Download Chapter 20 Questions

Question 1
a. President Lincoln recognized that among the many possible problems raised by
secession would be how to divide the national debt. If the South were to be allowed to
leave the Union, it certainly would have to take with it some portion of the nation’s
debt.
b. Correct answer. Lincoln was far more concerned that the rupture between the North
and South would hurt both these two regions and the country’s place in the broader
world. This was far more pressing to him than concerns about disunion’s impact on
industrial development.
c. If Southern states were allowed to separate from the Union, it would leave a pressing
problem about what share of the federal territories—if any—the Confederate states
would get.
d. With the South no longer a part of the Union, Lincoln rightly suspected that the
number of fugitive slaves traveling north on the Underground Railroad would
dramatically increase, especially since they would no longer have to bring runaway
slaves all the way to Canada. With a seceded South, runaways need only cross the
border over the Ohio River, leading to new questions about how this matter might be
handled and resolved.
e. Among Lincoln’s biggest concerns was that Europe might, at a minimum, add to the
tension by playing the North and South against each other—all with a goal of
claiming (or reclaiming) the former colonies by European imperialists. They would
even be able to move into other regions of the Americas, since there would no longer
be a single, unified U.S. government to enforce the non-expansionist Monroe
Doctrine from would-be encroachers.
Question 2
a. Correct answer. The conflict at Fort Sumter is considered the official start of the Civil
War. As states seceded and left the Union, some attempted to take control of the U.S.
arsenals, mints, and other property within their borders. At Fort Sumter, tensions
flared, shots were fired, and the fort ultimately fell to the Confederacy.
b. Fort Sumter is not where South Carolina seceded. That decision was made in the
legislature at Charleston.
c. The South successfully seized the fort, after getting word that a Union naval force
was on its way to secure Sumter. Confederates considered this an act of aggression
and opened fire on the fort; after 34 hours, the fort fell to the Confederates.
d. This was not an act of Southern aggression against the North; rather, Southerners saw
this as a defensive move once Lincoln attempted to blockade the fort. Lincoln had
informed Confederate leaders that an expedition was en route to provision the
garrison, but Southerners saw this as meaning to reinforce it.
e. Since Lincoln did not believe it was constitutionally possible for the South to secede,
he was not trying to reclaim the fort. Rather, he was sending provisions to personnel
there as he normally had.
Question 3
a. While Maryland was an important border state that the Union needed to remain
neutral (or on the Union side), Lincoln feared that collectively Maryland, Kentucky,
and Missouri would almost double the manufacturing capacity of the South.
b. Delaware was not on the list of border states Lincoln worried about losing most.
While Delawareans remained torn about the war, the state itself remained within the
Union.
c. West Virginia was a strategic region from a military standpoint, but not the source of
Lincoln’s greatest concerns. The Ohio River flowed along the northern border of
Kentucky and West Virginia, with tributaries penetrating into the heart of the
Confederacy.
d. Correct answer. Three border states—Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri—were all
vital to the Union cause, but Lincoln was especially concerned about Kentucky. He
feared that if Kentucky were to fall, it would be impossible to hold onto the other two.
e. Missouri was an important border state that Lincoln hoped would remain neutral, but
Kentucky was the one he focused on most, since he thought all others might follow.
Question 4
a. From the beginning, Lincoln declared that he was not fighting to free the slaves
because to make a statement in favor of abolition would have driven the border states
to join forces with the South.
b. Along with the borders states, a war to end slavery would have been unpopular in
several other regions, namely southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. That area had a
large population of southerners, who held onto their regional sympathies throughout
the war.
c. Correct answer. Lincoln had family members who owned slaves and four of his
wife’s brothers fought for the Confederacy, but this was not the main reason for his
refusing to declare a war against slavery. It did bother him, however, that his
brothers-in-law were fighting on the side of disunion.
d. From the very start of the war, Lincoln’s goal was preserving the Union. He did not
see it as between slaveholders and free-soilers.
e. With peace as his ultimate goal, Lincoln was willing to make any compromise
necessary, including on the slavery issue. Even as he was about to unveil the
Emancipation Proclamation, he told newspaper editor Horace Greely that if he could
have kept the Union together without freeing a single slave, he would have.
