APUSH Civil War IDs

Leading up to the Civil War in the 1860s, there was a culmination of different conflicts that lead to the war. Since the writing of the Constitution, slavery had been an issue that was never fully addressed, and was one of the major causes of the Civil War. This created another issue: the balance of power concerning slave and free states. This led to violent conflicts such as Bleeding Kansas. The Second Great Awakening also called upon religion to show that slavery was morally wrong; in addition, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin provoked many white citizens to rise up against the wrongs of slavery. Acts such as the Fugitive Slave Act made northerners mad and Popular Sovereignty Act angered both sides. The formation of the Republican Party, a group of anti-slavery northerners challenged the Southern Democrats. There were many reasons, political, economical, and social, that were causes of the Civil War, all coming to a head on April 12, 1861.

The border states were slave states that did not secede from the Union when the Confederacy formed in 1860-1861. These states included Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. After the first battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Fort Sumter, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia joined the Confederacy and were technically no longer "border states". Another border state was West Virginia, which broke off from Virginia to become a new state in the Union during the Civil war in 1863. Abraham Lincoln had to be careful to maintain moderate policies to avoid border states joining the Confederacy. That is why the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 did not apply to the border states. The border states were very important to the outcome of the Civil war because they provided a buffer between the North and the South. In addition, Maryland and Delaware were important economically because of their large number of factories. If they had joined the Confederacy, their manufacturing abilities would have doubled.

The Battle of Ft. Sumter in South Carolina was the initiation and the first battle of the Civil War. South Carolina seceded from the union in 1860 and had demanded that the federal property come under state authority. When Lincoln took office in 1861, the Union only had two forts in their control in the South. One of these forts included Ft. Sumter located near Charleston. Confederate General Beauregard demanded the fort to come under Confederate property and which was refused. On April 12, 1861, Beauregard started shelling the fort until it finally surrendered on April 14, 1861. This led Congress to declare war on the Confederacy the next day. It also prompted the border states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to join the Confederacy.

The Confederate states of America's government was officially established in February 1861 at the Montgomery Convention in Alabama. There they also wrote their constitution which was exactly like the United States Constitution except for the emphasis on the protections of slavery. The President was Jefferson Davis who was also Commander-in Chief of the Confederate Army, and the vice president was Alexander Stephens. Robert E. Lee was the Confederacy's greatest General in the Civil War. He was from Virginia, a border state, and chose the side of the Confederates despite being asked to be commander of the Union Army by Lincoln. The Confederacy planned to have three branches of government, exactly like the U.S. government, but did not have time or means during the war to create a judicial branch. Court cases were handled by the states that they occurred in. The two functioning branches were the Jefferson Davis administration and the Confederate Congress.

The Anaconda Plan was proposed by General Winfield Scott in 1861 as a strategy to destroy the Confederate rebellion through economic measures to prevent a bloody war. The plan was to block Southern ports and to stop all trade from the Mississippi River to leave the South with no way to get supplies. It was called the Anaconda Plan because it would 'strangle' the Confederacy into submission back into the Union. Many Union commanders, including President Lincoln, did not think it was a good plan because they felt it was too complacent. They wanted to defeat the Confederacy with their advantages of military and industrial power. The plan was originally rejected, but elements of it were used later in the Union strategy like the naval blockade.

The First Battle of Bull Run, also called the Battle of Manassas, occurred on July 21, 1861 near Manassas Junction, Virginia. This was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. It began when about 35,000 union troops marched from the Union capital of D.C. and met a Confederate army of about 20,000 along the Bull Run river. The Confederates fought on the defensive most of the day until they were able to break the Union right flank that sent the Union army into retreat towards Washington. This Confederate victory resulted in the South gaining confidence in their abilities and a sobering experience for the Union as they saw the war would not be won as quickly and easily as they thought.

The Second Battle of Bull Run occurred in late August of 1862 in Prince William County, Virginia. The Union forces were led by John Pope, and the Rebels were commanded by Stonewall Jackson. This was a large battle, and it resulted in over twenty thousand casualties in total. This battle was a decisive victory for the Confederate army despite the extensive casualties. The union was discouraged by their defeat in this battle. The blame was laid on the leaders of the union, primarily McClellan and Pope.

The battle of Antietam was the bloodiest day in all of American history. It was fought on September 17, 1862 in Sharpsburg, Maryland. In this battle, the Union was led by George McClellan and the Confederate army was led by Robert E. Lee. The battle did not have a decisive winner, although it was an implied victory for the Union because the confederates eventually withdrew. As a result of this victory for the Union, Lincoln had sufficient justification to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, a hugely important declaration in the history of the United States.

