Civil War: Lesser Known Battles Quiz

Answer: Big Bethel

I've heard the Battle of Big Bethel described as predicting the outcome of the Battle of First Bull Run (First Manaus's). Pierce's troops initially managed to push the Confederates out of their positions. But a mistake by Colonel Frederick Townsend, who thought one of his own companies that had become separated from the rest of the Union force was actually a force of Confederate troopers, left the Union position open to counterattack. This counter attack was carried out by the then Colonel Daniel H. Hill, commander of the 1st North Carolina Volunteer's. Hill's counterattack drove Union forces out of the positions they captured from the Confederates earlier in the battle. The only Confederate killed in the battle was from Hill's own regiment, a Private Henry L. Wyatt. With the battle clearly lost, Union forces withdrew in a disorganized and badly managed fashion.

Ironically the Union force had attacked itself the night/early morning before the battle when two columns of that force bumped into each other. To prevent any such occurrences, Union commander's were supposedly given a sign and countersign system. When the commander of one of the columns called the sign, the other column failed to give the countersign. The resulting action saw two men dead and nineteen wounded, all from friendly fire.

Answer: Boston

Another means for Union forces to recognize each other was for one group to wear white badges on their sleeves.

Maybe the problems of the two columns that attacked each other were that one commander had been told to listen for the countersign when calling the sign but knew nothing about looking for the sleeve badges while the other was told to look for the badges but didn't know about the sign and counter sign.

Answer: It was a joint army and navy operation

Union naval forces were under the command of Flag-Officer Silas Stringham who opened the Battle of Hatteras Inlet opened with a bombardment on August 28, 1861. Butler's troops made an amphibious landing beginning at 6:45 AM that same day managing to attack the rear of the Confederate position.

The battle would be concluded the following day with 670 Confederates being surrendered to the Union force. This was one of the first joint army and navy operations for the Union.

Answer: False

Indeed there was a Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the vicinity during 1861. The Confederates attempted to destroy the tower rather than allow it to fall into Union hands and thus be used against the Confederacy. They only managed to either remove the lantern and lens or destroy them, which no more than a temporary setback for the Union only as they replaced these in 1862.

However, this was the 1803 tower, which was replaced in 1870 with the modern tower that visitors to the Cape Hatteras National Park see today.

Answer: Ball's Bluff

General McClellan had dispatched a force under General George McCall on the 19th in order to conduct reconnaissance in the area of Dranesville, Va. So as to support McCall's force, he ordered General Charles Stone to watch the nearby town of Leesburg to see if the Confederates there would evacuate the town and put on a "light demonstration" in order to encourage such a movement. Stone dispatched a Colonel Charles Devens across the Potomac to make an assault on a suspected Confederate camp. Discovering there was no camp, Devens moved on to Leesburg only to find it devoid of enemy troops and those requested Stone send him some reinforcements so as to hold the town. Stone dispatched a force of about 1,700 or more under Colonel Baker to either reinforce Devens or withdraw all Union force, whichever he deemed appropriate. What happened next was perhaps one of the biggest blunders of 1861.

Rather than land his forces elsewhere, especially as he only had three boats to do so with, Baker landed at the base of Ball's Bluff, a 100 ft. bluff or cliff with a narrow path leading from the river to the top. Once all his troops were across, Baker started up the side of the cliff without dispatching skirmishers even though he believed there were Confederates in the area. Indeed, Confederate troops were waiting for the Union force in the wooded area at the top of the bluff. They were able to force Baker's troops to the edge of the bluff, springing a trap from which escaping alive was extremely difficult. Evans' troops soon charged Baker's force, causing some to jump to their death over the side of the cliff. Baker himself was killed instantly by a Confederate bullet to the head. In all, the Union lost about 49 killed, 158 wounded, and 714 became prisoners of war.

Answer: Oregon

Born in London in 1811, Edward Baker's family moved to the US in 1815, settling first in Philadelphia before moving first to Indiana and then Illinois. In 1832 he participated in the Black Hawk War.

Baker started his political career in 1837 in the Illinois House of Representatives and moved on to the state's Senate in 1840. In 1844 he defeated Abraham Lincoln, a friend of his, for nomination to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives, and won the seat as well. Yet he resigned his position in order to fight in the Mexican-American War. After the war, he returned to Illinois and was once again elected to Congress, this time remaining until 1851 when he moved out to California. Due to his political affiliations (first a Whig and then a Republican), Baker faced little chance of a political future in California and thus moved to Oregon when Republicans there invited him to move and run for a US Senate seat. He won his first, and last, Senate seat as a senator from Oregon in the 1860 election.

