In what ways did public opinion and the newspaper media shape events in the South or the North during the lead-up to the Civil War and during the war itself?

Choose a key figure of the Civil War, such as Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, or Robert E. Lee. How is he depicted in the text? What was his role and wider significance in the conflict?

How did enslaved individuals and freed Blacks themselves view and respond to the major events and trends in Battle Cry of Freedom? Does their perspectives challenge or confirm McPherson’s presentation of Civil War history?

Using original research, compare the US Civil War to another major war fought by a Western nation or nations sometime between the 1860s and the 1910s, e.g., the Crimean War, the Boer Wars, or World War I. In what ways are the two wars and the tactics used in them similar or different?

McPherson argues that the Confederacy’s defeat was not inevitable. Do you agree? How could the Confederacy have won the war and remained independent?

How did either the South or the North understand the concepts of liberty and freedom before the Civil War? How does Battle Cry of Freedom analyze the conception of freedom and a republic more generally?

McPherson discusses how the Civil War strengthened the concept of a singular nation of the United States, but how did it affect Southern nationalism? Using original research, discuss the relationship between the Civil War and senses of Southern nationalism.

How did the Civil War affect or lead into a major issue in future United States history, such as women’s emancipation, African-American civil rights, the Gilded Age, the increasing power of the federal government and the presidency? What is its ongoing legacy today?