Question 5
a. Northern soldiers were typically better educated and practical, where Confederate
soldiers were more emotional, religious, and personally concerned about the outcome
of the war.
b. Southern soldiers, with their rural individualism and suspicion of authority, had a
tougher time adjusting to military authority than their Northern counterparts, who
were used to the disciplined life of cities and factories.
c. Correct answer. Southern troops—not those from the North—were more concerned
about defending their home turf, since most of the fighting took place on Southern
soil.
d. From the start, the South had the advantage of fighting—albeit defensively—on
familiar terrain, where northern soldiers had to invade an unknown region.
e. Southern farmers who grew up taming horses and carrying guns from their boyhood
days were natural fighters; Northerners lacked this advantage
Question 6
a. Both armies struggled amid food shortages, though the Confederates had it especially
tough as the war went on. Uniforms deteriorated from finery to tatters, as did moral
standards.
b. Shoes, uniforms, and blankets became increasingly scarce as the war progressed
especially for the South, with many soldiers literally reduced to wearing tatters.
c. Camp life could be dull, despite the riveting stories of adventure that life in the Civil
War military promised. On average, men would be in camp for fifty days before
seeing a single day’s battle, mostly doing chores or daily roll call.
d. With boredom came activities such as gambling, drinking, stealing, and swearing,
making discipline especially difficult for military leaders.
e. Correct answer. Disease proved to be the greatest hardship, as illnesses such as
dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid, and malaria cost twice as many lives as bullets. Because
medical knowledge about sterilization was unknown, every wounded soldier ran the
risk of sepsis (bacterial infection). Injuries to the head, chest, and stomach were often
considered fatal; amputations of legs and arms were not uncommon.
Question 7
a. Actually, the South had many of the most talented military leaders, among them were
Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson, a gifted tactical theorist and a
master of speed and deception.
b. Correct answer. The North’s greatest strength was the South’s greatest weakness: its
economy. Along with farms, the North had many thriving factories and claimed
roughly three-fourths of the nation’s wealth, including three-fourths of the thirty
thousand miles of railroads.
c. Initially, the South struggled from a lack of arms, taking what it could from federal
arsenals and battle victories. Eventually, it established its own ironworks, which aided
arms production.
d. The North had a superior navy that was ultimately able to block supplies from
reaching southern ports and trade its grain with Europe for supplies and munitions
and supplies.
e. Union states had a much larger population—about 22 million compared to the 9
million in the seceding states had 9 million people, which included about 3.5 million
slaves. In addition, about 800,000 new immigrants arrived between 1861 and 1865—
mostly British, Irish, and German—with many enlisting in the Union army.
Question 8
a. Correct answer. Like the American Revolution, the South counted on foreign
intervention to help it succeed. Many elites in Europe sympathized with the
Confederate cause—especially because they hated America’s democratic experiment
and preferred what they considered the South’s semi-feudal, aristocratic social order.
However, common people, especially in Britain, supported the North and were hostile
to any action by the British government.
b. The South had a better prepared army with solid leadership in comparison to the
North. But in time, the Yanks mastered the discipline and determination needed to
make them a first-rate army.
c. The North did not initially have the best leader in its military. Hence, Lincoln was
forced to literally test each officer in the field to weed out good leaders from the
many inept ones, finally discovering Ulysses Simpson Grant, who was willing to fight
on to victory no matter the cost.
d. While world demand for cotton was important to the South, Union army seizures of
southern cotton stores helped fill that demand, as did increased production by the
cotton growers of Egypt and India.
e. With most of the Civil War fought on southern soil, this did give the Confederate
army an advantage, but it did not ultimate lead them to win the war.
Question 9
a. David had no trouble at all creating a Confederate currency, and did so quickly.
b. Jefferson Davis was willing to overwork, if necessary, to whatever was needed of his
roles as both military and political leader, even in the face of his own bouts with
neuralgia and other nervous disorders (including a tic).
c. Correct answer. The South seceded largely in defense of states’ rights, yet to aid the
Confederacy’s development, Davis needed to establish a unified central government.
Its constitution, in fact, borrowed from that of the nation it broke with, but ironically
did not allow its states the right to secession.
d. Davis had little worries when it came to amassing an army. Southerners were ready
and willing to fight, although they preferred not to cross state lines to do so and
wanted rather to defend their own home turfs.
e. While Davis was not widely popular, this was not his biggest problem, even with the
occasional talk of impeachment.
