United States History 17A
Study Guide 12
 
 
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Study Guide 12
Nation of Nations
Chapter Sixteen

Total War and the Republic

Answer the following questions:
1. The first battle of the Civil War took place on July 21, 1861. There were ___ soldiers from both sides engaged in it. It was called ___ .  Who won?
2. Before the Civil War, what were the 3 common characteristics of warfare as it had evolved in Europe?
3. The Civil War, on the other hand, was the first war whose major battles ____. So many combatatants could be equipped only through ___ . They could be moved and supplied only with ___ . They could be sustained ony through ___. Simply put, the Civil War was the first ___ in history? 
I. The Demands of Total War
4. At the beginning of the war, which side, north or south, had the advantage in each of the following resources: population, value of manufactured goods, railroad mileage, and value of firearms produced?
5. What did the north need to do to win the war?
6. What two things did the south need to do to be victorious?
7. Who is being described in the following quotation: 'He cannot brook opposition or criticism, and those who do not bow down before him have no chance of success with him'?
8. Who had more political and military experience before the Civil War, Jefferson Davis or Abraham Lincoln?
9. Lincoln's immediate challenge in the war was to retain the loyalty of which three border states -- states which were still in the Union, but in which slavery was legal? The loss of which state meant that Washington itself would have to be abandoned? (Note: West Virginia broke away from Virginia and became a state, but not until1863)
10. In what 3 ways did Lincoln move ruthlessly to secure the state which protected the northern capitol? What is the writ of habeas corpus?
11. For what 4 reasons was it so important for Lincoln to keep the border states in the Union?

II. Opening Moves
12.Who did Lincoln appoint as his commanding general of the Union army (called the Army of the Potomac) in the eastern theater after the first Confederate victory?
13. How long was the Confederate coastline? How many ships did the Union have with which to blockade it at the beginning of the war?
14. Why did the south believe that Britain or the rest of Europe would recognize the Confederacy and come to its aid? What economic change kept this from happening?
15. Who said, 'The art of war is simple. Find out where your enemy is, get at him as soon as you can and strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.'
16. With what 2 victories in February, 1862, did Grant force the Confederates to withdraw from Kentucky and middle Tennessee?
17. Although Grant eventually won the battle at Shiloh in west Tennessee in April, 1862, this battle inflicted more than ___ casualties.
18. Who said, 'At Shiloh I gave up all idea of saving the Union except by complete conquest'?
19. What territory in the west was under Union control by the end of 1862? 
   In the spring of 1862, after Grant had won a signicant amount of territory in the west, McClellan finally began an assault on the Confederate Capitol at Richmond, Virginia. He landed his 130,000 troops near Yorktown on the York/James Peninsua, (named for the two rivers that bordered it), in April and pushed slowly up toward Richmond. He moved so slowly that some of his men referred to him as the 'Virginia Creeper'. From early May to the first of July, the Army of the Potomac engaged the southern Army of Northern Virginia, led at first by General Joseph Johnston, but after the first of June by Robert E. Lee.

20. Who is being referred to in the following quotation: 'He will take more chances,and take them quicker than any other general in this country'. 
   Between June 25 - July 1, 1862, McClellan won six of seven battles near Richmond, known as the Battle of the Seven Days, but then retreated. Exasperated, Lincoln removed McClellan and replaced him with General John Pope. When Lee defeated Pope at the second Battle of Bull Run on August 29, 1862, Lincoln fired Pope and restored McClellan to command. At that point, Lee became so emboldened by hopes of complete victory over the Union army that he asked and received permission from Jefferson Davis to invade the north. 

21. For what reason was Lee able to convince Jefferson Davis to allow him to invade the north after his victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run?
22. Where was Lee soon defeated? When? Why is it called the bloodiest single day of fighting in American history? 
   Even though McClellan had won a significant victory by repulsing Lee's advances into the north at Antietam, the Union general failed to follow up this victory and let Lee's army escape back into Virginia. His patience with McClellan finally exhausted, Lincoln removed him for the second and final time. His replacement was General Ambrose Burnside. In December, 1862, at Fredericksburg, a small town about half way between Washington and Richmond, Burnside directed his Union army to attack Lee's highly fortified position on Marye's Heights just west of the town. After repeated assaults on this location across half a mile of open ground, Burnside finally called off the attack. He had lost 13,000 men in this futile and senseless battle. Lincoln promptly fired him. The next Union General became Joe Hooker, whose name is now forever associated with the women who followed his army.
   By the end of 1862, Grant's successes in the west had been more than overshadowed by the utter failure of Lincoln's generals in the east to sustain any kind of decisive victory over Lee's smaller Army of Northern Virginia.

