| Term | Definition |
| Election of 1860 | Republicans nominated Lincoln, the Democrats chose one candidate from the North and another from the South. The split party allowed Lincoln to win, without winning a single Southern state. |
| Abraham Lincoln | "Honest Abe" ran for president on a platform that opposed the extension of slavery in the territories, but not in the South. |
| Confederate States of America | states the seceded from the United States after Lincoln was elected president |
| Jefferson Davis | President of the Confederacy |
| Lincoln's First Inaugural Address | reassured Southerners that he would not interfere with slavery; he would do whatever it took to preserve the Union, by force if necessary |
| Fort Sumter | federal fort in South Carolina; Lincoln refused to surrender the fort to South Carolina, Confederate forces fired on it to begin the Civil War |
| "Anaconda Plan" | Northern long-term strategy suggested by General Winfield Scott that aimed at strangling the South |
| Robert E. Lee | General, highly respected on both sides, who ultimately decided to fight on the side of his home state of Virginia |
| Conscription (Draft) | required military service |
| "Stonewall" Jackson | Confederate General forced to retreat from the Battle of Bull Run. Widely regarded as one of the best Confederate commanders |
| Battle of Antietam | aka Battle of Sharpsburg; bloodiest single day of the Civil War |
| "Battle Hymn of the Republic" | Marching song for the Union Army to the tune of "John Brown's Body" with words by Julia Ward Brown |
| Emancipation Proclamation | document freeing the slaves of the rebelling states, not in the loyal boarder states; disrupted the Confederacy's plantation economy and ended chances of French and British intervention |
| Battle of Gettysburg | turning point in the war in which Lee's army suffered havy casualties and was forced to retreat |
| Gettysburg Address | Lincoln's speech that explained the meaning of the Civil War |
| Battle of Vicksburg | Confederacy controlled movement along the Mississippi River until General Grant and the Union forces won this battle after a 47-day siege |
| William Carney | first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor |
| Ulysses S. Grant | Placed in charge of all Union forces after the Battle of Vicksburg - his goal was the total destruction of Confederate forces |
| William T. Sherman | General sent with a Union army across Georgia to further divide the Confederacy |
| Phillip Bazaar | first Hispanic-American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor |
| Election of 1864 | Republican Abraham Lincoln versus Democrat George McClellan with Lincoln winning the election |
| Second Inaugural Address | focus was on the sin of slavery - Southern slave owners had been willing to make war on the Union rather than give up their slaves |
| Appomattox Court House | site of General Lee's surrender - ending the Civil War |
| John Wilkes Boothe | actor who shot and assassinated Abraham Lincoln |
