195. Which is the “Blue Hen State”?
This is a popular name for the State of Delaware. This sobriquet is said to have had its origin in a certain Captain Caldwell’s fondness for the amusement of cock-fighting. Caldwell was, for a time, an officer of the First Delaware Regiment, in the war of the Revolution, and was greatly distinguished for his daring and undaunted spirit. He was exceedingly popular in the regiment, and its high state of discipline was generally conceded to be due to his exertions; so that when officers were sent on a recruiting service, to enlist new men, in order to fill vacancies caused by death or otherwise, it was a saying, that they had gone home for more of Caldwell’s game-cocks; but as Caldwell insisted that no cock could be truly game unless the mother was a blue hen, the expression Blue Hen’s Chickens was substituted for game-cocks.
196. What State is called “The Dark and Bloody Ground”?
Kentucky, of which name the above is said to be the translation. The phrase is an epitome of the early history of the State, of the dark and bloody conflicts of the first white settlers with their savage foes; but the name originated in the fact that this was the grand battle-ground between the Northern and Southern Indians.
197. Who was the author of “Greenbacks”?
Salmon Portland Chase (1808–1873), President Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury, and afterwards Chief Justice of the United States. The financial policy which carried the nation through the civil war was mainly the work of Mr. Chase. One of its essential features was the issue of United States notes, known as “Greenbacks,” which bore no interest, but were made legal tender.
198. What battle of the Rebellion was fought above the clouds?
This far-famed “battle above the clouds” took place on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, on the morning of the 23d of November, 1863. A dense fog hung like a hood over the mountain, as the Federals under Hooker charged the Rebel fortifications. His troops had been ordered to stop on the high ground, but, taking advantage of the fog, and carried away by the ardor of the attack, they sprang up the almost inaccessible slopes of the mountain with resistless energy, and swept over the crest, driving the enemy before them. The Union flag was carried to the top; and before two o’clock in the afternoon, Lookout Mountain, with its cloud-capped summit, was swarming with Federal soldiers. Grant is reported to have declared the so-called “battle above the clouds” to be “all poetry, there having been no action there worthy the name of battle.”
199. Why was John Quincy Adams so named?
The origin of his name was thus stated by himself: “My great-grandfather, John Quincy, was dying when I was baptized, and his daughter, my grandmother, requested I might receive his name. This fact, recorded by my father, has connected with my name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the name,—it was the name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have been through life perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy of it.”