Ten New WBTS Questions Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1865

Although 1865 was one of the shortest years of the War it was the most deadly for the prisoners at Camp Chase. Overcrowding in Union prisons became common toward the end of the War, especially with the lack of frequent prisoner exchanges. The winter of 1864-65 was also one of the coldest on record. On January 27, 1865 the local Columbus newspaper reported 18 degrees below zero.

The massive number of soldiers dying in Southern prisons also encouraged poor treatment of the Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons.

Answer: Five corpses were stolen from their graves and sold

During Thanksgiving night of November 24th 1864, Dr. Joab R. Flowers, a civilian physician and others were arrested by the Camp Commander Colonel Richardson for stealing Confederate corpses from the Camp Chase Cemetery. The bodies were sold to a medical college for the purposes of anatomical dissection.

The corpses of A.J. Hensley, Thomas Stephens, Hiram Bland, John Lester and Jonathan Lindley were stolen and never returned. The arrested parties never faced trial. In 1876 Dr. J.R. Flowers was elected as a Columbus City Councilman for Ward 3. To this day the five Confederates bodies and tombstones are missing from the cemetery.

This event marked the first documented case of body snatching in the Civil War.

Answer: The letters still exist but have never been mailed

Lottie Moon Clark, a Confederate spy, was also a letter runner. She left Ohio without the letters after finding that a warrent had been issued for her arrest. The letters stayed in Columbus, Ohio until 1948 when they were given to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia, where they have remained ever since.

Answer: Black Confederate soldier

The first military monument in the U.S. capital honoring an African-American soldier is the Confederate monument at Arlington National cemetery. The monument was designed in 1914 by Moses Ezekiel, a Jewish Confederate.

Answer: Vice-President Cheney

Lt. Cheney was a member of the 21st Ohio Infantry. One of the soldiers that he would command was Thomas Custer (brother of George) who later would be awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor. The battle of Chickamauga cut the 21st Ohio to pieces yet they held until ordered to retreat. Some companies within the regiments had little more than a dozen soldiers left.

Answer: Alexander T. Stewart

Though an immigrant, Alexander T. Stewart's fortune was well known during the War. He owned, among other things, Stewart and Company and had department stores across the world. The largest of these in North America was known as the "Marble Palace", built in 1846 and located in in Lower Manhattan, in what has come to be known at the Tribeca district.

It covered a city block and was six stories high. Such people as Mary Todd Lincoln often visited his stores. In fact Mary Todd Lincoln ran up a bill of $27,000. One problem for the Lincoln's is that the President only earned $25,000 a year as President! Stewart is reported to have paid five million dollars in income tax in 1864. Stewart gave General Grant $100,000 in gifts after the War. In 1868 President Grant nominated Stewart as his Secretary of Treasury but he was turned down by Congress. Stewart died in 1876 and some of his fortune went to the Hilton family.

Answer: Ambrose Burnside

In the early 1850s, when asked if she would take Lt. Burnside as her husband, she replied "No siree Bob, I won't" and left him at the alter. While carrying dispatches through the lines Mrs. Clark was questioned. She demanded to be taken to the commanding general and have the matter settled. As fate would have it, Lottie stood face to face with General Burnside once again.

Answer: He had been one of Santa Anna's enlisted soldiers at the Alamo

We don't consider Alamo survivors to be Mexican and some soldiers of Santa Anna's Army went on to become good Texans and Americans. After the Civil War Francisco Becerra became a police officer in Brownsville, Texas. In 1876 Mr. Becerra was shot dead by a drunk.

Answer: Harry McCarthy

Although born in Ireland Mr. McCarthy moved to America in 1849. He and his wife performed in the South and just prior to the War wrote one of the best known Confederate songs of the War. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" The song and McCarthy were an overnight hit.

Answer: Stonewall Jackson

According to the book "Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House" by Elizabth Keckley published in 1868, Mrs. Keckley was a dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln and her confidante. On page 137 of her book she states that President Lincoln said that "Jackson was his ideal soldier".

She quotes him as saying, "He is a brave, honest Presbysterian soldier," and also "What a pity that we should have to fight such a gallant fellow! If we only had such a man to lead the armies of the North, the country would not be appalled with so many disasters."