Unit 6 Study Guide ~ Causes of the Civil War/Civil War
Standards to Know:
SS8H6: The student will analyze the impact of the Civil War on Georgia
a. Explain the importance of key issues and events that led to the Civil War including slavery, states’ rights,
nullification, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850 and the Georgia platform, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred
Scott Case, election of 1860, the debate over secession in Georgia, and the role of Alexander Stephens.
b. State the importance of key events of the Civil War to include Antietam, the Emancipation Proclamation,
Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Union blockade of Georgia’s coast, Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s
March to the Sea, and Andersonville
Vocabulary: antebellum, sectionalism, states’ rights, compromise, nullification/nullify, tariff, platform, electoral
vote/Electoral College, industrial, agrarian, civil war, abolitionist, secede/secession, border states, Union, Confederacy,
emancipation/emancipate, Stars and Bars, blockade, casualties, Anaconda Plan, productive resources (natural/land,
human, capital), entrepreneur, incentives
Focus Points:
1. Describe the regional differences between the North and the South in the first half of the 19th century and relate
these differences to the issue of slavery and states’ rights.
2. What was the abolitionist movement and who were some of the key people involved? (include Frederick Douglas,
William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe and her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Tubman)
3. What was the Missouri Compromise?
4. What was the Compromise of 1850?
5. Explain Georgia’s platform in regard to the Compromise of 1850?
6. How was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 supposed to unite the nation?
7. Describe the Dred Scott Decision.
8. Why was the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 the final straw for the South? What occurred immediately after
this election?
9. In what years did the American Civil War take place?
10. What occurred at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, April 12, 1861?
11. Describe the advantages of the North and the South in regard to the Civil War.
12. What was the Emancipation Proclamation and the Confederate response?
13. How did the Union blockade affect the Confederacy during the war?
14. Describe the conditions at Andersonville.
15. Describe the formation of black regiments for the Union during the war.
16. Describe the role of women during the Civil War.
17. Describe Sherman’s “March to the Sea.”
18. Explain the connection between what happened at the Battle of Antietam, Maryland (September 16-17, 1862) and
Abraham Lincoln’s issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation (September 23, 1862).
19. Explain why the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (July 1-3, 1863) is considered to be the “turning point” of the
war.
20. Explain the significance of the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia (September 19-20, 1863).
21. What was the capital(s) of the Confederacy?
22. What do the terms “blue and gray” refer to in the context of the Civil War?
23. What do the terms “rebels and Yankees” or “Billy Yank” and “Johnny Reb” refer to in context of the Civil War?
24. Identify the following key people: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Henry Clay, General George McClellan,
General Robert E. Lee, General Ulysses S. Grant, Jeb Stewart, Stonewall Jackson, General George Meade,
Alexander Stephens (Georgia), Stonewall Jackson, Robert Shaw, William T. Sherman, Clara Barton
25. What occurred at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865
26. Describe the assassination of President Lincoln. April 14, 1865
27. Other interesting topics: technologies (repeating rifles, ironclad ships, trench warfare, submarines, hospital ships,
machine guns, military telegrams, aerial reconnaissance, national conscription, war photographers), army life,
medical treatment and surgical procedures.