Civil War Word Search PDF With Battles, Leaders and Camp Life

Pick the road to war, the leaders, the battles, a soldier's day or freedom, then save the PDF.

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Civil War Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

AIXPANFNRLEEYMI

LWOBEROEIFHTAEP

ODBOVQREGIMENTW

GFUSCJTQSMGSKEI

RQGAOUSIHXYSERA

KILCNNURNELBEHD

QTEHFEMTNUNIONA

ZHYGETTYSBURGDA

NDHRDEEUSNROSSF

ORHAEEREBELNEWE

RUMNRNBUXAKCEDV

SMPTATLINCOLNBI

OMOLCHUVHLNAXCT

XEEBYSEBYAADCHT

NRDVRTNBULLRUNA

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

LincolnLINCOLN
GrantGRANT
LeeLEE
UnionUNION
ConfederacyCONFEDERACY
YankeeYANKEE
RebelREBEL
BlueBLUE
Fort SumterFORT SUMTER
Bull RunBULL RUN
GettysburgGETTYSBURG
IroncladIRONCLAD
RegimentREGIMENT
DrummerDRUMMER
BugleBUGLE
JuneteenthJUNETEENTH

16 of 24 words from the Civil War Favorites list.

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Easy: words go across and down.

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Word list

Large print Lower-case letters Name and date line on paper

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Answer key: Civil War Word Search

AIXPANFNRLEEYMI

LWOBEROEIFHTAEP

ODBOVQREGIMENTW

GFUSCJTQSMGSKEI

RQGAOUSIHXYSERA

KILCNNURNELBEHD

QTEHFEMTNUNIONA

ZHYGETTYSBURGDA

NDHRDEEUSNROSSF

ORHAEEREBELNEWE

RUMNRNBUXAKCEDV

SMPTATLINCOLNBI

OMOLCHUVHLNAXCT

XEEBYSEBYAADCHT

NRDVRTNBULLRUNA

LINCOLN, GRANT, LEE, UNION, CONFEDERACY, YANKEE, REBEL, BLUE, FORT SUMTER, BULL RUN, GETTYSBURG, IRONCLAD, REGIMENT, DRUMMER, BUGLE, JUNETEENTH

Next step Make a puzzle from your own Civil War unit words Scramble these Civil War words

All 182 words

Road to War 25

Abolition The ending of slavery, and the name of the movement that worked for it.
Bleeding Kansas The name for the struggle that began in 1854 over whether a new territory would allow slavery.
Conductor A guide who led freedom seekers along the secret routes north. Harriet Tubman was the most famous.
Douglass Frederick, who escaped slavery, became a great speaker and writer and recruited Black soldiers for the Union.
Dred Scott The enslaved man who sued for his freedom. In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled against him.
Free Soil The party of 1848 to 1854 that opposed the spread of slavery into the western territories.
Free State A state where slavery was already against the law before the war.
Fugitive A person who runs away. An 1850 law ordered free states to help return people escaping slavery.
Garrison William Lloyd, the Boston editor who demanded an immediate end to slavery in his weekly paper.
Harpers Ferry The Virginia town, now in West Virginia, where a federal armory was raided in October 1859.
John Brown The abolitionist who led the 1859 raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry.

Show all 182 words (171 more)

Road to War, continued

King Cotton A slogan for the belief that the South's great crop made it too important to be beaten.
Liberator The Boston antislavery newspaper that William Lloyd Garrison published from 1831 to 1865.
North Star The antislavery paper Frederick Douglass started in 1847, named for the star that guided freedom seekers.
Republican The party founded in 1854 to stop the spread of slavery. Its candidate won the election of 1860.
Secession Withdrawal from the Union. Eleven states declared it between December 1860 and June 1861.
Sectionalism Loyalty to one's own region, North or South, above the country as a whole.
Slavery The system of owning people and forcing them to work without pay or freedom. It was the central cause of the war.
Sojourner Truth The name Isabella Baumfree chose in 1843. Born enslaved in New York, she spoke for abolition and women's rights.
States' Rights The idea that each state, not the national government, should decide certain questions for itself.
Stowe Harriet Beecher, the author of a best-selling antislavery novel of 1852.
Territory Land governed by the United States that is not yet a state. Whether slavery could spread there split the country.
Tubman Harriet, who escaped slavery and then made about 13 trips back to lead some 70 people to freedom.
Uncle Tom's Cabin The 1852 antislavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe that stirred feeling across the North.
Underground The ___ Railroad was a secret network of routes and safe houses, not a train line.

