US History - Civil War - Assignments

Question 0

Morrill Act

Answer 0

Transferred substantial public acreage to the state governments, which could now sell the land and use the proceeds to finance public education [1862]

Question 1

Homestead Act

Answer 1

Permitted any citizen or prospective citizen to purchase 160 acres of public land for a small fee after living on it for five years [1862]

Question 2

Greenbacks

Answer 2

New currency backed not by gold or silver but by the good faith and credit of the government

Question 3

New York City Draft Riots

Answer 3

A group of demonstrators opposed to a new law for recruiting new soldiers, who rioted in NYC for four days lynched several Blacks, burned down black homes, businesses and an orphanage, over 100 dead; a group of federal troops direct from the Battle of Gettysburg stopped them

Question 4

Copperheads

Answer 4

Opposing the war, also known as Peace Democrats, Lincoln’s greatest problem. He ordered military arrests of civilian dissenters

Question 5

Emancipation Proclamation

Answer 5

Signed by Lincoln on January 1, 1863; declared all slaves inside Confederation as forever free. Did not apply to Union slave states nor to Confederate states under Union control (TE, West VA, South LO). Feared that Border States would revolt.
Stated: War was fought to preserve Union AND eliminate slavery

Question 6

Thirteenth Amendment

Answer 6

1865: abolished slavery in all parts of US

Since antislavery impulse gained strength in areas not affected by Emancipation Proclamation

Question 7

Confiscation Act

Answer 7

1861: All slaves used for insurrectionary purposes were considered freed

Question 8

Conscription Act

Answer 8

April 1862: All white males between 18-35 had to be in military service for three years

Question 9

U.S. Grant

Answer 9

Union commander, shared Lincoln’s belief in unremitting combat and in making enemy armies and resources, not enemy territory, target of military efforts

Question 10

Robert E. Lee

Answer 10

Southern president’s principal military adviser. After a few months he left Richmond to command forces in field

Question 11

Union Blockade

Answer 11

Union had overwhelming advantage in naval power
-> enforcing blockade of Southern coast and assisting Union armies in field operations.
Blockade began in first weeks of war, kept most oceangoing ships out of Confederate ports. Soon federal forces seized the port themselves. Last important Confederate port fell to Union in early 1865.

Question 12

Difference Confederate and Union Constitution

Answer 12

President could veto budget to part of of the item

Question 13

How did Confederation finance the war

Answer 13

They printed money, causing an inflation

Question 14

William Seward

Answer 14

Union Secretary of State, very dynamic and made good decisions

Question 15

Confederacy - relationship with Europe

Answer 15

Hoped support from both France and Europe since it exported a lot of cotton to them. But France didn’t want to help unless England did. England was reluctant, because of an anti-slavery movement that supported the Union. Also, England and France were not dependent on cotton of Confederacy.

Question 16

Union - relationship with Europe

Answer 16

Union government was angry when Great Britain, France and other nations declared the selves neutral early in the war, implying that the two sides to the conflict had equal share. Washington insisted that conflict was simply domestic insurrection, not war between two legitimate governments.

Question 17

Trent Affair

Answer 17

Late 1861: confederate diplomats sneaked into Cuba and took British diplomats from steamer, Trent, as captives. Lincoln and Seward released them

Question 18

Technology

Answer 18

New inventions both helped fight the war but also made more deadly and dangerous at the same time. Some inventions were: rifle, hot air balloon, railroads, telegraph

Question 19

Opening battle

Answer 19

July 21, 1861: fought in northern Virginia, Union General: McDowell
Confederacy and Union met at stream, Bull Run, in Manassas, Union made attacks, but Confederacy won because of savage counterattack. Battle was blow to Union morale and confidence

Question 20

New Orleans Seized

Answer 20

April 25, 1862: Union tried to seize control of southern part of Mississippi River from north and south, moving down the river from Kentucky and up Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans. In April a Union squadron smashed past weak Confederate forts near mouth of the Mississippi and from there sailed up to New Orleans. City did not expect an attack from South and was defenseless. Therefore surrendered, which was important turning point in war. Mouth of Mississippi was closed to Confederate trade and South’s largest city and most important banking center was in Union hands.

Question 21

Forts in Tennessee

Answer 21

Early 1862: Confederate troops were stretched out in long defensive line around Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Grant attacked Fort Henry first who surrendered without any resistance. Than attacked Fort Donelson who surrendered February 16.

