George Pickett
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40 free George Pickett trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
George Pickett's name is attached to the most famous infantry assault in American history, yet he led only part of it and spent the rest of his life haunted by the result. The man behind the name is stranger and more colorful than the legend: a prankster cadet, a dandy in uniform, and a soldier whose career swung between flag-waving glory and lasting controversy. These questions follow him from West Point and the war with Mexico to a tense standoff in the Pacific Northwest, then through the Civil War to Gettysburg, the final spring of the Confederacy and his uneasy years afterward. You will also meet the friends, rivals and family who shaped his story, and the books and films that keep retelling it. The quiz suits Civil War buffs, students and anyone who enjoys a good fun fact. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the stories behind the facts as you play.
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Q 01Which future president, his widow claimed, secured George Pickett's appointment to West Point?
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was only a state legislator at the time and could not nominate cadets; the appointment really came from his law partner, Congressman John T. Stuart.
Q 02What does West Point call the cadet who graduates last in the class, as George Pickett did in 1846?
The goat
The goat is a backhanded honor for stubbornness and tenacity, and Pickett earned it by finishing 59th of 59 cadets after years of pranks and demerits.
Q 03The 1859 San Juan Island standoff where George Pickett led US troops is named for which animal?
A pig
A pig shot while rooting in an American settler's garden nearly set two nations at war, and it turned out to be the only casualty of the whole affair.
Q 04When Union troops broke his lines on April 1, 1865, George Pickett was away at what kind of meal?
A shad bake
A shad bake hosted by cavalry general Thomas Rosser, who had brought the fish on ice from the Nottoway River, kept Pickett from his troops as they were overrun.
Q 05Which personal trademark made George Pickett the talk of the Army of Northern Virginia?
Long perfumed ringlets
Long perfumed ringlets fell loose over Pickett's shoulders, and he matched them with a tailored uniform, gold spurs and a riding crop he carried everywhere.
Q 06Asked why his famous charge failed, whom did George Pickett reportedly say had a hand in it?
The Yankees
The Yankees were Pickett's stock answer to reporters, a dry reminder that the Union defenders, and not only Confederate mistakes, decided the day at Gettysburg.
Q 07Which famous cavalryman matched Pickett's feat by graduating last in his West Point class in 1861?
George Custer
George Custer finished 34th of 34 in the class of 1861, and like Pickett he was rescued from an obscure posting by a war that needed junior officers at once.
Q 08Fearing trial for hanging Union prisoners, to which country did George Pickett flee after the war?
Canada
Canada sheltered Pickett, his wife and their baby son for about a year, until word came that the investigation into the executions had been dropped.
Q 09Facing warships off San Juan Island in 1859, George Pickett vowed to make which battle of it?
Bunker Hill
Bunker Hill was his model for a defiant stand: with a few dozen soldiers he lined the beach under the guns of a frigate and refused to leave.
Q 10After the Civil War, George Pickett tried farming and then earned a living selling what?
Insurance
Insurance kept him in Norfolk for the rest of his life; Congress lifted his political penalties in 1874, a year before he died there.
Q 11Which wounded lieutenant handed George Pickett the colors in Mexico, then led him at Gettysburg?
James Longstreet
James Longstreet fell with a thigh wound and passed the flag to his friend; sixteen years later he could only nod when the moment came to send Pickett's men forward.
Q 12George Pickett won fame in 1847 by carrying the US flag over the wall of which Mexican castle?
Chapultepec
Chapultepec guarded the road into Mexico City, and Pickett fought his way to the palace roof to unfurl the colors, which earned him a brevet promotion to captain.
Q 13Which famous Confederate graduated from West Point in 1846 alongside last-placed George Pickett?
Stonewall Jackson
Q 21Which officer declined George Pickett's 1853 duel challenge, then met his charge at Gettysburg?
Winfield Hancock
Winfield Hancock shrugged off the challenge when the two junior officers crossed paths in Texas; a decade later his II Corps held the center that Pickett's men attacked.
Q 22Which firm owned the animal whose shooting sparked George Pickett's 1859 island standoff?
Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company ran a sheep farm on the island to back Britain's claim, and it wanted the American who fired the shot hauled before a magistrate.
Q 23The house George Pickett built as a US Army captain is now the oldest in which Washington city?
Bellingham
Stonewall Jackson ranked 17th of the 59 graduates after starting at the bottom, and classmates said one more year would have put him first.
Q 14George Pickett was born in his grandfather's shop in which Virginia city?
Richmond
Richmond also gave him his last parade: when he was reburied there in 1875, more than 40,000 people lined the route of the funeral procession.
Q 15Pickett's Charge crossed nearly a mile of open fields to hit the Union center on which high ground?
Cemetery Ridge
Cemetery Ridge was the target after a two-hour cannonade meant to soften its defenders; instead about half of the attackers became casualties.
Q 16Which Union general, in command of his army for mere days, repulsed Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg?
George Meade
George Meade had been appointed just three days before the battle, and on the night before the charge he predicted that Lee would strike his center.
Q 17Which of George Pickett's brigadiers crossed the Union wall waving his hat on the tip of his saber?
Lewis Armistead
Lewis Armistead led his brigade to the farthest point the charge reached before he was shot down inside the Union line, and he died two days later in a field hospital.
Q 18George Pickett surrendered with Lee's army and was paroled in April 1865 at which Virginia village?
Appomattox Court House
Appomattox Court House saw the remnant of his command form up in the army's final battle line, shrunk by then to roughly the size of a brigade.
Q 19Which Union general, an old Army friend, helped end the inquiry that drove George Pickett abroad?
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant recommended that the case be dropped, a favor to an old comrade that stirred public controversy and let Pickett come home in 1866.
Q 20What was the highest rank George Pickett reached in the Confederate army, awarded in October 1862?
Major general
Major general was as high as he rose; the promotion came weeks after he returned from a shoulder wound that had kept him out of action for three months.
Bellingham now covers the bayside spot where he was sent to build a fort; the two-story house, made of lumber from a local mill, is now a museum.
Q 24Which charger did George Pickett ride as a Confederate general?
Old Black
Old Black suited a rider who dressed for show, in a small blue cap, buff gloves and a tailored coat with a double row of gold buttons.
Q 25George Pickett missed which great Confederate victory of May 1863 while away besieging Suffolk?
Chancellorsville
Chancellorsville was won without two First Corps divisions, and Pickett spent part of the quiet Suffolk campaign slipping away to court his future wife.
Q 26Which spot on a stone wall, pierced by Pickett's Charge, is the Confederacy's high-water mark?
The Angle
The Angle was where the leading Virginians got over the wall, but no reinforcements followed and they were quickly killed or captured.
Q 27George Pickett was routed in April 1865 in which Virginia battle, after orders to hold at all costs?
Five Forks
Five Forks was the key to the last railroad supplying Petersburg, and its fall made Lee give up the city and begin the retreat that ended in surrender.
Q 28What kept George Pickett from hearing a battle begin as he lunched behind his lines in April 1865?
An acoustic shadow
An acoustic shadow, the work of thick pine forest and heavy air, swallowed the gunfire, and his officers could not find him as the attack rolled in.
Q 29Which actor, later the villain of Avatar, played George Pickett in the 1993 film Gettysburg?
Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang said he saw sadness in the general's portraits, and he came back for the 2003 prequel in a different role while Billy Campbell took over as Pickett.
Q 30Which Pulitzer-winning Michael Shaara novel features George Pickett leading his doomed charge?
The Killer Angels
The Killer Angels won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted for the screen in 1993 as the film Gettysburg.