Weapons of the Civil War Trivia Quiz

Answer: Greek Fire

In his application, Short stated that he used saltpeter, charcoal, asphaltum, antimony, sulphur, and naphtha. These he mixed in copper lined wooden tanks and allowed the mixture to rest two or three days to separate liquids from solids. The liquids would then be skimmed off the top and added to any fibrous vegetable material and added to an explosive shell. Looking through "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" Series 1, Volume 28 (Part 1), on page 33 we see that Mr. Short's version of Greek Fire appears to have been used against Charleston.

Answer: Swamp Angel

The Swamp Angel was one of the most famous of Parrot Rifles. It was among the artillery pieces General Gilmore had set up in preparation for the bombardment of Charleston and was manned by a detachment of the 11th Maine Volunteer Infantry. During its brief use, the Swamp Angel fired some 35 or 36 rounds into Charleston, these being incendiary rounds.

In a report from Brigadier General John Turner on page 219 of the "The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" Series 1, Volume 28 (Part 1) it is revealed these rounds may have been Greek Fire rounds.

As this same volume makes mention of Levi Short having visited Morris Island prior to the bombardment to alter how the incendiary shells were filled it is possible it was his Greek Fire formula that was used for these incendiary rounds. On the 35 or 36th shot the Swamp Angel burst, rendering it unusable.

Answer: Naval mines

The modern self-propelled torperdo was invented by British inventor Robert Whitehead in 1866, too late to actually be used in the Civil War. Railroad torpedoes are small warning devices that are set off by a train rolling over them that were originally invented in the early 1840s in Britain. Farragut was aboard the USS Hartford, his flagship during the Battle of Mobile Bay, when he is supposed to have said this phrase so it's highly unlikely he would have been worried about railroad torpedoes. And the genus Torpedo is a genus of rays known as torpedo rays or electric rays which live on the sea floor.

The term torpedo was used during the Civil War to refer to both naval mines and land mines. Confederate General Gabriel Rains first used land torpedoes at the Battle of Yorktown in 1862. His Rains mines, mechanically triggered land mines, would be the predominant land torpedo used by the Confederacy during the war. But the naval torpedo is the better known of the two basic types of mines. And these came into two basic types, the stationary torpedo and the spar torpedo. The spar torpedo was a bomb attacked to a long pole, or spar. The spar would then be rammed into enemy ships at the water line so as to bring the torpedo up to the ships hull. The attacking vessel would then back off and detonate the torpedo. The most famous use of a spar torpedo was by the H.L. Hunley in sinking the USS Housatonic, the first successful submarine attack in history. Stationary mines were used to try to prevent Federal ships from entering Confederate bays or rivers. The USS Cairo was the first ship sunk by a naval mine in the war.

Answer: Burnside Carbine

In his book "Civil War Blunders" author Clint Johnson lists the breach-loading Burnside Carbine as a blunder. Or rather, he states that early models of this weapon were blunders. They used Maynard priming tape, which Johnson compares to modern toy cap guns, and did not include a wooden forestock.

The priming tape was prone to jamming after a few shots, and even if the priming tape didn't jam, the barrel would overheat and be too hot to hold even with gloves. These problems would be fixed in latter versions of the carbine and the Burnside Carbine would go on to be the third most commonly used carbine in the Federal cavalry.

Answer: Hand grenades

There were many different types of hand grenades during the war. Some were nothing more than exploding artillery rounds; the soldiers would light the fuse on and then let roll among enemy troops. Others could be a bit more complicated. The Haynes, or Hanes, Excelsior hand grenade was a softball sized spherical grenade composed of inner and outer shells. The inner shell was studded with nipples for percussion caps. Two arm it, soldiers would unscrew the two halves of the metal outer shell and then place the percussion caps on the nipples before closing the outer shell and throwing the grenade. Impact between the outer shell and any of the percussion caps was supposed to detonate the grenade. Because of this, the Excelsior was just as dangerous to the user as their intended target.

