1. LE 300F Midterm Exam—Fall 2, 2012:
Name: Mickey Walker
Directions:
Below are 2 sets of questions. Follow the directions for each section and simply type the answers
onto the document. Save frequently! The exam must be uploaded to the dropbox NO LATER than
midnight CST of November 18. Late exams will lose a letter grade per day (or part of a day late). No
exam will be accepted after midnight of 11/21
I. Write a brief paragraph of 5-8 sentences to answer SIX of the following. Points will be
deducted for answers that are not in paragraph form (10 points each):
1. Lee has a very specific definition of culture. What aspects of his definition to you agree with or
disagree with?
I agree with Lee when he stated “Crucially, if the community persists, it will then transmit that
repertoire to the next generation 'through teaching, imitation, and other forms of social
transmission.” (Lee). I firmly believe that Kids are a reflection of their parents.
2. Did the large number of battlefield deaths in the war strengthen the concept of the Good Death
or weaken it? Provide some details.
I think that the large numb of battlefield deaths strengthened the concept of the Good
Death. There was so many killed that most of the families did what they could to get the
love ones back and give them a proper burial. Faust wrote that the large levels of battlefield
deaths were trying to be justified by invoking God, patriotic duty and justice. They tried to
identify the bodies and preserved some aspect of humanity.
3. Culture is about the way that we think and do things. Write a paragraph that gives two concrete
examples of how things in your workplace/your major of study can be traced to the Civil
War era.
4. How can poetry help us understand history? Use a different poem than you used in the Week 4
discussion and explain how the poem can shed light on the events and emotions of the time.
Poetry can be a very good way to record history. Poetry can be a way to express personal
gains and losses. If you look at the Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain! My Captain”.
Whitman writes this poem it was about Abraham Lincoln and when he was killed. Lincoln is
the captain “fallen cold and dead”. Whitman and Lincoln both felt that the preservation of
the Union was the reason for fighting the war “the prize we sought”.

2. 5. The Warren excerpt discussed the “Treasure of Virtue” and the “Great Alibi”. Explain which one
of them, using concrete examples, is a greater distortion of the facts.
6. Lecture 1B includes the following statement: “Two early theorists of the concept of primitive war,
Quincy Wright (1890-1970) and Harry Turney-High (1899-1982), point out that motives for
civilized, modern warfare are economic and political.” Write a paragraph that gives two
specific examples of how the Civil War may be considered an economic and political war.
One main reason the Civil War was a political war was that the South wanted to protect their rights
to own slaves. Another reason was the South wanted each state more sovereign. The economic
reason for the war was that the North Manufacturing was a lot better the South, but the South was
better in agriculture like cotton farming. The North was higher in the balance of trade then the
south. The trade problems affected the South more than the North. This made a lot of problems
between the North and South.
7. Robert Penn Warren said the Civil War was, "for the American imagination, the greatest single
event of our history" (Legacies of the Civil War). Bernard DeVoto said, "...the Civil War is
the crux of our history" ("The Easy Chair"). Shelby Foote says the Civil War defined us and
shaped our national character (interview with Geoffrey Ward). Write a paragraph that gives
at least three examples to support the statements these historians have made.
I would make say that the American Civil War was the greatest single event of our history because it
showed personal change and positive growth as a country. It ended slavery and changed culture and
the way we fight war and handle the fallen. I think that the Civil War defined us and shaped our
national character by exposing our flaws like the way we identified the dead and the way we honor
our dead. I also think that one of the best things that make the civil war the crux of our history was
the 14th and 15th amendments that came because of the war these amendments gave the citizen’s
rights at the national level.

3. II. Fill in the correct answer or write a sentence or two to answer each of the following (5
points each):
1.Approximately how many deaths occurred in the Civil War? Why is that number significant when
compared to other wars the US has been involved in? Around 620,000 died. This was more
than in any other war before or since.
2. According to Faust, "For the first time civilians directly confronted the reality of battlefield death
rendered by the new art of photography. They found themselves transfixed by the
paradoxically lifelike renderings of the slain of Antietam that Mathew Brady_ exhibited in his
studio on Broadway." Simply name the photographer.
3. According to Faust, "_Railroads_____ and emerging industrial capacity in both North and
South made resupply and redeployment of armies easier, extending the duration of the war
and the killing." Simply name the item.
4. According to Grimsley, _Jefferson Davis___________, as president of the Confederate States of
America, used poor leadership through "chronic interference in personnel matters and
indulgence or even encouragement of disgruntled subordinates who violated the chain of
command and often compromised the ability of army commanders to be masters of their
own house." Simply name the president of the CSA.
5. "Any group of humans living or working together over time develops 'habitual practices, default
programs, hidden assumptions and unreflected cognitive frames' that inform their choices,
or indeed they will have created 'a repertoire or tool kit of habits, skills, and styles from
which people construct strategies of action.' Crucially, if the community persists, it will then
transmit that repertoire to the next generation 'through teaching, imitation, and other forms
of social transmission.' Finally, such transmission occurs not merely through words but also
through symbols and actions." This "cobbled-together definition" is Wayne Lee's definition
of _Culture__. Simply name the term defined.
6. Referencing Lecture 3, what two battle losses in 1863 significantly weakened Union morale?
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville
7. The single bloodiest battle of the Civil War was where?
Gettysburg
8. According to Warren, the North arose from the fighting with the "The Abolitionist movement,"
redeemed by history via their crusade against slavery.