Question 10
a. With Congress out of session when the war began, Lincoln declared a blockade
himself. This move was later challenged in the Supreme Court, which upheld
Lincoln’s power to do so.
b. Under the Constitution (Art. I, Sec. VIII, para. 12), only Congress has the power to
increase the size of the army, yet Lincoln himself did so. Congress, later, however
approved his decision.
c. Contrary to the Constitution (see Art. I, Sec. IX, para. 7), Lincoln ordered the U.S.
Treasury to pay $2 million to three private citizens for their assistance with the Union
military effort.
d. Correct answer. It was various federal officials—and not Lincoln—who ordered that
certain newspapers be suspended from publishing due to their anti-Union articles and
some of their editors.
e. Lincoln did suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which allowed for the arrest of antiUnionists. In doing so, Lincoln defied ruling by the chief justice, which stated that the
protections of habeas corpus could be set aside only by the authorization of Congress
(see Art. I, Sec. IX, para. 2).
Question 11
a. Initially, Union armies were staffed by volunteers, contributed by each state based on
population. In 1863, as the number of volunteers dropped off dramatically, Congress
passed the nation’s first federal conscription law, which was often met with
resentment and an occasional small riot.
b. Correct answer. The main reason behind the New York draft riots was the fact that
the draft law allowed the rich to hire a substitute at just $300 to serve in their place.
Those who could not afford such a fee complained that the government demanded
“three hundred dollars or your life.”
c. The proportion of upstate farmers in the military had nothing to do with the draft
riots.
d. Racism undoubtedly was a factor, though not as important as the substitution clause.
The riot was started by poor Irish immigrants, who hated blacks, shouting, “Down
with Lincoln!” and “Down with the draft!” The riots lasted for several days, costing
many lives and resulting in the lynching of many blacks.
e. With high demand for $300 substitutes, a group of unscrupulous bounty brokers and
substitute brokers emerged both in the U.S. and abroad, luring the poor and
immigrants with offers of whisky to enlist in the Union army in place of an elite
American. Then, these brokers pocketed the money.
Question 12
a. Washington issued $450 million in greenbacked paper money to finance the war
effort. It did not have enough gold behind it, and as a result, its value was based on
the nation’s credit. At their lowest, they were worth just 39 cents on the gold dollar.
b. Excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol were increased, and income tax passed for the
first time, to generate millions of dollars for the war.
c. In 1861, Congress passed the Morrill Tariff Act, which increased duties up to 10
percent, to raise extra revenue for the war.
d. In 1863, Congress authorized the National Banking System to stimulate the sale of
government bonds and standardize currency. Banks that joined the National Banking
System could buy government bonds and issue sound paper money backed by them.
e. Correct answer. Property taxes were not a way the Union used to finance the war
effort.
Question 13
a. The Homestead Act did not include any promises not to tax private property.
b. Correct answer. The Homestead Act of 1862 promised free land to those settling the
West.
c. The Homestead Act offered no protections to those who dodged the draft by fleeing
west.
d. Free gold to California miners was not one of the provisions of the Homestead Act.
e. Many people rushed to Pennsylvania when petroleum was discovered there in 1859.
While this led to the birth of a new industry, it was not the focus of the Homestead
Act.
Question 14
a. Correct answer. More than four hundred women posed as male soldiers and engaged
in the battle on both sides, but they were not invited or encouraged to officially serve
the military as soldiers.
b. Women were encouraged to follow the troops and assist them as cooks, launderers,
and tailors.
c. With men off to battle, women picked up their jobs in government, with over five
hundred women clerks in Washington, D.C., and one hundred in the Treasury
Department alone.
d. Women gladly took on spy missions—no matter how dangerous they might be. One,
in fact, was executed for smuggling gold to the Confederacy.
e. Among the greatest and most visible role women played was as nurses. Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell, America’s first female physician, helped organize the U.S. Sanitary
Commission to train nurses, collect medical supplies, and equip hospitals. Clara
Barton and Dorothea Dix, superintendent of nurses for the Union army, transformed
nursing into a respected profession.