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Part 1 - Generals of the ACW (25 Answers)
Answer 1
Joseph G. Totten, graduating in 1805.
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Answer 2
False. Sickles didn’t shot his wife, and actually some months later reconciled with her (apparently, the public opinion was very much outraged by this innovative fact than by his previous shooting). All the other particulars are true.
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Answer 3
This is Daniel Harvey Hill and his inimitable "Elements of Algebra". Other problems in the book were related to:
- New England “treason” during the War of 1812
- enslavement of the Pequot Indians in Connecticut
- witchcraft persecutions in Massachusetts
- number of insane persons in New England and New York in a given year
- Yankee traders who adulterated meat and milk
- accident rate on Northern-owned railroad
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Answer 4
- Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson
- Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday
- Maj. Gen. John G. Foster
- Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford
- Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis
- Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour
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Answer 5
False. Banks was a Republican boss. In 1856 he had been the first Republican speaker of the House, and in 1861 he was serving as Governor of Massachusetts for that party.
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Answer 6
False. The other way around: the Union offered him a general rank, but Garibaldi rejected it. It seems he wasn't interested as long as the Union did not declare openly war against the slavery.
The foreign revolutionary leader whose offer was rejected was the Hungarian George Klapka, who asked for a salary of $100,000 a year besides the rank of General-in-Chief.
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Answer 7
Captain Frank Crawford Armstrong, commanding company K, 2nd Dragoons.
In the same company, same battle, and same situation also served Lieutenant Manning M. Kimmel, who after having served as a Confederate staff officer fathered the future admiral Husband Edward Kimmel, of Pearl Harbour fame.
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Answer 8
All six (Stephen A. Hurlbut, John A. McClernand, Benjamin M. Prentiss, William T. Sherman, Lew Wallace, William H. L. Wallace) had been lawyers.
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Answer 9
William Whedbee Kirkland had been a Lieutenant, USMC from 1855 to1860.
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Answer 10
False. As precocious as he might be, his record pales in comparison with Galusha Pennypacker, born on 1 June 1844 and promoted on 28 April 1865, age 20 years 11 months.
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Answer 11
Confederate Brig. Gen. Daniel Marsh Frost. He was commanding a division in the District of Arkansas until fall 1863, when he went to Canada to join his wife and family. Not having bothered to tender his resignation, and so being effectively a deserter, he was dropped from the rolls on 9 December 1863.
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Answer 12
True. Both on 28 January 1864, "For Gallantry" and "For the Defense of Washington and Maryland" respectively.
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Answer 13
True, although only from 23 January to 22 February.
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Answer 14
False. Although no Unionist cavalry general attained the third star, amongst the Confederates Wade Hampton outranked him by a few days.
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Answer 15
General Albert Sidney Johnston, at Shiloh. At the time he was the second most senior Confederate officer, ranking anyone but Samuel Cooper.
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Answer 16
True. Confederate Brig. Gen. Lucius Marshall Walker, killed by fellow Brig. Gen. John Sappington Marmaduke at sunrise on 6 September 1863 at Little Rock, after a heavy argument about the respective merit and demerit of the cavalry divisions both men had lead in the battle of Helena on 4 July.
In addition, Union Brig. Gen. William Nelson was shot by Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, and Confederate Maj. Gen. John A. Wharton was shot by Colonel George W. Baylor, but neither case qualifies as a "fair" duel.
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Answer 17
True. Union Brig. Gen. Theodore Read exchanged pistol shots with Confederate Brig. Gen. James Dearing at High Bridge, Va. on 6 April 1865. Read died at once, Dearing of his wounds on 23 April.
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Answer 18
False. While a number of former Southern generals (along with a number of Northern ones) served in the army of the Khedive, none was killed in action (though Alexander Welch Reynolds died at Alexandria of natural causes).
The only former Confederate general to be killed abroad in a war action was Mosby Monroe Parsons, on 15 August 1865 in Mexico.
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Answer 19
All four of them were retained as Brig. Gen., and all save Rosecrans (who retired in 1867) managed to be promoted to Maj. Gen. in 1872, 1868 and 1890 respectively, the last two in the retired list.
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Answer 20
Alfred Howe Terry, appointed as a Brig. Gen. in the regular army (without ever having served in that body) for the capture of Fort Fisher.
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Answer 21
Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, who had been Colonel of 2nd Dragoons.
Next came Brig. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, who had been Major of 10th Infantry.
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Answer 22
Only the first three, for Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Jersey respectively. Banks had been Governor of Massachusetts before the war.
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Answer 23
False. His statement about his unwillingness to be candidate for Presidency is famous, but Sherman had no problem in serving as Grant’s Secretary of War ad interim in the fall of 1869.
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Answer 24
He's not Joseph Wheeler, who commanded only a division. The correct answer is Maj. Gen. Fitzugh Lee, who commanded VII Corps.
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Answer 25
- Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott (1852, Whig)
- future Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont (1856, Republican)
- future Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge (1860, Democrat), also previous VP
- Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan (1864, Democratic)
- Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock (1880, Democrat)
- Brig. Gen. John W. Phelps (1880, Anti-Mason)
- Brig. Gen. Neal Dow (1880, Prohibitionist)
- Brevet Brig. Gen. James B. Weaver (1880, Greenback-Labor and 1892, People's Party)
- Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler (1884, Greenback)
- Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk (1888, Prohibitionist)
- Maj. Gen. John McC. Palmer (1896, Gold Democrat,
with Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner as VP)
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Part 2 - Other Personalities of the ACW (13 Answers)
Answer 26
1) Edgar Allan Poe, enrolled in 1830 (following two years of service in the army as private and then sergeant-major) and dismissed in 1831 after a court-martial. It appears that the great poet was doing fine at West Point, as he had done in the Army, until family quarrels upset him.
2) James Abbott McNeill Whistler, enrolled in 1851 and dismissed in 1854 by the Academy's superintendent, Robert E. Lee, for "deficiency in chemistry". In later years the great painter enjoyed telling friends: "If silicon had been a gas I would have been a Major General".
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Answer 27
True. A total of 54 camels (or, more exactly, dromedaries) was imported in the spring of 1856, but the experiment didn’t succeed because the soldiers heartily disliked the beasts and usually let them loose in the desert.
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Answer 28
He was the only bachelor President.
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Answer 29
True. Lincoln represented the Illinois Central Railroad in a number of legal cases during McClellan’s tenure as chief engineer. At the time Lincoln was campaigning for a Senate seat against Douglas, but McClellan was non much impressed by him and supported the latter.
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Answer 30
True. It happened the Ohio Democrat congressman was on his way home from Washington when his trains arrived at Harper’s Ferry on 19 October 1859. He stopped there to inquire about the facts of three days before, and was able to see Brown and interview him. Apparently Vallandigham was mainly concerned with the possibility of exploiting a connection between the raid and his political enemies, the Ohio Republicans.
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Answer 31
He was the first recorded casualty of the ACW, being killed at Fort Sumter on 14 April 1861 as a result of an accidental explosion. Actually the fact happened the day after the surrender, during the flag-lowering ceremony.
The first deaths actually ascribed to hostile action occurred in Baltimore during the riots of 19 April 1861.
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Answer 32
Henry Morton Stanley ("Mr. Livingston, I presume?"). He enlisted in 6th Arkansas, fighting and being captured at Shiloh.
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Answer 33
False. They fought for different flags, but they never had a chance to meet. The father of Douglas, Arthur McArthur, Jr., served with the 24th Wisconsin on the Western front; the grandfather of George III, along with his two brothers (George Smith, John Mercer, Jr., Walter Tazewell; Colonels of 21st, 22nd and 7th Virginia respectively) never left the Eastern theatre.
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Answer 34
- Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) Brig. Gen., U.S.V.
- Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) Lieut. Gen. (thereafter General), U.S. Army
- Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881) Brig. Gen. and Brevet Maj. Gen., U.S.V.
- James A. Garfield (1881) Maj. Gen., U.S.V.
- Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) Colonel, 70th Indiana, and Brevet Brig. Gen.