Question 22

Shiloh

Answer 22

April 6-7: Grant advanced with 40,000 men south along Tennessee River. At Shiloh, TE, met force almost equal to his own, commanded by Johnston and Beauregard. The result was a battle. It was a narrow victory for the Union.

Question 23

Battle of Murfreesboro

Answer 23

December 31 - January 2: Braxton Bragg was in command of Union army in West, gathered his forces at Chattanooga, east TE, where he faced Union army trying to capture city. Only met several months later. Bragg was forced to withdraw to the South in defeat.

Question 24

Peninsular campaign

Answer 24

Winter 1861-62: McClellan, commander of Army of Potomac, designed campaign to capture Richmond. Chose complicated route to avoid enemy troops. Navy would carry down his troops the Potomac to a peninsula eats of Richmond. Army would then approach city.

Question 25

Battles outside Richmond

Answer 25

May 31 - June 1: McClellan was battling Confederate troops under Johnston. Johnston, badly wounded, was replaced by Robert E. Lee.

Question 26

Battle of the Seven Days

Answer 26

June 25 - July 1: Lee launched new offensive in an effort to cut McClellan off from his base on York River. McClellan fought his way across peninsula and set up new base on James. Now he was only 25 miles from Richmond and in good position to renew campaign; however, he did not advance. Hoping to force new offensive against Richmond along direct overland route he had always preferred, Lincoln ordered army to move back to northern VA.

Question 27

Antietam

Answer 27

War fought in Maryland. A Union victory. Important, because Great Britain announced that they would not help the Confederacy since they had lost.

Question 28

Vicksburg

Answer 28

Spring of 1863: Grant was driving at Vicksburg on MI River. Vicksburg was well protected. Grant attacked Vicksburg from rear. After sicks weeks Vicksburg surrendered because they were starving from Siege.
With another victory on river, they cut Confederacy in two.
Turning point of war.

Question 29

Gettysburg

Answer 29

fell same weekend, big armies led by Robert E Lee, fought in Southern Pennsylvania, Robert E Lee doesn’t get there in time, his army has to get up the hill, designated July 3, went to PE because thought it was right time, Lincoln takes it as sign that both Vicksburg and Gettysburg fell on weekend of July 4

Question 30

Battle of Chattanooga

Answer 30

November 23 - 25: won by Union, control of TE River

Question 31

US Grant, again

Answer 31

Early 1864: general in chief of all Union armies, like Lincoln, believed in using North’s advantage in troops and material resources to overwhelm South. Planned two great offensives for 1864: In Va, Army of Potomac would advance to Richmond and force Lee into decisive battle; in Georgia: western army, under SHERMAN, would advance to Atlanta and destroy remaining Confederate force under command of Johnston

Question 32

Grant and Lee, again/ Grant’s Northern Campaign

Answer 32

Long pursuit of Confederate army. Started when Army of Potomac plunged into Wilderness area in pursuit of Lee’s army. Lee turned back Grant in Battle of the Wilderness (May 5 - 7). Grant resumed march to Richmond and met Lee in Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Lee kept army between Grant and Richmond. Grant then headed to Seize Petersburg to cut off communication with rest of Confederacy. When Lee came to city, assault became prolonged siege.

Question 33

Sherman’s “March to the Sea”

Answer 33

_______, having taken over Atlanta before, the army now destroyed all supplies it could not use, his army cut a sixty mile wide swath of desolation Cross Georgia. Sherman sought not only to deprive the Confederate army of war materials and railroad communications but also to break will of Southern people by burning towns and plantations along route. He continued to SC and NA. In NA met by Johnston again, but just delayed.

Question 34

Lee surrendered

Answer 34

April 1865: Grant’s Army captured vital railroad junction southwest of town. Lee surrendered. Within hours Davis and others fled if possible. That night, mobs roamed city and next morning Union forces entered Richmond.

Question 35

Appomattox Courthouse

Answer 35

April 9, 1865: Lee began moving west in way of finding way around Union forces so that he could move South and link up with Johnston in NA. But Union army pursued him and blocked escape route. Lee arranged to meet Grant at private home in small town of Appomattox Courthouse, VA. There he surrendered. Nine days later Johnston surrendered to Sherman.
Davis was captured in Georgia. A few Southern diehards continued to fight, but even their resistance collapsed before long.

