Battles

Question 1

Battle of the Little Bighorn

Answer 1

Aka Custer’s Last Stand - 6/25-26/1876 in eastern Montana at Little Bighorn River - Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho vs US Army - Crazy Horse vs Custer, Custer killed in battle - Overwhelming Lakota victory - Part of Great Sioux War

Question 2

Siege of Yorktown

Answer 2

9/28-10/19/1781 in Yorktown, VA - Decisive Franco-American victory ending Revolutionary War with surrender of Cornwallis - Washington y Rochambau vs Cornwallis

Question 3

Battle of Bunker Hill

Answer 3

6/17/1775 near Boston - British phyrric victory, took the hill and control of Boston, but lost 1054 to USA 450 - The majority of combat actually took place on the adjacent Breed’s Hill

Question 4

Massacre at Wounded Knee

Answer 4

12/29/1880 near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota - Part of Ghost Dance War - Approx 300 Lakota killed during move to reservation, because US Army attempted to take all rifles - Approx 40 U.S. casualties

Question 5

Battle of the Alamo

Answer 5

2/23-3/6/1836 near San Antonio - A. Santa Anna vs Jim Bowie y William Travis - Mexican victory, all defenders (approx 250) killed, approx 500 Mexican casualties - Led to Battle of San Jacinto

Question 6

Battle of Shiloh

Answer 6

4/06/1862 in SW Tennessee- Grant vs P Beauregard- Union victory - 23k casualties, bloodiest in US history up to that point - Led to the eventual Union control of Mississippi River

Question 7

Battle of Midway

Answer 7

6/04-6/07/1942 Midway Atoll NW of Hawaii - Decisive American victory vs Japan - Irreparably damaged Japanese navy - Turning point of Pacific theater - 300 US casualties vs 3000 Japanese

Question 8

First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas)

Answer 8

7/21/1861 near Washington DC - First major battle of Civil War - Confederate victory

Question 9

Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas)

Answer 9

8/28/1862 - Much larger than 1st battle - Confederate victory - John Pope (Union) vs Robert E Lee - Union 10k casualties, Conf 8k

Question 10

Battle of San Jacinto

Answer 10

4/21/1836 near Houston - Sam Houston vs Antonio Santa Anna - Decisive Texan victory, 1500 Mex casualties to Texas 39 - Over in 20 minutes - Santa Anna taken as POW - Led to independent Rep. Of Texas - Rallying cry: “Remember the Alamo!”

Question 11

Battle of Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg)

Answer 11

9/17/1862 near Sharpsburg MD, 65 mi NW of DC - Bloodiest single-day battle in American history, 23k casualties - George McClellan vs Robert E Lee - Strategic Union victory - 1st fought on Union soil

Question 12

Battle of Gettysburg

Answer 12

7/01/-7/03/1863 near Gettysburg PA, 80 mi north of DC - Largest number of casualties of the entire war, 46k - George Meade y John Reynolds vs Robert Lee - Union victory - The war’s turning point

Question 13

Battle of Saratoga

Answer 13

10/07/1777 at Stillwater, NY, Saratoga County - Horatio Gates / Benedict Arnold (USA) vs John Burgoyne - Decisive American victory - Burgoyne’s surrender became turning point for Revolutionary War, brought in foreign assistance for USA

Question 14

Battle of Waterloo

Answer 14

6/18/1815 at Waterloo, Belgium (then in The Netherlands) - French Empire army led by Napoleon Bonaparte vs Seventh Coalition armies of UK, Netherlands, Prussia, etc led by the Duke of Wellington (UK) y Gebhard von Blucher (Prussia) - Decisive Coalition victory resulted in the final defeat of Napoleon after his Hundred Days return from exile - 41k French casualties, 24k Coalition

Question 15

Siege of Vicksburg

Answer 15

5/18-7/04/1863 in Warren County, MS - Union Army of the Tennessee led by Ulysses Grant vs Confederate Army of Mississippi led by John Pemberton - Union victory after successful 40 day siege of Vicksburg, MS resulting in Union control of the Mississippi River - 29k Confederates surrendered, 4800 Union casualties

Question 16

Battle of Iwo Jima

Answer 16

2/19-3/26/1945 on Iwo Jima island, 1200km south of Tokyo - US Marine Corps y Navy led by Chester Nimitz, Holland Smith, et al vs Imperial Japanese Army - American victory provided a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands - 25k US casualties, 18k Japanese - Iconic photo by Joe Rosenthal shows marines raising US flag on the island’s Mt Suribachi

Question 17

Battles of Lexington and Concord

Answer 17

4/19/1775 in Middlesex County, MA incl the towns of Lexington y Concord - Massachusetts Bay militia vs British Army - Strategic American victory forced British back to Boston y started the American Revolutionary War - Paul Revere’s midnight ride y lantern signals warned the Massachusetts Provincial Congress of the British advance by sea to Concord - First shot fired by the Americans often called “the shot heard round the world” - 95 American casualties, 290 British

Question 18

Second Battle of El Alamein

Answer 18

10/23-11/11/1942 near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein, flanked by the impassable Qattara Depression - British Allied forces led by Harold Alexander y Bernard Montgomery vs Axis forces led by Erwin Rommel y Ettore Bastico - Decisive Allied victory turned the tide in the N African Campaign, y ended the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal, y the Middle Eastern oil fields - 40k Axis casualties, 14k Allied

Question 19

Battle of Agincourt

Answer 19

10/25/1415 near Agincourt, 40km south of Calais - Part of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) - Kingdom of England led by King Henry V vs Kingdom of France led by Constable Charles d’Albret (French King Charles VI suffered from severe psychotic illness) - Decisive English victory over the numerically superior French started a new period in the war, which was dominated by English military success - 10,000 French casualties vs 600 English

Question 20

Battle of Trafalgar

Answer 20

10/21/1805 in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Trafalgar in SW Spain - British Navy led by Horatio Nelson vs French and Spanish Navies led by Pierre-Charles Villeneuve - Part of the War of the Third Coalition (1805), which was part of the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815) - Decisive British victory ensured naval supremacy y prevented invasion of Britain - Nelson was shot during the battle, y died shortly after - 22 French ships lost, no British ships lost

Question 21

Battle of Chickamauga

Answer 21

9/18-9/20/1863 in NW Georgia - Fought over control of the nearby railroad center at Chattanooga - Union Army led by William Rosencrans vs Confederate Army led by Braxton Bragg - Confederate victory stopped Union advance in the area - 1st major battle fought in GA, y biggest defeat of Union in the Western Theater - 35,000 casualties on both sides, 2nd highest of the war, after Gettysburg (46,000 casualties)