- William McKinley (1897-1901) Captain and Brevet Major, 23rd Ohio
In addition, Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885) was Brig. Gen. of the New York Militia.
Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 and 1893-1897) was drafted in 1864, but produced a substitute.
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Answer 35
Dr. Sally Louisa Tompkins, commissioned a Captain, C. S. Cavalry, on 9 September 1861 (to allow her to run her hospital, that according to regulations had to be placed under military control).
In addition, Dr. Sarah E. Clapp and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker were both commissioned as Surgeon in the Union Army, but weren't awarded an officer's rank.
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Answer 36
False. The Confederacy never had a Secretary of the Interior! Thomas Bragg was Confederate Attorney General from 21 November 1861 to 18 March 1862.
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Answer 37
False (of course! How could you believe in such a mutation?). The famous ACW-era feminist leader was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Besides, the three Carys were named Hetty, Jennie and Constance.
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Answer 38
True. The book was translated and published in New York as "The Civil War in the United States". Actually, Engels was very interested in military topics, and was sometimes referred to by Marx as “the General”.
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Part 3 - Navies of the ACW (15 Answers)
Answer 39
True. The ship was the USS Princeton and the special 12-inch gun had been christened (interestingly) Peacemaker. The date was 29 February 1844, the above officials being Thomas Gilmer, Abel P. Upshur and John Tyler. One of the designers of the ship, John Ericsson, remained thereafter under a cloud until producing the USS Monitor.
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Answer 40
Not the Monitor, nor the Merrimac / Virginia. It was the so-called "Stevens' Battery" (never officially christened), a ship conceived in 1842 and begun in 1854 at Hoboken, N.J. in the private yard of brothers Isaac and Robert L. Stevens. The U.S. Navy was never totally persuaded by the idea and refused funds to complete the unit, so the work was never finished. The huge 420' hull of this sea monster was finally broken up in 1881 despite various efforts to revive the project (one involving George B. McClellan, employed first as a selling agent in Europe, and then as chief engineer).
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Answer 41
Paraguay. In late 1858 a naval squadron of 19 vessels, 200 guns, and 2500 sailors and marines (the largest military expedition in the peacetime history of the United States to that date) under the command of Commodore William B. Shubrick embarked for a show of force against Paraguay, where three years before local soldiers had fired upon an American ship engaged in a scientific survey of the Paranà River, killing one American crew member. Eventually the question was settled peacefully, the Paraguayan government apologizing in April 1859.
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Answer 42
Louis M. Goldsborough.
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Answer 43
False. Raphael Semmes, Rear Admiral CSN, was appointed Brig. Gen. by Davis during the retreat from Richmond, after the scuttling of his James River Squadron, but for obvious reasons he could not be confirmed by the Senate as law required. So his rank was not official.
Samuel Powhatan Carter, a Lieutenant USN at the start of the ACW, and an army Brig. Gen. during it, rose eventually to Rear Admiral, but only in 1882 and only in the retired list.
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Answer 44
Yes. The sailing ship-of-the-line USS Alabama, on the stocks at Portsmouth since 1819 and launched at last in 1864 as a storeship, was renamed New Hampshire on 28 October 1863 (very probably as a result of Semmes' career).
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Answer 45
False. The other way around: in 1861-1864 the Webb yard of New York built for us two big ironclads, Re d'Italia e Re di Portogallo.
I have to add that we didn't found these ships particularly successful, except as a target for enemy ramming (at Lissa the former - our flagship - had a Close Encounter of the Deep Kind with the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max - Austrian flagship).
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Answer 46
True. Re-christened Camilla and then Memphis by Confederates after secession, she afterwards sank in St. Johns River, Fla. Salvaged by the Union in 1862, she was taken into service under her original name and employed in the South Atlantic Blockade Squadron before becoming the Naval Academy training ship.
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Answer 47
The broadside ironclad Dunderberg (displacement 7,800 tons) laid down on 4 October 1862 and completed in 1867. Not accepted by the postwar USN and sold to the French as Rochambeaus. At 377’4” she was the longest wooden ship ever built.