The battle of Fredericksburg was fought on December 13, 1862 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Union army was commanded by the newly appointed Ambrose Burnside, and the confederate forces were led by Robert E. Lee. This battle was a victory for the rebels. This victory for the confederate army replenished the hope they had lost after the devastating defeat at Antietam. The battle also caused a loss of optimism amongst the Union army, as they suffered nearly 13,000 casualties.

The battle of Gettysburg was incredibly influential in terms of the outcome of the civil war. It was fought from July 1 to July 3 in 1863. The Union army was led by George G. Meade in this battle, and the confederate army was led by Robert E. Lee. The battle took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The rebel army was severely defeated, and Lee was forced to withdraw his diminished army on July 4. After this incredible defeat, Lee attempted to turn in his resignation to the confederate president. His hopes of invading the north were dashed, along with his hopes of victory. This battle turned the tides of the war in favor of the Union.

The siege of Vicksburg was the last important battle of the civil war. From the spring of 1862 into the summer of 1863, the Union army had been trying to take hold of the confederate city, Vicksburg, Mississippi in order to gain access to the vital resource of the Mississippi River. The Union was eventually able to conquer Vicksburg on July 4 of 1863. This loss for the confederacy occurred almost simultaneously with the defeat at Vicksburg, basically ending any hope of victory for the confederacy.

George B. McClellan was a U.S. Army officer and politician. He served as a major general during the Civil War who skillfully reorganized Union forces in the first year of the American Civil War (1861-65) but drew wide criticism for repeatedly failing to press his advantage over Confederate troops. McClellan organized the Army of the Potomac in 1861 and briefly served as general-in-chief of the Union Army. In 1862, McClellan's Peninsula Campaign unraveled after the Seven Days Battles, and he also failed to decisively defeat Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army at the Battle of Antietam later that year. Frustrated by McClellan's overly cautious tactics, Lincoln removed him from command of the Army of the Potomac in late 1862. McClellan would go on to mount a failed presidential campaign against Lincoln in 1864, and would later serve as the governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881.

Ulysses Grant commanded the Union army during Civil War and served as the 18th U.S. president from 1869 to 1877. An Ohio native, Grant graduated from West Point and fought in the Mexican-American War. During the Civil War, Grant, an aggressive and determined leader, was given command of all the U.S. armies. In April 1862, Ulysses S. Grant moved his army cautiously into Tennessee, in what would later become known as the Battle of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Union war strategy called for taking control of the Mississippi River and cutting the Confederacy in half. In December 1862, Grant moved overland to take Vicksburg—a key fortress city of the Confederacy. Failing to take the city after several assaults, he settled into a long siege, and Vicksburg finally surrendered on July 4, 1863.After the war he became a national hero, and the Republicans nominated him for president in 1868. A primary focus of Grant's administration was Reconstruction, and he worked to reconcile the North and South while also attempting to protect the civil rights of newly freed black slaves.

Perhaps the originator and the first practitioner of what the twentieth century came to know as "total war," William Tecumseh Sherman in 1864 commanded the Union armies of the West in the decisive drive from Chattanooga to Atlanta and the famous "march to the sea" across Georgia. In these campaigns and his later push northward from Savannah through the Carolinas, Sherman's troops carried the war to the Southern home front and blazed a wide path of destruction that delivered the death blow to the Confederacy's will and ability to fight. For the accompanying destruction, his name is still cursed in some parts of the South; but he is also recognized as a great strategist, a forceful leader, and the ablest Union general of the war.

Robert E. Lee served as a military officer in the U.S. Army, a West Point commandant and the legendary general of the Confederate Army. In June 1861, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, which he would lead for the rest of the war. Lee and his army achieved great success during the Peninsula Campaign, at Second Bull Run, and Fredericksburg, with his greatest victory coming in the bloody Battle of Chancellorsville. In the spring of 1863, Lee invaded the North, only to be defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg. With Confederate defeat a near certainty, Lee continued on, battling Union General Ulysses S. Grant in a series of clashes in Virginia before finally surrendering what was left of his army in April 1865. Lee has been praised by many for his tactical brilliance, and remains a revered figure in the American South.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was a war hero and one of the South's most successful generals. He fought in the Mexican and then left the military to pursue a teaching career. After his home state of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Jackson joined the Confederate army and quickly forged his reputation for fearlessness and tenacity during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign later that same year. He served under General Robert E. Lee for much of the Civil War. Jackson was a decisive factor in many significant battles until he was hurt during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.

James Longstreet, a lieutenant general in the Confederacy during the Civil War, was one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted generals. Known as "Lee's War Horse," he was the most prominent in the two Battles of Bull Run and the Battle of Gettysburg. He was significant because of he supported Lincoln's Republican Party instead of Robert E. Lee's tactics, making him a trader of the Confederacy.