The Ketchum was something of a more reliable grenade and the most widely used by Federal troops. It consisted of an ovoid shell, a percussion plunger nose, and stabilizing fins in the rear. The Ketchum came in 1, 3, and 5 pound versions, some sources even list a 2 and 7 pound version. The greatest defect of the Ketchum was that if it did not land at just the right angle the plunger would not be triggered and it could then be thrown back at the troops that had originally thrown it. The Confederate Rains grenade may have been a copy of the Ketchum grenade.

Answer: Dictator

At about 17,120 pounds, the Dictator was so heavy that it had to be mounted on a specially reinforced rail car. Like other 13-in. seacoast mortars it was able to lob a 200-220 pound shell between two and two and a half miles. Used during the Siege of Petersburg, it had to be set up on a stretch of curved track. Each time it was fired it would move the rail car between 10 and 12 feet.

Despite its range, it was only used for just over two months as smaller Coehorn mortars proved more effective.

Answer: Napoleon

Officially the Model 1857 Napoleon or the 12-pounder Napoleon, this smoothbore cannon was first developed in France in 1853. The name Napoleon was not a reference to Napoleon Bonapart, but rather to his nephew Napoleon III. Experienced crews were said to be able to fire three shots a minute with this cannon. Napoleons may have made up between 36% and 39% of all Federal artillery pieces at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Model 1857 was a hybrid gun-howitzer; it was slightly smaller and lighter than earlier 12-pounder guns yet took the same powder charge.

It's ability to fire shot, case shot, shells, and canister shot made it a good all round field piece and it was considered unsurpassed as a short range anti-personnel weapon.

Answer: False

Quaker guns weren't true weapons at all but rather a form of deception. A Quaker gun was nothing more than a log painted black and mounted on wheels that were used to fool Federal forces into thinking Confederate artillery was stronger than it really was on various battlefields. It was the press that gave them their name, referencing the Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, due to their pacifistic nature. Quaker Guns have been cited among the Confederate deceptions that helped to cause McClellan to overestimate the size of the forces he faced.

Though in the US they are perhaps best associated with the Civil War, a Quaker Gun was used December 4, 1780 at Rugeley's Mill, SC to capture Loyalist forces. The American commander, Colonel William Washington (George Washington's second cousin), lacked proper artillery, so out of sight of the Loyalist commander, Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his forces, he had his men prepare a log to look like a cannon. This was then aimed at the buildings. Already surrounded and believing themselves under threat of having this Quaker Gun fired at them, the men at Rugeley surrendered. Washington may have only had 60 troops at this engagement, but the so called Quaker Gun Trick was the deciding factor of the engagement.

Answer: An ironclad railroad battery

During the Peninsula Campaign, with McClellan gaining control of the Richmond and York River Railroad and having blinds built to conceal his operations Lee turned to Confederate Chief of Ordnance Josiah Gorgas for help in constructing a railroad battery to counter potential railroad batteries he feared McClellan would be constructing. This operation was coordinated with the Confederate Navy and was designed by one of the principal designers in converting USS Merrimack to CSS Virginia, Lt. John M. Brooke. The result, called either the Dry Land Merrimack or the Land Merrimack, was constructed by the same yard that had converted the Merrimack in the Virginia, and was built to similar specifications as the casemate of the Virginia. Because of this its believed that the armor was similar to the Virginia's. It was armed with a single 32-pound cannon. Only the car carrying this battery had armor plating, the locomotive used to move the battery was unarmored with only cotton bales providing any kind of protection for the crew in the cab.

The Dry Land Merrimack saw it's only action at the Battle of Savage's Station. According to one Federal prisoner, the battery killed or wounded a hundred men and 30 horses. Lt. James E Barry commanded the Dry Land Merrimack in her only engagement with York River Railroad engineer N.S. Walker driving the locomotive. Barry ordered the battery to pull back only after she came under attack from a battery of Federal Parrot guns due to the locomotives lack of armor protection.

The Dry Land Merrimack was not the only example of railroad ironclads. Both sides would construct iron armored railroad cars.

