Deck 15: The Crucible of War

Question 1

What was the significance of the first battle at Manassas (or Bull Run) in July 1861?

A) It disheartened northerners to the extent that men stopped volunteering for the Union army.
B) The Union's defeat encouraged Lincoln to authorize the enlistment of one million more men for three years.
C) It was a bloodbath in which over ten thousand men died.
D) Confederate soldiers questioned whether they had the mettle to compete with Union troops.

Answer 1

The Union's defeat encouraged Lincoln to authorize the enlistment of one million more men for three years.

Question 2

Initially the Confederacy sought King Cotton diplomacy, a strategy based on the belief that

A) European nations' need for cotton would lead them to support the Confederacy.
B) raising the price of cotton would force the North to negotiate a peaceful settlement.
C) European nations would loan the South more money if it reduced the price of cotton.
D) growing less cotton and freeing more slaves would convince England to recognize the Confederacy.

Answer 2

European nations' need for cotton would lead them to support the Confederacy.

Question 3

At the end of 1862, the eastern theater of the Civil War

A) made it obvious that the rebellion was nearly over.
B) had been a great success for the Confederates.
C) had seen one Union victory after another.
D) had reached a stalemate.

Answer 3

had reached a stalemate.

Question 4

Why did the South experience greater inflation than the North during the Civil War?

A) The South increased its taxes.
B) The Confederacy issued war bonds.
C) The South owed substantial debt to the North.
D) The Confederacy printed more money.

Question 5

Who led the Union forces to victory at the Battle of Shiloh?

A) William Clarke Quantrill
B) "Bloody Bill" Anderson
C) Albert Sidney Johnston
D) Ulysses S. Grant

Question 6

What event marked the official beginning of armed hostilities between the North and South in April 1861?

A) Confederates firing on the frigate Star of the West
B) An assault on Washington, D.C.
C) The assault on federal troops passing through Baltimore
D) Confederates firing on Fort Sumter

Question 7

What was the significance of the conflict between the Virginia and the Monitor?

A) It ended the Union blockade.
B) It almost prompted the British to enter the war.
C) It marked the birth of the ironclad warship.
D) It showed the South's superior industrial resources.

Question 8

Most northerners viewed secession as

A) an attack on the rule of law.
B) constitutionally viable but impractical.
C) too expensive and therefore illegal.
D) a concept they wished they had thought of first.

Question 9

The bloodiest day of the Civil War occurred September 17, 1862, at

A) Fort Henry, Tennessee.
B) Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
C) Fredericksburg, Virginia.
D) Antietam Creek, Maryland.

Question 10

Why might have this federal recruiting poster have exclaimed: "Don't wait to be drafted!"?

A) Because being drafted was more shameful than enlisting
B) Because those who waited to be drafted were given more dangerous jobs
C) Because the instatement of a draft would signify that the Union was in grave danger of losing the war
D) Because the draft was associated with the South

Question 11

What was the significance of the Battle of Shiloh?

A) The Confederate victory gave the South control of the Mississippi River.
B) The Union victory ruined the Confederacy's chances to take control of the West.
C) The Confederate victory ensured that the Union would not take New Orleans.
D) The Union's easy victory convinced General Grant that victory was near.

Question 12

How many of the fifteen slave states joined the Confederacy?

A) Eight
B) Eleven
C) Thirteen
D) Fifteen

Question 13

What happened in the loyal border states of Missouri and Kentucky during the Civil War?

A) State leaders emancipated their slaves.
B) A violent pro-southern minority remained sympathetic to the southern cause.
C) Most soldiers refused to fight against the Confederates.
D) The citizens threatened to split off and create their own separate nation.

Question 14

How did northerners view the Civil War once it began?

A) It was a chance to punish the South after decades of political rivalry.
B) It provided an opportunity to integrate all slaves into American society.
C) It was a struggle to preserve the Union.
D) It was an ideal time to emancipate slaves in the Union-loyal border states.

