All Categories
History of the Americas
Explore questions in the History of the Americas category that you can ask Sparky!
- What was the name of the first British colony and when was it established
- Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi - Grant surrounds and starves the town of VIcksburg. The town lasted 47 days before surrendering, thereby giving the Union control of the Mississippi river and cutting off Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas from the rest of the Confederacy.
- Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous speeches in history, begins, "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation..." Two minutes and not three hundred words later, he had explained to his audience that the best way to honor the men who had died on the battlefield was to continue to fight the war.
- Surrender at Appomattox - fill in key events using Fields of Fury pg. 84 and packet "McLean's Parlor":
- Battle of Atlanta - Grant ordered William Sherman to capture this major rail and supply center. The Union victory was an important factor in whether Lincoln would be re-elected that November - helped restore support for the war. It also made the Confederacy unable to resupply itself
- Lincoln's Second Inaugural "with malice towards none, with Charity for all..." Establishes how he plans to treat the Confederacy after the war ends, and lays the groundwork for reconstruction.
- Lincoln Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in the evening of April 14th. He was pronounced dead April 15th, 1865
- Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner with a metal tipped cane on the floor of Congress
- Supreme Court makes shocking ruling in Dred Scott case
- Sherman's march to the sea - he led half his army to Savannah from Atlanta, ravaging farms and plantations, and destroying the rest. Due to this destruction campaign, he became the most hated man in the south.
- Eli Whitney's cotton gin spreads slavery into Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, cementing the Southern economic model
- Compromise of 1850 grants California a free state in exchange for the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act.
- Robert Smalls' brave naval feat convinces Lincoln to declare Slaves in confederate states free, but Lincoln wants to wait for a Union victory.
- Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - bloodiest battle of the Civil War; lasted three days and resulted in 51,000 casualties. Robert E. Lee attacked on northern turf. On the third day, Pickett's Charge happened; southern troops marched across an open field almost one mile wide toward Union troops positioned on a hill. When they got within 1200 yards, Union troops opened cannon and rifle/musket fire. Wave after wave of rebel troops fell and over half of the attackers were dead. Four months later, Lincoln dedicated a national cemetery at Gettysburg and gave his famous Gettysburg Address.Day 1 - No generals presentDay 2 - Little Round Top (Union victory)Day 3 - Pickett's Charge
- Chickamauga, GA is the second bloodiest battle of the war. It is a Confederate victory
- Confederates attack Union Fort Sumter in South Carolina, officially starting the war. Confederate Victory
- Grant faces off against Lee for the first time on the same battlefield in four battles in VA, starting with Wilderness and Spotsylvania, and ending with battle of crater.
- Battle of Antietam, MD (called the battle of Sharpsburg by Southerners). Robert Lee decides to attack the north (until now, the South had always been defending the North's attacks). He was hoping to convince Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy as a legitimate nation, and also convince the Northerners to demand an end to the war. Jefferson Davis agreed that an attack on Union turf might be the key to victory. Unfortunately, Union soldiers discovered Lee's battle plans in cigars that had been dropped by a careless southern soldier. The plans tipped off McClellan, who knew where Lee was headed. McClellan was characteristically slow but eventually met up with Lee at Antietam. Bloodiest single day in American history. 25,000 deaths. Union victory and Britain and France refused to recognize the South. It also gave Lincoln the opportunity to make an important proclamation...
- Battle of Bull Run/Manassas, VA - first battle of the Civil War. TJ "Stonewall" Jackson earns his nickname here. Confederate Victory
- Victory at Antietam prompts Lincoln to make the Emancipation Proclamation, which frees slaves in the Confederacy but NOT in border states. Lincoln wants to wait for Congress to pass that kind of legislation.