Formative Assessment
Civil War and Reconstruction
1. When Lincoln sent “food to hungry men,” the
Confederacy fired on this fort.
a. Fort McHenry
b. Fort Sumter
c. Fort Necessity
d. Fort Knox
2. This constitutional issue was a major cause of
the Civil War.
a. Judicial Review
b. Elastic Clause
c. States’ Rights
d. Loose vs. Strict interpretation
3. What was the disadvantage of the South that
came along with all the money from the
successful cash crops?
a. The South had a larger population.
b. The North refused to buy Southern cotton.
c. The South had no military leadership.
d. The South had few factories.
4. What was the single biggest advantage of the
South in the early stages of the Civil War?
a. More men
b. Better military leaders
c. Better Navy
d. More weapons
5. What are border states?
a. Free states in the Confederacy
b. Slave states in the Union
c. States on the Canadian border
d. States on the Mexican border
6. What was the Northern strategy named that
called for taking Richmond, controlling the
Mississippi River, and blockading the
Confederate coast?
a. The Lincoln Plan
b. The Suffocation Plan
c. The Scorched Earth Plan
d. The Anaconda Plan
7. Lincoln’s goal when the war began:
a. Free all slaves
b. Free slaves in seceding states
c. Preserve the Union
d. Make sure the Northern economy flourishes
8. What Union general was successful in the
west and then became overall commander of
Union forces?
a. McClellan
b. Grant
c. Sherman
d. Meade
e. Hooker
9. Confederate General who earned his
nickname at Bull Run:
a. Jackson
b. Lee
c. Johnston
d. Beauregard
10. Who was the temperamental and hard-toget-along-with President of the Confederacy?
a. Alexander Stephens
b. John C. Calhoun
c. Jefferson Davis
d. Andrew Johnson
11. This single bloodiest day of the war was a
military draw but ended Lee’s 1st invasion of the
North:
a. Fredericksburg
b. Chancellorsville
c. Gettysburg
d. Antietam
12. Although no slaves were immediately freed by
the Emancipation Proclamation, it was important
because:
a. Union troops would free slaves as they took over
Confederate territory
b. Confederate states eventually freed their slaves
c. It meant that Britain would help the
Confederacy in the war
d. Slaves rose up in a mass rebellion against their
owners
13. Why did Lincoln suspend habeas corpus
protections during the Civil War?
a. To keep the Confederacy from seeking
foreign aid
b. To keep Republicans out of office
c. To allow imprisonment of anti-war
Northerners that might hurt the war effort
d. To limit French influence on Americans
14. When Lincoln promised “malice toward
none and charity for all” in his 2nd Inaugural
Address, he was laying out his plan for
a. Winning the war
b. Reconstruction
c. Re-election
d. Capturing spies
15. The death of “Stonewall” Jackson after a
wound at Chancellorsville meant that:
a. Grant would have to take command of the
Army of the Potomac
b. Lee would have to take command of the
Army of Northern Virginia
c. Grant would no longer have his most trusted
officer
d. Lee would no longer have his most trusted
officer
16. Food and material shortages in the South
were largely due to:
a. The Union blockade
b. The use of slavery
c. The loss at Gettysburg
d. The extensive northern railroad network
17. What southern city on the Mississippi River
fell after Grant’s 6-week siege?
a. Vicksburg
b. New Orleans
c. Fredericksburg
d. Baton Rouge
18. Why did the Union win at Gettysburg?
a. Better leadership
b. They held the high ground
c. Confederate soldiers were not committed
d. The people of the town helped the Union
fight
19. Turning point of the war:
a. Antietam
b. Appomattox Court House
c. Fredericksburg
d. Gettysburg
20. Lincoln used this to make it clear that the
Civil War was a fight for the ideals on which the
US was founded and that the deaths were not in
vain:
a. 2nd Inaugural Address
b. Emancipation Proclamation
c. Gettysburg Address
d. Telegraphs to the nation
21. Why was the naval battle between the
Monitor and Merrimac important?
