Second Midterm Examination Study Guide

The second midterm will cover everything after  the lecture entitled, "Conciliation and Its Failure" through "The Collapse of the Confederacy."

The examination will consist of two parts.  In Part I, you'll be asked to identify and give the significance of THREE out of FIVE possible terms.  This portion of the exam should take no more than twenty (20) minutes.  It's worth 100 points.

Benjamin F. Butler
“contrabands”
First Confiscation Act
Fremont’s Order
Militia Act of 1862
Second Confiscation Act
“self-emancipation thesis”
War Democrats
“Legitimist” Democrats
Peace Democrats (Copperheads)
Clement L. Vallandigham
Radical Republicans
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
Homestead Act (1862)
Morrill Land-Grant College Act (1862)
Pacific Railroad Act (1862)
Alexander Stephens
“Cornerstone speech”
Joseph Brown
Zebulon Vance
“Twenty Negro Law”
William G. “Parson” Brownlow
Salmon P. Chase
Legal Tender Act of 1862
Jay Cooke
National Banking Act of 1863
income tax
tax in kind
impressment
Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862)
Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1863)
Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863)
Vicksburg Campaign (Nov. 1862-July 1863)
Siege of Vicksburg (May-July 1863)
Battle of Chickamauga (September 1863)
Battle of Chattanooga (November 1863)
contraband camps
contract labor
Sea Islands
Davis Bend Experiment
Special Field Order 15, February 1865
Battle of Milliken’s Bend, June 1863
Battery Wagner, July 1863
Fort Pillow, April 1864
“The Crater,” Petersburg, Va., July 1864
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, Dec. 1863
“Ten Percent Plan”
Wade-Davis Bill, July 1864
“ironclad oath”
Louisiana Experiment
Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 9-20
Battle of Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864
“Mythical Duel Between Grant and Lee”
“pragmatic policy”
“hard war policy”
Lieber’s Code (General Orders No. 100)
Atlanta Campaign (May-September 1864)
Joseph E. Johnston
John B. Hood
Evacuation of Atlanta (September 1864)
Sherman’s March to the Sea (Nov.-Dec. 1864)
Battle of Cedar Creek, October 1864
“The Burning,” August and October 1864
Hood’s Invasion of Tennessee, Nov.-Dec. 1864
March through the Carolinas, February-April 1865
Hampton Roads Conference, February 1865
Surrender at Appomattox, April 1865
Sherman-Johnston Cartel, April 1865
Surrender at Bennett Place, April 1865
 

In Part II, you'll be asked to write an essay on ONE out of THREE possible essay questions.  Here are five questions drawn from previous exams that will assist you.  Although the essay questions on the midterm examination you will take will NOT be the same, they will address the same themes as the questions below.  This portion of the exam should take no more than forty (40) minutes.  It's worth 200 points.

1.  Compare and contrast Union and Confederate politics.  During the war years, the North continued to have a strong two-party system while the South intentionally did not.  Some historians have believed that the lack of political parties in the Confederacy was a source of weakness, others that it was a source of strength.  What are the points in favor of each argument, and why do you think so?

 2.  What were the main elements in the so-called “blueprint for modern America” and how did they advance free labor ideology?

 3.  Why did the Lincoln administration come to embrace a policy of emancipation in addition to its objective of restoring the Union?  How was this policy implemented?  Your response should take into account such matters as the actions of fugitive slaves and the various kinds of “free labor” implemented among former slaves by the U.S. governmnt, especially the Union army.

 4.  Compare and contrast Lincoln’s plan for wartime Reconstruction and that of Congress.

 5.  Why did the North win (or if you like, why did the South lose) the Civil War?

6.    According to James M. McPherson's For Cause and Comrades, what were the key factors that sustained Union and Confederate soldiers during their service and in combat?

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