Earlier today, I finished reading a great, little Civil War history book called “Civil War Trivia and Fact Book: Unusual and Often Overlooked Facts About America’s Civil War” by Webb Garrison. Published in 1992 by the Rutledge Hill Press in Nashville, Tenn., this book features “more than 2,000 unusual, interesting and little-known facts” as well as 33 sidebar articles, lists of little-known facts and 48 unusual photographs.
Seventy-eight engagements between Confederate and Union troops took place within the borders of Alabama and, as you might have imagined, the “Civil War Trivia and Fact Book” contains a number of interesting items regarding Alabama’s role in the war. What follows are a few of the interesting, Alabama-related tidbits this book has to offer.
Q: What cavalryman’s raids terrorized Tennessee and Kentucky before his 1863 foray of 24 days into Indiana and Ohio?
A: Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan (born Alabama)
Q: What 28-year-old major improved artillery tactics so that his “flying battery” appeared to be double in size?
A: Major John Pelham (born Alabama)
Q: What brigadier general led 200 men against 2,000 near Blue Mountain, Alabama on July 14, 1864?
A: James Holt Clanton (born Georgia)
Q: Service at Mobile won the third star for what Hoosier attorney with no military experience before the war?
A: James Clifford Veatch
Q: What Illinois native, a brigadier general at 29, was the only Union general to outmaneuver and outmarch Nathan Bedford Forrest, in a raid to Selma, Alabama, March 22-April 2, 1865?
A: James Harrison Wilson
Q: What slavery-hating Alabama native was accused by Generals Heintzelman and Meade of disobeying orders?
A: Major General David Bell Birney
Q: What Scottish native reared in Alabama was enlisted in the Confederate army’s medical department as a hospital matron?
A: Kate Cumming
Q: What C.S.A. naval agent went abroad to purchase the Florida, the Alabama and the Shenandoah?
A: James D. Bulloch (born Georgia)
Q: Where did the first Confederate Congress meet?
A: Montgomery, Alabama
Q: What area was included in Department No. 1, C.S.A., in the spring of 1861?
A: Most of Louisiana and parts of Alabama and Mississippi.
Q: What Confederate ship cruised the South Atlantic for 21 months, over 75,000 miles of ocean, refueling in foreign ports, and returned with prizes worth over $6.5 million?
A: The CSS Alabama
Q: The British-built Confederate cruiser Alabama never entered an American port but refueled in farflung places, including what Far Eastern port?
A: Singapore
Q: In what city was the provisional government of the Confederate States of America formed?
A: Montgomery, Alabama
Q: With the federal blockade continually tightening, what C.S.A. state had the only unoccupied coastline in Oct. 1862?
A: Alabama
Q: Across the borders of what states does Lookout Mountain sprawl?
A: Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee
Q: What Confederate colonel spent $28,000 of his own money to equip the 22nd Alabama with fine Enfield rifles?
A: Zachariah C. Deas
In the end, how many of you have read the “Civil War Trivia and Fact Book”? What did you think about it? Can you recommend any other good books about the Civil War? Which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.
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