Documents for "U.S. History":

• abolitionists in U.S. history, particularly in the three decades before the Civil War, members of the movement that agitated for the compulsory emancipation of the slaves. Abolitionists are distinguished from...

• Abscam U.S. scandal resulting from an investigation begun in 1978 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI created a front (Abdul Enterprises, Ltd., hence, Abscam) for its agents, who, posing as...

• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), former U.S. government agency established (1933) in the Dept. of Agriculture under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program. Its...

• Alabama ship: see Confederate cruisers.

• Alabama claims claims made by the U.S. government against Great Britain for the damage inflicted on Northern merchant ships during the American Civil War by the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers that had been built, fitted out, and otherwise aided by British interests. William H. Seward failed to reach a settlement while he was Secretary of State. However, his successor, Hamilton Fish,...

• Alamo, the [Span.,=cottonwood], building in San Antonio, Tex., "the cradle of Texas liberty." Built as a chapel after 1744, it is all that remains of the mission of San Antonio de Valero, which was founded in 1718 by Franciscans and later converted into a fortress. In the Texas Revolution,...

• Albany Congress 1754, meeting at Albany, N.Y., of commissioners representing seven British colonies in North America to treat with the Iroquois, chiefly because war with France impended. A treaty was concluded,...

• Albany Regency name given, after 1820, to the leaders of the first political machine, which was developed in New York state by Martin Van Buren. The name derived from the charge that Van Buren's principal supporters, residing in Albany, managed the machine for him while he served in the U.S. Senate. During the Jacksonian period the Regency...

• Algerine War early 19th-century conflict between Algiers and the United States. The Tripolitan War (1801-5) had brought a temporary halt to the pirate activities of the Barbary States. However, during the subsequent Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 the Barbary pirates renewed their predatory...

• Alien and Sedition Acts 1798, four laws enacted by the Federalist-controlled U.S. Congress, allegedly in response to the hostile actions of the French Revolutionary government on the seas and in the councils of diplomacy...

• American Colonization Society organized Dec., 1816-Jan., 1817, at Washington, D.C., to transport free blacks from the United States and settle them in Africa. The freeing of many slaves, principally by idealists, created a...

• American Fur Company chartered by John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) in 1808 to compete with the great fur-trading companies in Canada—the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Astor's most ambitious venture, establishment of a post at Astoria , Oreg., to control the Columbia River valley fur trade, was made under a subsidiary, the Pacific Fur Company. His early operations around the Great Lakes were under another subsidiary, the South...

• American Labor party organized in New York by labor leaders and liberals in 1936, primarily to support Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal and the men favoring it in national and local elections. It gathered strength...

• American party see Know-Nothing movement.

• American Revolution 1775-83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence. ...

• Annapolis Convention 1786, interstate convention called by Virginia to discuss a uniform regulation of commerce. It met at Annapolis, Md. With only 5 of the 13 states—Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and...

• Antietam campaign Sept., 1862, of the Civil War. After the second battle of Bull Run , Gen. Robert E. Lee crossed the Potomac to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania. At Frederick, Md., he divided (Sept. 10) his army, sending Stonewall Jackson to capture the large Union garrison at Harpers Ferry and thus...

• Anti-Federalists in American history, opponents of the adoption of the federal Constitution. Leading Anti-Federalists included George Mason , Elbridge Gerry , Patrick Henry , and George Clinton. Later, many of the...

• Anti-Masonic party American political organization that rose after the disappearance in W New York state in 1826 of William Morgan. A former Mason, Morgan had written a book purporting to reveal Masonic secrets. The...

• Antirent War in U.S. history, tenant uprising in New York state. When Stephen Van Rensselaer, owner of Rensselaerswyck, died in 1839, his heirs attempted to collect unpaid rents. Tenants on the estate resisted,...

• Anti-Saloon League U.S. organization working for prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors. Founded in 1893 as the Ohio Anti-Saloon League at Oberlin, Ohio, by representatives of temperance societies and...

• antislavery movement see slavery ; abolitionists.

• Antitrust Act see Clayton Antitrust Act ; Sherman Antitrust Act.