P.G.T. Beauregard was a Confederate General during the Civil War best known for his victory at Fort Sumter. He was a Louisiana native and was in command of the post Charleston, South Carolina. Beauregard was significant because he ordered the first shots of the Civil War at the attack of Fort Sumter.

The Wilderness Campaign was a series of engagements throughout the wilderness of Virginia. They took place in May and June 1864 and caused Lee to push through the Confederate borders into Richmond. The Wilderness Campaign was significant because it was the beginning of the end of the war, in addition to causing the war to upgrade to total war.

The Election of 1864 was between Abraham Lincoln, the current president, and George McClellan. Lincoln, a Republican winning 212 electoral votes to 12, was interested in pursuing the war effort, while McClellan, a Democrat, would have surrendered to the South. Had McClellan won this election, there would have likely been two separate nations, the Union and the Confederacy still today, and they probably would not have joined back together.

The right of Habeas Corpus, the right for cases in state courts to be brought to the federal court, was suspended by President Lincoln in 1863. This civil liberty that Lincoln suspended was in defiance of the Constitution and the Supreme Court's chief justice. This was done so that anti-Unionists could be summarily arrested for their simple crimes.

By spring of 1865, Grant's army had destroyed all of Lee's supplies and had killed most of his men. With his numbers quickly diminishing, Lee quickly evacuated Petersburg and Richmond and traveled west. Grant followed him and overtook the rest of the Confederate troops, forcing Lee to surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This marked the end of the Civil War and produced an agreement between the Union and Confederation.

By 1861, the United States was in the middle of its first Industrial Revolution. The population totaled to 22.3 million, 100,000 factories were established, railroads covered 70% of U.S. mileage, and the amount of firearms dramatically increased. During the war, the Union used its new machinery to supply the army with uniforms, blankets, boots, and food. Also, the north and the south both used ironclads instead of wooden ships while fighting their first sea battle. Finally, the classic musket was exchanged for the rifle, a gun deadly from 600 yards away. Because of these evolutionary advancements, the Civil war was more bloody and deadly than anyone previously expected.

Although the United States was quickly improving its infrastructure and weaponry, medical care remained primitive. Diseases like measles, malaria, and typhus infected camps of soldiers and killed men more than combat. The germ theory and antiseptic medical practices were unknown and non-existent; some doctors tried to treat syphilis or other diseases with mercury, a toxic and life-threatening treatment. Since the need for adequate medicine spiked during the Civil War, the loss of soldiers pushed for quick improvement within the medical field.

For most black men, enlisting in the military served as a liberating experience and hope for the future. The Union navy treated both black and white men equally; the layout of the ships made segregation impossible. The men slept together, dined together, and were all given the same opportunities and chances for promotion. However, in the Union army, segregation and discrimination were inevitable. Each unit was separated based on color; the pay of black soldiers were much drastically different than their counterparts. For some time, most newly enlisted soldiers were commanded to rigorous labor until the Union army was forced to promote them. The role of black soldiers largely affected the United States because of their help in defeating the south, as well as altering Lincoln's views on equality and suffrage.

Although the Civil War brought death and destruction across the country, it provided more opportunities for women to rise up and push for equality. Women took advantage of labor shortages and began joining mills for money; the national government also had openings which allowed women to receive jobs as clerks. Many men believed the organizations created by women were an "extension" of their natural job as a mother. However, most women who were supporting the war, whether through an organization or job, began to feel the sense of freedom.

The Civil War was both beneficial and detrimental for our nation. Short term effects included an extensive death toll, total destruction of land, homelessness, families torn apart, and the emancipation of the slaves. Over 500,000 men died during the war--more than any other American war combined. Damage in the South was particularly severe. They lost a fourth of their white male population, a third of their livestock, half of their farm machinery, and $2.5 billion worth of human property. Cities such as Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond had been burned to the ground. Factories and railroads were also destroyed. On the other hand, the war guaranteed the continuity of the Union, shifted power from the South to the North, increased the power of the federal government, accelerated the modernization of the northern economy, and also led to the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments being passed. The power specifically shifted from slave-owning farmers to northern capitalists, which also hastened the transformation from Lincoln's America to an industrial nation. The challenges of protecting black rights began at this time as well. Ultimately, the Civil War laid the foundation for modern America.

