Where Did These U. S. Civil War Events Happen? Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Ten thousand people worked here by 1863, making everything from gunpowder to cannons, ironclad hulls and steam rams. Where was it?

Answer: Alabama

The Selma Ordnance and Naval Foundry, in Alabama on the Alabama River, supplied the Confederacy with a wide variety of materiel. There were molds and gun lathes in a gun foundry, blacksmith shops, a nitre works and gunpowder manufactory, and the ability to build and transport ships down the Alabama River to Mobile Bay. Raw materials were brought in by railroad.

The workers consisted mostly of women and children, as well as slaves and some conscripted men and German craftsmen. The central location of Selma protected it from the enemy, and in fact Gen. James H. Wilson's successful Union cavalry raid on the town occurred April 1-2, 1865, just a week before General Lee's surrender in Virginia.

2. When a major city in this state was threatened in 1862, 22,000 soldiers, plus fifty thousand local militia who called themselves "squirrel hunters," hurredly built and manned forts on hills just across the river to defend the city. The defensive demonstration worked and the city was saved from attack. What state was the city in?

Answer: Ohio

Confederate Brigadier General Henry Heth advanced north on Cincinnati in September of 1862. Realizing the threat, Union Major General Lew Wallace organized the construction of forts and rifle pits in a ring along Cincinnati's southern edge, across the Ohio River in Kentucky. By Sept. 5, the turn-out of squirrel hunter volunteers was so enthusiastic that Governor Todd asked for no more. General Heth advanced toward the city, came upon the defensive works and remained a day without attacking, then retreated September 13. General Wallace's plan and the squirrel hunters' volunteer manpower were given the credit for saving the city in a bloodless battle.

3. The Confederate officers imprisoned in this state were given the nickname "The Immortal 600." Despite over a month on rations of cornmeal and pickled onions, they refused to take the oath or be disloyal for better conditions. What state were they imprisoned in?

Answer: Georgia

Six hundred Confederate officers, prisoners of war, were confined in the casemates of Fort Pulaski in Georgia and fed on poor rations, in retaliation for a like number of union prisoners of war who were held within range of artillery fire in Charleson, SC. One of the Fort Pulaski prisoners, J. Ogden Murray, wrote a book about their experience in 1911 titled "The Immortal 600," and the name stuck. Murray said, "Hunger drove our men to catching and eating dogs, cats, and rats." They had been considered heroes in the south for not taking the oath or otherwise betraying their loyalty for better rations or conditions.

4. Most of the brass buttons on federal uniforms in the Civil War were made where?

Answer: Connecticut

Waterbury, the "Brass City" of Connecticut, had several brass button factories. Scovill and Waterbury are two of the big names seen imprinted on the back of army buttons.

5. The vice president did his part during the Civil War by briefly cooking for soldiers at a fort, where?

Answer: Maine

Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, who was elected with Lincoln in 1860, enlisted with his local Maine State Guard, Co. A, and when called to serve, he spent the summer of 1864 at Fort McClary in Kittery, Maine. From his surviving letters home, he apparently found the work easy and enjoyable.

6. A colonel climbed the steps to personally take down an enemy flag flying on the roof of a hotel. As he came back down, the proprietor shot and killed him, and one of the colonel's men shot and killed the proprietor. Where did this incident occur?

Answer: Virginia

Colonel Elmer Ellsworth was the young and dashing colonel of the Fire Zouaves, or the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment made up of New York City volunteer firemen. A large Confederate flag in Alexandria, Virginia was visible across the Potomac from Washington where he was stationed, and Ellsworth vowed to take it down.

He proceeded to do so May 24, 1861, and the disastrous result is described in the question.

7. This clothing manufacturer not only contracted to supply thousands of army uniforms, he delivered them in his own steamships. Where was his factory located?

Answer: Ireland

Peter Tait of Limerick, Ireland had made uniforms for England in the Crimean War. By the 1860s, his massive factory was able to take on contracts for thousands of Confederate uniforms. His blockade runners Elavey, Eveline and Kelpie successfully delivered at least some, because a few originals still exist in museums, and a newspaper article and quartermaster's book both corroborate that 4,400 uniforms successfully arrived on the Eveline in Wilmington, North Carolina in late December, 1864. None of his ships was captured, but it's not known if any were forced away.

8. Black union soldiers fought stubbornly in hand-to-hand combat, backed against a levee. US gunboats arrived and eventually the Confederates withdrew, and the exhausted Union troops gave chase. This hard-fought battle made assistant secretary of war Charles A. Dana write: "The sentiment of this army with regard to the employment of negro troops has been revolutionized by the bravery of the blacks in the recent battle." Where did this battle occur?

Answer: Louisiana

The Battle of Milliken's Bend, June 7, 1863, was an attempt by Confederates to cut Grant's suppply line and weaken his ability to beseige Vicksburg, Mississippi. It occurred just across the river in Louisiana, and though strategically it was significant only for keeping the supply line open, it showed the ability of black troops to fight. Grant wrote in his memoirs, "These men were very raw, having all been enlisted since the beginning of the siege, but they behaved well."

9. Rose Greenhow, a suspected Confederate spy, was removed from house arrest and put in a prison January 18, 1862, where historians believe she continued to send coded messages, based on things like the number of candles in her window and the position of her blinds, though officials apparently caught on and gave her windows only facing the prison courtyard. Where was the prison located?

Answer: District of Columbia

Allan Pinkerton, the head of the new Secret Service, was charged with watching Greenhow in particular. He first imprisoned her in her own home, but she was too difficult to watch there, so she was moved to the Old Capital Prison in Washington, D.C., with her eight year old daughter.

The prison would go on to hold both forgotten and famous prisoners, including Henry Wirz of Andersonville and some of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. Greenhow was released May 31, 1862, on the condition that she stay within Confederate lines.

She travelled to Europe, but drowned in 1864 returning from there, when her ship ran aground.

10. A slave, Robert Smalls, managed to pilot the steamboat Planter out of a harbor, signal the right codes to the forts on the way, and surrender the ship to Union blockaders, along with a map of harbor mines and a codebook onboard. Where did this take place?

Answer: South Carolina

Robert Smalls was praised for his skill and bravery by President Lincoln. He entered politics after the war and purchased his old master's house, continuing to live in his hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina, in circumstances he probably barely dreamt of before the war.

Source: Author littlepup

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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These aren't just battles! Just choose the state or foreign country. I hope some of these events will be a bit different and challenging, but Civil War buffs are hard to stump.

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