• anti-Vietnam War movement domestic and international reaction (1965-73) in opposition to U.S. policy during the Vietnam War. During the four years following passage of the Tonkin Gulf resolution (Aug., 1964), which authorized U.S. military action in Southeast Asia, the American air war intensified and troop levels climbed to over 500,000. Opposition to the war grew as television and press...

• Aroostook War Feb.-May, 1839, border conflict between the United States and Canada. In 1838, Maine and New Brunswick both claimed territory left undetermined on the U.S.-Canadian border, including the valley of...

• Atlanta campaign May-Sept., 1864, of the U.S. Civil War. In the spring of 1864, Gen. W. T. Sherman concentrated the Union armies of G. H. Thomas, J. B. McPherson, and J. M. Schofield around Chattanooga. On May 6 he began to move along the railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta against Dalton, Ga.,...

• Bacon's Rebellion popular revolt in colonial Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon. High taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment against special privileges given those close to the governor, Sir William Berkeley , provided the background for the uprising, which was precipitated by Berkeley's failure to defend the frontier against attacks by Native Americans. Bacon commanded two unauthorized but successful...

• Bank of the United States name for two national banks established by the U.S. Congress to serve as government fiscal agents and as depositories for federal funds; the first bank was in existence from 1791 to 1811 and the...

• Barnburners radical element of the Democratic party in New York state from 1842 to 1848, opposed to the conservative Hunkers. The name derives from the fabled Dutchman who burned his barn to rid it of rats; by implication, the Barnburners would destroy corporations and public works to do away with the abuses they foster...

• Battle above the Clouds see Chattanooga campaign.

• Bemis Heights, battle of see Saratoga campaign.

• Bent's Fort trading post of the American West, on the Arkansas River in present-day SE Colorado, E of Rocky Ford and La Junta and several miles above the mouth of the Purgatoire. The trading company headed by...

• Bering Sea Fur-Seal Controversy see under Bering Sea.

• Bill of Rights in U.S. history: see Constitution of the United States.

• black codes in U.S. history, series of statutes passed by the ex-Confederate states, 1865-66, dealing with the status of the newly freed slaves. They varied greatly from state to state as to their harshness...

• Black Friday Sept. 24, 1869, in U.S. history, day of financial panic. In 1869 a small group of American financial speculators, including Jay Gould and James Fisk , sought the support of federal officials of the Grant administration in a drive to corner the gold market. The attempt failed when government gold was released for sale. The drive culminated on a...

• Black Hawk War conflict between the Sac and Fox and the United States in 1832. After the War of 1812, whites settling the Illinois country exerted pressure on the Native Americans. A treaty of 1804, which had no...

• Black Monday Oct. 19, 1987, in U.S. history, day of financial panic. The Dow Jones Average fell 508.32 points, a drop of 22.6%, the largest since 1914. The point decline as well as the volume, 604.33 million shares, exceeded previous records. Among the possible causes were investors'...

• Black Panthers U.S. African-American militant party, founded (1966) in Oakland, Calif., by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Originally espousing violent revolution as the only means of achieving black liberation,...

• Black Warrior merchant steamer that plied between New York City and Mobile, usually stopping at Havana, Cuba. Her seizure on Feb. 28, 1854, by Spanish authorities at Havana and the imposition of a $6,000 fine on...

• Bland-Allison Act 1878, passed by the U.S. Congress to provide for freer coinage of silver. The original bill offered by Representative Richard P. Bland incorporated the demands of the Western radicals for free and...

• Bon Homme Richard see Jones, John Paul.

• Bonus Marchers in U.S. history, more than 20,000 veterans, most of them unemployed and in desperate financial straits, who, in the spring of 1932, spontaneously made their way to Washington, D.C. They demanded...

• Boston Massacre 1770, pre-Revolutionary incident growing out of the resentment against the British troops sent to Boston to maintain order and to enforce the Townshend Acts. The troops, constantly tormented by irresponsible gangs, finally (Mar. 5, 1770) fired into a rioting crowd and killed five men—three on the spot, two of wounds later. The funeral of the victims...

• Boston Port Bill see Intolerable Acts.

• Boston Tea Party 1773. In the contest between British Parliament and the American colonists before the Revolution, Parliament, when repealing the Townshend Acts , had retained the tea tax, partly as a symbol of its right to tax the colonies, partly to aid the financially embarrassed East India Company. The colonists tried to prevent the consignees from...

