U.S. History trivia quiz

The Rules:

Ask about any person, place, thing or event since 1492. You must completely rely on your own memory - you can’t consult any book, teh internets, or ask someone else, either in formulating or answering a question. Number your question(s) (no more than five at a time, please), sequentially after those which came before. You can’t post questions of your own until you’ve correctly answered at least one earlier question.

I’ll start the ball rolling:

  1. Abigail Adams described which Founding Father as “modest, wise and good”?
  2. George Washington went out and commanded troops in the field, as President, during the Whiskey Rebellion. Who is the only other president to actually command troops in the field during a time of war?
  3. Helen Keller was from which state?
  4. This East Liverpool, Ohio-born composer wrote the hymn “Softly and Tenderly,” so popular there are still dozens of versions available on iTunes (including by Elvis Presley, k.d. lang and Garrison Keillor)?
  5. This general was named to command the non-existent army created to keep Hitler guessing about where the D-Day invasion would land.

Thomas Jefferson

I take it you mean a sitting president? If not, then I’d have to say Andrew Jackson.

Georgia.

Patton. I saw the movie.

Marc

Looks like I can’t modify my answers.

#2. I revise my answer to James Madison during the War of 1812.
Marc

  1. No
  2. Yes, Madison
  3. No
  4. (Unanswered)
  5. Yes

You’re in the game, MGibson! Ask some questions, if you like.

  1. John Adams

  2. Indiana

  3. Duke Ellington

Wild guesses all, but what the hey!

All wrong, alas. Try again!

Helen Keller was from Alabama, no?

Correct! Ask some questions, if you like, Freddy!

(4) Will Lamartine Thompson.

I didn’t know Will Thompson’s middle name, but correct. (How did you know that?)

From the Wikipedia article (which is currently vandalised, so that the place of birth is obscured there).

Ahem…there’s a flag on the play! (Perhaps “teh internets” was too obscure wording for some).

Who is the only president buried in Washington, DC?

I withdraw my comment if Giles happened to have read that Wikipedia article before this game began.

Woodrow Wilson.

For my question:

Which president was the first to have a presidential library in his honour?

Sorry – I didn’t read that preamble. But I knew about Woodrow Wilson from visiting his tomb, in Washington National Cathedral, as well as his birthplace, in Staunton, Virginia.

Read the OP, please, folks. This would be question 6. Woodrow Wilson is correct.

This would be question 7. I believe the answer is FDR.

  1. What was John Marshall’s job just before he became Chief Justice?
  2. What was Sacagawea’s son’s name?
  3. What state did Gettysburg hero Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain hail from?
  4. What notorious sweatshop fire scandalized the nation?
  5. Who was the only President to serve nonconsecutive terms? (an easy one)

Question 1 is still unanswered.

Abraham Lincoln actually did direct troops during the Civil War while President, though only once, mostly to get a few twits moving in the absence of capable commanders, and he didn’t do much with the actual battle-plans or get in the fight. He did, however, personally give orders to advance and take specific ground near Norfolk, VA while nearby, and stayed to make sure the troops were able to do so.

Good point. I read that story in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals not long ago. Most historians only credit Washington and Madison with actual in-the-field presidential command of troops, however.