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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSThe Civil War by Stephanie Bearce is a non-fiction collection of short, true stories about the hidden and surprising side of America's deadliest war. Organized into five sections, the book covers secret plots, real spies, daring special missions, unusual weapons, and unconventional fighting forces. Readers meet double agents and teenage girls carrying battle intelligence, learn about submarines, ironclad warships, and early machine guns, and discover how coded laundry signals, reconnaissance balloons, and germ warfare plots shaped the conflict. The book moves quickly from one story to the next and reads less like a textbook than a collection of dispatches from some of the war's strangest corners.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Civil War
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The Civil War. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a housekeeper in Norfolk steal the plans for an iron-covered ship?
✓ Answer
The Civil War by Stephanie Bearce
Mary Touvestre, a freed woman working as housekeeper for a navy engineer in Norfolk, snuck into his office and stole the plans for the Confederate ironclad Merrimack, then carried them to Washington.
- First half
In what book is a soldier listed as a deserter because she went away to recover from malaria?
✓ Answer
The Civil War by Stephanie Bearce
Sarah Emma Edmonds caught malaria and snuck off to a Cairo, IL hospital so her secret would not be discovered. By the time she recovered, Frank Thompson was being hunted as a deserter, so she finished the war serving as a woman in Washington.
- First half
In what book does a woman hollow out an egg and slip a folded note inside it?
✓ Answer
The Civil War by Stephanie Bearce
To get her intelligence to the front, Elizabeth Van Lew sent baskets of food. The basket always held some eggs, one of them hollowed out so a folded slip of paper could ride inside it to a Union general.
- Second half
In what book do raiders set fire to two boxcars and cut them loose to slow a pursuing locomotive?
✓ Answer
The Civil War by Stephanie Bearce
When Andrews and his men heard the Texas whistle behind them, they tried to stop the chase by setting flaming boxcars adrift on the tracks. The Confederate crew shoved the burning cars onto a side track and kept coming.
- Second half
In what book is a multishot pistol shaped like a musical instrument too awkward to fit in a holster?
✓ Answer
The Civil War by Stephanie Bearce
The harmonica pistol loaded shots into a steel slide that hung off the side of the gun. It held more rounds than a revolver, but the slide stuck out so far that soldiers could not store it in a holster.
- Near the end
In what book does a 9 year old run away from home and become a regiment's drummer boy?
✓ Answer
The Civil War by Stephanie Bearce
Johnny Clem ran away from home in 1861 at age 9 and joined the 22nd Michigan Regiment. He fought at Chickamauga, where his drum was destroyed. His fellow soldiers gave him a cut down musket so he could fight back.