Leaders and Sides 34

Barton Clara, a battlefield nurse who later founded the American Red Cross, in 1881.
Beauregard P. G. T., the Confederate general in command at Charleston when the war began at Fort Sumter.
Billy Yank The nickname for the ordinary Union soldier.
Blue The color of the Union army uniform.
Border State A slave state that stayed in the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and, after 1863, West Virginia.
Brady Mathew, the photographer who brought a mobile studio and darkroom to the battlefields.
Burnside Ambrose, the Union general whose side whiskers gave us the word sideburns.
Chamberlain Joshua, the Maine college professor who led the 20th Maine on Little Round Top.
Confederacy The Confederate States of America, formed in February 1861 by states that had seceded.
Davis Jefferson, who alone served as Confederate States president, 1861 to 1865.
Dix Dorothea, the reformer who served the Union as Superintendent of Army Nurses.
Farragut David, the Union admiral who captured New Orleans in April 1862 and won at Mobile Bay in 1864.
Grant Ulysses S., the general given charge of every Union army in March 1864, who later became the 18th president.
Gray The color of the Confederate army uniform.
Honest Abe A nickname for Abraham Lincoln.
Johnny Reb The nickname for the ordinary Confederate soldier. His Union twin was Billy Yank.
Johnson Andrew, the vice president who became the 17th president in April 1865.
Kentucky The border state where both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born.
Lee Robert E., the Virginian who in June 1862 took command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Lincoln Abraham, the 16th president, elected in November 1860, who led the United States through the war.
Log Cabin The kind of small wooden home in which Lincoln was born in 1809.
Longstreet James, Lee's senior corps commander, whom Lee called his "Old War Horse".
McClellan George, the general who organized the Army of the Potomac and ran against Lincoln for president in 1864.
Meade George, the general put in command of the Army of the Potomac three days before Gettysburg.
Pickett George, the Confederate general whose name is attached to the great charge on the last day at Gettysburg.
Rebel A nickname for a Confederate soldier.
Sheridan Philip, the Union cavalry general who won control of the Shenandoah Valley in 1864.
Sherman William Tecumseh, the Union general who captured Atlanta and marched to the sea.
Smalls Robert, the enslaved ship's pilot who sailed the steamer Planter out of Charleston to freedom in May 1862.
Stonewall The nickname General Thomas Jackson earned at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he was compared to a wall of rock.
Union The name for the United States government and the states that stayed loyal to it.
Walker Mary Edwards, a Union army surgeon and the one woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor.
Whitman Walt, the poet who visited wounded soldiers in Washington hospitals. His poem O Captain! My Captain! honors Lincoln.
Yankee A nickname for a Union soldier or any Northerner.

Battles and Places 39

Anaconda Plan General Winfield Scott's plan to win by blockading southern ports and taking the Mississippi River.
Antietam The battle of September 17, 1862, in Maryland. Five days later Lincoln announced his plan for emancipation.
Appomattox The Virginia village, a county seat with a Court House, where Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865.
Atlanta The Georgia railroad hub that fell to Sherman's army on September 2, 1864.
Blockade The use of warships to close an enemy's ports. Lincoln declared one in April 1861.
Bull Run The war's first big battle, fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia.
Cemetery Ridge The rise south of Gettysburg that formed roughly the center of the Union "fish-hook" line.
Charleston The South Carolina port whose harbor held Fort Sumter.
Chattanooga The Tennessee railroad city won by Grant's armies in November 1863.
Chickamauga The September 1863 battle in northwestern Georgia, named for a creek.
Fort Donelson The Tennessee fort where Grant demanded "unconditional surrender" in February 1862.
Fort Sumter The island fort in Charleston Harbor where the first shots of the war were fired on April 12, 1861.
Fort Wagner The South Carolina fort attacked by the 54th Massachusetts, a Black regiment, on July 18, 1863.
Fredericksburg The Virginia town where Lee's army held a fortified ridge called Marye's Heights in December 1862.
Gettysburg The Pennsylvania town where a three-day battle, July 1 to 3, 1863, ended Lee's invasion of the North.
Hampton Roads The Virginia waterway where two ironclad warships fought each other for the first time, in March 1862.
Hunley The Confederate submarine that in February 1864 became the first to sink an enemy warship.
Ironclad A steam warship protected by plates of iron.
Little Round Top Of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, the smaller one, at the left end of the Union line on July 2, 1863.
Manassas The Confederate name for the battles of Bull Run, taken from the Virginia junction where their army camped.
March to the Sea Sherman's march across Georgia from Atlanta to the coast, November 15 to December 21, 1864.
Merrimack The burned Union frigate whose hull the Confederates rebuilt as the ironclad CSS Virginia.
Mississippi The great river that passed into Union hands in July 1863, splitting the Confederacy in two.
Mobile Bay The Alabama bay where Admiral Farragut's fleet won on August 5, 1864.
Monitor The Union ironclad with a revolving gun turret that fought the CSS Virginia on March 9, 1862.
Montgomery The Alabama city chosen in February 1861 as the first capital of the Confederacy.
New Orleans The largest city in the Confederacy, captured by the Union navy in the spring of 1862.
Palmito Ranch The Texas battlefield of May 12 and 13, 1865, which some count as the final battle of the war.
Petersburg The Virginia rail center where the armies dug in for nine months of trench warfare, from June 1864 into 1865.
Pickett's Charge The Confederate infantry attack on the center of the Union line on July 3, 1863, the last day at Gettysburg.
Potomac The river past Washington, D.C. The main Union army in the East was named for it.
Richmond The Virginia city that served as the Confederate capital for most of the war.
Savannah The Georgia port where the March to the Sea ended on December 21, 1864.
Sharpsburg The Maryland town beside Antietam Creek. Southerners named the battle of September 1862 after it.
Shenandoah The Virginia valley through which Confederate armies marched north toward Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Shiloh The two-day battle of April 6 and 7, 1862, in Tennessee, named for a small log church.
Vicksburg The river city in the state of Mississippi that surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863, after a siege begun on May 18.
West Virginia The state formed by western counties that stayed loyal, admitted on June 20, 1863.
Wilderness The tangled Virginia woods where Grant's campaign against Lee opened on May 5, 1864.

