulary words to know and know how they apply to the Civil War

Popular sovereignty / Gives states right to vote on slavery
Sectionalism / Concerned with the interest of your group or region
Secede / To leave
Abolitionist / Someone who is against slavery
Total War / Destruction of anything and everything to completely demobilize the enemy
Antebellum / Before the war
Names for Northern / Blue, Yankee, Billy Yank
Names for Southern / Gray, Rebel, Johnny Reb

Know the following abolitionist:

  • Fredrick Douglas- an escaped slave who was self-educated, writer and speaker, advisor to Abraham Lincoln, helped to recruit African-American Union soldiers.
  • Sojourner Truth- an escaped slave, did not know how to read or write, spoke against slavery and for women’s rights.
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe- wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, quoted by Lincoln as the lady who started the war.
  • John Brown- Radical abolitionist who lead the raid at Harper’s Ferry with the purpose of arming the slaves with weapons to start a revolt.

Advantages

Union- more industrialized so more weapons, clothing, and other supplies, more railroads, larger population

Confederacy- home field advantage, fighting to preserve their way of life, and highly-trained officers (6 out of 7 military academies)

Causes

  • Compromise of 1820
  • Missouri joins as a slave state and Maine free
  • Maintains congressional balance
  • Compromise of 1850
  • California is allowed as a free state
  • Slave trade ends in Washington, D.C
  • Popular Sovereignty is used to decide slave state in territories
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe write Uncle Tom’s Cabin
  • Opens the eyes of the North to the horrors of slavery
  • South feels it is slanderous
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act
  • Gives popular sovereignty to decide if the Kansas and Nebraska is going to be slave states or free states
  • Dred Scott Case
  • Went to the Supreme and Chief Justice Tawney states that slaves are not citizens and therefore have no rights

Election of 1860

  • Candidates
  • Abraham Lincoln- Republican party, wanted to preserve the Union and prevent slavery from moving westward
  • Stephen Douglas-Northern Democratic candidate, believes that popular sovereignty should be used to decide if they want to be a slave state
  • John Breckinridge-Southern Democrat, wants to preserve the southern way of life and spread slavery
  • John Bell- Constitutional Union party, wants to avoid war and wants to compromise

States

  • Border states
  • Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, states that were loyal to the Union
  • 1st to secede-South Carolina
  • Last to secede-Tennessee

Strategies

  • North
  • Anaconda Plan-blockade of the eastern and southern coasts and control of the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy
  • South
  • Make the war drag on so that the North would get tired and want to quit, their position was defensive

Battles/Events

  • Fort Sumter- 1st battle, April 12,1861, Confederate victory, no casualties
  • Battle of Bull Run- 1st land battle, Confederate victory
  • Vicksburg-gave the Union control of the Mississippi, Union victory, gave Grant notice and he became the Union general
  • Antietam- bloodiest battle in US history, Union victory, when the Emancipation Proclamation was drawn up and it prevented slavery and the South from getting foreign aid from allies
  • Shiloh-battle fought in southwest Tennessee
  • Gettysburg-turning point in the war, Union victory, Gettysburg Address is given on this battlefield
  • Appomattox- Lee surrenders to Grand and ends the Civil War April 9, 1865
  • Sherman’s March to the Sea- total war, demoralizes the South, anything of value is destroyed

Important people

  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Republican president, served two terms, president for the entire Civil War
  • Jefferson Davis
  • Confederate president, arrested at the end of the Civil War for his leadership role
  • Ulysses S Grant
  • Gained notoriety as an effective general. 7th and final Union general during the Civil War, nicknamed “Unconditional Surrender”
  • Robert E. Lee
  • General of the Confederate forces for the entire Civil War, surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse April 9, 1865
  • Clara Barton
  • Civil War nurse, founded the American Red Cross
  • Fredrick Douglas
  • Advisor to Abraham Lincoln, encouraged free African-Americans to fight for the Union