The Civil War

Question 1

Crittenden Compromise

Answer 1

Brinkley 372

• called for several constitutional amendments, which would guarantee the permanent existence of slavery in the slave states and would satisfy Southern demands on such issues as fugitive slaves and slavery in the District of Columbia.
• would have required the Republicans to abandon their most fundamental position: That slavery would not be allowed to expand
• Republicans were unwilling to support the compromise

Question 2

Homestead Act

Answer 2

Brinkley 378
-permitted any citizen or prospective citizen to claim 160 acres of public land and to purchase it for a small fee after living on it for 5 years.

Question 3

Morill Land Grant

Answer 3

Brinkley 378

• Transferred substantial public acreage to the state governments, which were to sell the land and use the proceeds to finance public education
• led to the creation of many new state colleges and universities, the so-called land-grant institutions

Question 4

National Bank Acts

Answer 4

Brinkley 378

• created a new national banking system
• existing or newly formed banks could join the system if they had enough capital and were willing to invest 1/3 of it in government securities
• new system eliminated much of the chaos and uncertainty in the nations currency and created a uniform system of national bank notes

Question 5

Greenbacks

Answer 5

Brinkley 378

• new currency was backed not by gold or silver, but simply by the good faith and credit of the government
• value of a greenback fluctuated according to the fortunes of the Northern armies

Question 6

National draft law

Answer 6

Brinkley 379

• all young adult males were eligible to be drafted; but a man could escape service by hiring someone to go on his place or by paying the government a fee of $300
• only about 46,000 men were ever actually conscripted, but the draft greatly increased voluntary enlistments

Question 7

Emancipation Proclomation

Answer 7

Brinkley 380

• declared slaves forever free in states in all areas of confederacy except those already under union control(Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Louisiana)
• did not apply to the border slave states, which had never seceded from the union and therefore were not subject to the presidents war powers

Question 8

Ironclads

Answer 8

Brinkley 390

• weapon to break the blockade
• constructed by plating with iron a former US frigate

Question 9

King Cotton Diplomacy

Answer 9

Brinkley 391

• which the confederacy had staked so many of its hopes, was a failure
• English manufacturers had a surplus of both raw cotton and finished goods on hand in 1861 and could withstand a temporary loss of access to American cotton
• as the supply of American cotton began to diminish, both England and France managed to keep at least some of their mills open by importing cotton from Egypt, India, and other sources

Question 10

Repeating Weapons

Answer 10

Brinkley 392

• the rifle, cannons and artillery, and steel technology
• changed the way soldiers in the field fought

Question 11

Antietam

Answer 11

Brinkley 397
-on September 17, in the bloodiest single day engagement of the war
-McClellan’s 87,000-man army repeatedly attacked Lee’s force of 50,000, with enormous casualties on both sides
6,000 died, 17,000 injured

Question 12

Vicksburg

Answer 12

Brinkley 398

• one of the Confederacy’s two remaining strongholds on the southern Mississippi River.
• well protected, surrounded by rough country on the north and low, marshy ground on the west, and with good artillery coverage of the river itself
• Grant attacked Vicksburg, six weeks later, Vicksburg’s residents were by then literally starved as a result of the prolonged siege-surrendered

Question 13

Appomattox Court House

Answer 13

Brinkley 402

• Lee surrendered what was left of his forces
• nine days later, Johnson surrendered to Sherman

Question 14

March to the Sea

Answer 14

Brinkley 402
-Living off the land, destroying supplies it could not use, Sherman’s army cut a sixty-mile-wide swath of desolation across Georgia

Question 15

Confederate Conscription Act

Answer 15

• http://www.civilwarmonitor.com/front-line/the-start-of-confederate-conscription
• Designed to help the Confederacy overcome manpower shortages, the law required all white males ages 18 to 35 to be eligible for military service.
• the law also defined the parameters of southern loyalty and duty as the Conscription Act automatically reenlisted one-year volunteers into three year contracts and provided stricter punishments for deserters

Question 16

New York City Draft Riots

Answer 16

Brinkley 379
-Produced a violent 4 day uprising in New York City in which as many as 100 people died
-march by 4,000 men, most of which were poor Irish laborers
New Yorkers feared that the war would drive black workers north to compete for their jobs
-turned violent when officials began drawing names for the draft