Civil War & Reconstruction

34 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.About how many total casualties did the Battle of Gettysburg produce?
- A. about 23,000
- B. about 12,000
- C. about 51,000
- D. about 100,000
Show answer
about 51,000
Did you know? Gettysburg's roughly 51,000 casualties made it the war's costliest battle.
2.What did northerners who moved south during Reconstruction get called by critics?
- A. carpetbaggers
- B. copperheads
- C. mugwumps
- D. scalawags
Show answer
carpetbaggers
Did you know? Critics called northern newcomers "carpetbaggers" for allegedly arriving with carpetbags full of money.
3.Which 1850 law compelled northern citizens to help recapture escapees from slavery?
- A. the Kansas-Nebraska Act
- B. the Dred Scott decision
- C. the Wilmot Proviso
- D. the Fugitive Slave Act
Show answer
the Fugitive Slave Act
Did you know? The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 radicalized many northern moderates.
4.Which April 1862 battle in Tennessee was, to that date, the bloodiest in American history?
- A. the Battle of Shiloh
- B. the Battle of Stones River
- C. the Battle of Antietam
- D. the Battle of Chickamauga
Show answer
the Battle of Shiloh
Did you know? Shiloh's 23,000 casualties stunned both sides.
5.Which college did Robert E. Lee lead as president after the war, in Lexington, Virginia?
- A. Virginia Military Institute
- B. Washington College
- C. West Point
- D. the University of Virginia
Show answer
Washington College
Did you know? Washington College was renamed Washington and Lee University after Lee's death.
6.Which Union admiral captured New Orleans in April 1862?
- A. David Farragut
- B. David Porter
- C. Andrew Foote
- D. Samuel du Pont
Show answer
David Farragut
Did you know? Farragut ran past the river forts and took the South's largest city.
7.Which photographer's team documented Civil War battlefields with the new wet-plate process?
- A. Mathew Brady
- B. Edward S. Curtis
- C. George Eastman
- D. Jacob Riis
Show answer
Mathew Brady
Did you know? Brady's images, like "The Dead of Antietam," brought war home to civilians.
8.In which March 1865 address did Lincoln urge "with malice toward none"?
- A. the Gettysburg Address
- B. his First Inaugural
- C. his Second Inaugural Address
- D. the Cooper Union speech
Show answer
his Second Inaugural Address
Did you know? Lincoln's Second Inaugural, in March 1865, called for binding the nation's wounds.
9.Which Union victory in July 1863 came one day after Gettysburg ended, on the Mississippi?
- A. the Battle of Lookout Mountain
- B. the fall of Vicksburg
- C. the Battle of Chickamauga
- D. the Battle of Stones River
Show answer
the fall of Vicksburg
Did you know? Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863.
10.Who was Abraham Lincoln's running mate in the 1864 election?
- A. Hannibal Hamlin
- B. Andrew Johnson
- C. George McClellan
- D. Ulysses S. Grant
Show answer
Andrew Johnson
Did you know? Lincoln ran on a National Union ticket with Tennessean Andrew Johnson.
11.Which Confederate general was accidentally shot by his own men at Chancellorsville, in May 1863?
- A. Richard Ewell
- B. James Longstreet
- C. A.P. Hill
- D. Stonewall Jackson
Show answer
Stonewall Jackson
Did you know? Jackson died of pneumonia days after being wounded at Chancellorsville.
12.Which August 1862 battle ended in defeat for Union general John Pope?
- A. the Battle of Antietam
- B. the Battle of Cedar Mountain
- C. the Second Battle of Bull Run
- D. the Battle of Fredericksburg
Show answer
the Second Battle of Bull Run
Did you know? Lee and Jackson routed Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
13.What nickname did Union soldiers give the paper currency first issued in 1862?
- A. greenbacks
- B. bluebacks
- C. wildcats
- D. continentals
Show answer
greenbacks
Did you know? Greenbacks were the first federal paper money since the Revolution.
14.Which Union ironclad, invented by John Ericsson, fought at Hampton Roads with a revolving turret?
- A. the CSS Arkansas
- B. the USS Constitution
- C. the USS Monitor
- D. the USS Merrimack
Show answer
the USS Monitor
Did you know? Ericsson's Monitor pioneered the rotating gun turret.
15.Which famous regiment of Black soldiers was led by Robert Gould Shaw?
- A. the 29th Connecticut
- B. the 54th Massachusetts
- C. the 1st South Carolina
- D. the 76th Pennsylvania
Show answer
the 54th Massachusetts
Did you know? The 54th Massachusetts spearheaded the assault on Fort Wagner in 1863.
16.Which Union general's slowness at Antietam let Lee's army escape into Virginia?
- A. George Meade
- B. Joseph Hooker
- C. Ambrose Burnside
- D. George McClellan
Show answer
George McClellan
Did you know? Lincoln relieved the cautious McClellan of command in November 1862.
17.The bloodiest single day of the Civil War took place in which state?
- A. Pennsylvania
- B. Virginia
- C. Maryland
- D. Tennessee
Show answer
Maryland
Did you know? Antietam was fought along Antietam Creek in Maryland.
18.About how many Black soldiers served in the Union army by the war's end?
