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This
Quiz is about "The North vs The South".
The answers have been researched and have finally become accepted
by educated historians from the North and from the South. See
the references at the end.
Question: The leading cause of the Civil War was:
A. Election of Abraham Lincoln
B. Slavery
C. Rights of individual States
D. Taxes
Answer: C and D
The southern states were increasingly burdened with
taxes on imports coming into southern ports. When
President Buchanan imposed the highest tariff to date and the incoming
President Lincoln was planning to increase it, the Southern
States threatened Secession and began taking control of the
ports to establish free trade with European countries.
Forts that had been established to protect these ports
(such as
Fort
Sumter
,
SC
)
were then used by
Lincoln
to
collect taxes on supply ships and protect northern
manufacturers from having to pay the Southern States for
supplies.
Q: Which U.S. President promised in campaign speeches
and his inaugural address to protect the slave trade and enforce
laws that required non slave states to return slaves to their owners?
A. George Washington
B. Bill Clinton
C. Ulysses S. Grant
D. Abraham Lincoln
Answer: D
Lincoln
was
willing to let the slave issue remain an individual
decision for the states (one of the only rights he gave the
states). The thought of freeing the slaves was not even
mentioned until over a year into the Civil War when
Lincoln
needed
an excuse to continue the invasion of the South. Several
other politicians and activists opposed to slavery
convinced
Lincoln
to
free the slaves in order to make the destruction of the
South a "moral issue" and to punish the South for Secession.
Question: Which army first attacked the other?
A. Union
B. Confederate
Answer: A.
Lincoln
made
the decision to send union troops into
Manassas
,
Virginia
in
July 1861, following six months of peaceful secession by
the Confederate States. It was also a full three months
after the Confederate Army’s shot at
Fort
Sumter
supposedly "started"
the war. Most people believe the single cannon shot at
Fort
Sumter
was
the first aggression, however that is explained in the next
question.
Question: The "first shot" of the War fired from
Fort
Sumter
hit
what?
A. A union ship
B. Union soldiers
C. Nothing
D. Civilian boats
Answer: C.
The shot was intentionally fired over the bow of a union
ship as a warning shot.
Lincoln
advised
the Confederate leaders that the ship was carrying supplies
for union soldiers still remaining on the Fort. When it was
learned that military personnel were hiding below deck (presumably
to take back control of the Fort), the Confederate Army was ordered
to fire the shot.
Question: President Lincoln’s first choice for leading
the union army was:
A. William Tecumseh Sherman
B. Robert E. Lee
C. Ulysses S. Grant
D. Adolph Hitler
Answer: B.
When Lincoln approached Lee about the job, Lee gave one of his most
memorable replies. In effect, he told
Lincoln
that
he refused to be a part of the aggression that
Lincoln
was
planning toward the Southern States and Lee’s home state
of
Virginia
.
Lee was adamant that the Confederate States had the
Constitutional right to peacefully withdraw from the
Union
.
As you will see in the next question, he was not alone in
that belief. Also, Lee was apparently smarter than
Lincoln
thought,
as he warned the President of the grave human and societal
damage that would take place in a war with the South.
Question: Why did northern armies suffer various defeats at
the beginning of the war?
Answer:
Lincoln
had
trouble finding adequate numbers of properly trained armies
in the north. When he enlisted the aid of the
Border
States
such
as
Missouri
,
Kentucky
and
Maryland
,
he was advised by those States’ leaders that they would
offer no troops to aid in the aggression toward the Confederate
States.
Question: The percentage of Confederate soldiers that came
from slave holding families is estimated at:
A. 30%
B. 50%
C. 70%
D. 90%
Answer: A.
While hard to determine in census figures from so long ago,
a conservative estimate shows that very few Confederate
soldiers came from families wealthy enough to own slaves.
True or False: Very few African Americans fought with the Confederate
Army.
Answer: False.
Conservative estimates state that as many as 50,000 black
Confederate Soldiers fought alongside white soldiers from
Atlanta
to
Virginia
.
