Deck 15: The Civil War

Question 1

Cutting the Confederacy off from sea-borne commerce proved difficult at first because

A) British merchant ships aggressively pushed through to Southern ports and challenged the Union's authority to block their trade.
B) Confederates relied on allied coastal tribes to harass the Union navy with small attacks from the shore.
C) the strategy of a naval blockade was new and had never been tried before.
D) the Union only had 42 ships to patrol 3550 miles of Confederate coastline.
E) Southerners did not need foreign imports anyway and happily ignored the Union occupation of New Orleans, for example.

Answer 1

the Union only had 42 ships to patrol 3550 miles of Confederate coastline.

Question 2

The Confederacy's policy of impressments authorized its armies to

A) seize food for the troops without any eventual payment.
B) confiscate slaves for military use but pay their owners full market value for them.
C) set up camps on private land whenever necessary.
D) take necessary food and slaves from civilians and pay with Confederate currency.
E) nationalize food production and war material industries.

Answer 2

take necessary food and slaves from civilians and pay with Confederate currency.

Question 3

Which statement was true of the First Battle of Manassas?

A) The South suffered 10 percent casualties, and the North close to 20 percent.
B) General Irvin McDowell's troops fought valiantly, even though greatly outnumbered.
C) After the battle, Congress authorized the enlistment of 500,000 volunteers.
D) After the battle, both sides boldly announced a brief war and certain victory.
E) Stonewall Jackson was killed as he stood rallying his troops at Manassas.

Answer 3

After the battle, Congress authorized the enlistment of 500,000 volunteers.

Question 4

Which of these was not one of the advantages that the North possessed at the beginning of the Civil War?

A) An extensive network of railroad lines for transporting supplies.
B) About four times what the South had to finance the war.
C) More factories to equip its army with clothes, food and weapons.
D) An existing navy.
E) An urgent drive to win the war and end slavery.

Question 5

All of the following are true statements about African American participation in the Civil War except

A) Free blacks and escaped slaves were admitted into the Union Army early in the war.
B) The Emancipation Proclamation included a statement that blacks would now be admitted into the military.
C) Eighty percent of the African Americans who enlisted in the Union Army were runaway slaves.
D) Black soldiers served in segregated units and received half the pay of white soldiers.
E) Some historians believe that black soldiers helped tilt the war's outcome toward Union victory.

Question 6

Which of the following was not a tax measure used by the U.S.Congress to help finance the war?

A) A graduated income tax
B) A flat 10% income tax
C) Creation of the Internal Revenue Service
D) Sin taxes on sales of tobacco and alcohol
E) Stamp taxes

Question 7

The city that was most important to the Union for blockading the southern coast was

A) Savannah.
B) Corpus Christi.
C) New Orleans.
D) Jacksonville.
E) Mobile.

Question 8

The Union's initial strategy of limited warfare in 1861 and 1862 included all of the following,except

A) not attacking civilians.
B) trying to avoid damaging civilian properties.
C) trying to instigate massive slave escapes and rebellions so as to avoid military bloodshed.
D) occupying Southern territory.
E) defeating the Confederate Army.

Question 9

The "20 Negro Law" stated that

A) for every twenty Negroes on a plantation, one white male could be exempt from the draft.
B) wealthy landholders who owned at least twenty slaves could be exempted from military service to make sure that their valuable cotton got harvested.
C) owners of factories using twenty or more Negro workers could remain at home to run their factories if they produced war materiel.
D) those who owned fewer than twenty slaves could not receive an exemption from service if drafted.
E) counties that contained fewer than twenty slaves were not required to send men to fight.

Question 10

Inflation in the civil war South was so bad that the cost of living in the South had grown ____ over the course of the war.

A) threefold.
B) fivefold.
C) twelvefold.
D) fifty-twofold.
E) ninety-twofold.

Question 11

Southerners had advantages,too,and one of the strongest was the fact that the North

A) did not believe people in the South had the stomach for a real fight.
B) failed to realize how much gallantry was involved in southern fighting.
C) underestimated the determination of the South to hold on to slavery.
D) had to invade the South to win the war, while the South only had to wage a defensive battle.
E) was not dedicated to the fight.

