Deck 16: Total War and the Republic

Question 1

Although at the outset European experts expected the Confederacy to prevail, the North won, demonstrating that in modern war, ________ can offset ________.

A) technology; terrain and distance
B) strategic planning; idealistic determination
C) industrial power; agricultural power
D) sheer numerical superiority; the advantages of superior leadership

Answer 1

technology; terrain and distance

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

In a society that prized states' rights, Davis had to centralize authority.

Question 3

One significant difference between the Confederacy and the North was that

A) southerners initially romanticized the war, expecting a swift end, but northerners more realisticallyexpected 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)the South felt they were fighting for a cause and so sustained a strong sense of morality and discipline, . while the perils and profits of war undermined the moral order of northern society.

Answer 3

the South became poorer, while the North tended to prosper.

Question 4

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 naval 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 5

Which of the following statements accurately describes 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 6

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
Dlagged 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 7

Thirty-seven thousand African American servicemen gave their lives as Union soldiers in the U.S. Civil War, a rate of loss about 40 percent higher than that among white soldiers. Why did black soldiers fight and die so fiercely?

A) The freedom of their race hung in the balance.
B) They hoped to win their civil rights after the war.
C) More than for a white soldier, their capture by rebel forces might mean death.
D) All these answers are correct.

Question 8

During the war, women of both the North and the South did all of the following EXCEPT

A) enter the formerly male professions of nursing and teaching.
B) take jobs in the growing government bureaucracies.
C) run farms and plantations.
D) run railroads.

Question 9

Due to the Union blockade,

A) the Confederacy had to turn to Europe for the necessary manufactured goods.
B) many southern plantations switched from cotton to raising grain and livestock.
C) the Confederacy ultimately became industrially self-sufficient.
D) All these answers are correct.

Question 10

The North raised money to support the war effort through all of the following methods EXCEPT

A) raising taxes.
B) loans (i.e., government bonds).
C) printing paper money.
D) accepting fees from draftees in lieu of induction.

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT an accurate statement about Civil War soldiering?

A) Northern soldiers tended to accept army discipline more readily than southerners.
B) The lower classes of society, rather than the typical farmer or shopkeeper, made up a disproportionate share of each army.
C) Northern soldiers tended to have more quantity and variety of food than southerners.
D) Camp life both corrupted morals and provided occasions for religious revivals.

Question 12

Which of the following adapted most easily to military discipline and organization?

A) northern farmer
B) urban resident
C) textile worker
D) southern farmer

Question 13

The Civil War marked a significant change in the history of human warfare, in all EXCEPT which of the following ways?

A) The technology of weaponry gave the defense the advantage over the offense.
B) The complexity, size, and spatial spread of the armies on the battlefield jumped in magnitude.
C) More soldiers died of battle wounds than camp diseases.
D) It was the first total war in history.

Question 14

The early volunteers of 1861 expected to fight

A) in their local militia units and only for one year.
B) an all out war to free the slaves.
C) a restrained war that upheld their moral code.
D) for at least three years, but no longer.

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT 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 richest section of the country (in terms of white per capita wealth) became even richer.
C) The nation's political balance of power shifted dramatically.
D) The principle that the American union is perpetual was established.

Question 16

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

Question 17

As in all modern wars, technology revolutionized the conditions under which Civil War soldiers fought. The ________ musket, which at first served as the basic infantry weapon, gave way to the rifle, so named because of the grooves etched into the barrel to give a bullet spin.

Question 18

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

Question 19

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

Question 20

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

Question 21

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 22

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

Question 23

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

Question 24

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

Question 25

What does the idea of "total war"
mean? Identify at least three ways the Civil War was a total war. What was the significance of each? Which one was the most important, in your view?

Question 26

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

Question 27

Evaluate Lincoln and Davis as war leaders.

Question 28

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 29

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

Question 30

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