After Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, which state became the first to secede from the Union, in December 1860?
South Carolina
✓
Virginia
Georgia
Mississippi
Correct Answer
South Carolina
South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, and six more Deep South states followed within weeks. Virginia did not leave the Union until April 1861, after the fighting at Fort Sumter. Georgia seceded in January 1861. Mississippi was the second state to secede, not the first.
Category: Secession Crisis
Question 2
What was the central territorial proposal of the Crittenden Compromise, offered in Congress in an effort to head off secession?
Admitting Kansas to the Union as a free state
Extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
✓
Ending slavery gradually with payments to enslavers
Letting every territory vote on slavery at once
Correct Answer
Extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
Senator John Crittenden of Kentucky proposed extending the 36°30' line to the Pacific, protecting slavery south of it and banning it north of it, and Republicans rejected the plan because it allowed slavery to expand. Admitting Kansas as a free state was not part of his plan. Ending slavery gradually with payments to enslavers was never seriously offered to the seceding states. Letting every territory vote on slavery at once describes popular sovereignty, not the Crittenden line.
Category: Secession Crisis
Question 3
How did the constitution of the Confederate States of America, drafted in early 1861, differ most clearly from the U.S. Constitution?
It created a one-house legislature
It eliminated the executive branch
It explicitly protected slavery
✓
It made the presidency hereditary
Correct Answer
It explicitly protected slavery
The Confederate constitution closely copied the U.S. Constitution but openly protected slavery, barring any law that impaired property rights in enslaved people and guaranteeing slavery in new territories. It created a one-house legislature is wrong, since it kept a two-chamber Congress. It eliminated the executive branch is wrong, because it had a president. It made the presidency hereditary is wrong; the president served a single six-year term.
Category: The Confederacy
Question 4
Who served as president of the Confederate States of America?
Alexander Stephens
Robert E. Lee
John C. Calhoun
Jefferson Davis
✓
Correct Answer
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, a former U.S. senator and secretary of war, led the Confederacy throughout the war. Alexander Stephens of Georgia was the Confederate vice president. Robert E. Lee was the Confederacy's leading general, not its president. John C. Calhoun had died in 1850, a decade before secession.
Category: The Confederacy
Question 5
What action by Lincoln in April 1861 led Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina to join the Confederacy?
His call for troops to put down the rebellion
✓
His issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation
His signing of the Homestead Act
His decision to free slaves in Kentucky
Correct Answer
His call for troops to put down the rebellion
After Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called on the states for 75,000 militia to suppress the rebellion, and the four Upper South states seceded rather than fight against the Deep South. His issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation came in 1862 and 1863, long after they left. His signing of the Homestead Act came in 1862. His decision to free slaves in Kentucky never happened; Kentucky stayed in the Union and slavery there ended only with the Thirteenth Amendment.
Category: Secession Crisis
Question 6
Which slave state remained in the Union throughout the Civil War?
Virginia
Maryland
✓
Tennessee
North Carolina
Correct Answer
Maryland
Maryland was one of four border slave states, along with Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri, that stayed in the Union, and keeping it loyal protected Washington, DC. Virginia seceded after Lincoln's April 1861 call for troops, its convention voting to leave that month. Tennessee seceded in June 1861, after its legislature acted in May. North Carolina seceded in May 1861.
Category: Border States
Question 7
What was the main significance of the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861?
It gave the Union control of the Mississippi
It led Britain to recognize the Confederacy
It ended Northern hopes for a short war
✓
It forced Lee to retreat from Maryland
Correct Answer
It ended Northern hopes for a short war
The Confederate victory near Manassas, Virginia, shattered the belief that one quick campaign would end the rebellion, and both sides began preparing for a long war. It gave the Union control of the Mississippi is wrong; that came with Vicksburg in 1863. It led Britain to recognize the Confederacy is wrong, because Britain never formally recognized it. It forced Lee to retreat from Maryland describes Antietam in 1862.
Category: Early Battles
Question 8
Which September 1862 battle, fought after Lee invaded the North, was the bloodiest single day of the war and gave Lincoln the opening to announce the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation?
Gettysburg
Shiloh
Fredericksburg
Antietam
✓
Correct Answer
Antietam
At Antietam (Sharpsburg) on September 17, 1862, Lee's invasion of Maryland was stopped, and Lincoln used the result to announce that slaves in rebelling areas would be freed on January 1, 1863. Gettysburg was fought in Pennsylvania in 1863. Shiloh was fought in Tennessee in April 1862. Fredericksburg, in December 1862, was a Union defeat in Virginia.
Category: Early Battles
Question 9
Where did Robert E. Lee surrender his army to Grant in April 1865?
Appomattox Court House, Virginia
✓
Richmond, Virginia
Petersburg, Virginia
Harpers Ferry, Virginia
Correct Answer
Appomattox Court House, Virginia
Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, after abandoning Petersburg and Richmond, effectively ending the war. Richmond, Virginia, was the Confederate capital, which Lee had already abandoned. Petersburg, Virginia, was the rail center Grant besieged for months. Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was the site of John Brown's 1859 raid.
Category: Union Victory
Question 10
At the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in April 1862, which Union general's army survived a surprise Confederate attack and drove the enemy back on the second day?
George B. McClellan
Ulysses S. Grant
✓
Ambrose Burnside
George Meade
Correct Answer
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant's army was caught off guard on the first day, but reinforcements arrived and the Union counterattacked the next day and won. George B. McClellan commanded in the eastern theater, in Virginia. Ambrose Burnside led the Army of the Potomac to defeat at Fredericksburg. George Meade commanded the Union army at Gettysburg in 1863.