Question 36

Freedom

Answer 36

Whites and blacks had different believes on what freedom meant.
Whites: ability to control their own destinies without interference from North or federal government.
Blacks: land reform, legal equality

Question 37

Freedmen’s Bureau

Answer 37

March 1865: agency of army, distributed food to millions of former slaves, established schools, modest effort to settle blacks on lands of their own. But was not permanent solution. Too small to deal effectively with problems facing Southern society.

Question 38

Plans for Reconstruction

Answer 38

In hands of Republicans. Conservatives within party insisted South accept abolition. Proposed few other conditions for readmission of seceded states.

Question 39

Thaddeus Stevens

Answer 39

Radical Republican of Pennsylvania. Urged much harsher course, including disenfranchising numbers of Southern whites, protecting black civil rights, confiscating property of wealthy whites who had aided Confederacy and distributing land among freedmen.

Question 40

Charles Sumner

Answer 40

Radical Republican. Senator of MA. Urged much harsher course, including disenfranchising numbers of Southern whites, protecting black civil rights, confiscating property of wealthy whites who had aided Confederacy and distributing land among freedmen.

Question 41

Lincoln

Answer 41

Favored lenient Reconstruction policy, believed that Southern Unionists could become nucelus of new, loyal state governments in South.

Question 42

10% plan

Answer 42

10% of voting white man had to pledge allegiance to Nation, because wanted to do it quickly, done in Louisiana, bc first to be seized

Question 43

Lincoln’s assassination

Answer 43

April 14, 1865: Lincoln and wife attended play in DC. John Wilkes Booth, actor committed to Southern cause shot him on the head, next morning died. Booth was leader of conspiracy. To many Northeners murder of president seemed evidence of an even greater conspiracy - masterminded and directed by leaders of South. Militant Republicans exploited suspicions relentlessly in ensuing months.

Question 44

Andrew Johnson

Answer 44

Democrat until 1864. President after Lincoln. Hated the Confederates. Made everybody angry, stubborn, was Republican, but not liked by Republicans.

Question 45

Black Codes

Answer 45

1865-66: Southern legislatures enacted sets of laws which authorized local officials to apprehend unemployed blacks, find them for vagrancy and tihire them out to private employers to satisfy the fine. Some codes forbid blacks to own or lease farms or to take any jobs other than plantation workers or domestic servants, jobs formerly held by slaves.

Question 46

Johnson’s vetoes

Answer 46

April 1866: Congress passed first civil rights act which declared blacks to be citizens of US and gave federal government power to intervene in state affairs to protect rights of citizens. Johnson vetoed both bills, but Congress overrode him on each of them.

Question 47

Fourteenth Amendment

Answer 47

Everyone born in the US, and everyone naturalized, was automatically entitled to all the privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution including equal protection of the laws by both the state and national governments. No other requirements for citizenship. Prohibited former members of Congress or other former federal officials who who had the Confederacy from holding any state or federal office unless 2/3 of Congress voted to pardon them.

Question 48

Fifteenth Amendment

Answer 48

Forbade states and federal government to deny suffrage of any citizen on account of race color or previous condition or servitude

Question 49

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Answer 49

1867: was in the way of Radicals, look for a way to remove him from office, republicans found them, they believed, when Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Stanton despite Congress’s refusal to agree. Radicals in the House quickly impeached the president and sent the case to the Senate for trial. Radicals put heavy pressure on Republican senators but the moderates vacillated. Results: 35 to 19. Two-thirds needed. Then, Radicals dropped impeachment effort.

Question 50

Scalawags

Answer 50

Former Whigs who had never felt comfortable in the Democratic Party or farmers who lived in remote areas where there had been little or no slavery.

Question 51

Carpetbaggers

Answer 51

White men from North, most veterans of the Union army who looked on South as more promising frontier than West and had settled there at war’s end as hopeful planters, businessman or professionals.

Question 52

Black schools

Answer 52

Reformers established long network of schools for former slaves. In 1870s Reconstruction governments began to build comprehensive public school system. By 1876, the schools were still segregated but several black academies began operating for more advanced.

Question 53

Sharecropping

Answer 53

Most blacks did not own their own land during Reconstruction, and instead, worked for others in one form or another. Most became tenants of white landowners. They worked their own plots of land and paid their landlords either a fixed rent or a share of their crop (hence the term sharecropping). As tenants and sharecroppers, blacks enjoyed at least a physical independence from their landlords and had the sense of working their own land, even if in most cases they could never hope to buy it. But tenantry also benefited landlords in some ways, relieving them of the cost of purchasing slaves and of responsibility for the physical well-being of their workers.

