U.S. Civil War Leaders I Trivia Quiz

Answer: Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee, who became the most beloved and successful general in American history, actually got off to a bad start with his troops. He made them dig in against their enemies, earning him the nickname "King of Spades."

Answer: Roger A. Pryor

Roger Pryor fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. After the war, Pryor became a staunch pro-Unionist. He moved to New York, where he served with distinction for over fifty years as a lawyer, a justice of the New York Supreme Court, and a U.S. Congressman.

Answer: Gouverneur K. Warren

General Warren, whose actions two years earlier at Little Round Top may have saved the Union from defeat at Gettysburg, was slow to get his 5th Corps into the fight at Five Forks. An impatient and enraged Sheridan immediately relieved him from his command.

Answer: James B. Longstreet

Longstreet was a close personal friend of General Ulysses S. Grant. After the war, he alienated himself from his Southern friends and colleagues by becoming a member of the Republican party and a customs official in the Grant Administration.

Answer: Henry Halleck

Halleck, known as "Old Brains" by his colleagues, reinstated Grant a week later when it became evident it was all a misunderstanding. By this time, Grant already had a powerful ally: President Lincoln said of him, "I can't spare this man; he fights."

Answer: Lewis Armistead

Armistead was a close friend of Union General Winfield Scott Hancock, the commander of the Federal troops defending the stone wall. Armistead was mortally wounded leading the unsuccessful attack that achieved the "high water mark of the Confederacy."

Answer: Benjamin Grierson

Grierson's raid through Mississippi diverted Confederate forces in that state long enough for General Grant to cross the Mississippi River in April 1863 unopposed. Grierson's raid contributed to the fall of Vicksburg three months later.

Answer: Benjamin Butler

Butler, commanding the union forces occupying New Orleans, enraged the city's citizens when he issued an order that any woman of New Orleans who insulted a Union officer "shall be regarded as ... a woman of the town plying her avocation."

Answer: Leonidas K. Polk

Polk, a plodding, unimaginative commander, fought at the Battles of Perryville and Chickamauga, and was killed by a Union artillery shell during the Atlanta campaign in 1864.

Answer: John Buford

Buford's troopers stubbornly held off three times their numbers for several hours... just long enough to permit the balance of Union forces in the area to get into position on the high ground outside Gettysburg.