Super Quiz
The Super Quiz topic will be The Civil War. The Super Quiz Resource Guide will include readings on such topics as the causes of the war, critical battles and campaigns, the role of slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s leadership, and Reconstruction.

I.    The Road to War                                                                       20%                                             Home

      A.   The Sectional Conflict
            1.   Slavery as a sectional problem
            2.   The Mexican-American War and the issue of expansion
            3.   The 1850s: the Compromise of 1850, Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, and John Brown

      B.   The Presidential Election of 1860
            1.   Background: slavery, expansion, and third parties
            2.   The rise of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party
            3.   A four-way race

      C.   The Crisis at Fort Sumter
            1.   The first secession
            2.   Lincoln's dilemma: the problem of the forts
            3.   Sumter: the first shots

      D.   The Conflict Takes Shape
            1.   Mobilizing for war
            2.   Comparing resources for war
            3.   Events in Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia

II.   The Early War (from First Bull Run to Antietam)           15%

      A.   The First Battle of Bull Run

      B.   The War in the West
            1.   Forts Henry and Donelson
            2.   Shiloh

      C.   The War in the East
            1.   Peninsula Campaign
            2.   Valley Campaign
            3.   Second Battle of Bull Run

      D.   Domestic Issues and Politics
            1.   The slavery issue
            2.   Dissent in the Union

III.  The War Intensifies (from Antietam to Gettysburg)       15%

      A.   Campaigns Fall 1861–Winter 1862
            1.   The Battle of Antietam
            2.   Central and Mississippi Theaters

      B.   Politics, Slavery, and Diplomacy
            1.   The Union and emancipation
            2.   Union politics and the elections of 1862
            3.   European diplomacy

      C.   Campaigns Winter 1862–Spring 1863
            1.   Fredericksburg
            2.   The Vicksburg Campaign
            3.   Chancellorsville

IV.  Climax (from Gettysburg to Chattanooga)                      15% 

      A.   Critical Campaigns
            1.   Gettysburg
            2.   Vicksburg
            3.   Chickamauga

      B.   Dissent in the North
            1.   Conscription
            2.   Copperheadism

      C.   Cracks in the Confederate Armor
            1.   Economic crisis
            2.   Civil liberties and states' rights

V.   Endgame (from Wilderness to Appomattox)                      15%    

      A.   Wartime Reconstruction
            1.   Emancipation and the freed-people
            2.   The politics of Reconstruction
            3.   The Thirteenth Amendment

      B.   The Election of 1864
            1.   Campaign issues
            2.   Re-election of Lincoln

      C.   Critical Campaigns
            1.   Stalemate in Virginia
                  a)    Wilderness
                  b)   Spotsylvania
                  c)    Cold Harbor
                  d)   Petersburg
            2.   The Atlanta Campaign
            3.   Sherman's March
            4.   Appomattox

      D.   The Assassination of Lincoln

VI.  Reconstruction                                                                        20%     

      A.   Presidential Reconstruction
            1.   Black Codes
            2.   Civil rights and the Constitution
            3.   The impeachment crisis     

      B.   Congressional Reconstruction
            1.   State constitutional conventions
            2.   The problem of enforcement
            3.   The Grant presidency     

      C.   Land and Labor     

      D.   Redemption
            1.   The "Mississippi Plan" in action
            2.   The Compromise of 1877     

      E.   The Legacy of Reconstruction