Despite having fought in both the Black Hawk and Mexican-American Wars, he probably shouldn't have been in command during the Civil War. He was largely inexperienced as a soldier and might have done better remaining in the Senate. Though he could have entered the war as the Brigadier General, he turned down the commission as it would have meant resigning from the Senate. However, a Colonel's commission would not have meant the same thing, and thus he accepted the offer of becoming Colonel of the 71st Pennsylvania when it came. Despite being a Colonel, he became a brigade commander in August 1861. Before Ball's Bluff he was offered a Major General's commission, which he may have still been considering at the time of his death. He appears to have received the commission posthumously as he appears in some sources to be listed as a Major General.

Answer: The creation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War

First Bull Run (First Manaus's) had been a much bigger Union defeat, but Ball's Bluff had been closer to the nation's capital. As such, it ensured reporters would spread the news of the battle quickly. On top of that was the death of a senator who quickly was made a martyr despite the fact that his inexperience led not only to his own death, but to the death, injury, and capture of over 900 Union troops.

In the wake of the Ball's Bluff fiasco, someone needed to be blamed for what happened. Despite many regular officers putting the blame firmly with Baker, Republican's sought to place it with McClellan and Stone. The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was created by Congress on December 20, 1861. The committee gave Congressmen who were a part of it involvement in how the war was fought. This included being able to remove, or at least attempt to remove, Union commanders or have commanders they felt were the people they wanted fighting the war placed in a position of supreme command.

Answer: Maine

No, this isn't a joke, there really was a battle off the coast of Maine. The events leading to the Battle of Portland Harbor began about two days earlier when Lt. Charles W. "Savez" Read, then commanding the CSS Tacony, captured the fishing schooner Archer off the Portland coast. Realizing the Union Navy was looking for the Tacony, Read transfered his command to the Archer and set fire to the Tacony. They then proceeded to sail into Portland harbor and on the night of the 26th captured the US revenue cutter Caleb Cushing. The plan was to sail away before anyone knew what happened then return the next day to set fire to the town. But things didn't go their way and they found themselves being pursued by the steamers Forrest City (a side-wheel steamer) and Chesapeake (a screw propeller steamer).

The Forest City did fire four shots, but being the slower of the two she let the Chesapeake move to recapture the Caleb Cushing and the Archer. The Chesapeake was in turn fired upon, but she did manage to catch Read. However, Read set fire to the Caleb Cushing to prevent her from being recaptured.

Answer: Santa Rosa Island

Anderson's Confederates landed four miles east of Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island around 2 am and proceeded to advance on the fort. Anderson's forces reached and overwhelmed a picket force about a mile from Fort Pickens. However, the encounter with the pickets alerted the camp of the 6th New York to the presence of the Confederates, allowing them to put up a brief resistance.

However, rumors of approaching Union gunboats and the approaching dawn forced Anderson to break off the planned assault on Fort Pickens and retreat. To make matters worse for the Confederates, Brown had ordered four companies of Union troops out against them.

They harassed the Confederates and managed to capture some of the stragglers as they were attempting to board the transports back to the mainland.

Answer: Palmito Ranch

With both Lee and Johnston having surrendered to Grant and Sherman respectively, losing any battle to Confederate forces after April 26th would have probably been a bit of an embarrassment for the Union. Earlier in the month of May, Barrett, commander of the 62nd USCT, had been given temporary command of the Union garrison on Brazos Island. Knowing the war was coming to an end, and apparently looking to gain a measure of military glory, Barrett requested permission to lead a demonstration against Fort Brown. His request was denied.

Against orders from headquarters, he decided to attack the Confederates anyway and dispatched 250 men of the 62nd USCT and 50 men of the 2nd Texas Cavalry under Lt. Colonel David Branson to attack Confederate outposts. Branson had heard of a Confederate outpost at White's Ranch and moved on it, only to discover at 2 am on May 12th that it had been abandoned. Due to the exhaustion of his men, Branson allowed them to rest until 8:30 am before moving on to Palmito Ranch which his force captured from Captain W. N. Robinson around noon and proceeded to set fire to it before giving them time once again to rest and eat. During this time Robinson, having regrouped, counterattacked at around 3 PM and drove Branson back to White's Ranch. Fighting ended for the night, allowing both sides to be reinforced.