a. It ended Union dominance of the seas
b. It was the 1st use of submarine warfare
c. It was the last time Lincoln ordered a naval
attack
d. It was the 1st battle between 2 ironclad ships
22. Prisoner of war camp discovered by Union
troops during their “March to the Sea”:
a. Macon
b. Andersonville
c. Atlanta
d. Savannah
23. Union officers most known for “total war”:
a. Sherman and Grant
b. McClellan and Burnside
c. Meade and Grant
d. Sherman and Burnside
24. Appomattox Courthouse is important
because:
a. Confederate soldiers were put on trial there
b. Lee surrendered to Grant there
c. Union soldiers were put on trial there
d. Grant surrendered to Lee there
25. How were Presidential and Congressional
Reconstruction different?
a. Presidential was more lenient
b. Congressional was more lenient
c. Presidential was declared unconstitutional
d. Congressional was declared unconstitutional
26. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 established:
a. New states in place of the Confederate states
b. Land re-distribution for former slaves
c. New railroads
d. Military districts in the South
27. Freedman Bureau college now in Atlanta:
a. Morehouse
b. Howard
c. Tuskegee
d. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
28. Amendment that abolished slavery:
a. 13th
b. 14th
c. 15th
d. 16th
29. Amendment that gave black males the right
to vote:
a. 13th
b. 14th
c. 15th
d. 16th
30. Amendment that gave citizenship
protections to all Americans (including blacks):
a. 13th
b. 14th
c. 15th
d. 16th
31. Economic system which replaced slavery in
the South:
a. Land re-distribution
b. Sharecropping
c. Hourly wage labor
d. Agribusiness
32. Laws designed right after the Civil War to
keep former slaves in a condition as similar as
possible to slavery without actually having
slavery:
a. Jim Crow Laws
b. Grandfather Clauses
c. Black Codes
d. Segregation Laws
33. Group created in the South after the Civil
War to attempt to restore white supremacy:
a. Scalawags
b. Copperheads
c. Carpetbaggers
d. Ku Klux Klan
34. Southerners who joined the Republican
Party:
a. Scalawags
b. Copperheads
c. Carpetbaggers
d. Ku Klux Klan
35. Many of these anti-war northern Democrats
were jailed during the war without charges due
to the suspension of habeas corpus:
a. Scalawags
b. Copperheads
c. Carpetbaggers
d. Ku Klux Klan
36. Northerners who went South after the Civil
War:
a. Scalawags
b. Copperheads
c. Carpetbaggers
d. Ku Klux Klan
37. Land re-distribution promise made by
Sherman (it didn’t actually happen):
a. 40 acres and a mule
b. Homestead Act
c. Sharecropping
d. Free Soil
38. Andrew Johnson was impeached for
violating this law:
a. Emancipation Proclamation
b. 14th Amendment
c. Wade-Davis Bill
d. Tenure of Office Act
39. Reconstruction plan that Lincoln used a
pocket veto to stop:
a. Wade-Davis Bill
b. Sumner-Brooks Bill
c. Wilmot Proviso
d. Johnson and Johnson Bill
40. The Compromise of 1877:
a. Allowed Tilden to become president and
ended Reconstruction
b. Allowed Hayes to become president and
ended Reconstruction
c. Set up military governments in the South
d. Led to Johnson’s impeachment
Answer Key
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1. B
2. C
3. d
4. B
5. B
6. D
7. C
8. B
9. A
10. C
11. D
12. A
Answer Key
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13. C
14. B
15. D
16. A
17. A
18. B
19. D
20. C
21. D
22. B
23. A
24. B
Answer Key
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25. A
26. D
27. A
28. A
29. C
30. B
31. B
32. C
33. D
34. A
35. B
36. C
Answer Key
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37. A
38. D
39. A
40. B