Civil War Battles (one of my favorites, 1861-1865)

Question 1

Built on an island in 1829, the fort was one of three that the United States maintained in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina

Answer 1

Fort Sumter

Question 2

Fought at a creek near Manassas, Virginia (30 miles west of Washington D.C.), this was the first major showdown of the war.

Answer 2

First Bull Run / First Manassas

Question 3

This was named after a church in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee (100 miles southwest of Nashville).

Answer 3

Shiloh / Pittsburg Landing

Question 4

Union commander George McClellan devised this plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia

Answer 4

Peninsular Campaign

Question 5

This resounding victory by Lee and Jackson pushed Union forces back to Washington, D.C.

Answer 5

Second Bull Run / Second Manassas

Question 6

The bloodiest day of the Civil War: 12,000 Union men lost their lives, as did 10,000 Confederates.

Answer 6

Antietam / Sharpsburg

Question 7

After the battle, Burnside’s troops were forced to make “The Mud March” up the Rappahannock, made foul by weather and dead and wounded bodies.

Answer 7

Fredericksburg / Marye’s Heights

Question 8

Victory for the South, but with great cost, as Stonewall Jackson lost his life.

Answer 8

Chancellorsville

Question 9

George Pickett led his famous “charge” through open fields, where the Union mowed down one-third of his 15,000 men.

Answer 9

Gettysburg

Question 10

It began when Union General William Rosecrans forced Confederate commander Braxton Bragg out of the city on September 9.

Answer 10

Chattanooga Campaign

Question 11

The first clash between Grant and Lee, this series of conflicts started with the Battle of the Wilderness (50 miles northwest of Richmond),

Answer 11

Wilderness Campaign

Question 12

This resounding defeat led to Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House one week later, effectively ending the Civil War.

Answer 12

Petersburg Campaign

Question 13

A channel in southeastern Virginia was the site of the first major fight between two ironclad ships.

Answer 13

Hampton Roads

Question 14

This campaign was launched by Grant to take control of the Mississippi River and cut off the western Confederate states from the east.

Answer 14

Vicksburg Campaign