Civil War & Reconstruction

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

1.Which 1896 Supreme Court ruling upheld "separate but equal" facilities?
- A. Loving v. Virginia
- B. Plessy v. Ferguson
- C. Dred Scott v. Sandford
- D. Brown v. Board of Education
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Plessy v. Ferguson
Did you know? Plessy v. Ferguson stood until Brown v. Board in 1954.
2.Which city served as the capital of the Confederacy for most of the war?
- A. Montgomery
- B. Atlanta
- C. Charleston
- D. Richmond
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Richmond
Did you know? The Confederate capital moved from Montgomery to Richmond in May 1861.
3.Which 1862 law gave 160 acres of public land to settlers who farmed it for five years?
- A. the Pacific Railway Act
- B. the Morrill Act
- C. the Homestead Act
- D. the Dawes Act
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the Homestead Act
Did you know? The Homestead Act opened the Plains to millions of settlers.
4.Which compromise of 1820 drew a line at latitude 36°30' across the Louisiana Purchase?
- A. the Missouri Compromise
- B. the Compromise of 1850
- C. the Kansas-Nebraska Act
- D. the Wilmot Proviso
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the Missouri Compromise
Did you know? The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as free.
5.Which former army nurse founded the American Red Cross after serving the Union?
- A. Dorothea Dix
- B. Mary Todd Lincoln
- C. Clara Barton
- D. Louisa May Alcott
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Clara Barton
Did you know? Clara Barton distributed supplies to front-line hospitals during the war.
6.Which 1852 novel galvanized northern opinion against slavery?
- A. The Liberator
- B. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- C. Uncle Tom's Cabin
- D. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Did you know? Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel sold 300,000 copies in its first year.
7.Which September 1862 battle remains the bloodiest single day in American history?
- A. the Battle of Chickamauga
- B. the Battle of Antietam
- C. the Battle of Shiloh
- D. the Battle of Gettysburg
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the Battle of Antietam
Did you know? About 23,000 men fell at Antietam creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland.
8.With whom did Abraham Lincoln debate across Illinois in the 1858 Senate race?
- A. John C. Breckinridge
- B. Hannibal Hamlin
- C. Stephen Douglas
- D. William Seward
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Stephen Douglas
Did you know? The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew crowds of thousands in 1858.
9.Which Georgia city did Sherman capture in September 1864, enabling his March to the Sea?
- A. Savannah
- B. Atlanta
- C. Macon
- D. Augusta
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Atlanta
Did you know? "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won," telegraphed Sherman.
10.Which 1859 raid on a federal arsenal aimed to spark an uprising of the enslaved?
- A. Nat Turner's rebellion
- B. Shays' Rebellion
- C. John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- D. the Amistad revolt
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John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
Did you know? John Brown seized the Harpers Ferry armory in October 1859.
11.Which Union general, called "Unconditional Surrender" by admirers, accepted Lee's sword?
- A. Ulysses S. Grant
- B. George Meade
- C. William T. Sherman
- D. Winfield Scott
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Ulysses S. Grant
Did you know? Grant's initials, U.S., earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender".
12.Who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin?
- A. Harriet Jacobs
- B. Louisa May Alcott
- C. Harriet Beecher Stowe
- D. Margaret Mitchell
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Harriet Beecher Stowe
Did you know? Stowe was praised by Lincoln as "the little lady who started this great war."
13.Which Union general led the March to the Sea through Georgia?
- A. William T. Sherman
- B. Philip Sheridan
- C. Ulysses S. Grant
- D. George Thomas
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William T. Sherman
Did you know? Sherman's 62,000-man army cut a 60-mile-wide path to Savannah.
14.Which state was the first to secede from the Union, in December 1860?
- A. Georgia
- B. Mississippi
- C. Virginia
- D. South Carolina
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South Carolina
Did you know? South Carolina seceded within weeks of Lincoln's election.
15.In which state did Robert E. Lee surrender the Army of Northern Virginia?
- A. North Carolina
- B. Maryland
- C. Virginia
- D. Pennsylvania
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Virginia
Did you know? Appomattox Court House lies in south-central Virginia.
16.Who was elected the only president of the Confederate States of America?
- A. Robert E. Lee
- B. John C. Breckinridge
- C. Alexander Stephens
- D. Jefferson Davis
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Jefferson Davis
Did you know? Davis, a Mississippi senator and ex-war secretary, led the Confederacy throughout.
17.Which city's surrender on July 4, 1863 gave the Union control of the Mississippi River?
- A. New Orleans
- B. Memphis
- C. Vicksburg
- D. Baton Rouge
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Vicksburg
Did you know? Grant's siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two.
18.Which port city did Sherman present to Lincoln as a Christmas gift in 1864?
- A. Mobile
- B. Savannah
- C. Charleston
- D. Wilmington
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Savannah
Did you know? Sherman's March to the Sea ended with Savannah's capture in December 1864.
19.Which Confederate general earned the nickname "Stonewall" at Bull Run?
- A. Thomas J. Jackson
- B. Nathan Bedford Forrest
- C. J.E.B. Stuart
- D. James Longstreet
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Thomas J. Jackson
Did you know? Barnard Bee's rallying cry "There stands Jackson like a stone wall!" stuck.
20.Who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia for most of the Civil War?
- A. Joseph E. Johnston
- B. Robert E. Lee
- C. Stonewall Jackson
- D. Jefferson Davis
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Robert E. Lee
Did you know? Lee took command in June 1862 after Johnston was wounded.
