Here’s a little quiz to help you assess your knowledge of the civilian government of the Confederacy. (Answers are given at the end.)
Of the eleven Confederate states, which two were never represented in the executive branch?
Which cabinet member was born in Germany, reared in South Carolina, served in the government of Charleston, S.C., and yet is buried in North Carolina?
Who was the oldest person to serve in the Confederate cabinet?
Which cabinet members were not natural-born American citizens? (Hint: there were three of them.)
Which two cabinet members gained distinction as generals in the Confederate Army?
These fun facts are just a hint of the many things about the Confederate executive cabinet that you will learn from my book Confederate Cabinet Departments and Secretaries, published by McFarland & Company. It is available at http://www.mcfarlandpub.com, http://www.amazon.com, http://www.walmart.com, and many other online sources. If your local bookstore does not have it in stock, ask them to order it for you. I think you’ll learn a lot of interesting insights from it.
Answers to the quiz:
Arkansas and Tennessee
Christopher Memminger
Christopher Memminger, 58 years old
Christopher Memminger, Judah Benjamin, and Stephen Mallory
Robert Toombs and John C. Breckinridge