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Key Points of the Civil War

May 6, 2025

Civil War Notes Chart

Famous Battles

Fort Sumter

  • First action of the Civil War
  • Confederacy captured a Union fort in Charleston

Bull Run

  • First major battle of the Civil War
  • Victory for the Confederacy

Antietam

  • Union victory in Maryland
  • General McClellan's cautious approach allowed Lee to escape
  • Deadliest single day on American soil

Shiloh

  • Two-day battle in Tennessee
  • Union victory under General Grant
  • Notable for the "Hornet’s Nest"
  • Significant in helping Union gain control over Mississippi

Monitor vs. Merrimack

  • Naval battle between two ironclad ships
  • Ended in a draw
  • Monitor (Union) vs. Merrimack (Confederate)

Gettysburg

  • Bloodiest battle in the Civil War and on US soil
  • Union victory by General Meade
  • Lee was driven back from the North

Appomattox Courthouse

  • Site where Lee surrendered to Grant
  • Marked the effective end of the Civil War

Famous People

Abraham Lincoln

  • President of the Union

Jefferson Davis

  • President of the Confederacy

Winfield Scott

  • Union general
  • Developed the "Anaconda Plan"

Robert E. Lee

  • Top general of the Confederacy
  • Known for multiple victories
  • Ultimately surrendered to Grant

Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson

  • One of Lee’s key commanders
  • Influential at Bull Run
  • Accidentally killed by own troops

George McClellan

  • Union general
  • Victory at Antietam
  • Fired for being overly cautious
  • Ran against Lincoln for presidency and lost

General Meade

  • Led Union forces to victory at Gettysburg
  • Later dismissed

William Sherman

  • Second in command to Grant
  • Led "March to the Sea" and practiced total war
  • Famous for burning Atlanta

Robert Gould Shaw

  • Leader of the 54th Massachusetts
  • Died in battle

Mary Edwards Walker

  • Female surgeon
  • Awarded the Medal of Honor

William Carney

  • Member of the 54th Massachusetts
  • First African American Medal of Honor recipient

Vocabulary Terms

Secede

  • Act of breaking away, as Southern states did from the Union

Anaconda Plan

  • Strategy to encircle and suffocate the South, cutting off supplies

Border States

  • States that remained in the Union but permitted slavery

54th Massachusetts

  • First unit of all African American soldiers

Emancipation Proclamation

  • Lincoln’s order freeing slaves in rebelling states

Total War

  • Warfare strategy involving widespread attacks on enemy's resources and civilians

War of Attrition

  • Strategy of denying enemy supplies without direct confrontation

Greenbacks

  • Northern currency during the Civil War

Ironclad

  • Warships covered in iron armor, exemplified by the Monitor and Merrimack

Andersonville and Elmira

  • Confederate and Northern prisons for captured soldiers

Habeas Corpus

  • Right to a speedy trial, suspended by Lincoln during the Civil War

Copperheads

  • Northern Democrats opposing the war, advocating peace and compromise with the South