Key Terms

Army of the Potomac

the Union fighting force operating outside Washington, DC

Army of the West

the Union fighting force operating in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Mississippi River Valley

Confederacy

the new nation formed by the seceding southern states, also known as the Confederate States of America (CSA)

contrabands

enslaved people who escaped to the Union army’s lines

Copperheads

Democrats who opposed Lincoln in the 1864 election

Crittenden Compromise

a compromise, suggested by Kentucky senator John Crittenden, that would restore the 36°30′ line from the Missouri Compromise and extend it to the Pacific Ocean, allowing slavery to expand into the southwestern territories

Emancipation Proclamation

signed on January 1, 1863, the document with which President Lincoln transformed the Civil War into a struggle to end slavery

Fort Sumter

a fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, where the Union garrison came under siege by Confederate forces in an attack on April 12, 1861, beginning the Civil War

general in chief

the commander of army land forces

Gettysburg Address

a speech by Abraham Lincoln dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863

greenbacks

paper money the United States began to issue during the Civil War

habeas corpus

the right of those arrested to be brought before a judge or court to determine whether there is cause to hold the prisoner

Sherman’s March to the Sea

the scorched-earth campaign employed in Georgia by Union general William Tecumseh Sherman

total war

a state of war in which the government makes no distinction between military and civilian targets, and mobilizes all resources, extending its reach into all areas of citizens’ lives