Answer: Richard Gatling

Dr. Richard J. Gatling was born in Hertford County, NC in 1818, but was living in Indianapolis, Indiana when the war began. His Gatling gun was meant to actually reduce the number of soldiers on a battlefield by placing multiple barrels in a single gun. With six barrels in early models and needing only a handful of men to operate, the idea of reducing the number of troops on the battlefield, and therefore the number of men killed in battle, seems plausible. However, despite its potential the Gatling gun's biggest adversary was the head of the U.S. Army Ordnance Department, who refused to consider the weapon at all. Few Gatling Guns made their way into Army hands, those that did actually had to be purchased privately by field commanders. Major General Benjamin Butler purchased a dozen Gatling guns and 12,000 rounds for $12,000. Eyewitnesses claim he used them following his defeat at Drewry's Bluff in 1864 to cover his retreat. The Federal Navy showed more interest in the weapon, though even there few were purchased due to failures to mass produce the Gatling gun in significant numbers.

The Gatling gun is often considered the first machine gun, though it is more accurate to say that it is the forerunner of the modern machine gun. It was a hand cranked weapon whereas a true machine gun does not rely on external sources to maintain continuous firing. Still, the Gatling gun actually survives today as multi-barreled weapons such as the M61 Vulcan rotary cannon and the M134 Minigun are clearly descended from the Gatling gun.

Answer: George B. McClellan

All these men served in the Federal Army during the war, but only McClellan was an 1864 Presidential candidate. John Cochrane was the 1864 Vice Presidential candidate for the Radical Democrat Party. He commanded the 1st Brigade of the VI Corps' Third Division at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Both Benjamin Butler and Lovell Rousseau were Vice Presidential Candidates in the National Union Party and thus potential running mates to Lincoln. Lovell Rousseau raised the Louisville Leigon, the unofficial name of the 5th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment, early in the war which would help to keep Louisville from falling to the Confederates in September 1861. He would then go on to lead the 1st Brigade of the Army of the Ohio's Second Division at the Battle of Shiloh before becoming a divisional commander under George Thomas and then the Commander of the District of Tennessee forces during the Third Battle of Murfreesboro.

Butler is perhaps the best known of these three Vice Presidential candidates. He commanded Federal forces at the Battle of Big Bethel, which proved a defeat for the North. Then in August of 1861 he commanded the Army forces involved in the joint Army-Navy operations which took Forts Hatteras and Clark in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet, aka the Battle of Forts Hatteras and Clark, which would pave the way for Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina Expedition the following year. Butler would find himself put in charge of the occupation of New Orleans in 1862 before being given command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina in late 1863. This command would develop in the Army of the James which Butler would command until January 1865.

In a letter dated New Year's Eve 1851 General Winfield Scott submitted McClellan's "Manual of Bayonet Exercises" to Secretary of War Charles Magill Conrad with the recommendation that it should be made a part of the "System of Instruction". This manual shows that using a bayonet was not as simple as just putting it on the end of a musket and simply stabbing someone with it. It includes instruction on the various foot work used in using a bayonet, how to parry with a bayonet, fencing with a bayonet, how to conduct a fencing salute with a bayonet, even attacking with the butt of the musket.

Answer: Conical

Despite the name, the Minié ball was not ball shaped at all but rather conical. Developed by Claude-Étienne Minié for use in his Minié rifle, the Minié ball was a soft lead projectile that was designed to take advantage of the rifling in rifles and rifled muskets.

The hollow base of the Minié would expand to fit in the grooves of the rifling when the gun was fired, trapping more of the gasses behind the bullet and thus increasing muzzle velocity, which would also increase range. Because the grooves in rifling are in a spiral, this expansion would also help to impart spin to the bullet, helping to increase its accuracy.

Answer: False

Actually, a sword bayonet was a type of bayonet. Essentially, it was a kind of short sword with a socket in the cross-guard so as to be attached to a rifle or musket. Because of its dual nature it could be used as a bayonet or as a sword. They could not be used interchangeably with socket bayonets due to the fact that particular model rifles or muskets required a specific type of bayonet. Saber bayonets were also developed.

In 1864 the Federal government paid $5 to $7 for sword and saber bayonets.

A curved sword bayonet was often issued to Zouaves.

Answer: Attaching the bayonet

Attaching the bayonet was not one of the steps required in firing a rifled musket. Muskets were already heavy enough to begin with, the extra length and weight added by attaching a bayonet increased the difficulty in aiming the weapons.

