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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. During the discussion of the desire to punish treason and "clean out" the rebels, a soldier from which state wrote his sister "I want to fight the rest of my life if necessary"?
(a) Michigan.
(b) Wisconsin.
(c) Illinois.
(d) Texas.

2. A forty year old captain of the 18th Massachusetts wrote his wife in August 1862 that he'd rather fight for years than for his sons to continue it. In what battle was he killed four months later?
(a) Bull Run.
(b) Malvern Hill.
(c) Fredericksburg.
(d) Shiloh.

3. In the discussion of the hardships for soldiers' wives, what percentage of officers does McPherson say were married in his sample?
(a) 28%.
(b) 14%.
(c) 72%.
(d) 51%.

4. As "Chapter 7: On the Altar of My Country" begins, McPherson quotes an analysis of surviving Tennessee soldiers that showed they weren't really aware of the South's goals during the Civil War. Which decade was the analysis?
(a) 1870s.
(b) 1920s.
(c) 1890s.
(d) 1910s.

5. By 1864, when a captain in the 5th Alabama wrote of the burning of Chambersburg, how much money did he say soldiers demanded from their victims' houses?
(a) $800.
(b) $500.
(c) $200.
(d) $75.

6. Which individual won the nomination for governor of Ohio on an antiwar platform in June 1863?
(a) Marcus Speigel.
(b) James Vernon.
(c) Clement L. Vallandigham.
(d) Chauncey Welton.

7. When a twenty-five year old soldier in the 2nd Vermont married his fiancee during a furlough in "Chapter 10: We Know That We are Supported at Home," how many months was he with her during the first year of marriage?
(a) 10.
(b) 7.
(c) 4.
(d) 1.

8. After discussing how the language of soldiers in letters home is cliche today, McPherson says that which writer noted that World War I made words like "glory" mock-heroic?
(a) John Steinbeck.
(b) Walt Whitman.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) Henry James.

9. During Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign in 1862, some of his men fought five battles in addition to marching how many miles in a single month?
(a) 260.
(b) 85.
(c) 140.
(d) 350.

10. McPherson says that one of the reasons for this famous Confederate general's invasion of Tennessee during November 1864 was a hope to revitalize the troops from that state. What was this general's name?
(a) General Braxton Bragg.
(b) General John B. Hood.
(c) General James Longstreet.
(d) General Jubal Early.

11. At the end of "Chapter 8: The Cause of Liberty," by what year had Northern soldiers broadened their concept of liberty to include black people?
(a) 1864.
(b) 1863.
(c) 1862.
(d) 1865.

12. During the discussion of the hardships for soldiers' wives, how many married men does McPherson say voluntarily enlisted to fight the war?
(a) 60,000.
(b) 800,000.
(c) 300,000.
(d) 100,000.

13. As McPherson discusses the statistics for married men versus unmarried men, what percentage of married soldiers does he say were killed in action?
(a) 67%.
(b) 13%.
(c) 23%.
(d) 48%.

14. In the spring of 1862, soldiers from which state felt a redoubled commitment to the war effort when large portions of their home state fell to the "insolent invader"?
(a) Tennessee.
(b) Georgia.
(c) Mississippi.
(d) Maryland.

15. In the discussion of Bell Wiley's study of Billy Yank, how many Union soldiers were interested in emancipation out of every ten surveyed?
(a) 4.
(b) 8.
(c) 10.
(d) 1.

Short Answer Questions

1. During the discussion of the issues that arose from the Emancipation Proclamation, McPherson says that it sparked a moral crisis in the Union armies during the winter of what year(s)?

2. As McPherson explains Southern bitterness toward the North, from which state was the soldier who wrote in June 1863 that he felt his regiment should take horses, burn houses, and cause chaos?

3. In 1862, after two friends had been killed in an ambush in the Shenandoah Valley, a soldier from which state wrote "we are to take no prisoners after this"?

4. During the discussion of what sustained soldiers during the Civil War, what does McPherson say was a dominant theme in the letters home?

5. When discussing the assertions of patriotism as a motivation for fighting, what percentage of the 429 Confederate letters and diaries used as sources affirmed this motivation?

(see the answer keys)

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