Study Questions: April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik
1. The author, Jay Winik, is not a professional historian. What are his qualifications for writing this book? (See the
Introduction and the PS section)
2. What kind of history is the book?
Introduction
3. What is the author’s thesis for the book?
4. According to Winik, Abraham Lincoln’s comment, “no greater (task) before us,” (p. xii) referred to the greatest challenge
facing the country in April, 1865. What was that challenge?
Prelude
5. Why did Lincoln call Thomas Jefferson “the most distinguished politician in our history”? (p. 6)
6. Jefferson strongly supported the Tenth Amendment and once commented that “a single-consolidated government would
become the most corrupt government on earth.” (p. 11) Why?
7. How is the origin of the United States different than the origins of other nations?
8. What did Daniel Boorstin mean when he said that “Independence had not created one nation but thirteen.” (p. 13)
How did the Constitution change this understanding?
9. How did the idea of secession play a role in American history from the earliest colonial settlements until the eve of the
Civil War?
10. Did the Constitution represent a single unified nation that ended the state’s independence or did it represent a creation
made by independent states who reserved the right to withdraw?
Part 1 March 1865
11. When Robert E. Lee met with Jefferson Davis in March, what plan did he have in mind so that his Army of Northern
Virginia could escape the trenches between Petersburg and Richmond?
12. How did Southerners’ and Northerners’ views on slavery differ?
13. How did slaves and free blacks help defend the South during the war? What argument regarding slavery did General
Patrick Cleburne propose in 1864? Describe the debate among Southerners over freeing slaves.
14. In March, 1865, the Confederate Congress passed a bill to enlist black soldiers. What policies were adopted to implement
the new law.
15. What were Lincoln’s views on the war’s possible end? What was the River Queen Doctrine he gave Grant and Sherman?
Part 2 April 1, 1865
16. By the spring of 1865, what were the numbers of men in the Union and Confederate armies? Lee planned to move his army
140 miles to the Amelia Court House. Why?
17. How does Winik describe Lee as a man and as a soldier?
18. Describe the battles—the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Five Forks, and Saylor’s Creek-- in theVirginia in 1864-65.
What were the costs of these battles? Why did some in the North call Grant a “butcher”? (p. 95)
19. Describe the evacuation of Richmond. Who destroyed the city? How did white and black Southerners react to Lincoln’s
visit to the city after its capture?
20. Why was guerilla warfare an attractive option for Southerners in the spring of 1865? What did Jefferson Davis believe about
this possibility? Who were John Mosby, Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Hunt Morgan and William Clarke Quantrill? Why
did Winik claim that a “collective sociopathy reigned in Missouri”? (p. 161)
21. Why did Lee reject the idea of a continuing guerilla war?
22. Who was U.S. Grant’s background different than Lee’s? What did Lincoln think of him? How did Grant make war?
23. Why did Winik call the event that took place at Appomattox a catalyst for peace?
24. Why did Lee’s plan to save his army fail? Describe what took place when Grant and Lee met. How did Grant and Lee each
feel about the Southern surrender? How did the two armies react to the news of the surrender? What advice did Lee give his
men? How large a number of Southern soldiers still remained to fight in other parts of the South? What message from Lee
did Grant bring to Lincoln?
25. How did Joshua L. Chamberlain describe the formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia? How did this occasion
defy “millenniums of tradition” (p. 196) according to Winik?
Part 3 April 15, 1865
26. Did Lincoln foresee his own death?
27. Lincoln had very clear ideas of what needed to be done to “reconstruct” the South; what were these ideas? How did they
differ from what the congressional Radical Republicans wanted for the South? How did they try to block Lincoln’s policies?
What was the Thirteenth Amendment?
28. Lincoln gave an impromptu speech from a White House balcony on April 11. Why was the crowd mostly disappointed?
29. When Lincoln met with his Cabinet on April 14, what was discussed? What was Lincoln’s worry about Congress?
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How did he spend the remainder of his day?
30. Who was responsible for the absence of Lincoln’s bodyguard on the evening of April 14? Who did go with the Lincoln’s to
Ford’s Theater to view the play, Our American Cousin? What happened at this theater that night?
31. Jay Winik calls the attack on Lincoln the start of “the choreographed decapitation of the Union government” (p.224). What
did he mean? What happened at William Seward’s home the evening of April 14? What saved Andrew Johnson?
32. What was Abraham Lincoln’s background and what role did his wife, Mary Todd, play in his career? As a Whig and then a
Republican, what group of Americans did Lincoln see himself championing?
33. What were Lincoln’s view on slavery and what were his public record on slavery? Why did his debates with Stephen Douglas
help his political career?
34. Lincoln only received 39.9% of the popular vote in 1860; how did he win the presidency? What were his shortcomings
according to Winik and why in the end was he a successful leader?
35. Lincoln stated, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and it is not either to save or destroy slavery.” (p.
141) Do you think he was sincere?
36. What kind of opposition did Lincoln face in the North? Was religion a source of strength for him?
37. At one point, Lincoln tried to arrange for the colonization of freed blacks to Central America and then within the same year
issued the Proclamation Emancipation; why? According to Winik, what was the effect of this proclamation?
38. Describe the death scene as Lincoln’s life ebbed away.
39. Explain why Winik called Lincoln’s death as the greatest test for America’s form of government? Who ran the government
immediately after Lincoln’s death? What did the Founding Fathers want for the succession of leadership in the case that a
president could not serve? How did John Tyler change that intention?
