Small Talk-Trivia

Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage

By Stephen Davis · Originally published September 2018 · pp. 39–42

Our questions this month are inspired by the late Webb Garrison’s Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage (Nashville, 2001), which he thoughtfully dedicated “to the next generation.” I assume he meant the next generation of Civil War buffs—to which we add, let there be one.

(Haley Hawk) 1. “Scott suggested slowly moving Federal forces down the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi River in order to isolate the South and choke off the supply lines of the Confederates. McClellan dubbed it the ‘boa constrictor plan.’ Newspaper correspondents modified the term to ____.” Which name for Scott’s plan? 2. On the night of Burnside’s bloody assault at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862, wounded Union soldiers lay before the Confederate lines. “Nineteen-year-old Sgt. Richard ____ of the 2d South Carolina Infantry requested permission to take water to the fallen Northerners.” What was the sergeant’s last name? 3. “This was the largest and most important foreign loan secured by the Confederate government during the war.” Bonds for it went on sale in European capitals in March 1863. Despite the Confederacy’s failing military fortunes, by February 1865, “more than 80 percent of the issue had been sold. Confederate profits were estimated to be between $6 and $8 million.” What was the name of the loan? 4. In New York were published arguably the war’s two most famous illustrated newspapers. One was Harper’s Weekly. What was the other? 5. “A kind of backpack, ____ were a carryall usually slung over the right shoulder so as to hang over the wearer’s left hip. There were no standard shapes or sizes or material. Foot soldiers used their ____ to transport personal items and daily rations.” What sort of sack? 6. Garrison describes a kind of warship: “a vessel made of metal or whose wooden sides were shielded with metal plating.” What was its generic name? 7. John Lincoln Clem was only nine years old when he was adopted by the 22nd Michigan Infantry as a drummer boy. “He first gained fame at the April 6-7, 1862, battle of _____, where a Confederate round smashed his drum. Newspaper accounts dubbed him ‘Johnny ____.’” Which battle? 8. (Artilleryman’s terminology) “A length of rope with a small hook at the end and a wooden handle at the other. It was attached to a friction primer to trigger a large-caliber weapon.” 9. “Of all Confederate prisons, ____ reputation was second only to that of Andersonville. Whereas most prison facilities in Richmond had been tobacco warehouses prior to the war, ____ had been instead a firm of ship chandlers and grocers before being taken over by the Confederate government. Only Federal officers and highranking civilians were confined in this three-story eight-room building.” Which Confederate prison? 10.“The movement of Gen. William T. Sherman and his army from Atlanta to Savannah from November through December 1864.” What is the name generally given to this “movement”? Answers found on page 42. Steve Davis is the Civil War News Book Review Editor. He can be contacted by email at: [email protected].

Small Talk Trivia Answers

Anaconda Plan. Garrison adds, “cartoonists were quick to deride the passive offensive” nature of General Scott’s strategy. Sgt. Richard Rowland Kirkland. In Garrison’s book, the entry appears under the title, “Angel of Marye’s Heights.” Sergeant Kirkland was killed Sept. 20, 1863, in the battle of Chickamauga. Erlanger Loan, from the Paris banking firm, Emile Erlanger and Company. Decades ago, speeding to get to my high school teaching job, a policeman pulled me over. I talked my way out of a ticket by telling the officer that “I had been meditating on the Erlanger Loan.” True story! Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Garrison: “The paper appeared on Sundays at eight cents an issue and was a bestseller throughout the 1860s.” Haversacks. Ironclad. The most famous were the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, which dueled in battle at Hampton Roads, Va., March 9, 1862. “Johnny Shiloh.” Garrison: “He never left the army, remaining in uniform until 1916.” Lanyard. Libby Prison. “There were escape attempts, but the most successful was engineered by Col. Thomas E. Rose on February 9, 1864; 109 escaped, but 48 were recaptured, including Rose.” “March to the Sea.”