Civil War Terminology

Sectional History -  The two sections were the North and the South.  But this can be problematic...

For clarity, I will refer to the states in the North that did not have slavery as the northern states, the states that seceded as the Confederate states, and the four states with slavery that did not secede (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri) as the border states.
 
Rather than using words like "northerners" and "southerners," it is clearer to talk about Confederates in the South and Unionists in both the North and the South.  (The terms mostly used for people in the North that opposed the government's war aims were "Peace Democrats" or "Copperheads.")

                  

The red line is the Mississippi River

Civil War Regional History -

Upper South  -  The Border States,Virginia

Lower South  - Everything below the Upper South 
Lower North - New Jersey, Pennsylvania, lower New York 

Upper North – Upper New York State, New England

Old North West – Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana.  The southern part of the last three is known as the Butternut Region which was inhabited largely by southerners who had migrated north.

The three main Civil War military theaters

Eastern  -  Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., N. Carolina Coast
Western  -  Everything else east of Mississippi River except the southern seaboard
Trans-Mississippi -  Missouri, Arkansas, northern Louisiana  
  

Miltary Terminology

Army       -  60,000 - 100,000 men
Corps       -  24,000 -   36,000
Division   -    9,000 -   12,000
Brigade    -    3,000
Regiment -    1,000
Company -       100

Logistics   -  The movement of men and supplies.

Strategy    -  The grand movement of armies over months or over great territory.

Tactics      -  Arrangement and movements of small units during battle.

Casualties  -  The total of dead, wounded and missing after a battle.

Conscription  -  Military draft.  The Civil War was the first war in U.S. history to use conscription.

Hard War  -  Union war policy adopted gradually that allowed for the destruction of any materials that aided the Confederate war effort.  




Slavery Terminology
 
Antislavery man/woman - Someone who is in some way against slavery, most notably those who wanted to stop its expansion into the western territories.  

Abolitionist - someone who wants slavery completely abolished.  Abolitionists can be either immediate (wants slavery ended immediately) or long-term (has a long-term plan) abolitionists. (Some historians disagree with this; for them only immediate abolitionists are abolitionists at all).    

Radical Abolitionists - wants slavery abolished immediately and wants full citizenship (full political and social equality) for blacks (e.g. the right to vote, hold office, serve on juries, intermarry with whites). 


Planter - A slave owner with 20 or more slaves. 

Yeoman -  A middle class farmer or artisan who owned either no slaves or a small number of slaves.  Yeoman slave owners usually worked along side their slaves on their farms or in their shops. 

Free Blacks - Free before the Civil War.

Freed people - Freed from slavery during the war.

Contraband – “Property” seized by an army that was used to fight the war.  Contraband can be arms and munitions, horses and wagons, etc.  In the Civil War it also included slaves the Union "seized" (freed) who had been forced to help the Confederate War effort.

Contraband Camps - Refugee camps set up in the south by the Union army to protect escaped slaves.

Manumission - the freeing of slaves, usually by their owners, often in the owner's will.

Emancipation - the freeing of slaves, usually by a government

Gradual Emancipation - freeing slaves over time; several northern states ended slavery through gradual emancipation.