Soldier Life 61

Ambulance A wagon for carrying the wounded. Dr. Jonathan Letterman set up the Union army's corps of them in August 1862.
Artillery The branch of an army that fires the big guns.
Balloon Thaddeus Lowe's Union Army corps used gas-filled ones to watch enemy lines from the air.
Bedroll Blankets rolled up tight and slung over the shoulder.
Bounty Money paid to a man as a reward for joining the army.
Brigade A unit made up of several regiments.
Bugle A brass horn without valves that sounded the calls of the army day.
Camp The place where an army stops to sleep, cook and train.
Cannon A big gun on wheels fired by a trained crew.
Canteen A soldier's water bottle.
Captain The officer who led a company.
Cavalry Soldiers who scout and fight on horseback.
Coffee The hot drink, brewed from roasted beans, that soldiers regularly drank in camp.
Colonel The officer who led a regiment.
Color Bearer The soldier who carried the regiment's flag.
Company A unit of about 100 soldiers under a captain. Ten of them made an infantry regiment.
Corporal The rank just above private, with two stripes on the sleeve.
Corps A large army unit made up of two or more divisions.
Diary A book in which a person writes what happened each day.
Draft A law that orders men to serve. The Confederacy passed one in April 1862, the Union in March 1863.
Drill Marching and handling equipment over and over until every move is automatic.
Drummer A musician, often a boy, who beat the signals for camp and march.
Earthworks Walls and ditches of dug soil that protected soldiers.
Enlist To sign up to serve in the army or navy.
Fife A small, high-pitched flute played alongside the drums.
Furlough Official leave for a soldier to go home for a short time.
General The highest kind of army officer, in command of a brigade or more.
Greenback A nickname for the paper money the United States issued during the war, printed in green on the back.
Hardtack A dense cracker of flour and water, carried by Civil War troops as a ration.
Haversack A canvas shoulder bag in which a soldier carried his food.
Horse The animal that carried cavalry, officers and messengers and pulled the guns.
Hospital A place where the sick and wounded are cared for.
Income Tax A tax on what people earn. The first federal one was passed in August 1861 to help pay for the war.
Infantry Soldiers who march and fight on foot.
Kepi The flat-topped cloth cap with a short visor worn by many soldiers on both sides.
Knapsack A pack worn on the back for clothes and a blanket.
Letter A written message. For soldiers and families it was the only way to stay in touch.
Medal of Honor The highest US military award, created during the war: for the Navy in 1861 and for the Army in 1862.
Mule The sturdy animal that pulled many army supply wagons.
Navy The part of the armed forces that fights at sea and on rivers.
Nurse A person who cares for the sick and wounded.
Picket A soldier or small group posted ahead of the camp to warn of an approaching enemy.
Pontoon A floating support for a temporary bridge across a river.
Private The lowest rank of soldier.
Recruit A brand-new soldier who is still learning the drill.
Regiment A unit usually raised in one state and led by a colonel, about 1,000 men at full strength.
Salt Pork Meat preserved in salt so that it kept for months, a common army ration.
Scout A soldier sent ahead to find out where the enemy is.
Sentry A soldier who stands guard.
Sergeant The rank above corporal, with three stripes on the sleeve.
Spy A person who secretly gathers information about the enemy.
Substitute A man paid to serve in the army in the place of someone who had been drafted.
Surgeon An army doctor.
Sutler A merchant who followed the army and sold goods to the soldiers.
Telegraph The wire system that sent coded messages in minutes. Armies used it to report and to give orders.
Tent A cloth shelter held up by poles and ropes.
Tintype A photograph made on a thin sheet of iron, cheap enough for a soldier to send home.
Traveller General Lee's most famous horse, gray with dark points.
Uniform The matching clothes that show which army a soldier belongs to.
Volunteer A person who chooses to join the army without being ordered to.
Zouave A soldier in a regiment that copied the baggy trousers, short jacket and fez of French North African troops.

