More Civil War Connections and Characters Quiz

Answer: Edmund J. Ruffin, Virginia

Ruffin was an ardent seccessionist from South Carolina and a flame throwing newspaper writer adamantly against staying in the Union. When it was all over, he said he'd refuse to live under Yankee rule and one warm June day in 1865 on his front porch took his own life.

Rhett was another "fire-eater", an outspoken pro-seccession landowner from South Carolina. Called the "Father of Seccession", his home in Beaufort, SC is on the list of historically preserved homes in a lovely historically preserved town. It has been converted into a hotel and a pleasant evening dining on the verandah can be had in the "fire-eater's" home.

Robert Rodes was a CSA general killed in the fighting at Winchester VA in 1864 and is buried in Lynchburg VA not far from old Jubal Early's gravesite.

Thomas Rosser was a CSA cavalry general and a good friend of his classmate at West Point, George Custer, until they ran into each other in several fights in the Shenandoah Valley and at the end of the War in and around Appomattox.

Answer: False

Henry Wirz, the commandant of the Andersonville prison in Georgia as of January 1864 to the end of the war, was from Switzerland. Oddly enough, there is a statue in the Andersonville town center in Wirz's memory.

Answer: Genuine chamber pots with Butler's face painted on the inside bottom.

Also known as "the Beast", Butler was pilloried for his proclamation as Commander of garrisoned New Orleans warning that ladies of New Orleans would be called "women of the evening" if they didn't stop dumping chamberpots from balconies onto Union soldiers walking the streets of New Orleans. Following that unwise event, chamberpots with Butler's face painted on the interior bottom were readily available.

Several historians felt that Butler's brother was actually the driving force behind stealing silverware and other valuables from New Orleans mansions during their stay there.

Butler did order the execution of the first civilian in the civil war, one William Mumford, who took down the Union flag from City Hall in New Orleans. Muford's gravesite still has Confederate flags placed on it in one of New Orleans' several above-ground cemeteries.

Answer: Athens, Georgia

The only remaining double cannon used to be at Five Points, in Athens, Georgia. It was relocated to the Town Hall in the center of Athens.

The device never really worked, as it was impossible to get each cannon to fire at the same time to effect the sweeping chain that would mow down the Yankees. Instead, one fired after the other, making the balls sweep around the cannon with the chain flying. After decapitating several Confederate cannoneers, the project was shelved.

Answer: Thomas Francis Meagher

BG Meagher, USA, was born near Waterford, Ireland, and was one of the most outspoken, gritty Irishmen of them all.

MG Patrick Cleburne, CSA, from near Cork, Ireland, was killed on one of the disastrous charges at the battle of Franklin, in Tennessee, and is buried under a suitable monument in Helena, Arkansas.

MG Richardson, USA, was not from Ireland, was mortally wounded at Antietam, and is buried in Pontiac, Michigan.

MG Kemper, USA, was neither in the Irish Brigade nor was he of Irish descent. WOunded at Gettysburg, he was in fact the Speaker of the Virginia House before the War, and did like to blarney.

Answer: Franklin Gardner and John Pemberton

Pemberton was from Pennsylvania and commanded the besieged CSA garrison at Vicksburg. His surrender of the starving Confederates on July 4, 1863, followed the Gettysburg victory and the war took a Union direction.

Gardner was from New York and commanded the CSA troops at Port Hudson. Following the surrender of Vicksburg, Gardner surrendered the troops at Port Hudson, which then opened the Mississippi, as Lincoln said "unvexed to the sea".

Both were the targets of venomous attacks as being pro-Union because they were former Yankees fighting in Confederate gray.

All the other answer choices were in fact native northerners who chose to fight for the south and rose to general officer level.

Answer: Herman Haupt

Herman Haupt was one of those "reasons why the North won". He created - often against objections and tomfoolery on the part of high ranking general officers - a smoothly run, efficient railroad support system, something of which the south could only dream. He resigned the BG commission which he was awarded in 1862 a year later, to return to private life. He was as distinguished a character as any in the War.

Hayes was the Colonel of the 23rd Ohio, later BG and brevet MG, and, of course, a future president.

Hunt was the chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac and later as MG was in charge of the siege at Petersburg through the end of the war.

Alexander Hays held various high level commands during the war beginning as a captain and ending as a brevet MG following his death at the Wilderness. A fine statue of him stands at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Answer: University of Georgia Football Stadium, Athens, GA

TRR Cobb and his brother Howell Cobb, a one-time candidate for the presidency of the Confederacy and member of the provisonal confederate congress, as well as a commissioned MG in the CSA, are both buried near each other in Oconee Hill Cemetery, a short walk from the 100,000 seat University of Georgia Bulldog football stadium in Athens, GA.

Ty Cobb is buried in Royston, GA.

Answer: He buried his son right outside the back door of Robert E, Lee's former home in Arlington.

Meigs was responsible for initiating and beginning the National Military Cemeteries during the war. The first large one was literally begun in the front and rear yard of Lee's former mansion in Arlinton, VA. Now known as Arlington National Cemetery, one of the first (and most touchingly beautiful) gravesites was that of his own son, killed by Confederate guerilla action in October, 1864.

The grave is about 50 feet from the back door of the former Lee home.

Answer: Jubal Early

Early was an unrepentant reb who fled to Mexico and came back determined to make some money. After retiring back to his home in Lynchburg, VA, where he was sitting in a chair when his house literally fell down on top of him, unhurt he went on to live the rest of his life cussing, a bachelor, and refusing to have anything to do with anyone or anything in the north. He is buried in Lynchburg.

John Bell Hood was a full general, not a Lt. General, who returned to New Orleans with only one arm and one leg and got into various businesses other than the Lottery. He died in one of the New Orleans frequent yellow fever disasters, and is buried in Metairie Cemetery, in a suburb of New Orleans.

Braxton Bragg was also a full general, not a Lt. General, and spent his time between Mobile and New Orleans, but not in the Louisiana Lottery except as a gambler. Most of the rest of his life he spent defending his CSA career against all odds.

N. B. Forrest went back to Memphis after the war, got rich again in land development and lumber, and for a while was the head of the Ku Klux Klan. That became too violent even for a violent man like him and he lived out his life a vibrant member of the Lost Cause.