Civil War Vocabulary

Term referring to the United States during the 1800’s. Also another word for the North in the Civil War.

• Union

• Confederacy

• South

• Grey

Leaving a group formally. This refers to the Southern states who left the Union to form the Confederate States of America.

• Secession

• Conscription

• Slave Code

• Fugitive Slave Act

Set of rules in the South that claimed slaves were property, not citizens.

• Slave Codes

• Fugitive Slave Act

• Conscription

• Confederacy

Someone who opposed and fought against slavery. Famous abolitionists include Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

• Abolitionist

• Conscription

• Slave Codes

• Union

Also called “the draft” - requires all healthy men over the age of 18 to serve in the military.

• Conscription

• Abolitionist

• Slave Codes

• Union

The closing of a port by positioning ships to keep people and supplies from moving in or out.

• Blockade
• Embargo
• Tariff
• Sectionalism

States that seceded from the United States and formed a new government under the leadership of Jefferson Davis.

• Emancipation Proclamation

• Union

• Gettysburg Address

• Confederate States of America

The act of surrounding and attacking a fortified area over a period of time.

• Siege

• Border States

• Topography

• Strategy

Confederate soldier, so called because of opposition to the established government.

• Yankee

• Rebels

• ironclad

• Blockade-runner

Union soldier.

• Yankee

• Rebels

• ironclad

• Blockade-runner