R
Radical Republicans
The most extreme and ultimately most powerful wing of the Republican Party during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Radical Republicans saw the goal of the war to be the abolition of slavery and the reorganization and subjugation of the South’s political and economic power.
Reconstruction
The period after the Civil War when economy and social structures in the South were rebuilt based on Radical Republican policies.
Redlegs
A common name for artillerymen derived form the red stripe on their trousers.
Redoubt
A small, often temporary defensive fortification.
Regiment
A military unit larger than a company and smaller than a brigade. In the Civil War a regiment equaled10 companies (1,100 officers and men) in the Union and Confederate armies. Brigades could be commanded by a colonel, lieutenant colonel, or a major.
