Civil War Outline Notes
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Fugitive: a person who is running away from legal authority; example: a fugitive slave
Secede: to officially break away from or separate from; example: the southern states seceded from the Union
Civil War: a conflict when two or more regions of a country are fighting against each other; example: The U.S.
Civil War was fought between the Union (the northern states) and the Confederacy (the confederate states).
Free state: a state that did not allow slavery [ Northern states]
Slave state: a state that allowed slavery [ Southern states]
Border state: a state that allowed slavery but remained loyal to the Union during the civil war.
Martyr: a person who dies for a great cause
The President of the Union (North) during the civil war was Abraham Lincoln.
The President of the Confederacy (South) during the civil war was Jefferson Davis.
Another name for the North/Union was those states united under the Constitution.
Another name for the South/Confederacy was the states that seceded from the Union.
The biggest battle of The Civil War was the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of 1863. It was the only battle
fought in a free state and was a victory for the Union army.
The lead general for the Union army (the North) after 1863 was General Ulysses S. Grant
The lead general for the Confederate army (the South) was General Robert E. Lee
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The southern states were against Abraham Lincoln being elected as President of the United States in 1860
because they felt he would do nothing to support slavery or the southern way of life. Abraham Lincoln was
known to be against slavery.
Southerners used states’ rights to justify secession (secede). The south said that each state, had voluntarily
chosen to enter the Union. Southerners defined the Constitution as a contract among the independent states.
They believed that the national government had broken the contract by refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave
Act and by denying Southern states equal rights in the territories. Because of this, Southerners argued, the
states in the south had a right to leave (or secede) from the Union.
The first shots of the civil war were fired when Jefferson Davis ordered the southern soldiers to attack Fort
Sumter, a Union fort in the South. Confederate guns opened fire on April 12, 1861.
By the end of the civil war, 600,000 Americans had lost their lives. Many thousands more were wounded in
battle or had an arm or leg amputated (cut off).
When the war began, each side had advantages and disadvantages. They were as follows:
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North (strengths)
Larger population
More resources
More railroads
Abraham Lincoln as president
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South (strengths)
excellent military leaders
strong fighting spirit
knew the land they were fighting on
good at shooting and riding
The Goals of the War:
- The South (Confederacy) wanted to be an independent nation and maintain the southern way of life.
- The North wanted to restore the Union (bring the nation back together)