Deck 16: Total War and the Republic 1861-1865

Question 1

The chapter introduction tells the story of the first battle of Manassas (Bull Run) to make the point that

A) the Union army was unprepared to fight.
B) the Confederate army was unprepared to fight.
C) both sides underestimated what it would be like to fight a total war.
D) although the North had the advantage of initiative, the fighting would often turn out to be a series of Confederate victories against all odds.

Answer 1

both sides underestimated what it would be like to fight a total war.

Question 2

At the beginning of the Civil War, which one of the following factors favored the South?

A) the transportation system
B) the manpower pool
C) the fact that the fighting would be on southern soil
D) the potential for developing an industrial base to sustain the war effort

Answer 2

the fact that the fighting would be on southern soil

Question 3

European observers predicted that the Confederacy would easily win the war; however, when the North prevailed the victory was a result of

A) terrain and population.
B) industrial capacity and technology.
C) industrial power and agricultural power.
D) strategic planning and idealistic determination.

Answer 3

terrain and population.

Question 4

What was Jefferson Davis's central problem in organizing the South for war?

A) In a culture that prized the English country gentry, Davis was rough-hewn and awkward.
B) In a society that prized states' rights, Davis had to centralize authority.
C) In a crisis that demanded tough-minded attention to military details, Davis was more of a grand strategist.
D) In a war that required rapid mobilization of a whole society, most ordinary folk in the South expected a protracted conflict and hence were reluctant to enlist.

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT a way that the Confederacy was like the North?

A) Both presidents, despite little military background, ably directed the war effort.
B) Each government relied initially on volunteer soldiers but later had to institute a draft, which provoked deep hostility.
C) Each government financed the war through taxes and issuing paper money.
D) The demands of war tended to increase the power of the central government and accelerate industrialization on both sides.

Question 6

One significant difference between the Confederacy and the North was that

A) southerners initially romanticized the war, expecting a swift end, but northerners more realistically expected a long and ugly struggle.
B) the South became poorer, while the North tended to prosper.
C) the South had to resort to a draft, while the North was able to raise its army from volunteers.
D) fighting for a cause, the South sustained a strong sense of morality and discipline, while the perils and profits of war undermined the moral order of northern society.

Question 7

The Union war effort began by implementing the strategy embodied in General Winfield Scott's "anaconda plan,"which called for

A) encircling and squeezing the Confederacy with a blockade.
B) a sudden strike against a vulnerable point of the borders of the Confederacy.
C) a concealed and roundabout infiltration of Confederate territory west of the Mississippi.
D) postponing direct military operations until the North's industrial capacity could be brought up to full military production.

Question 8

What was the first Union success of the war?

A) blocking a southern invasion
B) holding coastal forts in the South
C) holding the border states in the Union
D) winning the first battle of Bull Run

Question 9

Dissidents in one southern state created which new border state?

A) Kansas
B) Missouri
C) Western Kentucky
D) West Virginia

Question 10

Which of the following statements is an accurate representation of the role of cotton in the Confederacy's effort to gain international recognition?

A) King Cotton diplomacy succeeded in winning European recognition but not aid for the Confederacy.
B) King Cotton diplomacy succeeded in winning substantial aid but not recognition for the Confederacy.
C) King Cotton diplomacy failed to win either substantial aid or recognition because of adequate cotton supplies worldwide.
D) King Cotton diplomacy failed because neither French nor British leaders sympathized with the Confederacy.

Question 11

The first decisive Union military victory of the war occurred

A) in Maryland, with the defeat of an invading Confederate force.
B) in Virginia, at Bull Run.
C) in the West, in the middle Tennessee River valleys under General Grant.
D) along the Gulf Coast, where Marines landed against General Jackson's defenders at New Orleans.

Question 12

The battle at Antietam Creek was significant because it

A) proved McClellan could mastermind a victory after all.
B) provided an occasion for Lincoln to announce the "anaconda plan."
C) displayed Grant's ability to command.
D) was the bloodiest single-day battle in the history of American warfare.

Question 13

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves to be free

A) in the border states and western territories.
B) in those areas of the South under Union control.
C) in those areas of the South under Confederate control.
D) everywhere in the U.S. (including the South).

Question 14

With respect to slavery, Lincoln at first ________, but later he ________.

A) was indifferent to the slavery issue; freed all slaves by executive order
B) worried about alienating the border states; proclaimed, as a military measure, that slaves in rebel areas were free
C) resisted any interference with the institution; reluctantly went along with Congress's initiative in ending slavery by constitutional amendment
D) lagged behind northern opinion, which strongly supported emancipation; urged Congress not only to end slavery but also to give blacks full social and political equality

Question 15

What is true about African Americans during the Civil War?

A) Many slaves escaped to Union lines, where they were put to work or even allowed to join the army.
B) Northern whites and northern free blacks both uniformly welcomed black soldiers into the Union army.
C) Lincoln permitted African Americans to serve in the navy, but not in the army.
D) They were put to work as unskilled laborers and paid about the same as white citizens for the same work.

Question 16

During the war, women of both the North and the South

A) entered the formerly male professions of nursing and teaching.
B) took jobs in the growing army as soldiers.
C) paid for the war by way of taxes.
D) ran railroads.

Question 17

The Confederacy suffered from rampant inflation because

A) the war was financed primarily through printing paper money.
B) wages rose, due to the fact that with so many men off to war, workers were scarce.
C) the blockade cut off trade with Europe, producing scarcities.
D) speculators hoarded cotton.

Question 18

Both South and North experienced rioting during the war. Why?