Freedom and Reunion 23

Address A formal speech. Lincoln's at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, has only 271 words and took less than two minutes.
Amnesty An official pardon for a group. Lincoln offered one in December 1863 to Southerners who swore loyalty.
Arlington The national cemetery in Virginia, set up in May 1864 on land that had belonged to Robert E. Lee's family.
Battle Hymn Julia Ward Howe wrote the words of the ___ of the Republic in November 1861.
Carpetbagger A Northerner who moved to the South after the war. Southern critics made up the name.
Contraband The Union army's word, from 1861, for people who escaped slavery and reached its lines.
Decoration Day The first name of Memorial Day. In 1868 May 30 was set aside for placing flowers on soldiers' graves.
Emancipation Freedom from slavery. Lincoln's Proclamation of January 1, 1863, declared it for people held in Confederate territory.
Four Score The first two words of the Gettysburg speech. A score is twenty.
Fourteenth The ___ Amendment of 1868 says that people born in the United States are citizens.
Freedmen People freed from slavery. A federal Bureau created in March 1865 gave them food, schools and legal help.
Freedom What the Proclamation of January 1, 1863, promised to more than 3.5 million enslaved people.
Inaugural Lincoln's second ___ address, given on March 4, 1865, asked for "malice toward none".
Juneteenth The holiday marking June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger announced freedom in Galveston, Texas.
Massachusetts The state whose 54th Infantry was the second Black regiment organized in the North.
Parole A prisoner's promise not to fight again. Lee's soldiers gave theirs at Appomattox and went home.
Peace The end of fighting.
Reconstruction The period from 1865 to 1877 when the seceded states were brought back into the Union.
Sharecropper A farmer who worked someone else's land and paid the rent with a share of the crop.
Surrender To give up to the other side. Lee did so on April 9, 1865.
Taps The bugle call for lights out, written in July 1862 by the Union general Daniel Butterfield.
Thirteenth The ___ Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, abolished slavery everywhere in the United States.
Veteran A person who has served in the armed forces.

How this list was compiled: 182 American Civil War words in 5 themed lists, chosen and defined for this site. Dates, names and places in the clues were checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article for each entry, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gettysburg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era. Licence: own work

How it works

This Civil War word search PDF opens with 16 of 24 favorites in the grid, Gettysburg, Ironclad and Juneteenth among them. Five themed lists follow, from Road to War to Freedom and Reunion: 182 words, each with a clue.

Read the full guide

Five lists, from Fort Sumter to Juneteenth

Start from a list offers Road to War (25), Leaders and Sides (34), Battles and Places (39), Soldier Life (61) and Freedom and Reunion (23). Soldier Life is the largest: Haversack, Canteen, Kepi and Sutler make a puzzle about a soldier's day with no battle in it. For the decades around the war, print the US history word search.

Save the puzzle as a PDF

Press Print or save as PDF. On a computer, choose Save as PDF in the print window; on a phone, save or share the print preview as a PDF. For a review sheet, first tick Show clues, not words, in More options: "Ambrose, the Union general whose side whiskers gave us the word sideburns." sends the class hunting for Burnside.

Blue, Gray, Tent and Mule are among 28 short words in Easy Civil War, for a first puzzle of 8.
The 37 multiword entries hide without spaces or apostrophes: Pickett's Charge becomes PICKETTSCHARGE.

Questions and answers

Is the vocabulary suitable for grades 3 to 8?

The clues were written for readers of about 8 to 13. Slavery is named plainly as the central cause of the war, without graphic detail. There are no casualty figures, and weapons get only a plain definition.

Why do Bull Run and Manassas both appear?

The two sides often gave one battle two names, and textbooks use both. The Manassas clue calls it the Confederate name for the battles of Bull Run, and the Sharpsburg clue says Southerners named the battle of September 1862 after that Maryland town.

How accurate are the dates in the clues?

Each date, place and number was checked in September 2026 against the English Wikipedia article on its subject. Where the article was cautious the clue is too: Palmito Ranch is a battle "which some count as the final battle of the war".

All 182 words

Road to War 25

Road to War, continued

Leaders and Sides 34

Battles and Places 39

Soldier Life 61

Freedom and Reunion 23

How it works

Five lists, from Fort Sumter to Juneteenth

Save the puzzle as a PDF

Questions and answers

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