American Civil War multiple choice

Since the founding of the United States, slavery had been the topic of political debate in the young nation. Some, especially in Northern states, found the practice cruel and wanted it banned, while others, especially in Southern states, believed that black slaves were inherently inferior to white people and that the federal government had no right to interfere in the government of the states.
When the abolitionist Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, Southern states began declaring their secession from the Union, and formed the Confederate States of America. The war would last from 1861 until 1865. Can you answer these multiple choice questions about the American Civil War?

Quiz by

Rate:

Last updated: March 8, 2023

You have not attempted this quiz yet.

More quiz info >>

First submitted	April 28, 2020
Times taken	39
Average score	66.7%
Report this quiz	Report

Quiz and answer stats >>

Friends stats >>

6:00

The quiz is paused. You have remaining.

Scoring
You scored / = %

      This beats or equals
      % of test takers
      also scored 100%
      
The average score is 

        Your high score is
        
      
Your fastest time is 
more stats >>
friends stats >>

Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...

1. Historians agree that the foremost cause of the Civil War was slavery, but Southerners at the time and even some people today claim that something else was the primary cause of the war. What was this other cause?

British revanchism: - Britain wanted to "retake the unruly Colonies" and had allied with Mexico to encircle the US, but Southerners believed the Northerners were too Anglophilic to notice. ✓

States' rights: - The belief that the states should hold power over the federal government, and not the other way around. ✓

Federal gold theft: - Gold had been found in the Indian Territory, and Northern states wanted an excuse to invade and steal the gold. ✓

Cuba Purchase: - Southerners wanted to buy Cuba and make it a slave state, but Northerners didn't want to pay for it. ✓

There actually was a movement to buy Cuba from the Spanish Empire and make it a slave state. The Ostend Manifesto of 1854 argued for buying Cuba or taking it by force, but this wasn't among the causes of the Civil War.

2. Abraham Lincoln was responsible for abolishing slavery, but what were his opinions on black people?

He believed that all men regardless of their race had the right to improve their own lives, and that slavery made that impossible. However, he still saw whites as superior to blacks, and he opposed equal rights. ✓

His diary reveal that he was a black supremacist, but in public he pretended to merely want equal rights for blacks. ✓

He showed no interest in race, and all race-related decisions of his administration were made by secretary of state William H. Seward. ✓

He opposed slavery because the Bible "forbids it", but he didn't otherwise find it immoral. He was racist even by the standards of the time, and believed that black people deserved the suffering that slavery had brought upon them. ✓

3. Which of these states did not secede from the Union?

Florida ✓

Delaware ✓

Texas ✓

Tennessee ✓

Delaware, along with Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, were "border states", or slave states that didn't secede from the Union. Tennessee -did- secede, but the move was much more contentious there than in other states, and pro-Union sentiment was stronger in East Tennessee than anywhere else in the South.

4. Which Mississippian was the only President of the Confederate States?

Albert G. Brown ✓

Tom Sawyer ✓

Jefferson Davis ✓

Robert E. Lee ✓

Albert G. Brown and Jefferson Davis served together as US Senators for Mississippi, but both withdrew from the Senate and became loyal to the new Confederacy. Robert E. Lee was a Virginian general. Tom Sawyer is a fictional character from the eponymous novel by Mark Twain.

5. While the North was industrialized, most of the South was agricultural and relied heavily on slave labor to harvest cotton for exportation. The Confederacy believed that it could use Britain and France's reliance on Southern cotton to make them join the war on their side. What was this belief called?

White Gold ✓

The "Victoria and Napoleon" strategy ✓

Wool for Weapons ✓

King Cotton ✓

The French and British did consider intervening, and occasionally pushed for a negotiated peace, but they ultimately decided against using military might. They decided that it wasn't worth the trouble of getting into a war, and simply bought their cotton elsewhere. Britain also ramped up its cotton production in India.

6. How did the Confederate general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson die?

He was killed in a duel with Andrew Jackson, who came back from the dead just for this occasion. ✓

He died from tuberculosis as an old man in 1893. ✓

He died in a friendly fire incident after the Battle of Chancellorsville. ✓

He died after being stabbed with a bayonet during a charge towards Union lines at the Battle of Chancellorsville. ✓

7. Which state, admitted to the Union during the Civil War, has the motto "Battle Born" written on its flag?

Nevada ✓

Colorado ✓

Alaska ✓

Missouri ✓

Nevada was admitted in 1864. Missouri was admitted in 1850 as part of the Missouri Compromise, which was one of the causes of the Civil War. Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867, and became a state in 1959. Colorado was admitted in 1876, the centenary of the Declaration of Independence, for which reason it is called the Centennial State.

8. Near the end of the war, general William Tecumseh Sherman led his army down through the South to encircle a large part of it and force it to surrender. On his way, Sherman famously burned down which Southern city?

Atlanta, Georgia ✓

Danville, Virginia ✓

Huntsville, Alabama ✓

Knoxville, Tennessee ✓

This campaign, known as Sherman's March to the Sea, is a well-known example of scorched earth, a military policy of destroying any resource that the enemy could otherwise capture and use against you. Neo-Confederates describe the burning of Atlanta as a war crime.

9. Which Union marching song contains the lyric "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free"?

Solidarity Forever ✓

For Lincoln and Liberty Too ✓

The Battle Hymn of the Republic ✓

When Johnny Comes Marching Home ✓

The "He" in that lyric refers to Jesus.

10. True or false: There were more black people fighting for the Confederacy than for the Union.

False. Black fighters were debated in the Confederacy, but they never saw combat in any significant numbers. ✓

True. Blacks people made up most of the Confederate Army. ✓

False. Many free blacks enlisted in the Confederate Army, notably in North Carolina, but there were significantly more Northern black soldiers than Southern. ✓

True. Blacks in the Confederate military made up less than their share of the general population, but there were still more Confederate than Union "Negro troops". ✓

11. Which pseudo-historical school of thought claims that the South was the victim of a tyrannical North, and that the Southern ideals were good and heroic?

The Lost Cause ✓

The Custis-Lee school ✓

The "North shot first" movement ✓

Sumterism ✓

Lost Causers sometimes call the Civil War the "War of Northern Aggression", even though it was an unprovoked Southern attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina that set off the war.

12. Who was the first person from a former Confederate state elected to be president after the Civil War?

Harry S Truman ✓

Ulysses S. Grant ✓

Andrew Johnson ✓

Lyndon B. Johnson ✓

A. Johnson of Tennessee (Confederate state) rose to the presidency after Lincoln's murder, but he was never elected in his own right. His successor, Union general Grant of Illinois (Union state), served 1869-1877, and Truman of Missouri (border state) served 1945-1953. L.B. Johnson of Texas (Confederate state) served 1963-1969, ascending to the presidency after Kennedy's murder but winning a term of his own in 1964.

No comments yet