The "Lost Cause" was a movement in which the traditional white society of the South was sought to be reconciled after the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Many Southerners were devastated economically and emotionally after the war, so they sought consolation in blaming their loss on something out of their control, like treachery. Those who supported the movement were usually former Confederates who still remained loyal to its beliefs; they were also exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry. Supporters saw Reconstruction as unnecessary and an attempt to destroy the Southern way of life. The term and idea of the "lost cause" has appeared in many novels since the Civil War. Overall, it is an important viewpoint that Southerners have held onto for more than two hundred years as a way to honor the war and their old way of life.

The 13th Amendment was the first of three Reconstruction amendments. Congress approved the amendment on January 31, 1865, and it was later passed by the secretary of state on December 18, 1865. It expanded Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation by freeing every slave in the nation. Additionally, it nullified the Fugitive Slave Clause and the Three-Fifths Compromise. Even though slavery and involuntary servitude had been formally abolished, many Americans took discriminatory measures in order to prevent the freedom of African Americans. Because the amendment still allowed labor as punishment, Black Codes, laws that were intended to criminalize black life, were enforced in many states in the South. White supremacist violence and Jim Crow laws were other means of discrimination that show how deeply racist the Southern culture still was, even after the passing of this amendment.

After Lincoln's reelection, the war was urged to its end. In November of 1864, Major General William T. Sherman and his Union army of 60,000 set out from Atlanta on their March to the Sea. They first circled a sixty-mile-wide radius through Georgia, destroying railroads, buildings, military bases, and civilian property. Furthermore, they kidnapped, stole, and raped. Sherman wrote his goal was "to whip the rebel, to humble their pride, to follow them to their innermost recesses, and make them fear and dread us." This is a prime example of Lincoln's call for total war and the extent of its destructiveness. After capturing Savannah, Sherman moved into South Carolina, where slaves joined in on the annihilation. Sherman's march finally ended in North Carolina in early 1865. His plan of destroying, intimidating, and weakening the South was successful, as the war ended a few months later.

The 14th Amendment was passed in July of 1868 as the second Reconstruction amendment. It addressed citizenship, granting the right of citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." This empowered the federal government to protect the right of all Americans and prohibited states from denying the people "equal protection of the law." The amendment, however, did not give blacks the right to vote. The abolition of slavery, though, threatened to increase southern political power, as the Three Fifths Compromise was nullified by the 13th Amendment. The 14th Amendment then offered the white South a choice--allow black men to vote and keep their state's full representation in the House, or limit the vote to whites and sacrifice part of their political power. As a result of this amendment, a definite division between the political parties was formed. There weren't any Democrats that voted in favor of it, and only four Republicans opposed. By writing that equality was to come before the law regardless of race, this amendment was the most important addition to the Constitution since the Bill of Rights.

The 15th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution March 30, 1870. It states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." In other words, it gave African American men the right to vote, conveniently keeping the Republicans in office with the new supporting voter population. However, the South took discriminatory measures to keep African Americans from voting, such as state laws that required poll taxes and literacy taxes; meanwhile, other laws employed the Grandfather Clause in order to protect poor white Americans from disqualification. Almost a century later, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created to eradicate these discriminatory legalities that disenfranchised the black population.

Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, as a war document. It stated that all slaves in states currently in rebellion against the Union were then and forever free. It did not free, however, any slaves in the states that were under Union control, including the Border States. Although the Proclamation allowed ex-slaves to participate in the Union Army, it did not outlaw slavery, nor did it grant ex-slaves citizenship. Also, just because slaves were deemed "free" in the Confederacy did not mean that their masters necessarily freed them. Total emancipation would not take place until 1865 with the passing of the 13th Amendment. It is also important to note that the Proclamation changed the aim of the war, as it now focused on the moral duty of eradicating slavery and not just unifying the Union.

Around General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet evacuated the Confederate capital in Richmond, heading to Danville, Virginia. There, they hoped to form a government in exile before they were pushed farther South by Union troops. The new president Andrew Johnson, who falsely believed that Davis was complicit in Lincoln's assassination, put out a reward of $100,000 for his capture. On May 9th, Davis and his men were captured by Union troops in the farming community of Irwinville. Davis happened to be wearing his wife's shawl over his shoulders to keep him warm, thus leading to the rumor that he had tried to escape by dressing as a woman. He was ridiculed in songs like "Jeff in Petticoats" and cartoons in major tabloids depicting him as a coward. He was subsequently imprisoned for more than two years in Fortress Monroe; when his poor treatment was publicly exposed, it helped contribute to Southern Nationalism. In 1867, he was released on bail, crushed from the defeat of his beloved Confederacy, which he had once harbored hopes to revive.