III. Emancipation
23. For what 3 reasons did Lincoln hesitate to free the slaves at the beginning of the war? Who pressured him to do it?  What was Lincoln's paramount objective in the war?
24. For what 3 reasons did Lincoln finally decide, in late 1862, to issue his Emancipation Proclamation?
25. Who is the man seated in the picture at the top of this Study Guide   page?
26. What slaves were freed in the Emancipation Proclamation? How could southern states save their slaves?
27. Where and how many slaves were excluded from emancipation? In all, how many of the nations's 4 million slaves were not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation? What percentage is this?
28. How many (and what percent) of the total slave population escaped to Union lines during the war? How were they treated by Union soldiers? What happened to them?
29. What percent of the Union's total military manpower were African Americans?

IV. The Confederate Home Front
30. How was cotton production affected during the war?
31. Who accounted for the majority of workers in the south's munitions factories ?
32. Above all, how did the Confederacy finance the war effort? What resulted? How much was a Confederate dollar worth in gold in 1865? How much did flour cost in the Richmond by the end of the war?
33. As conditions worsened, who was drafted into the Confederate army?
34. In what 2 ways could one be exempted from the Confederate draft? What were the arguments for and against this second exemption? 
V. The Union Home Front
35. In what 2 ways could one be exempted from the draft in the north? How many men were actually drafted into the Union army out of the more than 2 milliion who served? What percent is this?
36. What happened in New York in July, 1863, when the first draftees names were drawn? Who finally was rushed in?

VI. Gone to be a Soldier
37. What percent of soldiers were under 21 years of age? Who accounted for the 2 largest groups of soldiers? How many more soldiers died from dysentey, typhoid and other disease than from wounds?
38. How were officers in the Confederate army chosen through the rank of Colonel? To what did this contribute?
39. Under Civil War battle conditions, which was the stronger position, offense or defense?
40. Why were the minie ball and the percussion cap important? What was the range of a Civil War rifle compared to an older musket?

VII. The Union Triumph
   At the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia in May of 1863, Lee continued his humiliation of Union forces, this time defeating the army led by Lincoln's most recent appointee, General 'Fighing Joe' Hooker. As he had done before after seemingly implausible Union defeats, Lincoln relieved Hooker of command and replaced him with General George Meade.
   Lee, once again flushed by his success, decided to take his army into the north a second time to try, perhaps, to take Washington, D.C. Searching for a factory that he believed would supply his troops with badly needed shoes, Lee brought his 75,000 man army in late June, 1863, to the outskirts of the sleepy little town (2,500 population) of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Here, by chance, he encountered Meade's slightly larger force of 85,000. It was in and around this town that the two armies now engaged in the largest battle ever fought in north America. The Battle of Gettysburg consumed three entire days of fighting and resulted in over 51,000 total casualties. 
41. On the third day of the battle, July 3, 1863, Lee made the greatest mistake of his career? What was it?  What were the total casualty figures at the battle of Gettysburg?  In the west, where did Grant win a major victory on the following day?What was the result? How was grant rewarded in March of 1864?
42. Starting with McDowell, (who led the Union forces at the first Battle of Bull Run), and counting McClellan twice, how many Generals had Lincoln put in command of the Union forces in the eastern theater through the Battle of Gettysburg? 
43. Recognizing that his army was too weak to win another head on battle, what strategy did Lee adopt after the battle of Gettysburg? What did he hope to gain by it?
44. As the election of 1864 approached, why was Lincoln in trouble? What was, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about this election? Who were the two candidates? How did General Sherman help win the election of 1864 for Lincoln?
45. What did the 13th Amendment to the Constitution do?  Why did Lincoln believe the Emancipation Proclamation was insufficient?
46. In March of 1865, what did Jefferson Davis offer in exchange for British diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy? What happened?
47. What did Sherman do after the fall of Atlanta? What were his 2 intentions? How much damage did his army do in wanton destruction?
48. Where and when did Lee surrender to Grant? How soon after that was Lincoln assassinated?

VIII. The Impact of War
49. How many people died in the Civil War?
Please go to the site, Hardtack and Coffee, read the selection there and then answer the following question:

50. Identify: 'hardtack' and 'skirmishing'.

 

 
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Revised  May 4, 2008
by Tom Gallup, e-mail address: [email protected]
West Valley College
http://www.westvalley.edu/wvc/ss/gallup/gallup.html