40. Winik describes Johnson as a populist politician who was a forerunner of politicians who practice class warfare. What did that
mean? Why were the Radical Republicans initially happy when Andrew Johnson became president?
41. Who was Nathan Bedford Forrest? Why did William Tecumseh Sherman call him “the most remarkable man our civil war
produced on either side”? (p. 275) What did Forrest’s statement, “I get there firstest with the mostest.” mean? (p. 280) What
efforts did the Union make to try to defeat Forrest? What strengths did Forrest have that were especially well-suited for
guerilla warfare? Why didn’t he take his army to Texas to continue the war?
42. By mid-April, 1865, who was deciding what the Southern armies would do and why was communication such a problem?
Forrest had said, “War means killing.” (p. 281) and Sherman said, “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it.” (p. 289) Were
they both right?
43. How did President Johnson, the cabinet and the Northern public react to the peace terms General Sherman offered General Joe
Johnston? What did Jefferson Davis now order Johnston to do? What it realistic that the South could wage a guerilla war?
44. How did Winik describe the losses the South had suffered during the war? How did he describe the total war waged by
the Union? What was Sherman’s background? Describe Sherman’s capture of Atlanta, his march across Georgia., then to
Savannah, through South Carolina, and through North Carolina. How did Winik explain Sherman’s failure to capture
Johnston’s army and the peace terms he later offered him?
45. What did the war cost Robert E. Lee and how did he react to the events of April, 1865, including Lincoln’s death? What
advice did he send Jefferson Davis on April 20? Why did Joe Johnston choose insubordination and agree to surrender his
army on April 26? How did Sherman’s army treat the defeated Southerners? How did the remainder of the Southern army
surrender? What advice did Nathan Bedford Forrest give his men? Who was the last Southern general to surrender?
46. What was Jefferson Davis’s background? What kind of slave owner was Davis? What did he believe about slavery? What
accomplishments did he achieve in the military and in politics before secession?
47. What were Davis’s weaknesses? the Confederacy’s weaknesses? How did the Confederate government shift away from
state’s rights during the war? What were Davis’s strengths? Describe the Union’s effort to capture Davis. and then to capture
John Wilkes Booth.
48. What position in American theater did the Booth family hold? Why was John Wilkes Booth so popular? Why did Booth
support the South?
49. Who were Booth’s fellow conspirators and where did they meet? Did the conspirators have a connection with the
Confederate government? What was their initial plan? What were Booth’s last words?
Part 4 Late Spring, 1865
50. What were the final costs for the South and how did Southerners react to their losses? Why was the reconstruction of the
South such a challenge? What did Northerners feel at the end of the war?
51. Describe Lincoln’s funeral and the procession that returned his body to Springfield, Illinois. What tradition began at that
time? What occurred on May 22, 1865 in Washington, D.C.?
52. Where did the last battle of the Civil War occur? How does Winik describe Southerners even today? Why does he tell
about a church service that took place in Richmond in the spring of 1865?
53. Why throughout history have republics collapsed? According to Winik, why was the United States unique in history? Just
how fragile was the young U.S. before the Civil War? Why does Winik claim that the Confederacy was a true nation?
Why does Winik call the Civil War a revolution? How did the U.S. escape the fate of most nations undergoing revolution?
What were the final effects of this war? Why does Winik say that April, 1865 was one of “America’s finest hours”?
How did the war change America? Consider the “what if,s” Winik lists on page 376.
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Part 4 Late Spring, 1865
Epilogue
Notes
4. Write a summary of the argument the author made to prove his thesis.
6. Consider the sources the author used for the book. Write a paragraph that describes those sources in terms of type and thoroughness in
relation to the topics in the book. Express an opinion on the quality of the evidence the author used.
7. Evaluate the truth of the book. Write a paragraph in which the following is considered: How well did the author solve the problem(s)
he addressed? Did he include enough relevant information to prove his thesis? Was the argument he presented logical? Did the author
omit important ideas or significant data that challenge the validity of his thesis? If so, what is this evidence, and what does it suggest? If
the author’s interpretation is valid, what are the main strengths of the book that make it convincing?
8. Write a paragraph explaining why this book is, or is not, relevant to the present. Fully explain either position.
1. Describe each of the four main characters and discuss the reasons each man had for either choosing the Union or Confederacy.
2. What personal values did each man live by; give examples of how each expressed his values.
3. What were the specific issues that divided the nation on the eve of the Civil War. Explain these issues and how Northerners
and Southerners view each of them.
4. Compare the military leaders (officers) of each army--their abilities and performance and approach to command. Then explain
how these differences influenced the way the Rebel soldiers considered their leaders with the way the Union soldiers viewed
theirs. Was this difference a significant factor in the outcomes of any battles?
5. Describe the major challenges each army faced and how the leaders tried to meet these challenges.
6. Choose two battles you believe especially significant. Describe the battles in detail and explain the significance of each.
7. Describe the tragic aspects of the war.
8. Which of the four main characters did you admire the most and the least and explain your reasons.
9. Consider the question: Would Americans today fight like these men did to defend a cause?
10. Consider the question: Given the historical past and the mid-19th century conditions, was the
Civil War inevitable or were their realistic choices that could have prevented it?
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