Category: Western Theater
Question 11
Which advantage did the Union hold over the Confederacy when the war began?
Fighting a defensive war at home
Formal alliances with Britain and France
A far larger industrial base
✓
A ready supply of cotton for export
Correct Answer
A far larger industrial base
The North had far more factories, railroads, farms and people, which let it produce weapons and supplies and replace losses. Fighting a defensive war at home was a Confederate advantage. Formal alliances with Britain and France never existed for either side. A ready supply of cotton for export was the South's hoped-for lever, and the Union blockade cut it off.
Category: Strengths and Weaknesses
Question 12
To which enslaved people did the Emancipation Proclamation apply when it took effect?
Those in every slave state, loyal or not
Only those in Washington, DC
Only those in Union-occupied areas
Those in areas still in rebellion
✓
Correct Answer
Those in areas still in rebellion
The proclamation freed people held as slaves in areas in rebellion against the United States, making emancipation a Union war aim. Those in every slave state, loyal or not, is wrong, because the loyal border states were excluded. Only those in Washington, DC, is wrong; Congress had already ended slavery there in 1862. Only those in Union-occupied areas is wrong, because occupied areas such as Tennessee and New Orleans were exempted.
Category: Emancipation
Question 13
On what authority did Lincoln base the Emancipation Proclamation?
His war powers as commander in chief
✓
A constitutional amendment of 1862
A ruling by the Supreme Court
A treaty with the border states
Correct Answer
His war powers as commander in chief
Lincoln justified the proclamation as a military measure, a war power to weaken the rebellion, which is why it applied only to areas in rebellion. A constitutional amendment of 1862 never existed; the Thirteenth Amendment came later. A ruling by the Supreme Court did not authorize it, and the Dred Scott ruling pointed the other way. A treaty with the border states was never made.
Category: Emancipation
Question 14
Which feature of the Union's 1863 Enrollment Act especially angered working-class Northerners?
Only immigrants could be drafted
Men could pay $300 to avoid service
✓
Draftees served for ten years
Every farmer was exempted
Correct Answer
Men could pay $300 to avoid service
A drafted man could hire a substitute or pay a $300 commutation fee, which led critics to call it a rich man's war and a poor man's fight. Only immigrants could be drafted is wrong; citizens of draft age were enrolled. Draftees served for ten years is wrong, as terms were far shorter. Every farmer was exempted is wrong; there was no such exemption.
Category: The Draft
Question 15
During the New York City draft riots of July 1863, which group did rioters target most violently?
Irish immigrants
Confederate prisoners
African Americans
✓
Union army nurses
Correct Answer
African Americans
Rioters, many of them working-class immigrants angry about the draft, beat and killed Black residents and burned an orphanage for Black children. Irish immigrants made up a large share of the rioters rather than their main targets. Confederate prisoners were not a target of the rioters. Union army nurses were not targeted.
Category: The Draft
Question 16
Grant's successful siege of which city in 1863 gave the Union control of the Mississippi River?
Memphis
New Orleans
Chattanooga
Vicksburg
✓
Correct Answer
Vicksburg
Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrendered to Grant in July 1863 after a long siege, splitting the Confederacy in two. Memphis had already fallen to the Union in June 1862. New Orleans was captured by Union naval forces in April 1862. Chattanooga lies on the Tennessee River, not the Mississippi.
Category: Turning Points 1863
Question 17
The failed assault known as Pickett's Charge took place on the final day of which 1863 battle?
Gettysburg
✓
Chancellorsville
Fredericksburg
Antietam
Correct Answer
Gettysburg
On July 3, 1863, Confederate troops charged across open fields at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and were cut down, and Lee retreated south. Chancellorsville, in May 1863, was a Confederate victory in Virginia. Fredericksburg was a Union defeat in December 1862. Antietam was fought in Maryland in 1862.
Category: Turning Points 1863
Question 18
In November 1863, Lincoln gave a two-minute speech in Pennsylvania calling for "a new birth of freedom." At what event did he speak?
His second inauguration
The dedication of a national cemetery
✓
The surrender of Lee's army
The opening of a session of Congress
Correct Answer
The dedication of a national cemetery
Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg, framing the war as a test of a nation devoted to liberty and equality. His second inauguration took place in March 1865 in Washington. The surrender of Lee's army came in April 1865 in Virginia. The opening of a session of Congress was not the occasion.
Category: Turning Points 1863
Question 19
Sherman's destructive march across Georgia in late 1864, which wrecked crops, railroads and property, is a leading example of which kind of warfare?
Trench warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Total war
✓
Naval warfare
Correct Answer
Total war
Total war targets the enemy's economy and civilian will to fight, not only its armies, and Sherman's men destroyed resources across a wide path to break Confederate resistance. Trench warfare describes the siege lines at Petersburg. Guerrilla warfare means small irregular bands raiding, not a large army on the march. Naval warfare would be fought by ships.
Category: Union Victory
Question 20
In the election of 1864, Lincoln defeated which Democratic candidate, a general he had earlier removed from command?
Ulysses S. Grant
Ambrose Burnside
William T. Sherman
George B. McClellan
✓
Correct Answer
George B. McClellan
George B. McClellan, removed from command after Antietam, ran as the Democratic nominee, but Union victories such as the fall of Atlanta helped Lincoln win easily. Ulysses S. Grant was Lincoln's top general in 1864 and later a Republican president. Ambrose Burnside did not run for president. William T. Sherman captured Atlanta and stayed in the army.
Category: Union Victory