St Louis Civil War Roundtabe February Quiz Answers
1. Match the following laws with the African-American rights they affected: (all of these
laws and racial progress were made possible by Union victory in the Civil War)
( ) Abolished slavery
A. 15th Amendment 1869
( ) Provided citizenship and equal protection of the law
B. Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
( ) Guaranteed black voting rights C. Brown v. Board of Ed 1954
( ) Abolished racial discrimination in military
D. 14th Amendment 1868
( ) Allowed state sponsorship if separate but equal
E. Presidential Executive Ord 9981
( ) Declared separate but equal doctrine unconstitutional
F. 13th Amendment 1865
Answers: F; D; A; E (Pres. H.S. Truman); B; C
2. What personal item of equipment was first commonly available during the Civil War and changed forever how people functioned?
Pesident Lincoln was given one of these in 1863 after his Gettysburg Address and it is now in the Smithsonion Institution.
The pocket watch. Aaron Denison of The American Watch Company pioneered the mass production of standard interchangable watch parts and thus was able to produce pocket watches at an affordable price. Lincoln was presented a Waltham William Ellery Model 1857, SN 67613, one of the 160,000 or so made and sold during the Civil War. Later the company made railroad watches which allowed on-time schedules and eventually demanded standard time zones to account for distance and the establishment of international standard time based on Greenwich Mean Time. This watch was the ancestor of the computer clock and time based on nuclear vibrations. The Union assault of 22 May 1863 at Vicksburg, delivered against the center of the Confederate siege line along a 3-mile front from Stockade Redan to Fort Garrott, was accomplished based on this $13 timepiece, the first synchronized military event in history. Watches of all Union commanders had been synchronized. The attack began simultaneously at 10 a.m. in order to prevent General Pemberton from shifting his forces in the defense.
3. What North Carolina Indian tribe guided Sherman’s army as it headed into their state?
As Sherman headed north toward North Carolina and Virginia cutting another devastating swathe through the Confederacy they reached Robeson County,NC on 9 March 1865 only to be stopped by a torrential rain, muddy roads and swollen creeks. They could not move and didn’t know where to turn. Suddenly out of the downpour appeared a dark, grizzed guerilla force offering to help. Sherman called his saviors “Lumbees” because he knew they were descended from Jamestown’s first English colonists who had mixed with slave runways and Lumbee Indians. This was “The Lowry Band” under Henry Berry Lowry, and by now mortal enemies of the Confederacy and slavery. They led Sherman’s army through the downpour and treacherous swamps of the Pee Dee River. Sherman thanked the men for “the damndest marching I ever saw.”
4. The Union Army of the West was effectively constituted twice during the Civil War. Who were the two commanders and where did the army come together each time?
First, at Shiloh for the move against Corinth under Gen. Henry Halleck. At Chattanooga under General Grant for the relief of that city was the second. Sherman made it official and took it south to Atlanta. There was also a Confederate Army of the West under Gen. Earl Van Dorn.
5. What 1862 Trans-Mississippi battle danced around a geographic feature called Big Mountain?
The Battle of Pea Ridge or Elkhorn Tavern
6. What Civil War battles are known for the slaughter of surrendering US Colored Troops?
Fort Pillow, Tennessee; Poison Springs, Arkansas; The Crater at Petersburg; 1864 Battle of Plymouth, North Carolina; and Olustee, Florida. (there may be others)
7. How many degreed black surgeons served in the Union army during the Civil War?
Eight, but there were 5 other non-degreed contract civilian surgeons and maybe more.
Copyright© 2015 John A. Nischwitz
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