Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About These Obscure Facts of the Civil War?

Q#1 – While rifles and cannons were the deadliest weapons during the war, disease killed more men. Camps became breeding grounds for measles, chicken pox, and mumps. One million Union solders contracted which disease?

Q#2 – What was the age of the youngest soldier in the Civil War who came from Mississippi? What was the age of the oldest soldier in the Civil War who came from Iowa?

Q#3 – What was the original name for Memorial Day?

Q#4 – A Union prison camp had two observation towers constructed for onlookers. Citizens paid 15 cents to look at the inmates. Concession stands by the towers sold peanuts, cakes, and lemonade while the men inside starved. What was the prison camp’s name?

Q#5 – The Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg is known for what bloody statistic?

Q#6 – During the Civil War, more Civil War soldiers died from what disease than were killed in battle?

Q#7 – What happened to President Lincoln’s personal copy of the Emancipation Proclamation that would be worth millions if it were still in existence today?

Q#8 – General George Gordon Meade was the victor at the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle ever fought in North America. Where was Meade born?

Q#9 – An estimated four million slaves lived in the South by 1860. What was their estimated worth at the time?

Q#10 – What was the name of not only the first woman surgeon in U.S. Military history, but she was also the only woman in the Civil War to be awarded the Medal of Honor?

Q#11 – What was the criminal offense that produced over 100,000 Court Martials during the Civil War?

Q#12 – Although both the North and South did not allow women in the army, how many it is estimated actually fought disguised as men?

Q#13 – What were “Quaker guns”?

Q#14 – The first U.S. Medal of Honor was awarded during the Civil War on March 25, 1863. Who was it awarded to?

Q#15 – In 1860, which two states actually had more slaves than free people living in them?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About Medals Awarded in Connection with the Civil War?

Q#1 – How many Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to US Colored Troop army soldiers during the Civil War?

Q#2 – Most of the Medals of Honor awarded to US Colored Troop soldiers were the result of valorous actions in just one battle – what was the name of the battle?

Q#3 – Which Union general nominated more US Colored Troop soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor than any other?

Q#4 – How many Medals of Honor were awarded to African-Americans sailors of the union navy?

Q#5 – Most of the Medals of Honor awarded to African-Americans sailors of the Union Navy were the result of valorous actions in just one battle – what was the name of the battle?

Q#6 – How many Medals of Honor were awarded to US Colored Troop army soldiers during the Battle of Fort Wagner?

Q#7 – In total, how many Medals of Honor were awarded to African-Americans for actions during the Civil War?

Q#8 – Why is Mary Edwards Walker significant in terms of the Medal of Honor?

Q#9 – The first Medals of Honor were awarded for action in what engagement?

Q#10 – The youngest Medal of Honor recipient was how old during the engagement for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor?

Q#11 – How many medals for valor were awarded by the Confederate States?

Q#12 – What is the Confederate Medal of Honor?

Q#13 – Was the Purple Heart awarded to any Civil War participants?

Q#14 – What medal was awarded to both Union and Confederate soldiers?

Q#15 – How many Medals of Honor were awarded during the Civil War?

Civil War Quiz: “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” About the Civil War

Q#1 – Why did the combat death of Confederate Brigadier General Ben Hardin Helm result in him becoming the only Southerner to cause conspicuous mourning in Washington during the Civil War?

Q#2 – What was the name of the very famous Union General who, coming upon the mansion of a woman he had once courted, put the place under guard and left a message for his erstwhile sweetheart which read: “You once said that you would pity the man who would ever become my enemy. My answer was that I would ever protect and shield you. This I have done. Forgive me all else. I am but a soldier”?

Q#3 – What was the name of Mary Todd Lincoln’s closest confidant during the war and her principal comfort on the death of the president, who was also a black seamstress who had once been employed by Mrs. Jefferson Davis?

Q#4 – What was the name of the Union general who in 1861 had accompanied Abraham Lincoln on his journey from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington and in 1865 accompanied Lincoln’s body when it was returned to Springfield for burial?

Q#5 – What was Union Major General William T. Sherman’s estimated dollar amount worth of damage on Georgia resulting from his “March to the Sea”?

Q#6 – Confederate General John B. Hood lost his right leg at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863. In what country was his fine cork leg manufactured?

Q#7 – When some of his men cheered news of Lincoln’s assassination, what was the name of the Confederate general who became noticeably angry and shouted the following: “Shut those men up. If they don’t shut up, have them arrested”?

Q#8 – What wife of a most senior Union political official had three relatives that served in the Confederate Army?

Q#9 – What famous Confederate general lost 29 horses shot out from under him during the war, probably a world’s record?

Q#10 – During the War Between the States, what happened to Robert E. Lee’s hair?