21.Where were the first shots of the Civil War fired, in April 1861?
- A. Fort McHenry
- B. Fort Ticonderoga
- C. Fort Sumter
- D. Fort Donelson
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Fort Sumter
Did you know? Confederate guns opened on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
22.Which July 1861 battle shattered hopes of a quick Union victory?
- A. the Battle of Antietam
- B. the Battle of Fredericksburg
- C. the First Battle of Bull Run
- D. the Battle of Shiloh
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the First Battle of Bull Run
Did you know? Civilians picnic-watched the Union rout at Bull Run near Washington.
23.The Battle of Gettysburg was fought during which three days of July 1863?
- A. July 4-6
- B. June 28-30
- C. July 1-3
- D. July 21-23
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July 1-3
Did you know? Gettysburg raged from July 1 to 3, 1863.
24.Who accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House?
- A. Philip Sheridan
- B. Ulysses S. Grant
- C. George McClellan
- D. George Meade
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Ulysses S. Grant
Did you know? Grant and Lee met at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.
25.Which unwritten 1877 deal ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South?
- A. the Corrupt Bargain
- B. the Missouri Compromise
- C. the Compromise of 1850
- D. the Compromise of 1877
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the Compromise of 1877
Did you know? The 1877 compromise settled the disputed Hayes-Tilden election.
26.Which party was founded in 1854 to oppose the spread of slavery?
- A. the Democratic Party
- B. the Whig Party
- C. the Republican Party
- D. the Free Soil Party
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the Republican Party
Did you know? The Republican Party's first presidential candidate was John C. Frémont in 1856.
27.Which ten-month siege of 1864-1865 previewed the trench warfare of later wars?
- A. the Battle of Cold Harbor
- B. the Siege of Petersburg
- C. the Siege of Vicksburg
- D. the Siege of Charleston
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the Siege of Petersburg
Did you know? Petersburg's trenches pinned Lee's army until April 1865.
28.Which farming system bound freed families to landowners through crop shares after the war?
- A. the plantation system
- B. the homestead system
- C. wage tenancy
- D. sharecropping
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sharecropping
Did you know? Sharecropping dominated southern agriculture for generations.
29.Which 1854 law let settlers vote on slavery and shattered the Missouri Compromise?
- A. the Missouri Compromise
- B. the Compromise of 1850
- C. the Fugitive Slave Act
- D. the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Show answer
the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Did you know? Stephen Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act introduced "popular sovereignty".
30.Which state's secession was precipitated by the attack on Fort Sumter, in April 1861?
- A. South Carolina
- B. Texas
- C. Arkansas
- D. Virginia
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Virginia
Did you know? Virginia seceded days after Fort Sumter fell.
31.Which president became the first to be impeached by the House, in 1868?
- A. Andrew Johnson
- B. Rutherford B. Hayes
- C. Ulysses S. Grant
- D. James Buchanan
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Andrew Johnson
Did you know? The Senate acquitted Johnson by a single vote in May 1868.
32.Which 1857 Supreme Court ruling denied citizenship to Black Americans and voided the Missouri Compromise?
- A. Dred Scott v. Sandford
- B. Marbury v. Madison
- C. Brown v. Board of Education
- D. Plessy v. Ferguson
Show answer
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Did you know? Chief Justice Taney's Dred Scott opinion inflamed the sectional crisis.
33.Which Confederate capital fell to Union troops on April 3, 1865?
- A. Atlanta
- B. Richmond
- C. Charleston
- D. Montgomery
Show answer
Richmond
Did you know? Richmond burned partly as evacuating Confederates fired supply depots.
34.Which 1866 vigilante group, founded in Tennessee, terrorized freed voters in the South?
- A. the Red Shirts
- B. the Know-Nothings
- C. the White League
- D. the Ku Klux Klan
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the Ku Klux Klan
Did you know? Congress's 1871 Enforcement Acts targeted the Klan's campaign of terror.
35.Which territory saw proslavery and antislavery settlers fight mini-wars from 1854?
- A. Kansas
- B. Nebraska
- C. Missouri
- D. Utah
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Kansas
Did you know? "Bleeding Kansas" previewed the Civil War in miniature.
36.Which charge on the final day of Gettysburg became the "high water mark of the Confederacy"?
- A. the Peach Orchard assault
- B. Pickett's Charge
- C. the Crater assault
- D. the Sunken Road charge
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Pickett's Charge
Did you know? About 12,000 men marched across open fields in Pickett's Charge.
37.Who became the first Black United States senator, in 1870?
- A. Hiram Revels
- B. Frederick Douglass
- C. Robert Smalls
- D. Blanche Bruce
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Hiram Revels
Did you know? Revels filled Mississippi's Senate seat formerly held by Jefferson Davis.
38.In which speech did Lincoln declare that "a house divided against itself cannot stand"?
- A. the Second Inaugural
- B. the First Inaugural
- C. the Gettysburg Address
- D. his 1858 "House Divided" speech
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his 1858 "House Divided" speech
Did you know? Lincoln's House Divided speech accepted his party's Senate nomination.
39.Which March 1862 duel made wooden warships obsolete in a single day?
- A. the Battle of Hampton Roads
- B. the Battle of New Orleans
- C. the Battle of Mobile Bay
- D. the Battle of the Chesapeake
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the Battle of Hampton Roads
Did you know? The ironclads Monitor and Virginia (Merrimack) fought to a draw at Hampton Roads.
40.In the disputed 1876 election, which Republican became president after the Compromise of 1877?
- A. Rutherford B. Hayes
- B. Chester Arthur
- C. James Garfield
- D. Samuel Tilden
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Rutherford B. Hayes
Did you know? Hayes won the Electoral Commission's 8-7 decision in 1877.

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