A) in the South over food; in the North over the draft
B) in the South over easing slave codes; in the North over jailing dissidents
C) on both sides, over military regulations like the draft and economic controls
D) on both sides, over centralization of political power

Question 19

How did the North finance the war?

A) by creating a federal income tax
B) through loans from European nations
C) by issuing gold bonds
D) with draftee induction fees

Question 20

The Republican Congress during the Civil War passed economic legislation that would have warmed Henry Clay's heart, including

A) a system of nationally-chartered banks.
B) an export tax.
C) a program to underwrite the immediate emancipation of slaves.
D) the restriction of money to hard currency ("specie").

Question 21

Lincoln, later revered as the Great Emancipator, ironically infringed on the civil liberties of northerners during the Civil War-specifically by

A) suspending the writ of habeas corpus in specified areas in the North.
B) suspending the writ of habeas corpus in areas still in rebellion in the South.
C) recommending postponement of the presidential election due to be held in 1864.
D) defying the Supreme Court's order to free those imprisoned without being charged.

Question 22

The Civil War marked a significant change in the history of human warfare, because

A) the technology of weaponry gave the defense the advantage over the offense.
B) the complexity, size, and value of defense contractors decreased as the war dragged on.
C) more soldiers died of battle wounds than camp diseases.
D) it was the first total war involving two continents.

Question 23

The significance, militarily, of the battle of Gettysburg was that

A) the Confederacy was cut in half.
B) Lee could never again take the offensive as he liked to do.
C) the victory gave Lincoln an occasion to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
D) Lee's surrender ended the war.

Question 24

The Union victory at Vicksburg

A) secured control of the Mississippi, dividing the Confederacy.
B) secured central Tennessee for the Union, opening the path for Sherman's march to the sea.
C) assured Lincoln's re-election in 1864.
D) prompted Lee's surrender.

Question 25

Lincoln's re-election in 1864 became far more likely when

A) he imprisoned a large number of Irish Catholics.
B) the election was postponed for three months.
C) the Democrats nominated an obscure border-state politician as their candidate.
D) Sherman captured Atlanta.

Question 26

Lincoln finally found "his general."Who was he, and why?

A) General Grant, who was willing to keep attacking with the tactics of total and relentless war
B) General McClellan, who displayed great gifts as an organizer and trainer of large armies
C) General Meade, who won the decisive battle of the war at Gettysburg
D) General Sherman, who showed a willingness to carry the war to the South's civilian population

Question 27

According to the text, what was the event that decided the "war in the balance"-that is, the event that both ended any last hopes of the Confederacy and assured the abolition of slavery?

A) the Emancipation Proclamation
B) the elevation of Grant to Commander in Chief
C) the victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg
D) the re-election of Lincoln

Question 28

Which of the following is a true statement about the impact of the war?

A) The loss of life nearly equaled the combined battle deaths of all of America's other wars.
B) The southern aristocracy experienced the biggest loss of life.
C) The nation's political balance of power remained the same.
D) The principle was established that discrimination ended with the war.

Question 29

Despite several setbacks, Lincoln had confidence in all of his generals EXCEPT for

A) Scott.
B) Sherman.
C) Grant.
D) McClellan.

Question 30

The president who had served previously as secretary of war was ________.

Question 31

________ was the celebrated Virginian who led the Army of Northern Virginia so well for so long, but who finally had to surrender to Grant.

Question 32

Issued as a military measure against the South and thus applicable only in areas still in rebellion, Lincoln's ________ redefined the war as a struggle to create a new nation.

Question 33

To obtain sufficient manpower for their armies, both North and South not only called for volunteers but also instituted the controversial device of a(n) ________.

Question 34

One component of the Republican economic legislation passed during the war was the ________, which provided 160 acres of public land to settlers who would farm for five years.

Question 35

Republicans gave the scornful nickname of ________ to northerners who opposed the war effort.

Question 36

Slaves in the border states and other areas not controlled by the Confederacy were freed by the ________ Amendment.

Question 37

The tragic war ended with one more tragedy just days after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, when John Wilkes Booth shot and killed ________.

Question 38

Discuss how four of the following factors worked as an advantage either for the North or the South: geography, political leadership, manpower, industrial capacity, and relative strength of the central government.

Question 39

Explain why three of the following battles were important turning points in the war: Antietam, Appomattox, first Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg.

Question 40

Explain why Abraham Lincoln hesitated at first to make emancipation a goal of the war, and trace the change in his policy.

Question 41

What did the Emancipation Proclamation say? List three important consequences of the Proclamation. Do these consequences justify viewing the Proclamation as a turning point in the war?

Question 42

Compare the military strategies of Grant and McClellan. Why was Grant better suited to waging total war?

Question 43

How did the war affect the experience of women, both in the North and the South?

Question 44

How did black Americans contribute to the final outcome of the war?

Question 45

What does the idea of total war mean? Give at least three ways that the Civil War was a total war. What was the significance of each factor you have listed? Which one was the most important, in your view?

Question 46

What advantages did the Confederacy have when the war began? How did the Union overcome these advantages?

Question 47

Evaluate Lincoln and Davis as war leaders.

Question 48

How did the war change women's lives? Did it have a different impact on women in the Union and women in the Confederacy? Was it a liberating experience?

Question 49

What was the impact of the war on the home front in the Union and the Confederacy?

Question 50

List four ways the war changed the nation. What is the significance of each point you note?

Question 51

Explore the chronology of the American Civil War. Be sure to mention at least three battles and five significant people. What is the significance and legacy of the Civil War?