• Bozeman Trail see under Bozeman, John M.

• Brain Trust the group of close advisers to Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was governor of New York state and during his first years as President. The name was applied to them because the members of the...

• Brandywine, battle of the in the American Revolution, fought Sept. 11, 1777, along Brandywine Creek. The creek, formed by two small branches in SE Pennsylvania, flows southeast to join, near Wilmington, Del., the Christina...

• Breed's Hill see Bunker Hill, battle of.

• Buena Vista, battle of military engagement in the Mexican War, fought Feb. 22-23, 1847. The battle site was just S of Saltillo, Coahuila, in Mexico. Gen. Zachary Taylor , disobeying orders from the U.S. government, had advanced here. Gen. Santa Anna, having gathered a Mexican army, made a long march north and, attacking Taylor's forces furiously, outflanked them...

• buffalo soldiers name given to the African-American U.S. army regiments commissioned by Congress to patrol the American West after the Civil War. Consisting of two infantry and two cavalry regiments, they were the...

• Bull Moose party see Progressive party.

• Bull Run small stream, NE Va., c.30 mi (50 km) SW of Washington, D.C. Two important battles of the Civil War were fought there: the first on July 21, 1861, and the second Aug. 29-30, 1862. Both battlefields...

• Bunker Hill, battle of in the American Revolution, June 17, 1775. Detachments of colonial militia under Artemas Ward , Nathanael Greene, John Stark , and Israel Putnam laid siege to Boston shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord. However, Thomas Gage , British commander in the city, made no attempt to break the siege until he was reinforced (in May) by troops led by William Howe , Sir Henry Clinton , and John Burgoyne. The Continental forces learned of the British plan to take the heights of Dorchester and Charlestown, and William Prescott was sent to occupy Bunker Hill outside Charlestown. Prescott instead chose the neighboring Breed's Hill to the southeast, but the engagement that ensued has become known as the battle of Bunker...

• Burlingame Treaty see under Burlingame, Anson.

• Byrde, William For persons thus named, use Byrd, William.

• Carey Land Act sponsored by Sen. Joseph M. Carey and passed by the U.S. Congress in 1894. The act provided for the transfer to Western states of U.S.-owned desert lands on the condition that they be irrigated...

• Carolina campaign 1780-81, of the American Revolution. After Sir Henry Clinton had captured Charleston , he returned to New York, leaving a British force under Cornwallis to subordinate the Carolinas to British control. Cornwallis swept north and capped his success in the battle of Camden on Aug. 16,...

• Caroline Affair In 1837 a group of men led by William Lyon Mackenzie rebelled in Upper Canada (now Ontario), demanding a more democratic government. There was much sympathy for their cause in the United States, and a small steamer, the Caroline, owned by U.S. citizens, carried men and supplies from the U.S. side of the Niagara river to the Canadian rebels on Navy Island just above Niagara Falls. On the night of Dec. 29, 1837, a small group...

• carpetbaggers epithet used in the South after the Civil War to describe Northerners who went to the South during Reconstruction to make money. Although regarded as transients because of the carpetbags in which they carried their possessions (hence the name carpetbaggers ), most intended to settle in the South and take advantage of speculative and commercial opportunities there. With the support of the black vote the carpetbaggers played an important role in the...

• Cedar Mountain see Bull Run.

• Centennial Exhibition, International held in Philadelphia from May to Nov., 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The buildings, in Fairmount Park, included the Main Building, covering 20 acres...

• Chadds Ford see Brandywine, battle of the.

• Chancellorsville, battle of May 2-4, 1863, in the American Civil War. Late in Apr., 1863, Joseph Hooker, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, moved against Robert E. Lee, whose Army of Northern Virginia (less than half...

• Charter Oak white oak tree that until 1856 stood in Hartford, Conn., and was thought to be 1,000 years old. There is a tradition that when Sir Edmund Andros , as governor-general of New England, demanded (1687)...

• Chattanooga campaign Aug.-Nov., 1863, military encounter in the American Civil War. Chattanooga, Tenn., which commanded Confederate communications between the East and the Mississippi River and was also the key to...

