6) Col. Fletcher Webster, son of Daniel Webster
7) "Bullhead"
8) Pea Ridge (Arkansas) INCORRECT
9) Signal encoding/decoding equipment.
10) As Adjutant/Inspector General (Aug/1861), Samuel Cooper became the seniormost man in the Confederate army. Some will argue that on Jan.23, 1865, however, when R.E. Lee was given command of all CSA forces, he superceded Cooper in seniority. I still think Cooper was the senior man and Lee was senior FIELD general.
Kind of a small group of players this week. Maybe everyone else took off for Memorial Day.
For those of you stalwarts who played, here are this week’s answers:
6. Col. Fletcher Webster of the 12th MA was the only son of Senator Daniel Webster. (Sorry, Texaswildcat, but the question asked not who was killed, but whose son he was.)
7. After the musket ball bounced off his head, Sumner acquired the nickname of “Bull Head.”
8. My source said that, in terms of number of men engaged, the Battle of Westport, MO on Oct. 23, 1864, with a total of about 29,000 Union and Confederate troops engaged was the largest battle fought west of the Mississippi.
All of our players said the correct answer was the Battle of Pea Ridge. I know that Pea Ridge produced more casualties, but that doesn't necessarily mean there were more troops engaged.
If anyone can come up with a source that says there were more than 29,000 engaged at Pea Ridge, or fewer than 29,000 at Westport, then I’ll give you all credit.
9. My source indicated that Union Signal Corpsmen were instructed, above all else, to destroy their 30-power telescopes. These instruments would be invaluable to the Confederates, who had no facilities for manufacturing high-quality lenses.
However, Cindyscoops has come up with one source that said it was coding equipment and another source that said it was binoculars or field glasses, which pretty much covers everybody’s answers. So everybody gets credit for a correct answer on this one.
10. The senior ranking general in the Confederate Army was Samuel Cooper. There were only eight men who ever attained the rank of full general, the highest rank in the Confederate Army, and though Cooper never commanded troops in the field, his commission predated all the others’.
I should have gotten into this game.
29,000 is the low end of the estimates of forces engaged at Westport. The strength of the Union forces is pretty clear at 20,000, however the strength of Price's forces is gaven at various numbers between 9,000 and 12,000. I tend to accept the higher estimate putting the number of troops involved at 32,000. It is pretty well established that Price crossed the Missouri border in Sept. 1864 with 12,000 troops, orginized into eight brigades. He was counting on Missourians joining his forces to increase his strength. It appears that he did in fact get enough volunteers in Missouri to keep his stength pretrty constant at 12,000 until the defeat at Westport. It is establshed that he did capture enough weapons during his raid to keep his troops armed.
As to casualties the Battles of Pea Ridge and Westport are pretty close. At Pea Ridge Union casualties are pretty well established at 1,84 and CS at approximatly 2,000 for a total of 3,384. At Westport casualties are usually set at 1,500 each for a total of 3,000.
In terms of importance Pea Ridge was by far more important. The loss and Van Dorn's subsiquent abandoment of the Trans-Mississippi ended any hope of Confederate control of Missouri and Arkansas. This ended any possibility of CS control of the Mississippi River and ultamatly the loss of Vicksburg and New Orleans. IMHO
Thanks to RivrRat for his contribution on the Battle of Westport.
I have one scoring change to announce. Bill_Torrens has produced numerous sources indicating that Edwin Sumner was commonly referred to simply as “Bull.” Evidently, over the course of the two decades between the Mexican War and the Civil War, the “Head” portion of “Bull Head” was more and more frequently omitted. Therefore, Bill will get credit for his answer.
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Trivia Game # 31 - Week 2 
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