Fort Sumter
South Caroline site where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Shiloh
Bloody Tennessee battle where Union soldiers were taken by surprise; Grant reorganized troops and won.
Ironclads
A technological advance in maritime warfare exemplified by the ships Monitor and Merrimack.
Ulysses S. Grant
Northern general of Union Army; he accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
Robert E. Lee
The commander of the Confederate Army, whose defeat at Gettysburg was the war's turning point.
Antietam
Site of 1862 Maryland battle that was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history.
Emancipation Proclamation
Lincoln's declaration in 1863 that freed slaves in Confederate states and territory.
Copperheads
The Northern Democrats who advocated peace with the South during the Civil War.
Conscription
Drafting of civilians for military service.
54th Massachusetts
The African-American regiment commanded by Robert G. Shaw that led an assault on Fort Wagner.
Income tax
Tax on an individual's yearly earnings, first authorized in 1863.
Clara Barton
Courageous Union nurse known as the "angel of the battlefield," who later founded the American Red Cross.
Andersonville
Horrendous Civil War prison in Georgia with no shelter or fresh water, and a low survival rate.
Gettysburg
Three-day battle in Pennsylvania considered to be the turning point of the Civil War.
Gettysburg Address
Speech given by Lincoln in 1865 dedication of a national cemetery; it eloquently affirmed American principles.
Vicksburg
Mississippi city to which Grant laid siege, leading the way for Union control over the Mississippi River.
Appomattox Court House
Site in Virginia of the Confederate surrender on April 9, 1865.
National Bank Act
The 1863 law that created the federal bank system, which made banking safer for investors.
Thirteenth Amendment
The change to the Constitution that abolished slavery, passed in 1865.
John Wilkes Booth
The Southern sympathizer who assassinated Lincoln on April 14, 1865.