Question 12

In an attempt to control disloyalty and dissent in the North,Lincoln suspended Americans'

A) right to a trial by jury.
B) writ of habeas corpus.
C) protections against unwarranted search and seizure.
D) right of free speech.
E) right of public assembly.

Question 13

At the outset of the war,what did both northerners and southerners predict?

A) The war would be long and bloody.
B) The outcome would be determined by whichever side could convince European countries to come to its aid.
C) Slavery would be abolished.
D) The war would not change their societies dramatically.
E) None of these choices.

Question 14

One of the reasons that Lee's Confederate forces were able to push the Army of the Potomac northward and out of Virginia was that the Union general,George McClellan,was too

A) cowardly to fight.
B) unprepared for battle.
C) slow to react to the Confederate onslaught.
D) strategically cautious and overly anxious about the discipline and fighting ability of his men.
E) insecure in his ability to command.

Question 15

Since one of the reasons for southern secession was to protect states' rights from a too-powerful federal government,it was ironic that

A) to prosecute the war, the Confederate government had to assume a great deal of centralized control.
B) the Confederate army was placed under President Jefferson Davis.
C) when the war ended, the South had a much larger bureaucracy than did the North.
D) the North was able to protect states' rights better than the South could.
E) Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was not an especially strong supporter of states' rights.

Question 16

The First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run)was important because

A) Northerners accomplished an astounding victory.
B) Union soldiers proved that they would never retreat from Southern aggression.
C) after this battle both sides realized that the war would be neither brief nor relatively small.
D) the Union used African American soldiers for the first time.
E) the battle gave Lincoln the advantage he wanted before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Question 17

For women,the Civil War meant all of the following except

A) an opportunity to revolutionize the nursing profession.
B) advances in women's suffrage during and after the war.
C) some women defied gender roles and served as spies and soldiers for the army on both sides.
D) a chance to fill previously male positions in munitions plants and government offices.
E) loss of male providers.

Question 18

The Battle of Shiloh

A) ended with no clear victor.
B) ended in victory for the Confederacy.
C) resulted in 23,000 southern casualties.
D) shocked the nation with the enormous number of northern and southern casualties.
E) took place just before Grant's forces captured Forts Henry and Donelson.

Question 19

The Conscription Act of 1863 passed by the North

A) provided the bulk of the army for the rest of the war.
B) allowed draftees to pay a $300 commutation fee to be exempt until the next draft round.
C) stated that a state must use the draft to meet its quota of soldiers.
D) set the draft age range from eighteen to forty-five.
E) All of these choices.

Question 20

One strategy that both the Union and Confederacy used as the war progressed was

A) limited warfare.
B) instituting an income tax.
C) requiring slaves and former slaves to serve in combat.
D) sending emissaries to negotiate a limited peace.
E) mandating that all men serve in the military, regardless of class.

Question 21

What was the most significant battle during each stage of the war? Why was each significant? Which is/are considered the turning point(s)of the war?

Question 22

Which of the following was not a border state that had remained in the Union but nonetheless still retained slavery?

A) Missouri
B) Kentucky
C) Maryland
D) Delaware
E) Tennessee

Question 23

The North had a population that was more than twice the size of the South's.

Question 24

Discuss the historical significance of the Civil War.

Question 25

Grant's capture of the city of Vicksburg,on the Mississippi River,in July 1863

A) led most northerners to believe that victory would come quickly.
B) helped give the Union total control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy into two parts.
C) overshadowed Meade's victory over Lee at Gettysburg.
D) set the stage for the capture of Mobile Bay in Alabama the next month.
E) convinced Grant's detractors that he was not, as they asserted, "always drunk."