- A. about 180,000
- B. about 400,000
- C. about 50,000
- D. about 25,000
Show answer
about 180,000
Did you know? Nearly 180,000 Black men served in the Union army and navy.
19.Which 1850 package admitted California as a free state in exchange for a tougher slave law?
- A. the Crittenden Compromise
- B. the Missouri Compromise
- C. the Kansas-Nebraska Act
- D. the Compromise of 1850
Show answer
the Compromise of 1850
Did you know? Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850 stalled secession for a decade.
20.What did white southerners who backed Reconstruction get called by critics?
- A. carpetbaggers
- B. trust busters
- C. scalawags
- D. bushwhackers
Show answer
scalawags
Did you know? "Scalawag" was the critics' label for southern Republicans.
21.Which Massachusetts senator's 1856 caning on the Senate floor inflamed the North?
- A. Daniel Webster
- B. Henry Clay
- C. Charles Sumner
- D. Stephen Douglas
Show answer
Charles Sumner
Did you know? Preston Brooks beat Sumner with a cane after an antislavery speech.
22.Which September 1863 Georgia battle was the Confederacy's costliest single-battle victory?
- A. the Battle of Atlanta
- B. the Battle of Chickamauga
- C. the Battle of Franklin
- D. the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Show answer
the Battle of Chickamauga
Did you know? Chickamauga left some 34,000 casualties in northern Georgia.
23.Which 1846 proposal sought to ban slavery in any land won from Mexico?
- A. the Tallmadge Amendment
- B. the Ostend Manifesto
- C. the Gadsden Purchase
- D. the Wilmot Proviso
Show answer
the Wilmot Proviso
Did you know? The Wilmot Proviso passed the House twice but died in the Senate.
24.Which July 1863 New York protests against conscription turned deadly for four days?
- A. the Know-Nothing riots
- B. the draft coffee riots
- C. the draft riots
- D. the bread riots
Show answer
the draft riots
Did you know? The 1863 draft riots remain New York's deadliest civil disturbance.
25.Which Union general's Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864 destroyed the region's food supply?
- A. William T. Sherman
- B. George Custer
- C. Philip Sheridan
- D. Nathaniel Banks
Show answer
Philip Sheridan
Did you know? Sheridan's Valley campaign starved Lee's army of the Shenandoah's harvests.
26.Which general's November 1863 "Cracker Line" broke the siege of Chattanooga?
- A. George Thomas
- B. William Rosecrans
- C. Ambrose Burnside
- D. Ulysses S. Grant
Show answer
Ulysses S. Grant
Did you know? Grant's supply line relieved Chattanooga and opened the road to Atlanta.
27.Which Union general's name gave the English language the word "sideburns"?
- A. Ulysses S. Grant
- B. George Custer
- C. Joseph Hooker
- D. Ambrose Burnside
Show answer
Ambrose Burnside
Did you know? Burnside's whiskers were reversed into "sideburns".
28.Which Confederate general surrendered the last major southern army east, in April 1865?
- A. Robert E. Lee
- B. P.G.T. Beauregard
- C. Joseph E. Johnston
- D. John Bell Hood
Show answer
Joseph E. Johnston
Did you know? Johnston surrendered to Sherman at Bennett Place on April 26, 1865.
29.Which Georgia camp became notorious as the war's largest Confederate prison?
- A. Elmira
- B. Johnson's Island
- C. Libby Prison
- D. Andersonville
Show answer
Andersonville
Did you know? About 13,000 Union prisoners died at Andersonville's Camp Sumter.
30.Which cavalry commander led Confederate raids, known as the "Wizard of the Saddle"?
- A. J.E.B. Stuart
- B. Nathan Bedford Forrest
- C. Turner Ashby
- D. John Mosby
Show answer
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Did you know? Forrest's cavalry disrupted Union supply lines across Tennessee.
31.Which naval battle of August 1864 produced the cry "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"?
- A. the Battle of Wilmington
- B. the Battle of Hampton Roads
- C. the Battle of Mobile Bay
- D. the Battle of New Orleans
Show answer
the Battle of Mobile Bay
Did you know? Farragut's fleet closed the Confederacy's last major Gulf port.
32.Which December 1864 battle destroyed John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee?
- A. the Battle of Nashville
- B. the Battle of Atlanta
- C. the Battle of Chickamauga
- D. the Battle of Franklin
Show answer
the Battle of Nashville
Did you know? George Thomas's victory at Nashville effectively ended the western war.
33.Which series of June-July 1862 battles drove McClellan away from Richmond?
- A. the Seven Days Battles
- B. the Battle of Chancellorsville
- C. the Peninsula Campaign
- D. the Battle of Fredericksburg
Show answer
the Seven Days Battles
Did you know? Lee's Seven Days offensive ended the Union's Peninsula Campaign.
34.Which December 1862 battle cost Burnside over 12,000 casualties in futile assaults?
- A. the Battle of Fredericksburg
- B. the Battle of Cold Harbor
- C. the Battle of the Wilderness
- D. the Battle of Chancellorsville
Show answer
the Battle of Fredericksburg
Did you know? Burnside's men charged the stone wall at Fredericksburg's Marye's Heights.

Questions are for entertainment — difficulty ratings are a guide, and you know your crowd best. Always follow the rules of your venue or event.