To fire a rifled musket a soldier would first remove a paper cartridge from the cartridge box. They would then tear the cartridge with their teeth. Powder from the cartridge would then be poured into the barrel. This would be followed by inserting the bullet into the barrel. The soldier would then remove the ram rod from under the barrel. They would ram the charge down the barrel before returning the ram rod to its housing. Next they would half cock the hammer to expose the nipple. A percussion cap would then be taken from the cap pouch at their belt. The cap would be fitted over the nipple. Then the hammer would be fully cocked and the rifled musket would be ready to be fired.

Answer: Canister shot

Calipers were used for measuring time fuses, the caliber of the gun, the diameter of the shot. The lanyard was used to actually fire the cannon. Case shot, also referred to a shrapnel shot in "The 1864 Field Artillery Tactics" manual, was a thin walled metal ball with a busting charge designed to disperse a charge of musket balls.

The canister was a metal can attached to a sabot filled with either 27 metal balls when used in guns such as the 12-pound Napoleon smooth bore or 48 metal balls when used in howitzers. Sawdust would be packed around the balls. The canister was meant to be used against enemy troops at ranges of under 350 yards and would effectively turn the cannon into a giant shotgun.

Answer: Grape

Grapeshot, also known as grape and stand of grapes, was similar to canister shot, but was larger. The name derived from the fact that each stand looked like a bunch of grapes packed between two plates either wrapped in a cloth or canvas or bound by rings.

A central bolt held the plates together, keeping the balls in place. When fired the bolt would break free, sending the balls out in a shotgun effect. When used aboard ship grapeshot served not only as an antipersonnel weapon but to also destroy rigging and sails. Grapeshot was already a dated artillery round by the time the war started in 1861 and was being phased out in favor of canister.

Indeed the Federal Government had discontinued 12-pounder stand of grapes for prior to 1861, though both sides did produce grapeshot for heavy artillery.

Answer: False

The Colt Peacemaker was the Colt Single Action Army, also known as the Colt M1873 for the year it was adopted by the US Army. It was not developed until after the war and thus could not have been the favored handgun among Northern officers during the war.

However, a number of different Colt models were used by both sides during the war. These included the .36 caliber Colt M1851 Navy and M1861 Navy, the Colt M1860 Army, the Colt Dragoon, and the Colt Pocket Percussion.

Answer: Lance

The lance is more closely associated with the Middle Ages than with the Civil War as the changing nature of warfare in Europe in the 16th century had rendered the lance obsolete. Whereas heavy cavalry had once meant men on horseback charging forth with lances lowered, a new type of heavy cavalry was emerging in the 16th century. Reiter and Cuirassiers were replacing the older style units and their weapons of choice were firearms over lances. Meanwhile infantry units were adopting the use of a tactic known as pike and shot which combined troops armed with pikes (which ranged between 10 and 25 feet in length) and troops armed with firearms which would be arranged in formations known as pike squares. These pike squares further reduced the effectiveness of heavy cavalry armed with lances. This large led to the lance becoming a little used weapon on the battlefield for over a hundred to two hundred years.

But in the 18th century with the pike and body armor beginning to vanish from the battlefield due to the advances being made in firearms, the lance began to enjoy a revival. This revival would be most noticeable during the Napoleonic Wars of the 19th century as nearly all the major powers in Europe at the time began reintroducing the lance to the battlefield, using it as a shock and awe weapon. By the Crimean War in the 1850s, this revival was already on it's way out. Still, US cavalry tactics at the start of the Civil War were based on those of Europe, which meant that it was likely to include tactics that required the use of the lance. Despite this, only the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, also known as Rush's Lancers for its commander Colonel Richard Rush and its use of nine foot long lances early in the war, used the weapon.

It had been at the suggestion of General George B. McClellan in the fall of 1861 that the regiment would use lances. Ironically, McClellan was one of the few who had foreseen that while the tactics of cavalry lancers worked in Europe, they would be virtually useless in the wooded ground and narrow roads that would make up the battlefields of the Civil War. But McClellan's suggestion may have less an about face or an attempt to sabotage Rush and more an expediency. The regiment was formed in either the summer or the fall of 1861 and by the time they were being equipped the only weapon readily available for volunteer cavalry units was the lance. Rush had little choice. By the time Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began it's march that ultimately resulted in the Battle of Gettysburg, Rush's Lancers had traded their lances in for carbines.

