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| Battle of Bull Run (Manassas Junction) |
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| Civil War battle that ended in a decisive victory for Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was emboldened to push further into the North. |
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| Union General George B. McClellan's failed effort to seize Richmond, the Confederate capital. Had McClellan taken Richmond & toppled the Confederacy, slavery would have most likely survived in the South for some time. |
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| Confederate & Union ironclads respectively, whose success against wooden ships signaled an end to wooden warships. They fought a historic, though inconsequential battle in 1862. |
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| Second Battle of Bull Run |
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| First major battle of the Civil War & a victory for the South, it dispelled Northern illusions of swift victory. |
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| Landmark battle in the Civil War that essentially ended in a draw but demonstrated the prowess of the Union army, forestalling foreign intervention & giving Lincoln the "victory" he needed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. |
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| Emancipation Proclamation |
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| Declared all slaves in rebelling states to be free but did not affect slavery in non-rebelling Border States. The Proclamation closed the door on possible compromise with the South & encouraged thousands of Southern slaves to flee Union lines. |
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| Consitutional ammendment prohibiting all forms of slavery & involuntary servitude. Former Confederate States were required to ratify the ammendment prior to gaining reentry into the Union. |
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| Decisive victory in Virginia for Confederate Robert E. Lee, who successfully repelled a Union attack on his lines. |
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| Civil War battle in Pennsylvania that ended in Union victory, spelling doom for the Confederacy, which never again managed to invade the North. Site of General George Pickett's daring but doomed charge on the Northern lines. |
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| Abraham Lincoln's oft-quoted speech delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg battlefield. In the address, Lincoln framed the war as a means to uphold liberty. |
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| Battle of Fort Henry & Fort Donelson |
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| Key victory for Union general Ulysses S. Grant, it secured the North's hold on Kentucky & paved the way for Grant's attacks deeper into Tennessee. |
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| Bloody Civil War battle on the Tennessee-Mississippi border that resulted in the deaths of more than 23,000 soldiers & ended in a marginal Union victory. |
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| Two & a half month siege on a Confederate fort on the Mississippi in Tennessee, Vicksburg finally fell to Ulysses S. Grant in July of 1863 giving the Union Army control of the Mississippi River & splitting the South in two. |
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| Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march through Georgia. An early instance of "total war", purposely targeting infastructure & civilian property to diminish morale & undercut the Confederate War effort. |
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| Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War |
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| Established by Congress during the Civil War to oversee military affairs. Largely under control of radical republicans, the committe agitated for a more vigorous war effort & actively pressed Lincoln on the issue of emancipation. |
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| Northern democrats who obstructed the war effort attacking Abraham Lincoln, the draft, and after 1863, emancipation. |
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| The Man Without a Country |
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| Edward Everett Hale's fictional account of a treasonous soldier's journeys in exil. The book was widely read in the North, inspiring greater devotion to the Union. |
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| A coalition party of pro-War Democrats and Republicans formed during the 1864 election to defeat anti-war Northern Democrats. |
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| A series of brutal clashes between Ulysses S. Grant's & Robert E. Lee's armies in Virginia, leading up to Grant's capture of Richmond in April 1865. Having lost Richmond, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. |
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| Site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865 after a year of brutal fighting throughout Virginia in the "Wilderness Campaign". |
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| Granted suffrage to all male British citizens, dramatically expanding the electorate. The success of the American democratic experiment, reinforced by the Union victory in the Civil War, was used as one of the arguments in favor of the Bill. |
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| Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson |
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| Confederate general who defeated Unionists but later died after accidentally being shot. |
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| Also known as "Tardy George"; relieved twice as general because of his losses due to reluctancy. |
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| Brilliant Confederate general who ultimately lost the Civil War but did gain some key victories. |
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| Union general whose overconfidence caused a defeat. |
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| Union general who replaced McClellan at Fredericksburg but lost many men. |
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| Joseph ("Fighting Joe") Hooker |
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| Union general defeated at Chancelorsville, VA. |
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| Union general who unexpectedly got the job & won at Gettysburg. |
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| Failed at his last stand-"Pickett's Charge", which was the last hurrah for the Confederacy. |
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| Also known as "unconditional surrender Grant"; Union general whose gory tactics were criticized by many but won the war. |
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| Union General who made the famous march to the sea with widespread destruction. |
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| Leader of a faction within Lincoln's own party; Secretary of the Treasury. |
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| Loud Copperhead exiled to the Confederacy by Lincoln; inspired the book Man Without a Country. |
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