Small Talk-Trivia

Old Nicknames

By Stephen Davis · Originally published March 2018 · pp. 35–46

1. “As soon as they saw his high forehead and large, popping eyes, they christened him ‘Old Brains.’” Who was this major general who became the Union army’s chief of staff? 2. A leader of Confederate forces in the TransMississippi, this major general, nicknamed “Old Pap,” led a raid into Missouri in the fall of 1864 that led to his defeat at Westport. Who? 3. This Union major general was a devout Christian who liked to hand out religious tracts to his troops. “But among the Germans of the Eleventh Corps, many of whom were freethinkers, the activities of ‘Old Prayer Book’ were not so welcome.” Name him. 4. The name his soldiers liked to call him was not, according to

James I. Robertson, the one he earned at First Manassas, but “Old Jack.” Answer? 5. Soldiers of his Army of the Cumberland referred to him as “Old Slow-Trot,” from his days as West Point instructor of cadets, ordering their horseback pace. Of whom are we thinking ? 6. “Contrary to popular belief,” writes biographer Donald Pfanz, “there is no evidence of Ewell being widely known by this or any other nickname during the Civil War.” What was the nickname for Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell? 7. “Old Fuss and Feathers” was a nickname, biographer Timothy D. Johnson writes, “that he had acquired as a result of his pedantic nature and love of showy uniforms.” This aged officer—who was older than the U.S. Constitution—was general-in-chief of Union forces at the start of the war. Who? 8. His Confederate nickname of “Old Blizzards” was earned on March 13, 1863, when Union gunboats approached Fort Pemberton, Miss. “Shouting and cursing purple oaths, his spittle flying,” his biographer writes, he shouted, “Give them blizzards, boys! Give them blizzards!” “Old Blizzards” stuck, through his subsequent service in the Army of Tennessee. Who? 9. One of the lesser-known nicknames of this Union major general is “Old Pills,” as John Marszalek writes, because his troops in Kentucky in the fall of 1861 “found him such a ‘bitter pill to swallow.’” Who? 10. “Old Jube” and “Old Jubilee” were the nicknames for this lieutenant general in Lee’s army. To whom are we referring? Answers found on page 46. Steve Davis is the Civil War News Book Review Editor. He can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

1. Henry Wager Halleck (1815–1872) (Stephen E. Ambrose, Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff, p. 47) 2. Sterling Price (1809–1867) (Albert Castel, General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West, p. 84) 3. Oliver Otis Howard (1830–1909) (William Sears, Chancellorsville, p. 65) 4. Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824–1863) (James I. Robertson, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend, p. 790 n. 19) 5. George Henry Thomas (1816–1870) (Francis F. McKinney, Education in Violence: The Life of George H. Thomas and the History of the Army of the Cumberland, pp. 54, 209) 6. “Old Bald Head” (Donald C. Pfanz, Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier’s Life, p. 535 n. 21) 7. Winfield Scott (1786–1866) (Timothy D. Johnson, Winfield Scott: The Quest for Military Glory, p. 2) 8. William Wing Loring (1818–1886) (James W. Raab, W.W. Loring: Florida’s Forgotten General, p. 96) 9. William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) (John Marszelek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order, p. 158) 10. Jubal Anderson Early (1816–1894) (Charles C. Osborne, Jubal: The Life and Times of General Jubal A. Early, C.S.A., p. 57)