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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 17 of 18

The Civil War

Leaders, battles and New York's home front

What your child practices

Leaders, strategy and decisive battles from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, how enslaved people helped win their own freedom, and the war in New York: its soldiers, the draft riots of 1863 and the Elmira prison camp.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 7.8d; 7.8e · the leaders, battles and strategy of the Civil War, and how it affected lives and the nation, including New York

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Southern states seceded (formally left the Union). The war began at Fort Sumter in 1861.
  2. The North had more factories, railroads and people. The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed enslaved people in Confederate-held areas.
  3. New York sent many soldiers and saw the 1863 draft riots. The war ended at Appomattox in 1865.

Example: What does secede mean? Southern states wanted to leave the Union. To secede is to formally leave a country or union. Answer: To formally leave a country or union

The Civil War in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 17 of 18 in 7th grade Social Studies, after A Nation Divided and before Timeline 1609–1865.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    The states that seceded formed the…

    • United Kingdom
    • Confederate States of America
    • Union
    • Northwest Territory

  2. Question 2

    The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required…

    • Slaves to be paid
    • People in free states to help return people who escaped slavery
    • All slavery to end
    • Free states to leave the Union

  3. Question 3

    Why do historians use soldiers' letters to study the Civil War?

    • They were written by generals only
    • They are always neutral
    • They show how ordinary people experienced it
    • They list every battle exactly

  4. Question 4

    The Union ironclad ship USS Monitor was built in…

    • Brooklyn, New York
    • London, England
    • Richmond, Virginia
    • Charleston, South Carolina

  5. Question 5

    In July 1863, protests against the military draft in New York City turned into…

    • days of riots in which mobs attacked Black New Yorkers
    • a peaceful parade
    • the Battle of Saratoga
    • a new state constitution

  6. Question 6

    Which Union general led the army to victory and later became president?

    • Robert E. Lee
    • Ulysses S. Grant
    • Jefferson Davis
    • Stonewall Jackson

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