• Chesapeake U.S. frigate, famous for her role in the Chesapeake affair (June 22, 1807) and for her battle with the H.M.S. Shannon (June 1, 1813). The Chesapeake left Norfolk, Va., for the Mediterranean under the command of James Barron in June, 1807. Just outside U.S. territorial waters the H.M.S. Leopard stopped her and demanded the right to search her for British deserters. Barron refused to allow this, and shortly afterward the Leopard opened fire. Unprepared for action, Barron was forced to submit and allow the impressment of four of his crew (two of whom were American-born). The incident caused intense indignation, and war...

• Chinese exclusion policy of prohibiting immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States; initiated in 1882. From the time of the U.S. acquisition of California (1848) there had been a large influx of Chinese...

• Chisholm Trail route over which vast herds of cattle were driven from Texas to the railheads in Kansas after the Civil War. Its name is generally believed to come from Jesse Chisholm, a part-Cherokee trader who,...

• Cibola see Marcos de Niza ; Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de.

• Cincinnati, Society of the [Lat. pl. of Cincinnatus ], organization formed (1783) by officers of the Continental Army just before their disbanding after the American Revolution. The organization, with a constitution drafted by Gen. Henry Knox , was founded for fraternal, patriotic, and allegedly nonpolitical purposes. George Washington was made president of the national society, and auxiliary state societies were organized. Membership...

• Civil War in U.S. history, conflict (1861-65) between the Northern states (the Union) and the Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy. It is generally known in the South as the War between the States and is also called the War of the Rebellion (the official Union designation), the War of Secession, and the War for Southern...

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), established in 1933 by the U.S. Congress as a measure of the New Deal program. The CCC provided work and vocational training for unemployed single young men through conserving and developing...

• Clayton Antitrust Act 1914, passed by the U.S. Congress as an amendment to clarify and supplement the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. It was drafted by Henry De Lamar Clayton. The act prohibited exclusive sales contracts, local price cutting to freeze out competitors, rebates, interlocking directorates in corporations...

• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty concluded (Apr. 19, 1850) at Washington, D.C., between the United States, represented by Secretary of State John M. Clayton, and Great Britain, represented by the British plenipotentiary Sir Henry...

• cold war term used to describe the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the end of World War II until 1989. Of worldwide proportions, the conflict...

• Communist party in the United States, political party that espoused the Marxist-Leninist principles of communism.

• Compromise of 1850 The annexation of Texas to the United States and the gain of new territory by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War (1848) aggravated the hostility between North and South concerning the question of the extension of slavery into the territories. The antislavery forces favored the proposal made in the Wilmot Proviso to exclude slavery from all the lands acquired from Mexico. This, naturally, met with violent Southern opposition. When California sought (1849) admittance to the Union as a free state, a grave...

• Comstock Lode richest known U.S. silver deposit, W Nevada, on Mt. Davidson in the Virginia Range. It is said to have been discovered in 1857 by Ethan Allen Grosh and Hosea Ballou Grosh, sons of a Pennsylvania...

• Conestoga wagon heavy freight-carrying vehicle of distinctive type that originated in the Conestoga region of Pennsylvania c.1725. It was used by farmers to carry heavy loads long distances before there were...

• Confederacy name commonly given to the Confederate States of America (1861-65), the government established by the Southern states of the United States after their secession from the Union. (For the events...

• Confederate cruisers in U.S. history, warships constituting the South's seagoing navy. At the outbreak of the Civil War the United States ranked next to Great Britain in merchant marine. Since almost all of the tonnage...

• Confederate States of America see Confederacy.

• Confederation, Articles of in U.S. history, ratified in 1781 and superseded by the Constitution of the United States in 1789. The imperative need for unity among the new states created by the American Revolution and the...

• Constellation U.S. frigate, launched in 1797. It was named by President Washington for the constellation of 15 stars in the U.S. flag of that time. The frigate was built to serve against the pirates of the...

• Constitution U.S. 44-gun frigate, nicknamed Old Ironsides. It is perhaps the most famous vessel in the history of the U.S. navy. Authorized by Congress in 1794, the ship was launched in 1797 and was commissioned and put to sea in 1798 in the undeclared...