Q#11 – Of the 245,000 wounds treated in Union hospitals during the Civil War, what number and percentage were inflicted by bayonet?

Q#12 – In 1860, what was the reason given by Federal ordnance officials for turning down the Spencer repeating breech-loading rifle?

Q#13 – What makes 70-year old Hugh McVey, who served in Company D, 4th Kentucky Infantry in the Confederate Army, and was killed at Shiloh an oddity in the Civil War? (Hint: Think something European.)

Q#14 – As the armies from both sides surged to and fro in the Northern Shenandoah Valley, how many times did the town of Winchester, Virginia, change hands during the war?

Q#15 – Of the 425 Confederate generals, 77 were killed or died of wounds during the war. What is the name of the last surviving general of the Southern armies who lived until 1914 and whose son and namesake was killed as a general in World War II?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About Union Admirals David Dixon Porter and David Farragut?

Q#1 – David Farragut was the first person to reach three ranks in the United States Navy. What were the titles of these ranks?

Q#2 – Who was David Dixon Porter’s adoptive brother?

Q#3 – When David Porter began his naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 years, what was the name of the relative he served under?

Q#4 – After the war, David Farragut oversaw the construction of the first U.S. Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. What was the name of this base?

Q#5 – In 1824, Farragut was placed in command of USS Ferret and served in the Mosquito Fleet. What was the purpose of this fleet?

Q#6 – As part of the Navy Department’s plans to open the Mississippi River during the Civil War, what where the names of the two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River that Porter bombarded beginning on April 18, 1862?

Q#7 – In February, 1862, as part of the Union “Anaconda Plan”, what was the name of the command that Farragut was given command of?

Q#8 – The March 15, 1863, attack on Port Hudson failed and resulted in Farragut’s flotilla incurring heavy damage to his warships because of what unilateral decision made by Farragut?

Q#9 – Porter was not held in high regard by which of President Lincoln’s Cabinet secretaries who called Porter “a gas bag … blowing his own trumpet and stealing credit which belongs to others”?

Q#10 – What was the reason that Porter was not in favor of the March 1864 Red River Expedition led by General Nathaniel P. Banks?

Q#11 – On August 5, 1864, Farragut won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay and is famous for being quoted for the phrase “Damn the torpedoes….. full speed ahead”. What incident during the battle caused Farragut to make this statement?

Q#12 – By late summer 1864, what was the name of the only Confederate port open for running the blockade that Porter was ordered to close?

Q#13 – As part of the January 13, 1865, attack on Fort Fisher, Porter imposed what new methods of bombardment for his warships?

Q#14 – In 1890 Porter became the founding president of what organization?

Q#15 – What was the name of Farragut’s last active naval command and what special honor was he accorded after he retired?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About Civil War Battlefield Preservation and National Cemeteries?

Q#1 – When did the U.S. Congress authorize the creation of military burial places during the Civil War?

Q#2 – What were the first three efforts at Civil War memorialization during the war itself?

Q#3 – What battlefield and cemetery that were established in 1862, but title to the land was not transferred to the War Department until 1877?

Q#4 – Who began erecting markers on battlefields beginning with the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861?

Q#5 – What is the oldest surviving monument Civil War monument and where is it located?

Q#6 – In the 1890s, the United States government established five Civil War battlefield parks under the jurisdiction of the War Department. Two were: Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland and Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania; what were the other three?

Q#7 – The modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement began in 1987 with the founding of what organization?

Q#8 – In 1991, the original Civil War Trust organization was initially created in the mold of what other organization?

Q#9 – From 1987 through late 2017, the Civil Trust and its predecessor organizations saved more than 40,000 acres at how many Civil War battlefields and sites in 21 states?

Q#10 – The American Civil War was the defining event in our nation’s history. Between 1861 and 1865 approximately how many battles and engagements were fought across the continent from Vermont to the New Mexico Territory, and beyond?

Q#11 – Starting in 1991, what event caused interest in the Civil War to soar and led to major donations to various preservation battlefield organizations?

Q#12 – Whose efforts 25 years after the Civil War resulted in the creation of these national military parks: Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Chickamauga?

13 – In the mid-1890s, what planned action led to a Supreme Court decision that established the government’s right to acquire and condemn land in the interest of historic preservation?

Q#14 – What was the “Antietam Plan” that was developed in the second half of the 19th Century related to how battlefield preservation specifications were defined?

Q#15 – What is thought to be the first monument to be erected on a Civil War battlefield?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy?

Q#1 – When and where did the term “Lost Cause” first appear?

Q#2 – What was the objective of the “Lost Cause”?

Q#3 – Why were so many white Southerners devastated economically, emotionally, and psychologically by the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865?