The biggest ship actually commissioned by the USN during the war was the sea-going monitor USS Dictator (displacement 4,438 tons).
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Answer 48
The Santa Maria (this being a cover name; also referred to as Glasgow or Frigate No. 61, displacement 4,770 tons) contracted by Lt. James H. North and laid down at Glasgow in 1863. The Confederate agent having running short of money, she was eventually sold to the Danish navy as Danmark.
The biggest ship actually commissioned by the CSN during the war was the CSS Virginia (displacement unknown after conversion, had been 4,636 tons as USS Merrimack).
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Answer 49
True. The 2,805-tons sailing ship-of-the-line USS New Orleans, begun at Sackett's Harbour, N.Y. in 1815 and not sold as scrap until 1883. Originally there was also a sister, USS Chippewa, broken up in 1823. Of course the usefulness of such a vessel in 1860 is nil, but big it was.
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Answer 50
The Muscle Shoals. This formidable series of rapids in northern Alabama all but divided the river in two separate segments. Ascending navigation was out of the question almost all the time and the descent of the rapids was possible only for about one month of the year.
The USN later had four tinclads in service in the upper Tennessee, but they were built in Chattanooga.
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Answer 51
False. On 6 September 1776 the American Turtle, built by Samuel Bushnell, tried to place an explosive charge under the hull of HMS Eagle, but was unable to do so.
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Answer 52
False. The CSS Stonewall (being started under the cover name of Sphynx, sold to Denmark as Staerkodder, returned to builders as Olinde prior to final delivery to CSN) was turned over to the USN and then sold to Japan as Kotetsu, thereafter Azuma: six different names.
The Confederate ironclad sold to Haiti was the former CSS (then USS) Atlanta, renamed Triumph. The ship disappeared at sea off Cape Hatteras in December 1869, apparently during her delivery voyage.
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Answer 53
False. The Mary Celeste left New York on 5 November 1872, and was found on 5 December in the middle of the Atlantic, after her crew had been abducted by the aliens (ops! I meant, “had disappeared”).
Actually, the re-arranged story is the one narrated by Gabriel Byrne to his crew in the movie “Phantom Ship”.
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Part 4 - Weapons of the ACW (5 Answers)
Answer 54
True. But it must be added that 1,200 of these were cast before the ACW. Actually the Tredegar was one of the biggest private American firm engaged in that business.
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Answer 55
True. Actually much more than that, despite the common misconception about the technical backwardness of military authorities. The Hall breech-loading rifle was first produced in 1811, and subsequently upgraded and modified until the final version of 1843, made in thousands of pieces before (and employed in) the war.
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Answer 56
Peru. One of the only three know Rodman, and one of the only four known Dahlgren, were employed in the fortifications of Callao from 1866. Both guns were later captured by Chile during the War of the Pacific of 1879-1883 (where maybe they could have fired against the enemy, the only 20-inch to do so) and were reported in the fortifications of Caldera as late as 1892.
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Answer 57
Two 12.75-inch Blakely rifles, imported in August 1863 and employed in Charleston. The first one cracked on its first fire (by faulty operations) but was subsequently repaired. They were destroyed in 1865; a fragment of both is now on display at West Point, N.Y.
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Answer 58
True. This was the “Winans steam-gun”, conceptually a cannon connected to a locomotive and using steam power to hurl the projectiles (200 rounds per minute were expected) built by the Maryland locomotive builder Ross Winans shortly before the war. After secession Winans (a Southern sympatizer) was jailed and his machine captured by Butler’s men in May 1861. The steam-gun appeared on Harper’s Weekly on 25 May 1861; a replica model is now on display at Elkridge, near Baltimore.
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Part 5 - Units of the ACW (10 Answers)
Answer 59
False. The Idaho Territory didn't existed at the time! The numbers quoted came from the Utah Territory.
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Answer 60
False. Maryland was never a Confederate state! The Confederate state furnishing less was Florida.
Actually Maryland may have furnish to the Southern armies more men than Florida, but the records are scarce.