During the Reconstruction Era, two pejorative nicknames came about in the South. ' 'Carpetbaggers' was the negative name given to Northerners who moved down South after the war to take advantage of the unstable economy. The name derives from the type of luggage they carried with them: carpet bags. The term scalawag refers to Southern whites who supported the plan of Reconstruction and other aspects of the Northern political agenda, such as desegregation. Some Southerners felt that this was a betrayal of their own people and even greedy, as some "scalawags" supported the Republicans for monetary benefits. Both terms are evidence of the resentment that Southerners felt towards Northerners during the bitter Reconstruction period, whether they were taking economic advantage of them or getting Southern support.

Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 in order to assist, economically and socially, former slaves and poor whites. With four million newly-emancipated slaves in the nation, there was the looming question of how they would proceed with their newly found freedom. The Bureau would help this transition, as well as alleviate poverty for whites in the nation, by providing medical care, legal aid, education, housing, and alimentation. It also assisted in settling former slaves on abandoned Confederate land. Due to political conflicts, the tense nature of Reconstruction, Southern opposition, and a lack of resources, Congress shut down the Bureau in 1872. However, it is significant because it was a radical move for the federal government. The bureau was, essentially, the first kind of well-care this nation had ever seen, and it extended to a race that was constantly denied its rights, let alone governmental aid.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was part of the post-civil war, American reconstruction movement. After president Lincoln passed the 13th amendment, there was unfortunately still problems regarding the black community, their rights and their place in society. This new bill stated that they would be treated "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude". President Johnson vetoed, making him seem racist, but in reality, he was worried that by passing the bill would create problems and slow the progress of the reconstruction. The congress overrode the veto with a two thirds majority, passing the bill. While rights were re-established for blacks, it did not solve all the problems, as the Ku Klux Klan began to take matters into their own hands. Also, many women's rights activist became outraged that there was not a gender clause included in the bill.

After president Lincoln's assassination, president Andrew Johnson was elected to office. Because he vetoed both the Freedmen's Bureau and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Johnson acquired a reputation as a white supremacist, often preaching of preventing a "mixed race". Several bills later, congress became frustrated with not only Johnson's inability to cooperate on any of the reconstruction or freedmen's bills, but also with his seemingly dictatorial leadership, earning him the nickname "King Andy". As congress overturned veto after veto, and the radicals started coming up with new reconstruction plans, several members of congress became fearful that they would be fired from their positions since they did not comply with Johnson's views. Therefore, congress tried to pass the "Tenure of Office Act", which said that the president could not fire anyone without the senate's approval. Johnson, unsurprisingly, vetoed, saying that this was unconstitutional, as it violated the separation of powers. When Johnson proceeded to attempt firing his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, without the senate's consent, the congress saw this as an opportunity to impeach the president for "high crimes" in violating the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson came out victorious in court, as the Tenure of Office Act was indeed unconstitutional, although, he only had 9 months left in his term, and he had already lost all of his chances in being re-elected for a second term. That being said, this was not a victory for Johnson, but a victory for maintaining power of the presidency.

After the Civil War, general Ulysses Grant initially set out to assist president Johnson reconstruct America. However, as Grant worked more and more with Johnson, he began to like Johnson's white supremacist policies less and less, as Grant thought that they reputed the purpose of the war. That being said, Grant grew increasingly radical. He was pushed to run for office in 1868, and won both the popular vote and the vote of the electoral college by a landslide. After a four year term, Grant had successfully worked to reconstruct the South and support civil rights. Although he was still very popular, a small sect of the Republican party broke off to create the "Liberal Republicans" party. This group specifically was opposed to Grant's program to reconstruct the South, and thought that the plan should revert to local self-governments, which would ultimately restore power to the white demographic. Greeley emerged as the "Liberal Republican" candidate, but sadly, he stood no chance. Grant was re-elected for a second term in 1872.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed by the first biracial congress of the United States, essentially saying that it was illegal to deny colored people access to public amenities/ facilities. While this bill had good intent, it was hard to enforce, particularly in the South. Unfortunately, in 1883, the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional, as it was not authorized under the 13th or 14th amendments.

The Wade-Davis Bill was a bill sponsored by Benjamin F. Wade and Henry W. Davis that aimed to, in the seceded states, appoint provisional military governors. However, when the states swore their allegiance to the union in their respective constitutional conventions, they swore to abolish slavery, repudiate secession and bann any Confederate officials from running for office and even voting. President Lincoln vetoed the bill, thus deeming it unsuccessful.

The Whiskey ring was in 1875, throughout Grant's presidency. Taxes were placed on whiskey to help pay off debt from the Civil War, but many citizens were unhappy with this act, thus causing bribes to take place. Many distillers, often Republican politicians, were able to bribe members of the US Treasury Department until Benjamin Bristow, the US Secretary of the Treasury, stepped in and conducted raids in the major cities where the bribes were taking place such as St. Louis. Approximately 100 convictions were made and he was able to recover $3 million worth of taxes from the liquor. Grant became a symbol of this corruption and all other corruptions and discrepancies in 1875.