• Constitutional Convention in U.S. history, the 1787 meeting in which the Constitution of the United States was drawn up.

• Constitutional Union party in U.S. history, formed when the conflict between North and South broke down the older parties. The Constitutional Union group, composed of former Whigs and remnants of the Know-Nothings and other...

• Continental Congress 1774-89, federal legislature of the Thirteen Colonies and later of the United States in the American Revolution and under the Articles of Confederation (see Confederation, Articles of ). ...

• Conway Cabal 1777, intrigue in the American Revolution to remove George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army. Washington had been defeated at Brandywine and Germantown, and Horatio Gates was flushed with success by his victory in the Saratoga campaign. Some Congressmen and army officers favored Gates as commander in chief. Gen. Thomas Conway , personally irritated with Washington, wrote a letter to Gates severely criticizing Washington. James Wilkinson of Gates's staff quoted to William Alexander (Lord Stirling) a phrase purportedly from this letter, and Alexander repeated it to Washington, who sent the quotation to Gates without comment. Gates wrote an elaborate defensive reply and sent it...

• Copperheads in the American Civil War, a reproachful term for those Northerners sympathetic to the South, mostly Democrats outspoken in their opposition to the Lincoln administration. They were especially...

• covered wagon see Conestoga wagon ; prairie schooner.

• cowboys in American history. 1 Tory marauders, adherents to the British cause in the American Revolution, who fought in the contested area of Westchester co., N.Y. Their opposite numbers, who favored the Revolutionary cause and...

• Crédit Mobilier of America ephemeral construction company, connected with the building of the Union Pacific RR and involved in one of the major financial scandals in American history. Oakes Ames , Thomas C. Durant , and a few other influential stockholders of the Union Pacific organized the Crédit Mobilier under an existing Pennsylvania charter, which they took over. Acting for both the Union Pacific and for...

• Crittenden Compromise in U.S. history, unsuccessful last-minute effort to avert the Civil War. It was proposed in Congress as a constitutional amendment in Dec., 1860, by Sen. John J. Crittenden of Kentucky with support...

• Croatoan unexplained letters found (1590) carved on a tree on Roanoke Island off North Carolina by Governor John White when he returned to the colony from England and discovered the colonists gone. White took the letters to mean that the settlers had moved to Croatoan...

• Cuban Missile Crisis 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install ballistic missiles in Cuba. When U.S. reconnaissance flights...

• Dawes Act or General Allotment Act, 1887, passed by the U.S. Congress to provide for the granting of landholdings ( allotments, usually 160 acres/65 hectares) to individual Native Americans, replacing communal...

• Dawes Commission commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, created by the U.S. Congress in 1893 under the Dawes Act with H. L. Dawes as chairman. Its aim was the reorganization of the Indian Territory by securing the...

• Declaration of Independence full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Britain and making them into...

• Democratic party American political party; the oldest continuous political party in the United States.

• Deseret see Latter-day Saints, Church of Jesus Christ of ; Utah.

• Donner Party group of emigrants to California who in the winter of 1846-47 met with one of the most famous tragedies in Western history. The California-bound families were mostly from Illinois and Iowa, and...

• Dorr's Rebellion see Dorr, Thomas Wilson.

• draft riots in the American Civil War, mob action to protest unfair Union conscription. The Union Conscription Act of Mar. 3, 1863, provided that all able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 45 were liable...

• Dunmore's War see Dunmore, John Murray, 4th earl of.

• Elkhorn Tavern see Pea Ridge.

• Emancipation Proclamation in U.S. history, the executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America.

• Embargo Act of 1807 passed Dec. 22, 1807, by the U.S. Congress in answer to the British orders in council restricting neutral shipping and to Napoleon's restrictive Continental System. The U.S. merchant marine suffered from both the British and French, and Thomas Jefferson undertook to answer both nations with measures that by restricting neutral trade would show the importance...

• Emigrant Aid Company organization formed in 1854 to promote organized antislavery immigration to the Kansas territory from the Northeast. Eli Thayer conceived the plan as early as Feb., 1854, even before the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law, and in April, Massachusetts chartered the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. This organization, however,...

