Reading
Assignment
NA
1. Explain why the Civil War is considered the first modern war.
2. Describe how a war to preserve the Union became a war to end slavery.
3. Explain how the Civil War transformed the national economy and created a stronger nation-state.
4. Explain how the war effort and leadership problems affected the society and economy of the Confederacy.
5. Identify the military and political turning points of the war.
6. Identify the most important wartime “rehearsals for Reconstruction.”
• Describe why the Civil War was both a modern war and a total war.
• Why wasn’t the Union more successful early in the war when it had clear advantages over the Confederacy? Why was a strategy of merely capturing the Confederate capital of Richmond not enough to win the war?
• Describe the various ways blacks, both in and out of the military, aided in the war and also defined its consequences.
• Discuss the Civil War in the Far West and Great Plains. What did both sides hope to achieve? How did the Civil War bring more conflict to the Indians in the West?
• Over time, Lincoln switched from using the term “Union” to using the term “nation.” Discuss the significance of this shift in thinking.
• How does the Gettysburg Address express ideas of freedom and liberty? What purpose did Lincoln give the Civil War in that address?
• In the face of a significant manpower shortage, why was the Confederacy still so hesitant to use slaves as soldiers?
• Was Lincoln’s Reconstruction Plan suitable considering the massive toll the Civil War took on American society?