Q#4 – How did believers in the “Lost Cause” explain the Confederate defeat?

Q#5 – How did many who advocated the virtues of the “Lost Cause” portray the slavery system?

Q#6 – What purpose did these Southern memorial associations such as the United Confederate Veterans, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Ladies Memorial Associations have in advancing the concepts of the “Lost Cause”?

Q#7 – How did proponents of the “Lost Cause” movement view the Reconstruction that followed the Civil War?

Q#8 – The 1881 publication of “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government” by Jefferson Davis, a two-volume defense of the Southern cause, provided what important justification in the history of the Lost Cause?

Q#9 – How did Robert E. Lee indirectly help in advancing the beliefs central to the “Lost Cause”?

Q#10 – Confederate Memorial Literary Society (CMLS), founded by elite white women in Richmond, Virginia, in the 1890s, established the Confederate Museum. What was the main purpose of the Museum?

Q#11 – What was the primary role of The United Daughters of the Confederacy as it related to the “Lost Cause”?

Q#12 – What was one method employed by The United Daughters of the Confederacy that helped promulgate the Lost Cause’s ideology?

Q#13 – What financial and economic action did proponents of the “Lost Cause” initiate to help reduce the severe poverty prevalent in the South after the Civil War?

Q#14 – In October 1875, the second son of General Robert E. Lee made the following statement at the Annual Meeting of the Virginia Division: “I object to the phrase too often used—South as well as North—that the Confederates fought for what they thought was right. They fought for what they knew was right. They, like the Greeks, fought for home, the graves of their sires, and their native land”. What was this person’s name?

Q#15 – “Lost Cause” advocates viewed Confederate generals such as Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson as representing the virtues of Southern nobility and fought bravely and fairly. How did these same people view Northern generals?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About These Civil War Authors and Historians?

Q#1 – Who was the American historian, noted for his writing on the American Civil War, who was widely acclaimed for his book on The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856, which is still considered one of the most important books ever written on 19th-century American politics?

Q#2 – Who was the author who, in 1988, published his Pulitzer-winning book Battle Cry of Freedom?

Q#3 – This famous Civil War author and historian was inspired by his planter grandfather, who had died two years before his birth. Who was he?

Q#4 – After the publication of Captain Sam Grant (1950) by historian and biographer Lloyd Lewis, who wrote the second and third volumes of this trilogy?

Q#5 – Who is this author who has long been considered a leading authority on the Reconstruction Era of American history as evidenced by his seminal essay in American Heritage in October 1982?

Q#6 – The founding executive director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies research and education center is also considered the preeminent scholar on Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Who is he?

Q#7 – What well renowned Civil War historian made this profound quote: “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of the Blacks, both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910”?

Q#8 – This famous author and Civil War historian won the 2005 Lincoln Prize (for the best book about the American Civil War) for her 2005 book about Abraham Lincoln’s presidential cabinet. Part of the book was adapted by Tony Kushner into the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film Lincoln. Who is she?

Q#9 – Who is the Bay Area author who wrote Brady’s Civil War Journal: Photographing the War, 1861-65?

Q#10 – This famous Civil War author’s initial interest in the history of the Civil War first began after an eighth grade school field trip to the Gettysburg battlefield. Who is he?

Q#11 – Who is this now deceased famous Civil War author and historian who is attributed to this quote: “The point I would make is that the novelist and the historian are seeking the same thing: the truth – not a different truth: the same truth – only they reach it, or try to reach it, by different routes?

Q#12 – This famous Civil War historian was named Chief Historian of the National Park Service, a position he held until 1994. From 1994 to 1995, he served as special assistant to the director. After his retirement in 1995, he received the title Chief Historian Emeritus, which he holds to this day. What is his name?

Q#13 – Civil War Times (formerly Civil War Times Illustrated) is a history magazine published bi-monthly that covers the American Civil War. It was established in 1962 by whom?

Q#14 – Who is this American documentarian known for his style of using archival footage and photographs in his films?

Q#15 – Which Civil War historian served for nine years as co-chairman of the United States Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, appointed to the commission by President Bill Clinton in 2000, and elected co-chair by his fellow commissioners?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About the Presidential Election of 1860?

Q#1 – Why didn’t incumbent President James Buchanan run for re-election in 1860?

Q#2 – The Republican Party replaced what then defunct political party as the major opposition to the Democrats?

Q#3 – The Constitutional Union Party replaced what two political parties?

Q#4 – The Republican Party held its nominating convention in Chicago. What was the name of the temporary wood-frame assembly hall it was held in?

Q#5 – Lincoln’s nomination at the Republican Party’s convention was a surprise. Who was the favorite before the convention was held?

Q#6 – There were two Democratic National Conventions in 1860; why?