• era of good feelings period in U.S. history (1817-23) when, the Federalist party having declined, there was little open party feeling. After the War of 1812 all sections were anxious to return to a normal life and to...

• Essex Junto group of New England merchants and lawyers, so called because many of them came from Essex co., Mass. They opposed the radicals in Massachusetts in the American Revolution and supported the...

• Fair Oaks see Peninsular campaign.

• Fallen Timbers battle fought in 1794 between tribes of the Northwest Territory and the U.S. army commanded by Anthony Wayne ; it took place in NW Ohio at the rapids of the Maumee River just southwest of present-day Toledo. The Native American defeat hastened the collapse of indigenous resistance in the area, secured the...

• Farmer-Labor party in U.S. history, political organization composed of agrarian and organized labor interests. Formed in 1919 as the National Labor party, it changed its name at its 1920 presidential nominating...

• Federal Constitutional Convention see Constitutional Convention.

• Federal Writers' Project see Work Projects Administration.

• federalism 1 In political science, see federal government. 2 In U.S. history, see states' rights.

• Federalist party in U.S. history, the political faction that favored a strong federal government.

• Federalist, The series of 85 political essays, sometimes called The Federalist Papers, written 1787-88 under the pseudonym "Publius." Alexander Hamilton initiated the series with the immediate intention of persuading New York to approve the Federalist Constitution. He had as collaborators James Madison and John Jay. Hamilton certainly wrote 51 of the essays, Madison wrote 14, Jay 5; the authorship of 15 is in dispute (as between Hamilton and Madison). The essays were widely read as they appeared, and all...

• Fifty-four forty or fight in U.S. history, phrase commonly used by extremists in the controversy with Great Britain over the Oregon country. The rights of the United States, they maintained, extended to the whole region, i.e., to lat. 54°40′N, the recognized southern boundary of Russian America. It was used as a campaign slogan...

• fire-eaters in U.S. history, term applied by Northerners to proslavery extremists in the South in the two decades before the Civil War. Edmund Ruffin , Robert B. Rhett , and William L. Yancey were the most notable...

• Five Forks crossroads near Dinwiddie Courthouse, SW of Petersburg, Va. The last important battle of the Civil War was fought there on Apr. 1, 1865. Philip H. Sheridan , leading his own and Gouverneur K. Warren's...

• Florida see Confederate cruisers.

• Foot Resolution offered in 1829 by Samuel Augustus Foot in the U.S. Senate. This resolution instructed the committee on public lands to inquire into the limiting of public land sale. The Jacksonian Democrats, who wished to encourage migration to the...

• force bill popular name for several laws in U.S. history, notably the act of Mar. 2, 1833, and the Reconstruction acts of May 31, 1870; Feb. 28, 1871; and Apr. 20, 1871. The first force bill, passed in...

• Fort Caroline settlement near the mouth of the St. Johns River, NE Fla.; est. 1564 by French Huguenots under René de Laudonnière. A Spanish force led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés attacked the fort in 1565, killed...

• Fort Dearborn U.S. army post on the Chicago River, NE Ill.; est. 1803 and named for Secretary of War Henry Dearborn. Threatened by the indigenous population at the start of the War of 1812, the frontier post was ordered by Gen. William Hull to evacuate. On Aug. 15, 1812, as Capt. Nathan Heald led the small...

• Fort Donelson Confederate fortification in the Civil War, on the Cumberland River at Dover, Tenn., commanding the river approach to Nashville, Tenn. After capturing Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River (Feb. 6,...

• Fort Duquesne at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, on the site of Pittsburgh, SW Pa. Because of its strategic location, it was a major objective in the last of the French and Indian Wars. The fort was begun by a group of Virginians in 1754 at the insistence of Gov. Robert Dinwiddie. The French drove the Virginians away on Apr. 17, 1754, and completed the fort; they named it after...

• Fort Fisher Confederate earthwork fortification, built by Gen. William Whiting in 1862 to guard the port of Wilmington, N.C.; scene of one of the last large battles of the Civil War. Because Wilmington was one...

• Fort Hall trading post on the Snake River, near Pocatello, SE Idaho; est. 1834 by U.S. trader Nathaniel Wyeth. It was sold in 1836 to the Hudson's Bay Company , which occupied the post until 1856. Fort Hall was...