Barrett arrived early on the 13th with 200 men from the 34th Indiana and took command of the combined force, marching back to Palmito Ranch. After burning what had escaped Branson the previous day, his forces marched about two miles past Palmito Ranch towards Fort Brown before heavy fighting forced him to withdraw to a bluff along the Rio Grande. At 4 PM he soon found his command under attack by Colonel John "Rip" Ford, which forced him to begin a retreat.

It is of interest that Confederates learned of the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse from captured Union soldiers for the first time thanks to this battle.

Answer: Fort Wagner

Running 630 ft from the east to west and 275 ft from the north to south, Fort Wagner, also called Battery Wagner, was an earthworks fort. That is to say that rather than being built out of bricks and mortar as Fort Sumter was, Wagner was built sand, turf, and logs. Its walls reached a height of 30 ft and it was protected by a 5 ft deep, 50 ft wide moat. On the southeast end of the fort was a bombproof shelter that could hold about half the forts garrison. Situated on Morris Island, the only approach from the south was a narrow strip of land of between 60 and a 100 yards boarded by the Atlantic to the east and marshland to the west. This strip of land would prove both vital to the defense of Fort Wagner by the Confederates and hazardous to any assault on the fort by Union forces.

Starting at 9 in the morning to around noon on the 18th, Gilmore had four batteries of artillery open fire on the fort, accompanied by eleven ships of Rear Admiral John Dahlgren's command, in an effort to soften up the fort before the final assault. Despite the impressive amount of ordnance, Fort Wagner suffered minimal damage with only about 8 of the over 16,000 garrison killed and 20 wounded.

Then at around 7:30-7:45 pm that night the assault formally began when Gilmore sent in Brigadier General Truman Seymour's division, which was spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts, an African-American regiment commanded by white officers. Despite the expectation that the bombardment had softened up the Confederates, the Union troops soon found themselves being shot to pieces as they approached the fort. Of the 6,000 or so Union troops that assaulted Fort Wagner, about 1,515 became casualties. The 54th itself suffered 272 dead, wounded, or missing of the about 600 or so troops it entered the battle with.

Gilmore was forced to call off the battle and lay siege to the fort for nearly two months before Wagner fell into Union hands on September 7, 1863. Ironically, it was only after the Confederates abandoned the fort that Gilmore finally captured it rather than any of his efforts to either destroy the fort and all inside or force the garrison to surrender to him.

Answer: Robert Gould Shaw

Prior to the start of the war, the Boston born Shaw had joined the 7th New York National Guard, a unit that was little more than a social club. But after the firing on Fort Sumter the regiment, along with Shaw, was mustered into regular service and became the first unit to reach Washington after Lincoln sent a call for troops. After thirty days the unit was disbanded without seeing any action, Shaw then enlisted in the 2nd Massachusetts as a 2nd Lieutenant. He see service with the 2nd during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and Antietam, being injured during both and rising to the rank of Captain during this time.

With the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the authorization for the enlistment of African-American soldiers, Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts gained permission to raise an African-American regiment. Initially he was going to give command of the regiment to a Captain Norwood Penrose Hallowell of the 20th Massachusetts based on the suggestion of John Murray Forbes. However, as Hallowell was from Pennsylvania, Andrew would eventually go with Forbes' second suggestion and offered command of what was to become the 54th Massachusetts to Shaw. At first Shaw turned down the offer, but he eventually took it for a number of different reasons which included pressure from his mother and his recent engagement to Annie Haggerty.

Shaw and the 54th would see their first action of the war as a unit when they took part in the Burning of Darien, Georgia on June 11th, 1863. It was an event that apparently appalled Shaw and did more to help support the views of those who had opposed the creation of units such as the 54th. They had believed African-American units to be mere savages and Darien seemed to prove that they could burn a defenseless town but might not be able to stand against white soldiers. Shaw, who did not like the idea of being used as "an instrument of the Lord's vengeance," claimed he would refuse to follow orders if they were the same as he had received at Darien. Thus the 54th would largely remain in camp for better than a month until they were ordered to support the assault on Fort Wagner.

Just two days prior to the assault on Wagner, the 54th would get it first taste of combat when it helped to repel a Confederate assault on James Island. With this behind them, the boarded transports to nearby Morris Island so as to participate in the assault. Fort Wagner would be the last battle Shaw would see during the were as he would be killed leading his men up the parapet into the fort. He would not see elements of his unit, along with those of a few white units, penetrate Wagner only to be repulsed by the forts defenders.