Answer: What an infantry private in the North made in a month in 1861.

Infantry, artillery, and cavalry privates made a whopping $13 a month. That may not seem like much by today's standards, but it was in line with how people were being paid in the 1860s. A street car driver in the nation's capital made $1.50 a day in 1860. Going by today's five day work week, they would have made roughly $30 a month. Carpenters made $1.60 for a ten hour day in 1860, or $32 a month by today's standard. In 1863 female nurses made $12 a month. By 1864 female nurses in the Federal army were making 40 cents a day so they could be making anywhere from $11.20 a month (February 1865, February 1864 would have been $11.60) to $12.40 a month. From 1866-1877 a household scullery maid made $1 to $2 a week while a household cook made $2 to $10 a week. In the same period (1866-1877), professional firefighter's made $1,000 a year, which is roughly $83.33 a month.

Here's a brief list of how some of the Non-commissioned Officers and soldiers were being paid each month prior to 1864 according to the monthly pay table in "The 1865 Customs of Service for Non-commissioned Officers and Soldiers" handbook. Engineers and Ordnance Privates 2nd Class: $13. Engineers and Ordnance Privates 1st Class: $17. Artillery and infantry Corporals: $13. Cavalry Corporals: $14. Engineers and Ordnance Corporals: $20. Artillery and infantry Sergeants: $17. Cavalry Sergeants: $17. Engineers and Ordnance Sergeants: $34. On May 1, 1864 the Army raised the monthly pay, which Congress approved on June 20th of that year. Cavalry, artillery, and infantry Privates were paid $16 a month, Corporals $18 a month, and Sergeants $20 a month. Engineers and Ordnance Privates 2nd Class $16 a month, Privates 1st Class $18 a month.

Even though soldiers made so much each month, they did not see their full pay each month. For example, in 1861 privates only saw about $10.88 of their monthly pay. Each month $2 would be withheld until their term of service was over and an additional 12.5 cents would be withdrawn from their pay to support the Soldier's Home. This was a home for old and invalid retirees.

Answer: 2

USS Monitor was a revolutionary design in naval warfare. Prior to the Monitor ships mounted their main battery in broadside configuration. That is to say they mounted half their main battery on the port (left) side of the ship and the other half on the starboard (right) side. So if they had a twenty-four gun main battery, they could only bring twelve guns to bear against an enemy ship at one time.

But the Monitor's turret allowed for a smaller main battery while still being able to target ships on either side of the ship.

In the Monitor's case that battery was two 11-inch Dahlgren Smoothbore cannons. This has resulted in the Monitor's turret being referred to as a dual turret as there are only two guns within the turret. The turret also gave the Monitor the advantage of not having to turn the ship in order to aim the guns as the turret could be turned in any direction, thus allowing the Monitor to be maneuvered in any course the captain may choose while gunners could still bring those two cannon to bear.

Answer: Plymouth Rifles

The Whitney Navy Rifle, also called the Whitney 1861 Navy Percussion and the Plymouth Rifle, was a hand held rifle, not an artillery gun. As such they may have been distributed to a ship's crew but were not considered a part of the ship's armament. The name Plymouth Rifle comes from the fact that John Dahlgren, at the time a Commander in the Naval Ordnance Department, had the rifle tested aboard USS Plymouth before it was accepted by the Naval Ordnance Department.

Dahlgren guns were named after their designer, John Dahlgren. The same man who had tested the Whitney Navy Rifle aboard USS Plymouth. These smoothbore cannon were famously used on the North's monitor ship design, with a pair of 11-inch Dahlgrens used on the USS Monitor. Other monitor classes used 11-, 15-, and 20-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, some classes even using a mixture of different sizes.