Question 15

What disadvantage did the South face when it came to supplying the Confederate armies?

A) It failed to mobilize enough troops.
B) It lacked the resources available to the North.
C) It found it more difficult to build intricate weapons.
D) The Confederate Ordinance Bureau folded a month after it began.

Question 16

What irony emerges when considering the wartime leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis?

A) Neither man was committed to the efforts he embarked on.
B) While Lincoln was confident, Davis privately believed that the South never had a chance.
C) The inexperienced Lincoln proved to be a more adept leader than the seasoned Davis.
D) Davis and Lincoln agreed more than they disagreed on political policy.

Question 17

According to Map 15.1: Secession, 1860-1861, which slave state seceded from the Union?

A) Missouri
B) Arkansas
C) Kentucky
D) Maryland

Question 18

Why did southerners believe they had a real chance of winning the Civil War?

A) Southern men believed they were physically tougher than northern men.
B) The South had greater industrial might than the North.
C) The South had a larger population of white men who could enlist in the military.
D) The southern military planned to enlist the massive slave population into its ranks.

Question 19

Why did President Lincoln criticize General George B. McClellan early in the war?

A) McClellan had amassed a huge military force but refused to attack.
B) McClellan frequently requested to be reassigned.
C) McClellan took too many unnecessary risks on the battlefield.
D) Congress had appointed McClellan without Lincoln's approval.

Question 20

In his inaugural address, President Lincoln revealed that he hoped to avoid disunion by

A) sending the Union army to South Carolina because it was the first state to secede.
B) dispatching special emissaries to the slave states believed most likely to secede.
C) taking measures to stop the spread of secession.
D) threatening to abolish slavery in all seceding states.

Question 21

Aside from leading to the legal destruction of slavery, the Civil War itself helped destroy slavery in practice because

A) thousands of weary and disgusted slaveholders freed their slaves.
B) the discipline necessary to keep slavery intact was disrupted.
C) most male slaves joined the Union army.
D) slave owners increasingly realized the advantages of free labor.

Question 22

Why did the "twenty-Negro law" enrage many white southerners during the Civil War?

A) It exempted from military service one white man on every plantation with twenty or more slaves.
B) It paid slaveholders scarce government funds for every twenty slaves they owned or supervised.
C) It forced every slaveholder with at least forty slaves to turn over twenty of them for use by the government.
D) It targeted for military service every slaveholder with at least twenty slaves.

Question 23

Republicans generated the economic power they needed to fight a successful war in the early 1860s by

A) creating special government bonds that paid investors a high rate of interest.
B) revolutionizing U.S. banking, monetary, and tax structures.
C) eliminating the federal income tax previously supported by Democrats.
D) negotiating to secure the complete cooperation of the Democrats.

Question 24

How did slaves use the chaos and turmoil of the Civil War to whittle away at their bondage?

A) Most used violence against their masters when they had the chance.
B) They banded together to sabotage the efforts of the Confederate army.
C) They served in the Union army in exchange for their freedom.
D) They forced concessions from their masters and mistresses.

Question 25

In March 1862, Congress tilted toward emancipating slaves when it

A) forbade the practice of returning fugitive slaves to their masters.
B) labeled all slaves coming within Union military lines as contraband of war.
C) presented emancipation legislation only to see it defeated by Democrats.
D) declared all children born of slave parents free.

Question 26

Which statement describes African Americans' experiences in the Union army?

A) The Union placed blacks in segregated units.
B) A few African Americans became commissioned officers.
C) Black soldiers earned the same pay as white soldiers.
D) Harsh treatment kept most blacks from enlisting in the military.

Question 27

Why did King Cotton diplomacy fail?

A) The Union destroyed too many southern plantations.
B) European nations turned to Egypt and India for cotton.
C) The Union refused to trade with Great Britain.
D) Southern slaves refused to work during the war.

Question 28

Why did President Lincoln choose not to make the Civil War a struggle over slavery?