This was a company that was created by Thomas Durant and George Francis Train in 1864 and worked with the Union Pacific Railroad company. It was created to protect companies' stocks that would be of use for the railroad and as a way to make a profit. Essentially, companies such as the Union Pacific would make a contract with Credit Mobilier (CM) and this money would be invested. However, CM really just sold the bonds that their clients had invested to make a larger profit. This resulted in Congress having to pay large sums to CM and the Union Pacific due to the indirect and false methods of billing. This proved that the continuation of the railroad would not be profitable. In 1867 when Ames took Durant's position, he offered stock shares at a discounted price to congressmen. Numerous congressmen would purchase shares at low prices, which would result in a fortune since the share were bought below market value. In 1872, this scandal was investigated. They discovered that at least thirty congressmen from both parties had participated in these briberies, one of them being James Garfield who, despite this scandal, still wins the Presidential election of 1880.

The Indian Ring involved Grant's Secretary of War, Belknap, and Indian lands in 1875. He was granted the right to appoint sutlers, merchants who would trade to armies, at Fort Sill in the west by congress. By lobbying congress for complete control over these trading posts, he was able to build a monopoly in the 1870s. The Indians also bought weapons from Belknap so Belknap sold them defective weapons, which only intensified the enmity between the two groups. At Fort Sill, John Evans, an established sutler, did not wish to give up his role to Belknap, thus a deal was made between the two men where Evans owed Belknap a quarter of his monthly profits. Belknap also had three wives, thus a motive for his scheming to make a large profit. The House of Representatives was suspicious of his doings, impeached him, but after his trial, he was acquitted.

The Grant administration is notorious for its corruption. This includes the bribery and trading on the Indian reserves and bribing congress members and politicians to remove the tax on whiskey as well as distributing stocks for a much lower price. However, Grant was not involved with these activities. Prior to his presidency, he had never been in politics, thus making it difficult for him to also adapt to political mannerisms such as doing discreet deals. His success as a Union general by far surpasses his doings as a President. Despite the corruption with his cabinet, he was able to create a relatively successful foreign policy as well as policies concerning civil service reform and African American rights as he served during the reconstruction.

Horace Greeley ran as the Liberal Republican candidate from New York in the 1872 election against Grant. Greeley lost to Grant for his re-election. Greeley died before the electoral college casted it votes. This election was the first election where each state determined its party through popular vote and is thus far the only election where a candidate died throughout the process.

The emergence and rise of railroads beginning in 1866 in America brought with it an economic boom. When Jay Cooke and Company, a law firm, closed in September of 1873, the railroad industry took a turn for the worse. The law firm was the chief financier in railroad construction, the Union Army, and later became a federal agent for railroad construction. After completing the first transcontinental railroad, plans went into action for a second, but because of overspending, the firm went bankrupt. With Jay Cooke and Company out of business, other businesses and firms closed; 89 of the 364 railroads across the country shut down, unemployment rose to 14%, and riots broke out all over the country. President Grant tried to adopt a plan to work with eastern businessmen, but even after leaving office in 1877, the problem still loomed. President Hayes eventually had to send troops to violent riots, and southern blacks suffered the most from the panic. With the focus on the dwindling economy and already living in impoverished conditions, reconstruction and racial equality was put at a standstill.

The Slaughter House Cases occurred in 1873 and ruled that the "privileges and immunities" of a citizen could not be defined or given by a state, and were only those given under the Constitution. Beginning in 1869, Louisiana granted a monopoly to Crescent City Livestock and Slaughterhouse Company, which enraged local butchers. The butchers claimed that the monopoly infringed upon their "privileges and immunities" as a part of the recently passed 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court clarified that the clause refers to rights of American citizenship, not state citizenship. Louisiana legislation had done nothing to threaten or take away the butchers' right to equal protection or due process. These cases highlighted the sovereignty the Constitution and federal government still had over the states following the Civil War.

In 1872, Myra Bradwell was rejected from the Illinois bar because she was a woman. She appealed the the US Supreme Court with the claim that the Illinoi state government was denying her "privileges and immunities" stated under the 14th Amendment. Furthermore, the 14th Amendment did not protect the rights of a state legislature. The justices claimed that "[t]he paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother". The Supreme Court supported the state of Illinois' denial, but in 1890, Bradwell was accepted into the Illinois bar and granted her law license in 1892, in front of the Supreme Court.

