TASCLASS: The U.S. Civil War: Exam. Due Friday Nov. 16

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Exam. Due Friday Nov. 16

What is the difference between strategy and tactics? Give examples.

Explain turning the flank and rolling up the flank.

Why was it wise for Lee to divide his forces and foolish for
McClellan not to use all of his during Second Manassas?

How did “protecting the capital” influence Lee’s strategy?

What are the advantages for the defender in a battle?

Why was Second Manassas important? What did it lead to?

Why did Lee invade Maryland?

What are the disadvantages of an invader, tactically speaking?

What happened at “the bloody lane”?

How was Lee’s retreat at Antietam a Union victory?

Why is an orderly, tactical retreat so important?

Emancipation: Explain Lincoln’s reasoning

(here’s a clue: the Fifth Ammendment was in his way)

How was Emancipation to bleed the south?

In what way did Emancipation change the Union’s war aims?

Why was keeping France and England out of the war so important to Lincoln?

How did he do it?

List the advantages to England if she remain neutral.

List the advantages of supported the south?

How were northern Irish and northern Blacks competing with each other?

What did they have in common?

What was “contraband”. How did it help the north and hurt the south?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Class Overview

Part Three: War and Politics (4 weeks)

Here we look at the cascade of events that followed Lincoln's election in 1860, leading through the secession of the southern states, to the beginning of the war. We then will consider three of four crucial battles, each of which could have changed the war's outcome: Shiloh, the first battle with huge casualties; Antietem, both ghastly and inconclusive, the first invasion of a Union state; and Gettysburg, another attempt by the South to push to devastation off of its crucial farmland.

We then look at the two political leaders, Lincoln and Davis, and the two new and consequential military leaders, Grant and Lee. We will discuss the intersection of politics and military strategy in a democracy and the very important realization that in modern war, the political dimension is far more significant than what happens on the battlefield.

Then on to the most important aspect of the war: the vast changes the country begins to undergo, particularly the way in which slaves take their fate into their own hands and decisively shift the advantage to the northern armies.

We will then discuss the battle of Petersburg. As with so many of these battles it was notable for both tragic incompetence and incredible determination, was also strangely modern in its weaponry and tactics. This is the finally turning point of the war, the last realistic chance the South had for a military victory.

This portion of the class will end with a week long look at Lincoln's key speeches: Cooper Union, Gettysburg, and the Second Inaugural. We will then compare their effectiveness and clarity with those of some of his political opponents.
(thanks to P.W. for the idea...)

Part Four: Surrender and Reconstruction (3 weeks)

Grant has won. He offers very generous terms to the defeated Confederates, once again showing that he understands Lincoln's intentions better than any of the previous generals. Lincoln is assassinated and the country is plunged into mourning, fear, and anger. Reconstruction of the South begins with President Johnson handing the task over to southern whites, which eventually so infuriates northern voters that they hand over Congress to the radical Republicans, who promptly pass of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. The Civil Rights Era had, in a way, begun. For the first time, Black Americans have a significant political voice in the South. Yet it does not last. The Federal Government begins to pull back and violent, reactionary elements in the South begin to terrorize, kill, and otherwise suppress these newly enfranchised citizens . A new political order forms, not based on slavery per se, but with the goal of pushing Black Americans out of power and into a new kind of servitude.

Part Five: The Civil War Now (1 week)

We end the class with a brief look at the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the early 20th century and the various ways that the Civil War has shaped modern American. We will also consider how the struggle continues over what the war means for us today.

Part One: Dred Scott (3 weeks) (finished)

Dred Scott vs. Sanford is unquestionably one of the three or four most consequential court cases in American History. Scott was a slave transported by his owner from the slave state of Missouri through several territories in which slavery was not permitted. His claim was that since he had lived in a free state, he was thus free. The case forced the Supreme Court to decide a number of very important issues, among them the management of slavery in the rapidly expanding territories and the status of slaves in these territories.

We will discuss how and why the case was decided as it was and explore several crucial events that led directly to it including the Fugitive Slave Clause in the U.S. Constitution, the Missouri Compromise, the rise of the Republican Party, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Compromise of 1854, and "Bleeding Kansas".

Part Two: Economics (1 week)

The two regions of the United States had changed enormously since the country's founding. As the northern economy diversified and industrialized, the south grew ever more reliant on slaves and agriculture.

TASCLASS: The U.S. Civil War

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Exam. Due Friday Nov. 16

No comments:

Class Overview

Dred Scott

Blog Archive

About Me