Free DSST The Civil War and Reconstruction Practice Test

Question 1

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 angered many Northerners mainly because it

Accepted Answer

opened lands closed by the Missouri Compromise to slavery by local vote

Answer

admitted California to the Union as a free state, upsetting the sectional balance

Answer

outlawed the buying and selling of enslaved people in the District of Columbia

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required Northern officials to help return people who had escaped from slavery

Question 2

The Battle of Antietam in September 1862 is especially significant because

Accepted Answer

it gave Lincoln the victory he wanted before issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

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it was the first major battle fought between the two main armies in the East

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it ended with the surrender of Robert E. Lee and most of his army

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it gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River and its key ports

Question 3

Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina seceded in the spring of 1861 mainly in response to

Accepted Answer

Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers after the fall of Fort Sumter

Answer

the Union defeat at First Bull Run

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Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation

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the Confederate decision to move its capital to Richmond

Question 4

The Union capture of Vicksburg in July 1863 was important mainly because it

Accepted Answer

gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy

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opened the way for the immediate capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond

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convinced Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy as an independent nation

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ended the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania and Maryland that summer

Question 5

Under Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan (1863), a seceded state could form a new government once

Accepted Answer

10 percent of its 1860 voters swore loyalty to the Union and accepted emancipation

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10 percent of its adult men had enlisted to serve as soldiers in the Union army

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it gave 10 percent of its plantation land to formerly enslaved families

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it agreed to pay 10 percent of the federal government's war debt

Question 6

In Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign, which battle ended with a costly frontal assault on entrenched Confederates that Grant later said he regretted?

Accepted Answer

Cold Harbor

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The Wilderness

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Spotsylvania Court House

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Fredericksburg

Question 7

In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), the Supreme Court ruled that

Accepted Answer

Black Americans were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories

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slavery was unconstitutional in every state and territory of the Union

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enslaved people who were taken into free states became free

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each territory had to settle slavery by popular sovereignty

Question 8

Pickett's Charge, the failed Confederate assault on the Union center, took place on the third day of which battle?

Accepted Answer

Gettysburg

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Chancellorsville

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Fredericksburg

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Antietam

Question 9

The Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared enslaved people free in

Accepted Answer

areas still in rebellion against the United States

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every state, including the loyal border states

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only the District of Columbia

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only the areas already under Union army control

Question 10

The terms Grant gave Lee at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 allowed Confederate soldiers to

Accepted Answer

go home on parole, with men who claimed horses or mules allowed to keep them

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be held in Union prison camps until the war officially ended

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join the Union army with their rank kept

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be tried for treason before military courts

Question 11

At the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) in July 1861, which Confederate officer earned the nickname 'Stonewall'?

Accepted Answer

Thomas J. Jackson

Answer

James Longstreet

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P. G. T. Beauregard

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J. E. B. Stuart

Question 12

Black Codes, passed by Southern state legislatures in 1865 and 1866,

Accepted Answer

restricted freed people's rights, such as where they could work, live and travel

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gave Black men the right to vote and hold office in state elections

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set up free public schools for freed people and poor white children

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divided former plantations among freed families as small farms

Question 13

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first Black regiments raised in the North, became famous for its July 1863 assault on

Accepted Answer

Fort Wagner, South Carolina

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Fort Pillow, Tennessee

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Fort Sumter, South Carolina

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Fort Donelson, Tennessee

Question 14

Ulysses S. Grant earned the nickname 'Unconditional Surrender' Grant in February 1862 after capturing

Accepted Answer

Fort Donelson

Answer

Vicksburg

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Chattanooga

Answer

Corinth

Question 15

In 1864, Lincoln blocked the Wade-Davis Bill with a pocket veto. The bill would have

Accepted Answer

required a majority of a state's white men to swear loyalty before readmission

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given every freed family 40 acres and a mule from confiscated land

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ended the war by recognizing the Confederacy as a separate nation

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let the Southern states rejoin the Union at once with no conditions at all

Question 16

In the presidential election of 1860, the Democratic Party split, and Southern Democrats nominated

Accepted Answer

John C. Breckinridge

Answer

Stephen A. Douglas

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John Bell

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William H. Seward

Question 17

At Chancellorsville in May 1863, Lee won a major victory but lost which commander, who was accidentally shot by his own men?

Accepted Answer

Stonewall Jackson

Answer

James Longstreet

Answer

J. E. B. Stuart

Answer

A. P. Hill

Question 18

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867

Accepted Answer

divided most of the former Confederacy into five military districts

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ended Reconstruction by removing federal troops from the South

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restored all former Confederate states to the Union on Lincoln's terms

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gave every former Confederate soldier a full pardon

Question 19

Winfield Scott's 'Anaconda Plan' for defeating the Confederacy called for

Accepted Answer

blockading Southern ports and taking control of the Mississippi River

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a quick march to capture Richmond in the summer of 1861

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freeing and arming enslaved people at once

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invading Canada to stop British aid to the South

Question 20

Sherman's March to the Sea in November and December 1864 went from Atlanta to

Accepted Answer

Savannah

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Charleston

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Richmond

Answer

Mobile

Question 21

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) largely in response to

Accepted Answer

the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

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the Dred Scott decision

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John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

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the Kansas-Nebraska Act

Question 22

In April 1862, Union naval forces under David Farragut captured

Accepted Answer

New Orleans

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Mobile

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Charleston

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Savannah

Question 23

The New York City draft riots of July 1863 broke out mainly in protest against

Accepted Answer

a federal draft law that let a drafted man pay $300 to avoid service

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the arrest of the city's mayor for disloyalty to the Union

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the closing of New York's harbor by the Union navy

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a sharp rise in the new federal income tax

Question 24

In December 1864, Union forces under George H. Thomas nearly destroyed John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee at the Battle of

Accepted Answer

Nashville

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Chickamauga

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Atlanta

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Chattanooga

Question 25

The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction by

Accepted Answer

giving Hayes the presidency in exchange for pulling federal troops from the South

Answer

admitting the last of the former Confederate states back into the Union

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passing a constitutional amendment that gave Black men the right to vote

Answer

creating the Freedmen's Bureau to protect and educate freed people

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