11. The Richmond bread riots.
12. Battle of Fair Oaks AKA Seven Pines. (Hooser please name your source) INCORRECT
13. Jefferson Davis.
14. French Horn INCORRECT
15. Brig. Gen. Albert J. Myer.
Welcome to our newest player, FSPowers. Glad to have you with us.
I'm not sure anyone’s going to believe this, but I don’t know whether I’ve chosen really tough questions or not until the answers come in. There have been plenty of times when I thought I had put a real stumper into the game, only to find out that every player has gotten it right.
I thought this time, # 15 was going to be the stumper, but it appears that # 12 and # 14 were, instead.
Here are my answers to the questions.
11. The bread riots took place in Richmond on the date of April 2, 1863.
12. Cheves’ “silk dress balloon” was used at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill. An interesting side note is that, since Thaddeus Lowe was observing the same battle for the Union, this was the first battle in history at which both sides employed aircraft.
My source for this answer is a book titled “Civil War Firsts: The Legacies of America’s Bloodiest Conflict,” by Gerald S. Henig and Eric Niderost. The information is on pages 151-152 in my edition. This source indicates that the balloon was used only at Gaines’ Mill, not at Mechanicsville or any of the other Seven Days’ Battles.
13. The policy was established by Jefferson Davis while he was Franklin Pierce’s Secretary of War. Because the Army needed officers, the graduation requirement was reduced back to four years in 1861, resulting in the graduation of two classes that year – the class of May, which had attended for five years, and the class of June, which had attended for four.
14. Ashby carried a fox-hunting horn. He habitually rode into battle with the trappings of a gentleman hunter, including a brass spyglass as well as the hunting horn.
A number of you said a bugle and Aggie80 posted a link to a poem that mentions “Ashby’s bugle.” Aggie80, thanks for the link. It's a well-written poem, but as far as I can see, the poem doesn’t say Ashby carried the bugle himself.
15. Col. Albert J. Myer was the first to hold the post of Chief Signal Officer. Prior to the Civil War, Myer had developed a system for using signal flags to transmit letters of the alphabet. In 1856, he inquired if the War Department was interested in his system. He heard nothing until 1859, when a military board headed by Col. Robert E. Lee approved the idea.
In regard to the answer to question # 14, one of our players has sent me a private message asserting that a French horn is pretty much the same as a fox-hunting horn.
I was a drummer in my high school band. I didn't play a French horn, but we did have people in the band who played that instrument. While there was a similarity in terms of the general shape, the French horns I remember didn't look quite the same as the picture of Ashby's hunting horn that was in my source book. (For one thing, the French horns had keys, which Ashby's horn didn't.)
Do we have any instrumentalists who are more knowledgeable about French horns than I am? Can any of you verify the assertion that a fox-hunting horn is a type of French horn?
It appears that the French Horn did evolve from the hunting horn, but does that, with the addition of valves and keys still qualify as a 'fox-hunting horn' as opposed to an orchestral instrument? The horn which is often pictured with Ashby in the saddle does not show keys. It is doubtful, even though it is also doubtful that Ashby would actually USE the horn in battle) that he would have used a horn requiring two hands to play. Oh well.
Here's a link to some info which one might use either way to decide:
Having read through the link, I'm inclined to agree with SamGrant's observation that the French horn evolved from the hunting horn, much as human beings evolved from apes (though I can hear the voice of Stephen Lang, as George Pickett, challenging me to prove that Robert E. Lee was descended from an ape ).
Sorry to disappoint those who gave the answer that Turner Ashby carried a French horn, but I wouldn't say an ape is the same thing as a human being, so neither would I say a hunting horn is the same thing as a French horn. I don't feel I can give credit for that answer.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Game #33- Week 3 
).
Linear Mode
