Q 01/05

Which abolitionist orator had two sons among the first recruits of the 54th Massachusetts?

A) Wendell Phillips

B) Frederick Douglass

C) William Lloyd Garrison

D) Gerrit Smith

Answer · why

B) Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass saw two of his sons join the regiment he was recruiting for. One of them rose to sergeant major, then the highest rank open to a Bl...

Q 02/05

Which actor won an Academy Award for playing Private Trip in the 1989 film Glory?

A) Denzel Washington

B) Forest Whitaker

C) Wesley Snipes

D) Laurence Fishburne

Answer · why

A) Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington won Best Supporting Actor for a character who never existed. Of the film's main soldiers of the 54th, only Colonel Shaw was a real p...

Q 03/05

After the Battle of Olustee, men of the 54th Massachusetts used ropes to haul what for miles?

A) A riverboat

B) A barge

C) A train

D) A wagon convoy

Answer · why

C) A train

A train carrying wounded soldiers had broken down, so the exhausted regiment dragged the engine and cars by hand for about three miles until horses co...

Q 04/05

Confederates meant to insult Colonel Robert Gould Shaw by burying him in a mass grave with whom?

A) Executed spies

B) Enslaved laborers

C) Confederate deserters

D) His own men

Answer · why

D) His own men

His own men shared the grave, and his father refused to have the body moved, saying he could imagine no holier place for his son to lie.

Q 05/05

What did the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts refuse to accept for 18 months in protest at unequal treatment?

A) Their rations

B) Their pay

C) Their uniforms

D) Their rifles

Answer · why

B) Their pay

Their pay was set below a white private's wage, so the whole regiment boycotted the paymaster's table, even after Massachusetts offered to make up the...