A) He believed slavery to be a relatively insignificant issue.
B) He doubted his power to tamper with the "domestic institutions" of any state.
C) He doubted that destroying slavery was the best thing for African Americans.
D) He believed that eradicating slavery would destroy the economy of the South.

Question 29

Women served which of the following roles during the Civil War?

A) As government secretaries
B) As spies
C) As soldiers
D) As President Lincoln's advisors

Question 30

What prompted an Irish-led riot that took the lives of at least 105 people in New York City in the summer of 1863?

A) The prejudices immigrant workers faced
B) The newly enacted draft law
C) Inadequate living conditions and high rents
D) Dangerous working conditions

Question 31

What did Lincoln consider the biggest obstacle to the acceptance of emancipation in the Union?

A) The difficulty of finding a suitable place to send the freed slaves
B) Public concern about the constitutionality of emancipation
C) Public reaction to seizing southern property
D) White fears that freed slaves would disrupt northern society

Question 32

What was the result of strikes by workers in northern industries during the Civil War?

A) They increased workers' wages.
B) They undermined the patriotism of most workers.
C) They were more effective for women than for men.
D) They rarely succeeded.

Question 33

"I think the people will be bound to suffer for something to eat[;] the grain is all destroid and nearly all the fenses is burnt up from yorktown to Richmond: it looks distressing just to travel along the road: the wheat up waist hi some of it and horses and cattle has eat the most of it to the ground and I think the yankees will make a finish of the ballans [balance] that is left but the[y] cant doo much more damage than our army did[;] our own men killed all the cattle and hogs & sheep that the farmers had[,] even took ther chickens[;] every thing is totally destroid in this part of the State. . . . I hope and pray this awful war will soon come to a close some way or another[,] any way to get pease in the world wonst more[;] it seems to me I had drather be at home and live on bred and water than to have this war hanging over us but I pray god pease will soon be made[.] I dont think the war can last long."
Who did Marion Epperly accuse of destroying much of Virginia?

A) Confederate soldiers
B) Union soldiers
C) Angry slaves
D) Disgruntled civilians

Question 34

What economic effect did the Civil War have on the rural North?

A) Plowing, planting, and harvesting were disrupted.
B) Mechanization ceased as technological innovations focused on the war effort.
C) High prices and increased production brought it prosperity.
D) Women found their roles reduced because their husbands refused to fight in the war.

Question 35

Despite their ideological commitment to states' rights and limited government, Confederate leaders

A) denied the right of West Virginians to create their own state.
B) expanded their power by drafting soldiers into the Confederate army.
C) continued their staunch support of states' rights critic Jefferson Davis.
D) forced every state to issue resolutions in opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Question 36

What was the purpose of the 1862 Homestead Act?

A) It granted every former slave a homestead with forty acres and a mule.
B) It offered Western land to settlers who would live and labor on it.
C) It instituted America's first public education system.
D) It ended speculation on western land purchases.

Question 37

Lincoln justified the Emancipation Proclamation as

A) a military necessity.
B) a personal moral statement.
C) a response to the lobbying of abolitionists.
D) a way to appease the entire northern population.

Question 38

Who went on to found the Red Cross after serving as a nurse in Union battlefield units during the Civil War?

A) Dorothea Dix
B) Clement Vallandigham
C) Clara Barton
D) Justin Morrill

Question 39

What did southern clergymen think about the Civil War?

A) They argued the time had come for the South to free its slaves.
B) They supported the war effort but opposed slavery.
C) They believed God had blessed slavery and the new nation.
D) They believed the war was punishment for southern greed.

Question 40

What was the purpose of the second Confiscation Act, passed by Congress on July 17, 1862?

A) It freed all slaves in Union and Confederate states.
B) It made it legal to use slaves as Union army laborers.
C) It freed the slaves of rebel masters.
D) It emancipated slaves in the border states.

Question 41

Near the end of the Civil War, Generals Grant and Sherman used a strategy that inflicted hardships on civilians in an attempt to break the will of the Confederacy. What were the pros and cons of this strategy?