Answer: True

1989's award winning film "Glory" helped the second battle become better known to a wider audience, making it one of the better known of the war's lesser known battles. What isn't depicted in the movie is Gillmore's first attempt to capture Fort Wagner a week before.

On July 10th, Gilmore landed troops on the lower end of Morris Island and they quickly secured most his objectives. With the apparent ease with which his forces captured these objectives, he may well have expected they would easily overtake the defenders of Fort Wagner. Thus early on the 11th he launched a surprise attack on the fort. However, instead of Gillmore's desired result, Wagner's garrison fought the attack to a standstill. Union forces suffered 339 casualties in the first Battle of Fort Wagner.

Gilmore was determined to capture the fort and began making preparations for the upcoming second battle. From the 12th to the 16th he had the engineers erect four artillery batteries consisting of 41 guns and siege mortars so as to be able to pound the fort in preparation for the second battle.

Answer: Hanover

The Battle of Hanover began after 10 am on the 30th of June when Confederate elements of Colonel John Chablis's brigade engaged rear guard elements of Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth's brigade. Stuart soon brought his command to bear, forcing Farnsworth to bring his entire brigade back into Hanover to met the Confederate threat. Farnsworth was faced by both Stuart's command and elements of Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee's brigade, though his command came close to actually capturing Stuart early in the battle.

Before 2 pm General Kilpatrick brought in his other calvary brigade, commanded by Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, to reinforce Farnsworth's brigade. Stuart stabilized own line by deploying Chambliss's brigade on the right and Lee's brigade on the left. At 2 pm Brigadier General Wade Hampton's brigade arrived and Stuart deployed him on the right of Chambliss. Hampton brought with him additional horse artillery which was soon shelling Farnsworth's troops.

Prior to Hampton's artillery opening fire, Lee had also brought in some horse artillery which had been firing on the west end of the Union line for some time. Seeking to silence Lee's artillery, Custer ordered some 600 dismounted troopers from the 6th Michigan Calvary to take the Confederate battery. They managed to surprise the battery forcing them to abandon their position. A Confederate counter attack forced Union forces back, but the Michigan men rallied.

The battle continued until dark, at which time Stuart withdrew his men from the stalemate. Although inconclusive, the Battle of Hanover's true outcome would be more the effect it had on the Battle of Gettysburg. As Stuart left Hanover, he moved off to the east which put him farther away from Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He didn't arrive at Gettysburg until July 2nd.

Answer: Abraham Lincoln

Just two days before the Battle of Fort Stevens Early's army had fought in the Battle of Monocacy, defeating Union forces before marching towards Washington. For two days the army marched in temperatures averaging in the mid-90s on roads that were extremely dusty. On top of this, the Confederates were still exhausted after the hard fighting on the 9th when the lead elements of Early's army, elements of Robert Emmet Rode's division, encountered and pushed back pickets from Fort Stevens outlying works. Major General Christopher Augur, Commander of the Department of Washington and thus charged with the capital's defense, had been on an inspection tour of the city's northern defenses when he heard of the attack on the pickets and called for both the activation of Washington's militia and reinforcements.

Early's troops, by 1 pm, were pushed back to within a hundred yards of Stevens's walls. At about the same time both militia and dismounted calvary reinforcements were arriving at the fort while artillery from Fort Slocum, about a mile southeast of Stevens, began shelling the Confederate positions. John Brown Gordon's division responded to this by bringing his own artillery to bear and returning fire. By about 1:30 Union reinforcements had pushed Rode's division back to about 1,000 yards. Due to heat and fatigue, the Confederates soon became largely satisfied to let their sharpshooters and some skirmishers pick off Union troops one at at time.

It was during the late afternoon on the 11th that Major General Horatio Wright's VI Corps began arriving from Petersburg, being met by Lincoln on Washington's wharves and docks. He then traveled to Fort Stevens, arriving after 5 pm and witnessing some of the preparations of the following day. Elements of the VI Corps began arriving during the night to reinforce Fort Stevens.

Early on the 12th more troops from the VI Corps, including General Wright himself, arrived to help deal with Early's army. Lincoln returned that afternoon and climbed the fort's parapets to watch the battle. It was during this period that a Confederate sharpshooter shot the man next to Lincoln. According to Lieutenant Asa Abbott's summary of the events surrounding the President's coming under Confederate fire, Lincoln got down when the man was hit. But others claim that it was only after a young officer, possibly Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, ran up to him and told him to get down that he did so. Had Early's forces managed to kill Lincoln in 1864, who can really say how the war would have turned out or if Lee would have received the same terms Grant gave him when they met in April 1865.