Question 54

Crop-lien System

Answer 54

Few of traditional institutions of credit in South returned after war. In their stead emerged new credit system, centered in large part on local country stores, some owned by planters, others by merchants. Blacks and whites, landowners and tenants all depended on these stores. Since farmers did not have same steady cash flow as other workers, customers usually had to rely on credit from these merchants in order to purchase what they needed. Most local stores had no competition and thus could set interest rates as high as 50 or 60 percent. Farmers had to give merchants a lien (or claim) on their crops as collateral for the loans. Farmers who suffered a few bad years in a row, could become trapped in a cycle of debt from which they could never escape.
Result: some blacks and poor whites lost their land. Southern farmers almost became fully dependent on cash crops. The relentless planting of cotton contributed to soil exhaustion, which undermined the Southern agricultural economy over time.

Question 55

Whiskey Ring

Answer 55

Corrupt group of Government officials, made advantage of reconstruction for profit
Grant spent time with those people above, unclear if he knew about Corruption, and drank Whiskey with them

Question 56

Seward’s Folly

Answer 56

_______ was secretary of State, in charge over Diplomacy, wanted to buy something for 7.2 Million, people made fun of him, boughtAlaska from Russia, also avoided war with England and Japan

Question 57

Ku Klux Klan

Answer 57

In states where blacks were a majority or where populations of the two races were almost equal, whites used intimidation and violence to undermine the reconstruction regimes. Used terrorism to frighten or physically bar blacks from voting.

Question 58

Compromise of 1877

Answer 58

Promised presidency to Hayes in return that he end Reconstruction by taking out soldiers, North was tired of South

Question 59

Booker T. Washington

Answer 59

Born into slavery, _________ had worked his way out of poverty after acquiring an education. He urged other blacks to follow the same road to self-improvement. Believed that education was vital to the future of black people. They expanded the network of black colleges and institutes that had taken root during Reconstruction into an important educational system. Washington’s message was both cautious and hopeful. Blacks should attend school, learn skills, and establish a solid footing in agriculture and the trades. Industrial, not classical, education should be their goal.
In short: they should adopt the standards of the white middle-class

Question 60

Plessy v. Ferguson

Answer 60

________ was Black and bought ticket for full price for train, but was forced to sit with the other Black Americans and not with first class, sued train company, case challenged Segregation, happened in 1898, did not end segregation, Plessy lost, company said that he had seat on train so was equal to everybody else
Until 1954 Supreme Court has to reverse thinking.
14 amendment had only said: that state government were prohibited from discriminating against people because of their race but did not restrict private organizations or individuals

Question 61

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 61

1890s: Laws restricting the franchise and segregating schools were only part of the network of state and local statues known as Jim Crow laws that by the first years of the 20th century had institutionalized and elaborate system of segregation, reaching into almost every area of Southern life. The laws also stripped blacks of many of the modest social, economic and political gains they had made in the late 19th century

Question 62

Ida B. Wells

Answer 62

1892: Rise of lynchings shocked conscience of many white Americans. _______, a black journalist, launched what became an international anti-lynching movement with series of impassioned articles after lynching of her friends. Movement attracted substantial support from whites in both North and South (particularly from white women). Goal was federal anti-lynching law, which would allow national government to do what state and local governments in South were unwilling to do: punish those responsible for lynchings.
Helped found NAACP

Question 63

W. E. B. Du Bois

Answer 63

A black editor who wanted blacks to strive for more. Helped found NAACP.

Question 64

Blockade runners

Answer 64

Confederate ships owned by private Southeners who tried to run through blockade so they can run supplies to Southern port cities. If Union saw you, they fired you. If you made it, you could sell the things like coffee and sugar from Cuba and Bermuda and Europe. Risky business but high profit.

Question 65

Naval blockade

Answer 65

Naval blockade went all the way from Texas to North Carolina. Union tried to blockade Southern cities. Last city that fell Womington, NC.

Question 66

Lincoln’s second inaugural

Answer 66

March 4, 1865: Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address during his second inauguration as President of the United States. At a time when victory over the secessionists in the American Civil War was within days and slavery was near an end, Lincoln did not speak of happiness, but of sadness. Some see speech as a defense of his pragmatic approach to Reconstruction, in which he sought to avoid harsh treatment of the defeated South by reminding his listeners of how wrong both sides had been in imagining what lay before them when the war began four years earlier. Lincoln balanced that rejection of triumphalism, however, with recognition of the unmistakable evil of slavery, which he described in the most concrete terms possible.