Question 42

What problem did President Lincoln face during the election of 1864?

A) The Democrats had an excellent chance of winning.
B) Much of the North's electoral process had shut down.
C) Most Union soldiers threatened to support the Democratic ticket.
D) Key Republicans had vowed to oppose his nomination in 1864.

Question 43

How did President Lincoln attempt to stifle opposition to the Civil War?

A) He instituted martial law in all northern cities.
B) He disfranchised political opponents.
C) He imprisoned of a vast number of northern Democrats.
D) He suppressed free speech.

Question 44

After his victory at Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant

A) asked President Lincoln for a ninety-day furlough to recover from the exhaustion of the battle.
B) launched a massive military campaign that would take his troops on a sweep through Virginia down to Louisiana.
C) returned to the western theater of the war to conquer a new rebel threat that had sprung up there.
D) resigned his commission, only to reenlist to fight at Spotsylvania Court House.

Question 45

Which general won the battle of Gettysburg?

A) George G. Meade
B) Robert E. Lee
C) George E. Pickett
D) Andrew "Stonewall" Jackson

Question 46

What peace terms did Grant offer Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865?

A) Grant allowed Lee to keep his slaves.
B) Lee's men could keep their horses.
C) Grant required Confederate officers to serve prison time.
D) Lee would be tried for treason in a military court.

Question 47

When the Civil War ended, President Lincoln was confident that

A) the transition to a peaceful nation would be relatively simple.
B) he would hold the office of president as long as he wanted it.
C) his postwar burdens would weigh almost as heavily as those of wartime.
D) Democrats would support Republican peace policies.

Question 48

Under General Ulysses S. Grant's leadership, the Union armies

A) lost the majority of their battles.
B) sustained few casualties.
C) became a sophisticated war machine.
D) focused primarily on the war in the West.

Question 49

Describe General Ulysses S. Grant's approach to defeating the Confederates, which in time fashioned the North's victory in the war.

Question 50

What was General William T. Sherman's strategy for defeating the Confederates in Georgia in 1864?

A) He planned to recruit former plantation slaves for the Union army.
B) He planned to have his men confiscate Georgians' cotton and sell it to England.
C) He intended to infect Confederate camps with typhoid fever.
D) He orchestrated a scorched-earth military campaign aimed at destroying the will of the southern people.

Question 51

Which statement describes the fighting between Generals Grant and Lee in Virginia in May and June of 1864?

A) The Confederate and Union forces lost similar numbers of soldiers, and the fighting ended in stalemate.
B) Grant's men suffered fewer casualties than Lee's at Spotsylvania Court House, but not at Cold Harbor.
C) Lee's Confederate forces lost more soldiers than Grant's Union forces.
D) More Union soldiers died, but because Grant had twice as many troops as Lee, his losses were equivalent.

Question 52

Explain why non-slaveholding white southerners were willing to risk their lives fighting in the Civil War.

Question 53

What was the result of the Battle of Vicksburg in July 1863?

A) A Confederate victory forced Union commanders to question whether they could win the war.
B) Weeks of battle and horrendous casualties produced only a stalemate.
C) The Union army's victory opened up a large portion of the Mississippi River.
D) The Confederates forced the Union army out of the deep South.

Question 54

How did the participation of black men in the U.S. army during the Civil War complicate attitudes toward race in the North?

Question 55

Identify three areas in which northern women contributed to the Union war effort.

Question 56

Describe Abraham Lincoln's approach to the secession crisis when he became president on March 4, 1861.

Question 57

Why were northern Democrats opposed to turning the Civil War into a war for black liberation? What were their reactions to Lincoln's inclusion of emancipation in the war goals?

Question 58

What role did slaves play in destroying slavery during the Civil War?

Question 59

What can the New York draft riots of 1863 tell us about the reaction of some northerners to the new direction of the war by that period?

Question 60

Identify key reasons why southerners believed they could win the Civil War.