In 1876, Klansman William Cruikshank surrounded, burned down, and murdered a court house full of black men with guns. Cruikshank violated the recently granted rights of blacks to bear arms, but the court annulled their convictions, claiming that the federal government could not protect a citizen from outright murder. Despite this being one of the bloodiest hate crimes of Reconstruction, the government denied any idea of race influencing the actions of Cruikshank.

Sharecropping was an economic system used during Reconstruction by freed slaves to deal with the matter of labor. In the aftermath of the war, white southern landowners had lost an immense amount of land and freed slaves expected the government to provide land and farming opportunities, so the issue was in who gets what land. In the sharecropping system, black families rented land and a portion of their crops went to the owner of the land from which they were renting. Over time, sharecropping dominated agriculture in the South, specifically cotton. Even though the black families were given land of their own, often times the repayment to the owner was greater than what the family could pay, showing that they had not gained complete freedom.

In 1848, the first women's rights conference was held in Seneca Falls, New York; it was lead by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These two women, including Lucy Stone, became the three leaders in women's suffrage. After the 15th amendment passed, the women's suffragists split into two groups: those who who saw the amendment as a positive and those who were disappointed that women received no mention. Those unhappy with the amendment included Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; these two refused to support the 15th amendment and even rallied with racist Southerners. About twenty years later, after the Reconstruction, the two parties reconciled and formed the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The main focus of NAWSA was to emphasize domesticity into a political virtue, using the franchise to create a purer, more moral "maternal commonwealth." By 1919, suffragists managed to win passage of the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote.

The exodus movement was the first major migration of ex-slaves to the North. It. began in 1789, fourteen years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Following reconstruction, thousands of slaves traveled from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and other northern states. The cause for migrating away from the South was to escape the Ku Klux Klan, the White League, and Jim Crow laws which continued to keep blacks as second-class citizens. One of the most important figures of the Exodus was Benjamin "Pap" Singleton

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Forrest was born in Tennessee and served as a delegate following the war. After the war, Forrest was a major Southern advocate. Forrest started the Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction Era of the 1860s. The Klan targeted freed, black ex-slaves; their major goal was to restore white supremacy by threats and violence, including death, against black and white Republicans. By 1870, the government had enacted the Force Acts, which prosecuted Klan activity. The Ku Klux Klan lead to other racist vigilante groups such as the White League and the Red Shirts. These groups contributed segregationist white Democrats regaining political power in all the Southern states by 1877.

Nearly two years after the end of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was passed by Congress. The first part was the creation of five military districts in the seceded states, not including Tennessee. The second part was that each district was to be headed by a military official empowered to appoint and remove state officials. Thirdly, voters were to be registered; all freedmen were to be included as well as those white men who took an extended loyalty oath. Lastly, state constitutional conventions, comprising elected delegates, were to draft new governing documents providing for black male suffrage. Also, states were required to ratify the 14th amendment prior to readmission.

President Abraham Lincoln created the 10% plan in 1863. First, Lincoln pardoned and offered amnesty to any rebels who pledged loyalty to the United States and its laws involving slavery. Second, when any state in rebellion had ten percent of its registered voters swear allegiance to the United States, a new state government could be formed and recognized by the Union. Lastly, Lincoln encouraged states that returned to the Union to create policies in dealing with recently freed slaves that did not involve bondage. Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee quickly adopted the 10% plan. The Radical Republicans rejected the policy because they thought Southerns should be punished for slavery.

Johnson's plan of Reconstruction in 1865 consisted of granting immediate amnesty for former Confederates owning less than $20,000 worth of property. The rest of the former confederates could petition him for presidential pardons, which he gave freely. Readmission of the Confederate states to the Union requires the states to renounce their acts of secession, abolish slavery, and the U.S. would refuse to pay Confederate war debts. By December all states except Texas wanted to be readmitted, but many disagreed with the terms of their readmission. South Carolina refused to condemn its acts of secession, Mississippi refused to ratify the 13th amendment and abolish slavery, and some other states refused to repudiate their war debt. President Johnson declared the Union restored in December of 1865 even though many of the states did not actually meet his requirements to be readmitted. But, at this point, Congress refused to allow a seat for former Confederate states representatives. Congress argues that the former Confederate states had forfeited their statehood by seceding and therefore should be returned to the status of territories. A committee of 6 Senators and 9 Representatives declared that only Congress, not the president, had the ability to readmit them to the Union, and the job of Reconstruction was passed on to Congress.

In the election of 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio and republican representative, ran against the democratic governor of New York, Samuel J. Tilden. The initial outcome of the vote stated that Tilden had won the election having had 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win. He led the popular vote by 250,000. However, the Republicans were unwilling to accept their first defeat since 1861. They accused the Democrats of using intimidation and bribery to discourage the black people in the south from voting. The outcome was up to Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina, which prevented either candidate from getting a majority of electoral votes. After much disputation and pointed fingers, presidency fell to Hayes in exchange for Republicans' promise to remove federal troops from the South, provide federal funding for internal improvements in the South, and name a Southerner to the president's cabinet.

