Question

The United States remained divided fifty years after the Civil War. What evidence from the text supports this conclusion?

a. "Fifty years later, most of the war's veterans were dead."

b. "Around the country, towns and cities had begun building monuments in their memory."

c. "In 1914, Mrs. James E. Caldwell and her group, the Ladies Battlefield Association, began raising money to build a monument for those who died in the Battle of Nashville."

d. "In the North, monuments were built to honor the Union. In the South, monuments honored the Confederacy… No one built a monument to both sides."

Answer 1

Evidence that the United States remained divided after the Civil War can be found in the fact that monuments in the North honored the Union and those in the South honored the Confederacy, with no monuments honoring both sides. The correct option is D.

Step-by-step explanation:

The United States remained divided fifty years after the Civil War, and evidence supporting this conclusion is presented in the text. Among the options provided, option d."In the North, monuments were built to honor the Union. In the South, monuments honored the Confederacy… No one built a monument to both sides." best supports the notion of a continued division.

This statement reveals that even as the nation remembered its fallen soldiers, there remained a clear and enduring division with respects to commemoration, reflecting the deeper, unresolved issues between the two sides. Monuments symbolize collective memory and values, and the distinct separation in whom they honored speaks loudly about the persisting ideological divide.

Furthermore, the sections of the text discuss the continued challenges of post-war America. The impact of the Civil War continued to resound in racial tensions, economic hardship, and political divides that shaped the country. Although the war concluded in 1865 with the Union's victory and the Confederacy's fall, the deep-seated issues that led to the conflict, such as states' rights and slavery, left lasting marks on American society.

The legacy of the war was reflected not only in the physical monuments but in the ongoing struggles for equality and reconciliation, suggesting that while the battlefields were silent, the battle for a truly united nation continued well into the future.