American Civil War

Civil War Exam Questions

1 . Using information from the readings write a comprehensive and detailed essay discussing the three most important factors in the Confederacy 's defeat in the Civil War . Be sure to defend your position

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 remained a tremendous factor in the Union 's ability to crush the Confederacy . There are several reasons for this , but the most obvious was the fact that it helped capture the hearts and minds ' of those who were trapped in the bondage of slavery . Since the slave population made up

a large part of the Southern states , drawing loyalty from the slaves to the North would reduce if not eliminate the South 's ability to recruit African-Americans as soldiers in their cause as the slaves would have a vested interest in seeing the North win the war

There was also a further political component to this as the Emancipation Proclamation effectively eliminated the South 's ability to build an alliance with an foreign superpowers , particularly France and Great Britain as an alliance with the South would have put those nations on the opposite side of the Emancipation Proclamation which is something that France and England were not about to endorse

There is also contention that the Confederacy lost the war before it even started , as a tremendous naval blockade of ports in the South by the North eventually eroded the South 's ability to maintain supplies and materials . Overtime , these blockades great incapacitated the South 's ability to wage war

Furthermore , a scorched earth policy on the part of General Sherman sealed the doom of the Southern infrastructure and lead to the confederacy 's inevitable collapse

Leaving Atlanta , and his base of supplies , Sherman 's army marched with an destination , laying waste to about 20 of the farms in Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea , and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah in December

Civil War Exam Pg 2

1864 . Burning plantations as they went , Sherman 's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves (Anon

2 . Write a comprehensive and detailed essay that answers the question of whether Reconstruction was a success or a failure . In the process be sure to identify the goals and policies of Johnson and the Radical Republicans any successes (if you think there were any and any failures

Reconstruction was an idea born out of politics and depending upon the particular political spectrum one stands , the success ' or failure of reconstruction will be defined as one or the other based on the biases of those who are making the definition . That is to say Northerners , Southerners , freed slaves , etc will all have different perspectives on whether or not it was successful . For example , a major goal of Johnson was to provide freed slaves voting rights and integrate them into Southern life . This never happened . However , it needs to be noted that truth (the but getting to the truthful answer is not going to be easy to ascertain

Ultimately , one has...