American Civil War Colleges and Their Alumni Quiz

Answer: The Citadel

During the Campaign of the Carolinas, the The Arsenal Academy was burned down by General William Sherman's forces in 1865. It was never reopened after that. The only building that survived from the Civil War fires was The Arsenal. It is the current Governor's Mansion.

The Citadel is located in Charleston, South Carolina, and was not significantly damaged during the war. In fact, the Union forces stayed there for the next 17 years.

Answer: University of Alabama

At the University of Alabama, the Alabama Corps of Cadets was established in 1860. The school taught military tactics to its students and served as a training ground for the Confederate war effort. Only four buildings were left after the 1,500 cavalry troops under General John Croxton marched on Tuscaloosa.

The state of Alabama's first (1830) chartered college was LaGrange College. In 1830, Spring Hill College became the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of Alabama. It is also the third oldest Jesuit college in America. Alabama State University was founded in 1867 as the Lincoln Normal School. It served as training spot for black teachers. It later moved to Montgomery where it is today.

Answer: True

"Encyclopedia Virginia" states that nearly 2,000 alumni served the Confederacy, while only about 19 fought for the Union. Now those are some really warped numbers! It was those alumni and recruits who famously fought as a unit at the 1864 Battle of New Market against the Union side.

The Union General David Hunter fought and won with his army and occupied Lexington. They later burned the VMI barracks in June 1864.

Answer: Georgia Military Institute

Georgia Military Institute sent two companies to West Point, Georgia, to help the cause for the Confederate forces. General William Sherman and his men burned down the entire school, and it was never rebuilt. As a result of the Civil War, then superintendent Francis W. Capers sent cadets to be used as drill instructors for the Confederate Army.

Answer: Norwich University

Of note, there were at least 56 officers for the Confederacy who attended there. In all over 750 students went there at one time. James H. Ward was the first American Navy officer killed in the Civil War. It was the nation's oldest private military college. Norwich was in operation during the Civil War from 1861-1865 in Norwich, Vermont, but was burned down.

In 1866 it was moved to Northfield, Vermont, and is still in operation today.

Answer: the inventor of baseball

During the Battle of Fort Sumter Doubleday was second-in-command to Major Robert Anderson. The shot he fired from the fort was a 32-pound shell. He named himself as the "hero of Sumter" as part of this feat. The highest level he reached was that of major general in the Union army. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842.

Although he has many notes of fame during the Civil War, he is more widely known as supposedly inventing the game of baseball in 1839. Today, Major League Baseball has it's Hall of Fame located in Cooperstown, New York, in Elihu Phinney's cow pasture, the location supposedly where Doubleday founded the game.

Coincidence or not, the flag of the Fort Sumter Garrison which Doubleday commanded, has a star pattern arranged in a diamond shape. Of further interest is that during that time in history it was known that a baseball infield was diamond-shaped.

Answer: Charles Mason

Both Robert E. Lee and Charles Mason had the same grades as they battled in classes in Artillery, Tactics, and Conduct. Mason graded higher in all the other classes though. Mason tried to run for governor of Iowa in 1867, but was defeated. From 1846 until 1847 Mason was the first chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court at the time when Iowa was granted statehood. Charles Mason never served in the American Civil War. Mason came in first in 1829 with a total score of 1,995.5 points out of a possible 2,000.

Answer: William and Mary

Nearly the entire group of students and teachers committed to the Confederate forces. Modern research has proven that upwards of 382 alumni from William and Mary battled for the south. In January 1861, it was school president Benjamin S. Ewell who formed a militia at the college. A short time later the institution shut down in May because most students left to fight for the Confederacy.

Answer: Lafayette College

Another graduate who served in the Union Army was Colonel Charles A. Wikoff from the Class of 1855. It was Wikoff who not only survived the Civil War, but later contributed in the Indian and Spanish-American Wars.

The college was named for the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824-1826 who was a French hero of the American Revolution. Lafayette had a powerful stance against slavery. Horatio Stockton Howell was a member of the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry. The college stayed open during the Civil War, although most of its students fought for the Union.

Answer: Bowdoin College

The city of Bowdoin heavily supported the Union cause as did the students and faculty there at the college. In Memorial Hall, 288 of its alumni are listed on tablets there, including the 19 members who fought for the Confederate. It was a former faculty member, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who was chosen to accept the formal surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox on April 12, 1865.

The husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", was a professor at Bowdoin College. His name was Calvin Stowe (Class of 1824). She had a vision of a slave being beaten to death, and it was this that was part of the inspiration for her anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin".