n 2024, I devoted a column to a quiz, entitled “Testing Your General Knowledge.” I cited some data about the
pre-war lives of men who later became famous and asked readers to identify the generals in question. Let’s have another go. This time, I will ask about five Confederates and five Federals, with some emphasis on their postwar lives.
1. One historian wrote that this Confederate general,
2. The namesake of the America’s Cup, the schooner
3. Some Confederate political and military leaders,
4. In March 1885, Congress passed a bill to restore
Questions:
months before the war’s end, felt his cause to be hopeless. After the war, he “espoused the Republican cause” and was ostracized by his erstwhile comradesin-arms. He then “turned to his former enemies for employment,” and “almost to the end of his long life he held one Federal employment after another.”
America, built in 1851, became the property of the United States Navy in 1864. Eight years after the war this Federal general acquired the America and owned it until his death.
fearing prosecution and imprisonment, fled to foreign parts when the Confederacy collapsed. One well-known general perhaps had more to fear than most others. The general’s fears stemmed from certain actions he took regarding prisoners captured in battle in North Carolina in 1864. The general escaped to Canada, where he lived with his wife and child under an assumed name.
Grant’s commission as general of the army. President Arthur, a Republican, signed the bill hours before Democrat Grover Cleveland was sworn in. The measure dated the commission to 1861 and allowed
By Gould Hagler
5. This Confederate general and his wife both died
6. One prominent Federal general, while serving
7. A high-ranking Confederate general had a brother
8. This Federal general fought in the Eastern Theater
9. This New York-born general commanded a garrison
10. This North Carolinian was an effective leader in the Grant to receive army retirement pay for the few remaining months of his life. This Federal general, by then a Democratic congressman from California, was a vocal opponent of the legislation to provide such aid to Grant.
in a yellow fever epidemic, leaving 10 orphaned children.
as assistant treasurer of the United States during the Grant administration, received a large and unexplained payment from Jim Fisk, who, along with Jay Gould, Grant’s brother-in-law Abel Corbin, and others, was a principal in what became known as the “Gold Conspiracy.”
who served as the Confederacy’s attorney general. A cousin was on the other team and commanded a Wisconsin regiment and later the Iron Brigade. Earlier, well before the Civil War, our subject survived an attempt on his life perpetrated by his own men.
and rose to corps command. Immediately after a Federal victory in a crucial battle he was removed from command without explanation. The general immediately sought a court of inquiry, but despite his repeated requests none was granted until 1879. that withstood a long siege before surrendering in 1863.
Eastern Theater until Appomattox. Prior to the war, he taught artillery and tactics at the U.S. Military Academy and authored The Artillerist’s Manual in 1859.