Ken Burn’s Civil War, Episode 1: The Cause
Directions: Answer the following questions based on the movie. The questions are listed in the order they
appear in the film. You do not need to answer in complete sentences.
1. What could Wilmer McClaine rightfully say about the Civil War?
.
2. How many Americans fought and died in the Civil War?
3. When did the last Civil War Veteran die?
4.
How often could slaves be expected to be sold? Because of this, how were slave wedding vows altered?
5. What did Eli Whitney do to make slavery more profitable? How did this affect the institution of slavery?
How many slaves by 1860?
6. What did William Lloyd Garrison begin publishing in 1838? What was the point of this paper?
7. What were Harriet Tubman, Wendell Philips, and Frederick Douglas? How popular were they?
8. What did Frederick Douglass write to prove to his critics that he had indeed been a slave? Why did his
critics doubt he had been a slave?
9. What happened in 1837 at Alton Illinois? What was the reaction to this?
10. How did the young Abraham Lincoln take the Declaration of Independence? How did he feel about
slavery?
11. What did Harriet Beecher Stowe publish in 1852? How popular was this book?
12. What happened in Kansas in 1854?
13. What did Southern Senator Preston Brooks do to the abolitionist senator Charles Sumner in 1857? How
did people in the South react to this?
14. What did John Brown do on October 16th, 1859? What was the reaction in the North to John Brown's
execution?
15. How did John Brown affect the militia system in the South and what did this militia system represent the
beginning of?
16. What percent of the vote did Lincoln win the presidency with in 1860? How did the South react to this
and why?
17. How many states were in the Union when Lincoln was elected?
18. What happened to Texas Governor Sam Houston when he tried to stop his state from seceding? What
did he warn his fellow Texans about?
19. What did Jefferson Davis become on February 18th, 1861? How did Davis himself react to the news that
he had been appointed to this office?
20. What did Lincoln say he would rather happen than see a single star removed from the US flag? How did
he arrive in Washington for his inauguration?
21. What did Lincoln warn the South of during his inauguration?
22. What began at 4:30 am, April 12th, 1861? Where did this happen?
23. What did Edward Ruffin do in the Battle of Fort Sumter and how did he feel about it?
24. How did the South react to their victory at the Battle of Fort Sumter? How did people in the North react?
25. How many men did the Union army have on the day war was declared? How many generals and how
good were they?
26. How many volunteers did the Confederacy call for? How many responded?
27. Why were the odds of the South winning the war long? (How did the populations of North and South
differ? Industrial Output?)
28. How did Robert E. Lee react to Lincoln's offer to make him commander of the Union Army and why?
29. How did black slaves react to the declaration of war?
30. What did General Irvin McDowell tell President Lincoln about not wanting to attack with his troops?
What was Lincoln's reply?
31. What did Lincoln do to 19 secessionist legislators in Baltimore to prevent Maryland from seceding?
What did Lincoln insist he was making war upon?
32. What did Union Commander General Benjamin Butler convince Lincoln to do concerning escaped
slaves that came to the camps of the Union troops? How did this affect the number of slaves that
defected to the North?
33. At first, who was winning the Battle of Manassas? Which Confederate General held the line and earned
the nickname “Stonewall”?
34. What did Confederate General Jackson urge his men to do during the counterattack that day? What did
this come to be known as?
35. Who won the Battle of Manassas? How did each side react?
36. What policy of the Union Army did Frederick Douglass consider foolish after the defeat at Manassas?
37. Who assumed command of the Union Army after the defeat of Manassas? What effect did he have on
the army?
38. How many men were in the Union army by the end of 1861? What were some people beginning to
realize about the war by the end of the year?