hewittvalue2equizzes

Quiz for Civil War Letters

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Choose the best answer to each question.

Question

1. What can be surmised about Fred Spooner from his letter to his brother (see Document 13.6)?

Spooner felt pity for Southerners because he felt confident in a Union victory.

Spooner was unsure of the Union cause.

Spooner did not see any similarities between himself and his southern counterparts.

Spooner was nervous because he believed that the South would refuse to surrender.

Correct: The answer is c. Spooner easily distanced himself from the young men from the South and regarded the region and its white inhabitants with contempt.

Incorrect: The answer is c. Spooner easily distanced himself from the young men from the South and regarded the region and its white inhabitants with contempt.

Question

2. According to John Hines’s letter to his parents (Document 13.7), what made the battlefront such a horrific place?

The sight and sound of the dead and dying

The deprivations of war

The distance between the soldiers and their loved ones

The smell of death

Correct: The answer is a. Hines wrote to his parents about the groaning of the injured as well as the “ghastly” faces of the diseased men whom Hines had seen smiling before.

Incorrect: The answer is a. Hines wrote to his parents about the groaning of the injured as well as the “ghastly” faces of the diseased men whom Hines had seen smiling before.

Question

3. Although the letters from Ginnie Ott (Document 13.8) and Katherine Prescott Wormeley (Document 13.9) document very different wartime experiences, what was similar about these women’s experiences?

Both worked to aid the war effort.

Both despised the institution of slavery.

Both wrote about the deprivations of food and supplies.

Both were exposed to numbers of unfamiliar men.

Correct: The answer is d. Both Ott and Wormeley dealt with unfamiliar men (Ott with soldiers in her fields, and Wormeley with soldiers from the front) without the protection of a husband. Women learned how to negotiate and contribute among men in the public realm during the war.

Incorrect: The answer is d. Both Ott and Wormeley dealt with unfamiliar men (Ott with soldiers in her fields, and Wormeley with soldiers from the front) without the protection of a husband. Women learned how to negotiate and contribute among men in the public realm during the war.

Question

4. Why did Thomas Freeman equate fighting for the Union Army with slavery (see Document 13.10)?

Both conditions promised constant hunger as well as exposure to the elements.

Under both conditions, men were not compensated for perpetual labor.

Both conditions promised whippings for insubordination.

Under both conditions, men could not access health care for illnesses, even if they were serious.

Correct: The answer is b. Freeman equated fighting for the Union Army with slavery because of the total lack of compensation. According to his letter, he labored for the Union Army for one year and a fellow soldier labored for thirteen months, but both went without receiving “one cent.”

Incorrect: The answer is b. Freeman equated fighting for the Union Army with slavery because of the total lack of compensation. According to his letter, he labored for the Union Army for one year and a fellow soldier labored for thirteen months, but both went without receiving “one cent.”

Question

5. Compare the home front and the battlefront captured in the letters of John Hines (Document 13.7), Ginnie Ott (Document 13.8), and Thomas Freeman (Document 13.10). What aspect of war characterizes all of these letters?

Perpetual violence and death

Doubt about the goals of the war

Hardships brought on by the war

Anger at the South

Correct: The answer is c. Each of these letters discusses the lack of food, drink, or money. Hines wrote about the lack of food in his squadron. Ott wrote about a search for brandy, cloth, and the gathering of their crops for soldiers., and Freeman wrote about Uncle Sam’s inability to pay the hardworking soldiers.

Incorrect: The answer is c. Each of these letters discusses the lack of food, drink, or money. Hines wrote about the lack of food in his squadron. Ott wrote about a search for brandy, cloth, and the gathering of their crops for soldiers., and Freeman wrote about Uncle Sam’s inability to pay the hardworking soldiers.