Q#7 – In what city were the two 1860 Democratic National Conventions held?

Q#8 – Abraham Lincoln was the Republican Party nominee; Stephen Douglas was the Northern Democratic Party nominee. Who were the nominees for the Southern Democratic and Constitutional Union parties?

Q#9 – Hannibal Hamlin was Lincoln’s VP running mate. What was the name of Stephen A. Douglas’s VP running mate?

Q#10 – What were some of the critical key differences between modern presidential elections and those of the mid-nineteenth century?

Q#11 – What was the main campaign platform that Stephen Douglas, the Northern Democrat’s presidential candidate, ran on?

Q#12 – What was the only state in which Stephen A. Douglas won the Electoral College vote?

Q#13 – Percentage wise, the voter turnout for the 1860 presidential election was the highest in American history up to that time; what was the percent?

Q#14 – What percentage of the popular vote did Lincoln win?

Q#15 – Abraham Lincoln, the endorsed Republican candidate for President, didn’t even appear on ten states’ ballots in 1860. What were those states?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About the Funeral and Burial of Abraham Lincoln?

Q#1 – After being assassinated, where was Lincoln’s body first laid in state?

Q#2 – A catafalque was hastily constructed to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln while the president’s body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC. What happened to that catafalque after Lincoln’s body was removed?

Q#3 – At the funeral service in Washington DC, who offered the sermon and also a prayer and benediction, which moved many listeners to tears?

Q#4 – Lincoln was laid in State in 12 locations; which two locations that were located in the same state are missing from this list: Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, Harrisburg, PA, Philadelphia, PA, New York City, Albany, NY, Buffalo, NY, Indianapolis, IN, Chicago, IL, and Springfield, IL?

Q#5 – What name was given to Lincoln’s funeral train which had his portrait fastened to the front of the engine above the cattle guard?

Q#6 – What was the purpose of the pilot train that preceded Lincoln’s funeral train?

Q#7 – Why did Lincoln’s funeral train take the 1654 mile route that it did?

Q#8 – Why was Lincoln’s funeral train limited to 20 miles an hour?

Q#9 – In addition to Lincoln’s body, there was a second body on the funeral train; whose body was it?

Q#10 – Why did Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln remain at the White House and not travel on the funeral train?

Q#11 – The funeral procession in New York City had the most number of horses of all the processions used to draw Lincoln’s hearse – how many horses were used?

Q#12 – During Lincoln’s funeral procession in New York City, what future US President watched the procession with his grandfather?

Q#13 – What was the name of the cemetery in Springfield, IL, where Lincoln was interred?

Q#14 – What happened to the railroad car that so famously carried Lincoln’s body to its final resting place?

Q#15 – In November 1876, why did Chicago counterfeiter James “Big Jim” Kennally plan to steal Lincoln’s body?

Civil War Quiz: What Do You Know About Foreign Involvement in the Civil War?

Q#1 – Why were the vast majority of European nations extremely cautious when dealing with the United States of America during the Civil War, usually attempting to remain neutral during its duration?

Q#2 – What global decree did the United States Government issue at the beginning of the Civil War?

Q#3 – What was the main reason behind Great Britain’s considering to become involved in the American Civil War?

Q#4 – On May 13, 1861, what proclamation was issued by Great Britain’s Queen Victoria regarding the American Civil War?

Q#5 – Where was a vast majority of the Confederate Navy built?

Q#6 – During the early period of the Civil War, there was increasing sentiment for Great Britain to join the American Civil War in favor of the Confederate States of America. What event prevented this?

Q#7 – What action did the Confederate government threatened England and France with if they did not assist them in the war?

Q#8 – What was the official position of France regarding any possible involvement in the Civil War?

Q#9 – Why did many French industrialists and politicians wish for a quick Confederate victory?

Q#10 – Under the orders of Emperor Napoleon III, French troops landed in Mexico in December 1861 for trade and plans of a transoceanic canal. What was the position of the Federal government regarding the French action? What was the position of the Confederate government regarding the French action?

Q#11 – What deal did the Confederate delegate in Paris, John Slidell, offer to Napoleon III in exchange for French recognition of the Confederate States and naval help sent to break the blockade?

Q#12 – The Confederate delegate John Slidell succeeded in negotiating a loan of $15,000,000 that was used to buy ironclad warships as well as military supplies that came in by blockade runners. Who loaned the Confederacy the money?

Q#13 – What was the name of the ironclad that in keeping with its official neutrality, the French government blocked the sale of to the Confederacy in February 1864?

Q#14 – Czarist Russia initially showed support for the North. What military action did they perform in support of the Northern war effort?

Q#15 – What action did the Federal government attempt to pursue that involved the Netherlands?