• Fort Henry Confederate fortification on the Tennessee River, S of the Ky.-Tenn. line; site of the first major Union victory of the Civil War (Feb. 6, 1862). The fort was attacked and reduced by Union gunboats...

• Fort McHenry former U.S. military post in Baltimore harbor; built 1794-1805. In the War of 1812 it was bombarded (Sept. 13-14, 1814) by a British fleet under Sir Alexander Cochrane, but the fort, commanded by...

• Fort Meigs American fortification on the Maumee River, near Perrysburg, N central Ohio; est. Feb., 1813, by Gen. William Henry Harrison across the river from British Fort Miami (see Maumee , Ohio). Through...

• Fort Mims temporary stockade near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. It was the scene of a massacre (Aug. 30, 1813); William Weatherford led a Native American force in the killing of c.500 whites....

• Fort Monroe SE Va., commanding the entrance to Chesapeake Bay and Hampton Roads; named for President James Monroe. The fortress (80 acres/32 hectares) was built (1819-34) by the U.S. government on the site of...

• Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island at the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, S.C.; originally called Fort Sullivan. Constructed by Col. William Moultrie, the fort was renamed for him after he repulsed a...

• Fort Nassau 1 Built (1614) on Castle Island, in the Hudson River, S of Albany, N.Y. The fort served as a trading post for the Dutch until 1617, when it was destroyed by flood and replaced (1624) by Fort Orange,...

• Fort Necessity entrenched camp built in July, 1754, by George Washington and his Virginia militia at Great Meadows (near the present Uniontown, Pa.). He retired there when he learned that the British fort at the...

• Fort Niagara post on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Niagara River, NW N.Y. It was strategically located on the water route to the fur lands. French explorer Robert LaSalle erected a...

• Fort Pickens fortification on the western end of Santa Rosa Island at the entrance to Pensacola Bay, NW Fla. When Florida joined the Confederacy in Jan., 1861, Fort Barrancas on the mainland was evacuated and...

• Fort Pillow fortification on the Mississippi River, N of Memphis, Tenn.; built by Confederate Gen. Gideon Pillow in 1862. Evacuated by the Confederates after the fall of Island No. 10 to the north, the fort was occupied by Union troops on June 6, 1862. Confederate Gen. Nathan Forrest stormed and captured Fort Pillow on Apr. 12, 1864, killing many African-American defenders...

• Fort Pulaski brick fortification on Cockspur Island, SE Ga., at the mouth of the Savannah River; built 1829-47 by the U.S. government and named for Casimir Pulaski. The fort was seized by Georgia troops during the Civil War in Jan., 1861, but fell to a Union force under Q. A. Gillmore on Apr. 11, 1862, after a two-day bombardment in which the Federals used...

• Fort Schuyler . 1 Name given during the American Revolution to the rebuilt Fort Stanwix , on the site of Rome, N.Y. 2 Fort built on the site of Utica, N.Y., in 1758. 3 Fort built (c.1856) as part of the defenses of New York harbor in Throgs Neck, N.Y. The fort is now in New York City on the grounds of the Maritime College of the State Univ. of New York and houses...

• Fort Snelling on a bluff above the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, SE Minn.; est. 1820. It served as a regional protective barrier and as a nucleus for settlement. Minneapolis grew on the fort...

• Fort Stanwix colonial outpost on the site of Rome, N.Y., controlling a principal route from the Hudson River to Lake Ontario. Originally a French trading center, it was rebuilt by the English general John...

• Fort Sumter fortification, built 1829-60, on a shoal at the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, S.C., and named for Gen. Thomas Sumter ; scene of the opening engagement of the Civil War. Upon passing the Ordinance of Secession (Dec., 1860), South Carolina demanded all federal property within the state, particularly the forts of...

• Fort Union trading post of the American Fur Company, erected in 1828 near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, on the Mont.-N.Dak. line; it controlled converging routes of travel from the...

• Fort Washington military post during the American Revolution, situated on the highest point of Manhattan island, New York City, overlooking the Hudson River opposite Fort Lee, N.J. It was a hastily built earthwork...

• Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George, NE N.Y.; built by the English in 1755. In 1757, during the last conflict of the French and Indian Wars , it was captured and destroyed by the French. Although French Gen. Louis Montcalm had promised safe-conduct from the fort, he was unable to control his Native American allies, who attacked and...

• Four Freedoms In his message to Congress proposing lend-lease legislation (Jan. 6, 1941), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated that Four Freedoms should prevail everywhere in the world—freedom of speech...

• Franklin, State of government (1784-88) formed by the inhabitants of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene counties in present-day E Tennessee after North Carolina ceded (June, 1784) its western lands to the United...

• Frayser's Farm see Seven Days battles.

• Fredericksburg, battle of in the Civil War, fought Dec. 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, Va. In Nov., 1862, the Union general Ambrose Burnside moved his three "grand divisions" under W. B. Franklin, E. V. Sumner, and Joseph Hooker to the north side of the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg; his objective was Richmond. Delay in bringing up pontoons prevented...

• Fredonian Rebellion 1826-27, in Texas history, a premature attempt to make Texas independent from Mexico. Two Americans, Haden Edwards and his brother, had undertaken to make settlements on a land grant in E Texas...

• Freedmen's Bureau in U.S. history, a federal agency, formed to aid and protect the newly freed blacks in the South after the Civil War. Established by an act of Mar. 3, 1865, under the name "bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands," it was to function for one year after the close of the war. A bill extending its life indefinitely and greatly increasing its powers was vetoed (Feb. 19, 1866) by President Andrew Johnson, who...

• Freeman's Farm, battle of see Saratoga campaign.

• Free-Soil party in U.S. history, political party that came into existence in 1847-48 chiefly because of rising opposition to the extension of slavery into any of the territories newly acquired from Mexico. The...

• French and Indian Wars 1689-1763, the name given by American historians to the North American colonial wars between Great Britain and France in the late 17th and the 18th cent. They were really campaigns in the worldwide...

• frontier in U.S. history, the border area of settlement of Europeans and their descendants; it was vital in the conquest of the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The importance of the westward...

• fugitive slave laws in U.S. history, the federal acts of 1793 and 1850 providing for the return between states of escaped black slaves. Similar laws existing in both North and South in colonial days applied also to...

• Fundamental Orders in U.S. history, the basic law of the Connecticut colony from 1639 to 1662, formally adopted (Jan. 14, 1639) by representatives from the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, meeting at...

• fur trade in American history. Trade in animal skins and pelts had gone on since antiquity, but reached its height in the wilderness of North America from the 17th to the early 19th cent. The demand for furs...

• Gadsden Purchase gădz´den , strip of land purchased (1853) by the United States from Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) had described the U.S.-Mexico boundary vaguely, and President Pierce wanted to insure U.S...

• gag rules in parliamentary procedure, rules limiting or prohibiting free debate on a particular issue. In U.S. history, the term is applied especially to procedural rules in force in the House of...

• Gaines's Mill see Seven Days battles.

• Gaspee British revenue cutter, burned (June 10, 1772) at Namquit (now Gaspee) Point in the present-day city of Warwick on the western shore of Narragansett Bay, R.I. The vessel arrived in Mar., 1772, to...

• General Land Office established (1812) in the U.S. Treasury Dept. and transferred (1849) to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. Empowered to survey, manage, and dispose of the public domain, the office administered the...

• Geneva Arbitration see Alabama claims.

• gentlemen's agreement in U.S. history, an agreement between the United States and Japan in 1907 that Japan should stop the emigration of its laborers to the United States and that the United States should stop...

• Gettysburg Address speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the national cemetery on the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg, Pa. It is one of the most famous and most quoted of...

• Gettysburg campaign June-July, 1863, series of decisive battles of the U.S. Civil War.

• Ghent, Treaty of 1814, agreement ending the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. It was signed at Ghent, Belgium, on Dec. 24, 1814, and ratified by the U.S. Senate in Feb., 1815. The American commissioners were John Q. Adams , James A. Bayard , Henry Clay , Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin. Negotiations were begun in August, with the recent defeat of Napoleon I giving the British an advantage reinforced by the burning of the Capitol at Washington shortly afterward. Only the victory...

• Glendale, battle of see Seven Days battles.