GETTYSBURG QUIZ
(Scroll down for answers)

1. Which area at Gettysburg experienced the most fighting?
a. Culp's Hill  
b. Little Round Top
c. Big Round Top

2. True or False – The 20th Maine held Little Round Top alone.

3. By percentage, which Corps suffered the worst losses at Gettysburg?                              a. Confederate First Corps (Longstreet’s)
b. Confederate Third Corps (Hill’s)
c. Union First Corps (Reynolds’)    
d. Union Second Corps (Hancock’s)

4. How many civilians died as a result of the battle?
a. None
b. One
c. More than one

5. How did Devil's Den get its name?
a. It was once the site of pagan rituals
b. The owner of the land was named DeVille.
c. Soldiers named it from the deadly fighting they saw there 
d. Unknown

6. Who was the keynote speaker at the Nov. 19, 1863 Cemetery Dedication south of town?
a. Abraham Lincoln
b. Edward Everett
c. George Gordon Meade

7. Years after the battle, what was built on the site of Pickett's Charge?
a. An electric trolley
b. A tank training school
c. A prisoner of war camp
d. All of the above

8. In which battle did more Americans die?
a. Bunker Hill   
b. Gettysburg
c. D-Day (First day of Operation Overlord)
d. Iwo Jima
e. Battle of the Bulge

ANSWERS

1. a. Culp’s Hill
Off and on, combatants fought over the heavily-wooded rise all three days of the battle. The contest for Little Round Top lasted just over three hours on the second day. Aside from tangential combat near Devil’s Den along its northwestern base, Big Round Top (also known as Sugarloaf) experienced minimal action.  

2. False.
The 20th Maine under Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was only one of eight infantry regiments that held Little Round Top, along with an artillery battery and a section of regular U.S. Army sharpshooters. Chamberlain’s famous bayonet charge involved the 20th Maine, plus several men of the 2nd Maine, 83rd Pennsylvania, 44th New York, and U.S. Sharpshooters.    

3. c. Union First (Reynolds’) Corps
Of the ten Union and Confederate infantry corps present at the battle, the Union
First Corps suffered the worst ratio of losses, with almost 50% of their ranks killed, wounded, captured or missing. Nearly all casualties came on the first day, and the corps essentially ceased to exist as a fighting unit.
Numerically, A.P. Hill’s Confederate Third Corps suffered the worst losses, with 1,724 dead, 4,683 wounded, and at least 2,088 missing or taken prisoner, but these accounted for 39% of their total number.    

4. c. More than one
Jennie Wade was the only civilian to die during the battle, struck down in her sister’s house by a stray bullet. Nearly a dozen area residents (including several children) perished days and weeks after the battle from accidents involving unexploded ordnance.

5. d. Unknown
Despite the efforts of many historians, the true origin of the name “Devil’s Den” remains a mystery.  

6. b. Edward Everett
Former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, Governor of Massachusetts, Ambassador to Britain, President of Harvard, and U.S. Secretary of State Edward Everett was selected to be the keynote speaker, and he took nearly two months preparing his melodramatic two-hour speech. Contrary to popular legend, Lincoln was not a last-minute invite, but he was not expected to attend. Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade was also invited, but he was busy fighting the Confederate Army at the time.

7. d. All of the above
From 1893 to 1917, the Gettysburg Electric Railway operated a line that stretched from downtown, across the open fields west of Cemetery Ridge, down to Little Round Top. During the First World War, the U.S. Army conducted tank training on the public lands of the Gettysburg Battlefield, under the command of officer Dwight D. Eisenhower. During World War II, German POWS were housed in Camp Sharpe on the very same ground.     

8. e. Battle of the Bulge
The deadliest battle in U.S. military history was the Battle of the Bulge. In one month, nearly 19,000 Americans perished in stemming the last big offensive of the Third Reich.
Comparative Death tolls:    
Bunker Hill -    140 Americans in one day    
D-Day -             1,500 Americans in one day
Iwo Jima -        6,900 Americans in five weeks  
Gettysburg -  10,000 Americans in three days

SCORE: 7-8      General! Hail the Gettysburg guru!
                  5-6      Colonel. You deserve your own regiment.     
                  3-4      Lieutenant. You get a company of green recruits.  
                  1-2     Sergeant, in charge of the general's baggage train.  
                    0        Latrine duty for you, Private.