Question 61

Match the term with the definition.
Battle fought in Maryland on September 17, 1862, between the Union forces of George McClellan and Confederate troops of Robert E. Lee. The battle-a Union victory that left 6,000 dead and 17,000 wounded-was the bloodiest day of the war.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 62

Compare and contrast Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as wartime leaders. Did their backgrounds and experience prepare them for the tasks they assumed? Whose leadership was more surprising? Explain why.

Question 63

Match the term with the definition.
First major battle of the Civil War, fought at a railroad junction in northern Virginia on July 21, 1861. The Union suffered a sobering defeat, while the Confederates' felt affirmed in their superiority and the inevitability of Confederate nationhood.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 64

What motivated so many Americans to fight and kill one another in the long and bloody American Civil War? What did they believe they were fighting for?

Question 65

Match the term with the definition.
Six-week assault by General Grant intended to starve out this Mississippi city. On July 4, 1863, the 30,000 Confederate troops holding the city surrendered. The victory gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and, together with Gettysburg, marked a major turning point of the war.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 66

Match the term with the definition.
Tennessee battle on April 6-7, 1862, between Albert Sidney Johnston's Confederate forces and Ulysses S. Grant's Union army. The Union army ultimately prevailed, though at great cost to both sides. The battle ruined the Confederacy's bid to control the war in the West.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 67

Match the term with the definition.
The United States' use of its navy to patrol the southern coastline to restrict Confederate access to supplies.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 68

Match the term with the definition.
General Benjamin F. Butler's term for runaway slaves, who were considered confiscated property of war, not fugitives, and put to work in the Union army. This policy proved to be a step on the road to emancipation.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 69

Match the term with the definition.
President Lincoln's January 1, 1863, declaration that all slaves in Confederate-controlled territory were free. This made the Civil War a war to free slaves, although its limitations-exemptions for loyal border states and Union-occupied areas of the Confederacy-made some ridicule the act.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 70

Match the term with the definition.
Confederate diplomatic strategy built on the hope that European nations starving for cotton would break the Union blockade and recognize the Confederacy. This strategy failed, as Europeans held stores of surplus cotton and developed new sources outside the South.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 71

Match the term with the definition.
Union fort on an island at the entrance to Charleston harbor in South Carolina. After Confederate leaders learned President Lincoln intended to resupply the fort, Confederate forces attacked it on April 12, 1861, thus marking the start of the Civil War.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 72

Match the term with the definition.
Battle fought in Pennsylvania (July 1-3, 1863) between Union forces under General Meade and Confederate forces under General Lee. The Union emerged victorious, and Lee lost more than one-third of his men. Together with Vicksburg, this battle marked a major turning point in the war.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 73

Despite being a dry-goods clerk before the war, Ulysses S. Grant became the general in chief of all Union armies. Discuss his success in the West, his view of war, and his eventual victory over Lee.

Question 74

Match the term with the definition.
Four days of mayhem in July 1863, triggered by efforts to enforce the military draft. Suffering economic hardship, infuriated by the draft, and opposed to emancipation, Democratic Irish workingmen killed at least 105 people, most of them black.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 75

Leaders in the Confederate States of America believed they could use King Cotton diplomacy to enlist the aid of powerful European nations in their struggle for independence. Why were southerners so confident that this strategy would work? Why do you think it failed?

Question 76

Match the term with the definition.
Military campaign from September through December 1864 in which Union forces marched from Atlanta, Georgia, to the coast at Savannah, carving a path of destruction as they progressed.

A)battle of Antietam
B)battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
C)battle of Gettysburg
D)battle of Shiloh
E)contraband of war
F)Emancipation Proclamation
G)Fort Sumter
H)King Cotton diplomacy
I)New York City draft riots
J)Sherman's March to the Sea
K)siege of Vicksburg
L)Union blockade

Question 77

The Civil War devastated both the North and the South. What common experiences and struggles did both sides encounter as they tried to cope with the ravages of war?