Credo Resource Guide American History: American Civil War

Americans descended from African forebears, usually those enslaved and brought to the USA before the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation MORE

American statesman, President of the Southern Confederacy MORE

US educator and social critic; Du Bois was one of the early leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the editor of its journal Crisis 1909-32. MORE

US millionaire industrialist and philanthropist; He was the founder of Standard Oil in 1870, from which were descended four of the world's largest oil companies - Amoco, Chevron, Exxon, and Mobil. MORE

1820–91, Union general in the American Civil War; Sherman is said by many to be the greatest of the Civil War generals. MORE

US antislavery and women's-suffrage campaigner; A former slave, she ran away and became involved with religious groups. MORE

US abolitionist; Born a slave in Maryland, she escaped to Philadelphia (where slavery was outlawed) in 1849. She helped set up the Underground Railroad. MORE

Important series of battles in the American Civil War in Georgia (May-September 1864) MORE

The first battle of Bull Run (or first battle of Manassas) was the first major engagement of the Civil War...

The Union Conscription Act of Mar. 3, 1863, provided that all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 45 were liable to military service...

Site of one of the decisive battles of the American Civil War: a Confederate defeat by Union forces 1-3 July 1863. MORE

In the American Civil War, a series of engagements (May–June, 1864) fought in the Wilderness region of Virginia. Early in May, 1864, the Northern commander in chief, Grant, led the Army of the Potomac (118,000 strong) across the Rapidan River into the Wilderness, a wild and tangled woodland c.10 mi (16 km) W of Fredericksburg. MORE

During the American Civil War, successful Confederate campaign June-July 1862 to drive back Union forces threatening Richmond, Virginia. MORE

Incident in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Great Britain, which occurred during the American Civil War MORE

The first Ku Klux Klan was an organization that thrived in the South during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. MORE

1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War MORE

Speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the national cemetery on the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg, Pa.; It is one of the most famous and most quoted of modern speeches. MORE

Fortification, built 1829–60, on a shoal at the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, S.C., and named for Gen. Thomas Sumter; scene of the opening engagement of the Civil War MORE

Argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856–57; It involved the then bitterly contested issue of the status of slavery in the federal territories. MORE

US Supreme Court decision of 1857 which denied ‘blacks’ (African Americans) US citizenship and made slavery legal in all US territories MORE

Term used by Americans generally in reference to a native of New England and by non-Americans, especially the British, in reference to an American of any section MORE