I Survived the American Revolution, 1776
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40 free I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 drops an eleven-year-old runaway into the first summer of the war for American liberty. Nate has nobody left who wants him, no plan beyond reaching New York, and no idea that the largest clash of the whole war is about to break around him. This quiz follows the story from start to finish: the household Nate escapes, the old friend who takes him in, the men of the Connecticut 5th, the muskets and drills of army life, and the terrifying day the British attack. A handful of questions step outside the book to the real events and people of 1776, and to the series it belongs to. It is written for readers who have finished the book and want to check what they remember, for classes and book clubs reading it alongside a unit on the Revolution, and for parents who want an easy way to talk the story through. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
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Q 01Which battle, the biggest of the entire war, does Nate survive in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Brooklyn
Brooklyn hosted the fight historians also call the Battle of Long Island, which at the time was by far the largest battle ever fought in North America.
Q 02In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, what are the German soldiers hired by Britain's king called?
Hessians
Hessians took their name from the German states of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau, where most of them came from, and their first fight in America came in August 1776.
Q 03Which song, meant by the British as an insult, do the soldiers sing in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle was sung by British troops to mock colonial soldiers as simpletons, and it is now the official state song of Connecticut, the home of Nate's company.
Q 04Which deadly disease does Nate help the soldier James recover from in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Smallpox
Smallpox had already killed Nate's mother, yet he could nurse James safely because he had lived through the illness himself and could not catch it a second time.
Q 05Which American general, hated by Nate's uncle Storch, visits the camp in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
George Washington
George Washington, tall and wearing a blue uniform, speaks to the men the night before the battle; Storch despises him because Storch sides with Britain.
Q 06During the American Revolution, where did more captured Americans die than in every battle of the war combined?
On prison ships
On prison ships moored off New York, more than 11,500 captured Americans died of disease and neglect, and their remains lay untended along the shore for years afterwards.
Q 07In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, what is a navy boy who rushes ammunition to a warship's gun crews called?
A powder monkey
A powder monkey was usually a boy of 12 to 14 picked for being short and fast, able to move between cramped decks while staying hidden from enemy sharpshooters.
Q 08Which author wrote I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, part of a bestselling series about children in disasters?
Lauren Tarshis
Lauren Tarshis wrote Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, a Golden Kite Honor Book for fiction, before she turned to putting young heroes inside history's worst days.
Q 09What does Nate give Eliza and her son Theo at the end of I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Freedom papers
Freedom papers mean Eliza no longer has to hush little Theo's giggles for fear of angering Storch, the man who had held mother and son in slavery.
Q 10Which pirate is the hero of the stories Nate's father told him in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Slash O'Shea
Slash O'Shea ran away from an orphanage at the age of ten and found work on a ship, the tale that gives Nate the idea of running off to sea himself.
Q 11Which Connecticut harbor town is home to Nate and his cruel uncle Storch in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Norwalk
Norwalk suffered for real in the war: in July 1779, three years after Nate's story, a British raid left most of the town burned.
Q 12Why does Nate take the blame when little Theo's stick hits Storch in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
To keep him from being sold
To keep him from being sold, Nate takes the blame himself: Storch had only recently done exactly that to Eliza's husband, whom she misses terribly.
Q 13In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, what is Theo pretending his stick is when it flies off and hits Storch?
A sword
Q 21In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, what is the sharp blade fixed to the end of a British musket called?
A bayonet
A bayonet let a soldier use his gun as a spear in close combat, though in the summer of 1776 careless American recruits were using theirs as knives to cut food.
Q 22In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, what are the small packets that hold a soldier's musket ammunition called?
Cartridges
Cartridges were paper packets that combined a pre-measured charge with the ball, and the standard loading drill began with the soldier biting one open.
Q 23Which ridge is the Connecticut 5th ordered to guard in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Gowanus Heights
A sword, and a pirate's one at that: Theo is spinning around with the stick when he stumbles and lets go, and it strikes the back of his master's head.
Q 14In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, how did Nate lose the father who used to take him on voyages?
Swept overboard in a storm
Swept overboard in a storm, his father was a ship captain, and with Nate's mother already dead the boy was left to live with his uncle.
Q 15Which new document does Paul tell Nate about when they meet in New York in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was only weeks old that summer, and Paul's news of colonies banding together into a new country leads Nate to join the fight.
Q 16What job does Paul offer Nate with the Connecticut 5th in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
A camp helper
A camp helper is not meant to fight, and Captain Marsh at first plans to leave Nate behind in the fort because he is not a soldier.
Q 17How does Nate win over the doubtful Captain Marsh in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Digging a trench
Digging a trench under a roasting sun is what earns Nate the captain's praise, after Marsh had first judged him far too young for army life.
Q 18Whose musket does Nate pick up after its owner is shot in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Samuel
Samuel is hit in a surprise attack on the marching company, and the boy who was only meant to carry supplies ends up firing alongside the soldiers.
Q 19How does Nate slip past the British lines and back to his company in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Dressed as an enemy soldier
Dressed as an enemy soldier in a fallen German's green coat and helmet, Nate even waves to the British troops, a trick borrowed from his father's pirate tales.
Q 20Which city, Paul tells Nate in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, had British troops moving into people's homes?
Boston
Boston had too little food and its shops were all shut, Paul says, and that hardship drove the men of his militia to act to get the British out.
Gowanus Heights is where the company is walking along the ridge when British soldiers open fire in a surprise attack, the moment the battle begins for Nate.
Q 24In I Survived the American Revolution, 1776, what does Nate see through square openings in the sides of two huge ships?
Cannon muzzles
Cannon muzzles poke out of both ships, which carry twelve sails each, and the flags flying from their masts tell Nate that they are British warships.
Q 25What news sends Nate home to Connecticut before the war ends in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
His uncle has died
His uncle has died, and Nate, of all people, is the heir to everything the man owned, which puts the future of the whole household in a boy's hands.
Q 26Why does Captain Marsh ask young Nate to march out with the company in I Survived the American Revolution, 1776?
Many soldiers are sick
Many soldiers are sick, twenty-two of them too ill to march, so the captain needs Nate to help carry supplies and tells him he can then go back to the fort.
Q 27What name was given to colonists like Storch who sided with the king during the American Revolution?
Loyalists
Loyalists were also nicknamed Tories, and far from all of them fled: the great majority stayed on and became citizens of the new United States.
Q 28After the 1776 defeat near New York that Nate survives, which waterway did the American army cross by night to escape?
East River
The East River crossing carried the entire army to Manhattan in one night without a single life lost, with Massachusetts sailors and fishermen moving the troops.
Q 29What weather hid the American army's night escape from the British after its August 1776 defeat near New York?
A morning fog
A morning fog settled in just as daybreak threatened to expose the troops still waiting to cross, and it concealed the evacuation from the British.
Q 30Which Connecticut teacher turned spy did the British hang in New York in 1776, during the American Revolution?
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was the only volunteer when a spy was needed behind British lines, and in 1985 he was officially named the state hero of Connecticut.