American History by Decade: The 1860s Quiz

Answer: St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California

The Pony Express lasted less than two years when it was replaced by the transcontinental telegraph in 1861. The Pony Express route followed several established trails (including parts of the Oregon and Mormon trails) from St. Joseph to Sacramento with Pony Express Stations every 10 miles along the route.

Answer: Stephen Douglas (Northern) and John Breckinridge (Southern)

Lincoln took the northern states in the election along with Oregon and California. Breckinridge won almost all the states that were to form the Confederacy, and the only state Douglas won outright was Missouri. Lincoln won a majority of the electoral votes, but won less than 40% of all the votes cast.

Answer: South Carolina

The southern states objected to the election of Lincoln because he opposed the expansion of slavery. South Carolina seceded in December 1860 followed by the formation of the Confederacy in February 1861. The first shots of the Civil War began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April 1861 when southern troops forced its surrender.

Answer: Freed the slaves in the states that had rebelled against the United States

Although Lincoln acknowledged that he did not have the Constitutional authority to free any slaves during peace time, he claimed the power as Commander in Chief to free the slaves in the rebelling states as a war measure. The Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves in the four border states that permitted slavery but had remained in the Union (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri).

Answer: George McClellan

Lincoln relieved McClellan of his position as General in Chief in 1862 because of his failure to more aggressively pursue southern forces. Lincoln was unpopular through most of 1864 because of a string of Union losses. However, Atlanta fell to the Union two months before the election making a Union victory imminent, and Lincoln received 212 electoral votes (of 231 possible).

Answer: Appomattox Court House, Virginia

The Civil War was the most devastating event in U.S. History. More than 2% of the U.S. population lost their lives in the war. More Americans died on a single day at the Battle of Antietam than during all other 19th century American wars combined. The Union was preserved, but bitterness about the Civil War would linger for decades afterwards in the South.

Answer: He was a Democrat although Lincoln was a Republican

Lincoln dumped the vice president from his first term, fellow Republican Hannibal Hamlin, in order to nominate Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, when he ran for re-election in 1864. The Republicans thought adding a Democrat to the ticket would win votes in the border states and among pro-War Democrats.

Answer: He attempted to illegally remove Edward Stanton as Secretary of War

Radical Republican Edward Stanton was Lincoln's Secretary of War whom Johnson had inherited when Lincoln died. The Republican Congress, worried that Johnson, a Democrat, would try to remove Stanton (who was charged with implementing congressional Reconstruction policies in the South) passed the Tenure of Office Act which required Congressional approval before the president could remove a cabinet member (which Johnson ignored). Johnson failed to be convicted in the Senate by one vote, and so was allowed to complete his term.

Answer: Ulysses Grant

The Republicans unanimously nominated Grant who was very popular after his military success in the Civil War and went on to win a decisive victory in the electoral college (214 - 80). The presidential election of 1868 was the first in which black Americans in the southern states could vote.

Answer: Promontory, Utah

Leland Stanford received the honor of driving the golden spike because he was president of the Central Pacific railroad. The transcontinental railroad cut the costs to travel across the U.S. by more than 80 percent and more than 7000 cities across the U.S. began as Union Pacific depots and water stops.