Civil War Trivia Q&A

Battle of Gettysburg: The Second Day of Battle (Devil’s Den & Little Round Top)

Choose an answer from the three choices offered after each question and then  "Check Your Answers" at the end of the quiz.

1. Throughout the evening of July 1 and morning of July 2, most of the remaining infantry of both armies arrived on the field, including the Union II, III, V, VI, and XII Corps. What Confederate unit did not arrive until late on July 2?

• Longstreet's Pickett’s Division, commanded by George Pickett
• Longstreet’s McLaw’s Division commanded by Lafayette McLaws
• Ewell’s Rodes Division commanded by Robert E. Rodes

2. The Union line ran from Culp's Hill southeast of the town, northwest to Cemetery Hill just south of town, then south for nearly two miles along Cemetery Ridge, ending just north of Little Round Top. What as the shape of the Union line popularly called?

• “fishhook”
• “angle”
• “spear”

3. What was the distance between the Union and Confederate lines?

• About 1/2 to 1 mile
• About 1 to 2 miles
• About 2 to 4 miles

4. What Union general was dissatisfied with the position assigned him on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing higher ground more favorable to artillery positions a half mile to the west, he advanced his corps [without orders] to the slightly higher ground along the Emmitsburg Road. The new line ran from Devil's Den, northwest to the Sherfy farm’s Peach Orchard, then northeast along the Emmitsburg Road to south of the Codori farm.

• Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles’s III Corps
• Maj. Gen. John Newton’s I Corps
• Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum’s XII Corps

5. Longstreet’s First Corps attacks the Union left flank. Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws attacked the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard. Who commanded the division to McLaw’s right that attacked Little Round Top and Devil’s Den?

• Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson
• Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood
• Maj. Gen. Jubal Early

6. The 1st Texas and 3rd Arkansas of Robertson's brigade and the 44th and 48th Alabama of Law's brigade headed in the direction of Devil's Den. The 3rd Arkansas and the 1st Texas drove through Rose Woods and hit Ward's line head-on. Union defended Devil’s Den. In the first 30 minutes of fighting, the 20th Indiana took heavy causalities. What did it cost the regiment?

• They lost more than half of its men.
• They lost more than one-fourth of its men.
• The lost more than a third of its men.

7. Two regiments from Law's brigade that had split from the column advancing to the Round Tops pushed up Plum Run Valley and threatened to turn Ward's flank. Their target was the 4th Maine and the 124th New York, defending the 4th New York Independent artillery battery commanded by Captain James Smith, whose fire was causing considerable disruption in Law's brigade's advance. 

The commander of the 124th New York, Colonel Augustus Van Horne Ellis, and his major, James Cromwell, decided to counterattack. They mounted their horses despite the protests of soldiers who urged them to lead more safely on foot. They led the charge of their regiment to the west, down the slope of Houck's Ridge through a triangular field surrounded by a low stone fence, sending the 1st Texas reeling back 200 yards. But both Colonel Ellis and Major Cromwell were shot dead as the Texans rallied with a massed volley; and the New Yorkers retreated to their starting point, with only 100 survivors from the 283 they started with. The New York regiment started the attack with 283 men. How many survived the attack?

• 100 men
• 150 men
• 225 men

8. The second wave of Hood's assault was the brigades of Henry Benning and George “Tige” Anderson. They detected a gap in Maj. Gen. David B. Birney's division line. Birney scrambled to find reinforcements. He sent the 40th New York and 6th New Jersey from the Wheatfield into Plum Run Valley to block the approach into Ward's flank. They collided with Benning's and Law's men in rocky, broken ground that the survivors would remember as the “Slaughter Pen”. What did Plum Run become known as?

• Angle Run
• Jesus Run
• Bloody Run

9. When Meade discovered this situation, he dispatched his chief engineer to attempt to deal with the situation south of Sickles's position. Climbing Little Round Top, he found only a small Signal Corps station there. He saw the glint of bayonets in the sun to the southwest and realized that a Confederate assault into the Union flank was imminent. He hurriedly sent staff officers, including Washington Roebling, to find help from any available units in the vicinity. Who was Meade’s chief engineer?

• Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren
• Col. Lance Hood
• Col. Herman G. Mann

10. Arriving only ten minutes before the Confederates, Col. Strong Vincent ordered his brigade to take cover and wait, and he ordered the commander of the 20th Maine, to hold his position, the extreme left of the Army of the Potomac, at all costs. Him and his 385 men waited for what was to come. Thirty years later, he received a Medal of Honor for his conduct in the defense of Little Round Top. The citation read that it was awarded for “daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top.” Who was the colonel of the 20th Maine Regiment?

• Col. Harry G. Smelling
• Col. Mark Reynolds
• Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Check Your Answers

1. Longstreet's Pickett’s Division, commanded by George Pickett is correct.
2. “fishhook” is correct.
3. About 1/2 to 1 mile is correct.
4. Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles’s III Corps is correct.
5. Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood is correct.
6. They lost more than half of its men is correct.
7. 100 men is correct.
8. Bloody Run is correct.
9. Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren is correct.
10. Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is correct.