Question 26

The battle of Antietam was significant for all of the following reasons except

A) it ended with victory for the Confederacy, which boosted morale and kept its soldiers determined to win the war.
B) it was the single bloodiest day-battle in history.
C) afterwards, Union troops gained the upper hand in the pivotal regions of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
D) it gave Lincoln the necessary victory that allowed him to issue his Emancipation Proclamation from a position of strength rather than desperation.
E) it pushed Lee's army back into the Confederacy.

Question 27

What were the advantages and disadvantages for the North and for the South at the beginning of the Civil War? Why did each side believe it would win?

Question 28

Explain exactly what the Emancipation Proclamation did and did not do.Why was it so important to Lincoln to make that public declaration? What did the Emancipation Proclamation accomplish?

Question 29

In the North,the most violent protest against the draft took place in the city of

A) Boston.
B) New York City.
C) Philadelphia.
D) Chicago.
E) Albany.

Question 30

The Fort Pillow Massacre refers to the Confederate slaughter of black soldiers who were attempting to surrender.

Question 31

The battle that gave the Confederacy the element of surprise over Ulysses S.Grant was the Battle of Shiloh,which was fought near the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

Question 32

In what ways did Abraham Lincoln tamper with Americans' civil liberties during the war? What comparable steps were taken by Jefferson Davis in the Confederacy?

Question 33

The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freed

A) all American slaves.
B) all slaves in the North.
C) slaves in the border states.
D) slaves that had joined the Union Army.
E) slaves in rebel states that had not returned to the Union by January 1, 1863.

Question 34

The first battle of the Civil War took place at Manassas Junction near Washington,D.C.

Question 35

Which of the following did not happen as a result of the Civil War?

A) The power and size of the federal government increased.
B) America increasingly moved toward becoming an industrialized nation.
C) People's sense of individual and local identity was heightened.
D) The philosophy of pragmatism was born.
E) Christian religions divided along sectional lines.

Question 36

At the beginning of the Civil War,most northerners

A) hoped that the war aims would explicitly include the end of slavery.
B) were not very concerned about why the war was being fought.
C) disliked slavery but did not want a large, free black population in the United States.
D) wanted full emancipation and a return to Africa for all U.S. slaves.
E) supported broad emancipation unconditionally.

Question 37

Discuss the challenges the Union and the Confederacy faced on their homefronts.

Question 38

The most senseless and disastrous move ordered by Robert E.Lee during the Civil War was

A) his advance toward Washington, D.C. during the Seven Days' Battles.
B) his decision to move into Pennsylvania to relieve the Virginians who had been in the midst of so much of the fighting.
C) the Battle of Antietam, where Lee had overextended his forces into Maryland and was forced into a retreat.
D) his decision to send a group of over 12,500 men to break the Union line at Gettysburg-two-thirds of whom were killed, wounded or captured.
E) leading Grant on a military chase that lasted for weeks and eventually put Lee's men in trenches outside Petersburg, Virginia for nine long, miserable months.

Question 39

During the Civil War,the word "contraband" was applied not only to smuggled goods,but also to

A) runaway slaves.
B) appropriated horses.
C) freed slaves.
D) stolen food and other supplies.
E) any goods confiscated by the Union army in the South.

Question 40

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution

A) abolished slavery.
B) was passed by Congress in January 1865, while the war was still continuing.
C) was ratified by enough Union states during the war to make it part of the Constitution.
D) All of these choices.
E) None of these choices.

Question 41

Northern "Peace Democrats" were dissenters against the war who believed that secession was legal and the southern states should have been let go.

Question 42

As the Civil War progressed,the North was able to prosecute the war without going into debt or changing its economic tax and revenue system,and the South successfully enacted several economic changes to finance the war,most of which were financially beneficial to the Confederacy and its citizens.

Question 43

More than half of Lee's Confederate army was lost at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Question 44

Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was used in Maryland to arrest and imprison Confederate sympathizers who might incite others.

Question 45

Taxes were imposed on both northerners and southerners during the war for the first time since the War of 1812.

Question 46

The Union's first Confiscation Act,issued in August 1861,declared that any slaves used for military purposes would be freed if they fell into Union hands.