Many of them even fought alongside their "masters"
and cared for them when they were wounded. Even more blacks were essential
in aiding the Confederate armies in various support roles and
many defended their owners’ homes to the death when
General Sherman and northern armies began their destruction
of the South.
Question: The first
U.S.
state to
force blacks to fight in the war was:
A. South
Carolina
B. Georgia
C. Virginia
D.
New
York
Answer: D.
The state of
New
York
passed
a law requiring all free black men to enlist in the union army or
be jailed. This was supported by President Lincoln as the states
right and is often viewed as a predecessor to the
military’s draft.
Question: The actions of union armies during General
Sherman’s "March to the Sea" in 1964 could have
been (and still are) considered what?
A. Justifiable, as a means to end the war.
B. Punishment for the South.
C. The costs of waging war.
D. War crimes.
Answer: D.
The destruction of civilian property (homes and businesses)
and the killing of non-combatants was considered inhumane
even in the 1860’s wartime. Several treaties signed by other
countries had denounced the practice long before the Civil War.
Even during the American Revolution,
U.S.
leaders
ordered that any British Generals that had engaged in such
practices should be put to death if captured.
Question: At
the end of the war, the most successful and well-educated blacks
engaged in what type of work?
A. Northern industry
B. Military service
C. Servants and sharecroppers in the South
D. Professional athletes
Answer: C.
The majority of freed slaves had nothing. When they
traveled north, they were rejected because they had little
education and no training in manufacturing. Many that stayed
with white families in the South continued to receive
medical attention, some education and even a parcel of land
to farm. Even though the complete civil rights movement did
not come until almost one hundred years later, southern white families
began to view their black servants as "free to pursue their
own endeavors".
Question: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was
imprisoned for two years following the Civil War. He was
charged with what crime?
A. Treason
B. Murder
C. Conspiracy
D. None of the above
Answer: D.
After imprisoning
Davis
,
the U.S. Congress could not find any article to charge him
with a crime.
Question: Union General Ulysses S. Grant went on to
become President. His term in office was most noted for
what?
A. Sex with an intern
B. Corruption
C. Strong military buildup
D. reconstruction of the South
Answer: B.
He was one of the first Presidents that would be considered for impeachment.
Another union General, William T. Sherman, was asked if he would do
his country a service and run for President.
Sherman
replied,
"If asked, I will not volunteer. If elected, I will
not serve".
True or False: Confederate General Nathaniel Bedford
Forrest organized the Ku Klux Klan as a violent
organization to keep blacks in their place?
Answer: False.
The well regarded General organized community leaders that still
believed in the rights of Southern States to insure that actions
by the union government and businessmen (carpetbaggers)
during reconstruction were just. Forrest abandoned the
organization and criticized it when it resorted to violence.
References:
"The Civil War" by Ken Burns (documentary for
PBS)
"Black Southerners in Gray" by Richard Rollins
(Southern Heritage Press)
The American Civil War Homepage by Dr. George H. Hoemann (sunsite.utk.edu;civil-war/)
"When in the course of human events" by Charles
Adams (Rowman and Littlefield Publishing)
Over 3.5 million soldiers fought during the War Between the States.
Over 620,000 died. Many others would be wounded or maimed for
life. This tragic human event was more than likely caused
by faults from both sides. I have often heard that the
victors write the history of conflict, and I believe that
this is what has happened in the case of the North vs. the
South. I refuse, however, to forget the Southern values and
way of life that so many Confederate soldiers were willing
to die for. Just as veterans of WWI and WWII fought the
unjust acts of aggression by
Germany
and
Japan
,
the soldiers of the Southern States were resisting what
they believed was unjust treatment from the union
government. The Confederacy even rejected the notion of fighting with
the North until they were attacked. The next two generations of Southerners
would continue to refer to the conflict as "The War of
Northern Aggression" and not the sugar coated term
Civil War.
"Every
one should do all in his power to collect and disseminate
the truth, in the hope it may find a place in history and
descend to posterity. History is not the relation of
campaigns, and battles, and generals or other individuals,
but that which shows the principles for which the South
contended and which justified her struggle for those
principles."
--General Robert E. Lee
Visitors since October 7, 2003
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