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Answer 61
False. Garibaldi's volunteers were distinguished by a red shirt. The plumed cap was the typical headdress of the Bersaglieri (meaning "Sharpshooters"), the crack light troops of the Italian regular army.
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Answer 62
False. This honour went to the 154th Senior Tennessee Infantry, sporting its pre-war militia number. Only Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio went higher.
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Answer 63
True. Actually there were two of them: company I, 40th New York, and an unidentified one of 53rd New York.
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Answer 64
True. There were (according to Sifakis) 24 Texas infantry regiments against 53 cavalry regiments, although it has to be said that 30 of the latter were dismounted at some time through their career.
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Answer 65
False. The Confederate units were created by the War Department amalgamating volunteer companies from different States, or renaming a unit whose number was duplicated. For example, of the two 15th Arkansas Regiments in existence in 1862 one was renamed 5th Confederate Regiment.
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Answer 66
False. The Laurel Brigade was the old Ashby's (afterwards Robertson’s – Jones’ – Rosser’s – Dearing’s) one: 7th, 11th and 12th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. The Stuart's brigade hold no special title.
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Answer 67
True. The Union formed the 1st to 6th U.S. Volunteers regiment, employing them in North Carolina (very briefly) and along the Minnesota Border.
The Confederacy raised four battalions (ostensibly formed only from foreign citizens) and one fought at Bentonville, although it has to be said that another one was disbanded after trying to desert en masse.
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Answer 68
Deserting en masse to the other side and (in large part) re-enlisting there as an organized military body of troops, effectively changing allegiances in bloc. In its new incarnation the unit became the 2nd Indian Home Guard Regiment.
An alternate correct answer could be: "scalped enemy corpses" (at the battle of Pea Ridge).
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Part 6 - Actions of the ACW (5 Answers)
Answer 69
False. Antietam was the single day of the ACW with the highest number of casualties. Gettysburg (spanning three days) had a higher total toll.
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Answer 70
False. This was the northernmost land action of the war only. There were naval actions off the Alaska coast, a great deal North than that.
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Answer 71
The renowned P. T. Barnum Museum. An interesting choice of target.
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Answer 72
Galveston, Tex., originally captured by the Unionists on 5 October 1862 but re-captured by the Confederates on 1 January 1863.
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Answer 73
False. The Stars 'n Bars was still flying onboard the CSS Shenandoha, cruising the Bering Sea (and at that time actively engaged in destroying the American whaling fleet, apparently without having had notice of the Southern defeat). This flag was furled only on 5 November 1865 in the British port of Liverpool.
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Part 7 - Odds and Ends (7 Answers)
Answer 74
Baltimore (212,418). Next came New Orleans (168,675) and then St. Louis (160,773), Louisville (68,033), and Washington (61,122).
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Answer 75
True. When adopting emancipation laws in the early 1800s, some northern states added provisions which permitted a slave to refuse freedom under certain circumstances: advanced age was one. By 1860 only those in New Jersey survived: 18 people, all quite elderly. As a result, New Jersey was technically a slave state until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on 18 December 1865.
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Answer 76
On 5 November 1867. Davis had been nominated provisional President on 9 February 1861, and then regularly elected for a six-year term on 6 November 1861.
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Answer 77
False. The Southern Constitution only prohibited to serve twice consecutively.
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Answer 78
On île à Vache, a little island before the south-western coast of Haiti. On 31 December 1862 Lincoln signed an agreement for the promotion of the colony, and eventually 453 people were shipped there, but the project didn’t succeed. Eventually in February 1864 the 368 survivors were repatriated.
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Answer 79
True. They were Elias C. Boudinot (Cherokee Nation), Robert M. Jones (Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations) and S. B. Callahan (Creek and Seminole Nations).
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Answer 80
34 stars from war start to 4 July 1863, and 35 from then (admission of West Virginia) to war end. Although Nevada was admitted to the Union on 31 October 1864, no star was authorized to mark that state until after the war was over.
This was the last Answer
As a humble little gift to reward the reader, this is my recipe for
the Ricotta Cake (English version
and Italian version).