Edwin Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton was vital in managing the Union war effort and became one of Lincoln's closest advisers. He also served under President Andrew Johnson from 1865-1868, but was opposed to Johnson's Reconstruction policies in the South. Johnson's attempt to replace Stanton in 1867 without the Consent of the Senate, violated the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson was put on trial for this and eventually impeached. Stanton resigned shortly after.

President Andrew Johnson believed that since secession was illegal, the southern states had never actually left the Union or surrendered the right to govern their own affairs, and he also believed African American's had no role to play in Reconstruction. He made many controversial decisions, but most northerners wanted to give him a chance, until the conduct of the southern governments elected under his program, turned most of the Republican North against him. Prominent Confederates were returning to power, and reports of violence directed against former slaves and northern visitors in the south further alarmed Republicans. Most opposition however was towards Johnson's policy of "Black Codes." These were laws passed by the new southern governments that attempted to regulate the lives of former slaves. They granted blacks certain rights such as legal marriage, ownership of property, but denied them other rights such as the right to testify against whites or to the right to vote. He eventually had his weak reconstruction policy taken away and the job given to Congress. He had difficulty accepting this and continued to interfere. What pushed him over the edge however, took place in February of 1868, when he removed Secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton who was an ally of the Radicals. But in March of 1867, Congress had adopted the Tenure of Office Act which barred the president from removing certain office holders, including cabinet members, without the consent of the Senate, which is what he had just done. Impeachment quickly came up and the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment and presented the charges against Johnson to the Senate who then had to decide whether or not he would stay in office. Andrew Johnson became the first president in American history to ever be impeached. Republicans considered him a failure and moved on to their next candidate, Ulysses S. Grant.

After the controversial decision of Rutherford B. Hayes' presidential election of 1876, a compromise was made. A meeting took place in February of 1877 at the Wormley Hotel in Washington, D.C. In order for the democrats to agree to Hayes' presidency, the Republicans had to agree to remove federal troops from the South, provide federal funding for internal improvements in the South, and name a Southerner to the president's cabinet. This is known as the Compromise of 1877.

Rutherford B. Hayes was an Ohio Republican who became the nineteenth President in 1877 in what was called "The Compromise of 1877." The trade for having a northern Republican in office was to recognize Democratic control over the South and avoid intervening with local affairs; in addition, Hayes would also place a southerner, (David Key of Tennessee), in the cabinet position of postmaster general. In return, the Democrats would not dispute Hayes's right to office and to respect the civil and political rights of blacks. Unfortunately, the South's promise to respect the rights of blacks was ignored, even when Hayes ordered federal soldiers to stop guarding the state houses in southern states such as Louisiana and South Carolina.

The Reconstruction was the period of time after the Civil War, when the country was coming back together. President Johnson, following in Lincoln's footsteps, offered a pardon to restore political and property rights to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance. However, while some wanted the south to have a greater punishment, others recognized that anything more might anger and humiliate the south further. While slavery was officially over and blacks were allowed to vote, many southerners were mad about losing their slaves and, with them, their source of income; groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were formed and began a reign of terror during which blacks were lynched, beaten, and racially abused. Many blacks found that their treatment had not been changed much from before and after the war. Many northerners were also concerned when Confederate leaders were returned to power in the South. In addition, women were still not allowed to vote.

Some of the legacy that emerged from the period of Reconstruction was the right for blacks to vote, due to the 15th Amendment. Blacks were also granted civilian rights during this time, including being able to vote. The Freedman's Bureau was also formed, giving recently freed slaves food, shelter, and education. However, racial violence was a large result of increasing black rights, and organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan were formed in opposition. They fought against black rights until the 1960s. In addition, Congress formed the US Department of Justice in 1870. Reconstruction officially ends when Hayes withdraws troops from the southern states.

In 1896, in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court gave its approval to state laws requiring separate facilities for blacks and whites. The case originated in Louisiana when the state legislature had required railroad companies to maintain a separate car for black passengers. A Citizens Committee of black residents of New Orleans came together to challenge the law. Homer Plessy, a light-skinned African-American, refused to move to the "colored only" part of the car and was arrested. The Supreme Court agreed with the Louisiana court in a vote of 8-1, arguing that the facilities did not discriminate so long as they were "separate but equal," saying that "Our constitution is color-blind." They stated that segregation sprang from whites' conviction that they were the "dominant race" and that it violated the principle of equal liberty.