Civil War History Programs with the Resident Associates Program Overnight Civil War Tours

Civil War Trivia

 

This month's question
Who said he would "ride into the plaza at Sante Fé, hitch my horse in front of the place, and put a bullet through Lew Wallace?"

Answer: Check back next month!

Last month's question: Name the famous British actress who became an anti-slavery plantation owner.

Last month's answer: Fanny Kemble. In 1834, she retired from the stage to marry American Pierce Butler, heir to a large cotton, tobacco and rice fortune. They became slaveholders when Butler inherited his grandfather's sea island plantations along with several hundred slaves. Fanny accompanied him to Georgia during the winter of 1838-39, and was shocked by the conditions of the slaves and their treatment. It was the main reason for their divorce ten years later. Fanny returned to acting in order to make a living, but remained close to her two daughters, one of whom became the mother of novelist Owen Wister. Butler squandered a fortune estimated at $700,000, but was saved from bankruptcy by the sale of his 436 slaves at Ten Broeck racetrack, outside Savannah, Georgia, the largest single slave auction in American history.

More Trivia

 

46. Describe a "Squibb Pannier." (show/hide answer)

45. Who was the youngest general in the Civil War? (show/hide answer)

44. How many soldiers were killed at the battle of Ft. Sumter? (show/hide answer)

43. Who was the first black war correspondent? (show/hide answer)

42. What state was described as, "too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum?" (show/hide answer)

41. What are the State of Illinois' three nicknames? (show/hide answer)

40. Who was the biggest fool on April Fool's Day of 1865? (show/hide answer)

39. Who defined an honest politician as someone who, "once bought, stays bought"? (show/hide answer)

38. What was known as a "shinplaster?" (show/hide answer)

37. Name another member of the Lincoln family who served as president. (show/hide answer)

36. Name the two songs known best to General Ulysses S. Grant. (show/hide answer)

35. Who said, "No pack of whining, snarling, ill-fed, vagabond street dogs ... ever more strongly produced the impression of forlorn, outcast, helpless, hopeless misery." (show/hide answer)

34. Who was known as the dictator of Congress? (show/hide answer)

33. Who called baseball "America's game"?. (show/hide answer)

32. Who was known as the "Calico Colonel"? (show/hide answer)

31. Why did Stagger Lee shoot Billy--AND--what's that got to do with Civil War history? (show/hide answer)

30. What is an FFV? (show/hide answer)

29. What was Abraham Lincoln’s first official act as President? (show/hide answer)

28. Who said, “Lee should have been hanged”? Extra credit if you can tell us why, where, and when it was said. (show/hide answer)

27. What did Abraham Lincoln refer to as being both made up of “bean poles and corn stalks,” as well as “the most remarkable structure that human eyes ever rested upon.” (show/hide answer)

26. In 1862, why was Abraham Lincoln’s October salary less than it was in September? (show/hide answer)

25. What was a “hire badge”? (show/hide answer)

24. President Lincoln ordered work on the capitol dome to continue throughout the Civil War as a symbol of the Union…NOT! We learned this is just another Civil War urban legend. What was the real reason work continued? (show/hide answer)

23. A prize to the reader who visits the new Smithsonian Associates CivilWarStudies.org web page and can identify the most photographs in our new logo! (show/hide answer)

22. Name the individual who was once a slave to the attorney who prosecuted the Dred Scott case in St. Louis, and later worked in the Lincoln White House. (show/hide answer)

21. Who is buried in the largest mausoleum in North America? (show/hide answer)

20. Who was known as the "Cleopatra of the Confederacy"? (show/hide answer)

19. What is a "doggery"? (show/hide answer)

18. Name the ex-Union general who motivated Jesse & Frank James along with the Younger Brothers, to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota in 1876. (show/hide answer)

17. Confederate dynamite couldn't blow it up and it still stands today. What now threatens to destroy the Monocacy Aqueduct? (show/hide answer)

16. How many times was Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest wounded during the Civil War? (show/hide answer)

15. For what was Civil War Colonel Charles Ellet most famous? (show/hide answer)

14. Among the possessions found with John Wilkes Booth when he was captured were photographs of five women. Who were they? (show/hide answer)

13. Where is Traveler? (show/hide answer)

12. What is a sockdolager? (show/hide answer)

11. Who is the only Confederate general with a statue in the District of Columbia? (show/hide answer)

10. Who said, "The office of the President of the United States is not fit for a gentleman!"? (show/hide answer)

09. Which Civil War general was nicknamed "Kill Cavalry"? (show/hide answer)

08. He had an unusual and renown Civil War career, but for what is Holt Collier most famous? (show/hide answer)

07. Who said Sir Walter Scott was the cause of the Civil War? (show/hide answer)

06. Who did both Northern and Southern soldiers call the "graybacks"? (show/hide answer)

05. How did Pea Patch Island get its name? (show/hide answer)

04. (In commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the August 2, 1861 passage of the first income tax legislation): How did the Form 1040 get its name? (show/hide answer)

03. What is the origin of the word "deadline?" (show/hide answer)

02. What was the original name proposed for the State of West Virginia? (show/hide answer)

01. What is the origin of the word Antietam? (show/hide answer)


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