Parrott rifles were used by both the Federal army and navy as well as. The most famous Parrot Rifle, as already mentioned in this quiz, was the army's Swamp Angel that was used as a part of the bombardment of Charleston. Parrots did see use aboard northern ironclads; the 8-inch, 150 pound Naval Parrott was used aboard the Onondaga and Roanoke classes of monitors. The riverine ironclad ram USS Lafayette had a pair of 100 pound, 6.4-inch, Parrott rifles in her armament while the riverine ironclad ram USS Choctaw may been armed with a pair of 30 pound, 4.2-inch, Parrott Rifles. Parrott Rifles were named for their designer, West Point graduate Captain Robert P. Parrott.

The James Rifles were in actuality former Army smoothbore cannon that had had their barrels rifled. However, some modern authorities state that such cannons were not true James Rifles. Such boring of the barrel actually weakened the gun and made the barrel prone to bursting. James rifles, named General Charles T. James, were used aboard riverine ironclads.

Answer: False

Lincoln did receive patent US6469A, but the patent was for a device that would lift boats over sandbars and other obstructions, not for any kind of weapon. The patent was issued to Lincoln over a decade before he became president.

While Lincoln was in the Illinois State Legislature he was challenged to a duel by future Federal General James Shields over a matter of Shields having been insulted. Lincoln had initially poked fun of Shields in a local paper due to political differences, but his fiancée Mary Todd and a friend continued what Lincoln had started. Shields, learning Lincoln had been behind the initial letters (though maybe not discovering that Mary Todd and her friend had continued to poke fun at him), challenged Lincoln to a duel. As Lincoln was the one who had been challenged, he had the right to choose the weapons. Shields was something of a marksman so Lincoln chose weapons that his height would give him an advantage with. Cavalry broadswords. The two men's seconds managed to intervene before the duel was carried through. Interestingly, Lincoln and Shields would go on to become good friends.

Answer: They were made at the Springfield Armory

With the official name during the war being the National Armory at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts was one of two federal armories tasked with providing the government with all it's muskets before the war. The other was the Harper's Ferry Arsenal. When Virginia seceded, the machinery for the manufacture of muskets was removed from Harper's Ferry and moved elsewhere in the Confederacy, leaving the Springfield Armory the only national arsenal to produce muskets for the federal government. By the time Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861 the Springfield Armory was producing muskets at a rate of 1,000 a month, three months later this rate had become 3,000 a month. Manufacturing of muskets at the armory steadily increased as the war continued, reaching a thousand muskets a day in 1864. Between 1861 and 1865 the Springfield Armory would manage to produce 1.5 million muskets for the war effort. Despite this, it was never able to adequately meet the North's demand for muskets, resulting in the government having to look elsewhere to meet it's demand.

Although muskets produced at the Springfield Armory are today known as Springfield X muskets/rifle musket (for example Springfield Model 1855 Rifle Musket), officially there was no mention of Springfield in the name of the weapon. The Springfield Model 1855 Rifle Musket was officially designated the Model 1855 U.S. Percussion Rifle-Musket. They came to be known as Springfield after the armory where they were manufactured.

The Springfield Armory closed its doors in 1968, having fallen victim to what one author called "the short-sighted efficiency purges of then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara". As a government arsenal it had been open since 1794 and had served as an arms depot since 1777. The modern Springfield Armory, Inc. has no affiliation with the federal arsenal.

Answer: Henry Rifle

According to some sources, both the Henry Rifle and the Spencer were dubbed this by Confederate troops. The Spencer, which came in both a rifle and carbine version, was a seven shot weapon where as the Henry was able to hold sixteen shots. Although they had an advantage in how quickly soldiers could load and fire them, such repeating rifles were opposed by both the Chief of Ordnance and the Quartermasters Department.

While a part of this objection was the complication of such weapons, another part was how many shots they could fire each time they were loaded.

They argued that by not having to go through all the steps required to reload muskets, troops using repeating rifles would become more likely to fire without aiming, thus wasting rounds.

Answer: With Colt Model 1855 Revolving Rifles

Berdan's Sharpshooters were originally armed with the Model 1855 Colt Revolving Rifles. This weapon was somewhat problematic in that it had a tendency to fire all rounds at once. The obvious result being that the rifle was just as dangerous to the user as to those they targeted. Between May and June 1862 the Sharpshooters were rearmed with the Model 1859 Sharps Rifle, the very weapon Berdan had intended for them to be armed with from the start.