Battles of the American Civil War Quiz

Answer:

The American Civil War, taking place between 1861 and 1865, involved views, people, and issues that ultimately led to a schism between the U.S. 'North' and U.S. 'South', and boiling this down solely to slavery would be glazing over years of societal difference between regions in the still-young country (though it was undeniably the key, massive contributing factor). Across just over four years of fighting across the still-growing nation, more than ten thousand battles, skirmishes, and sieges occurred, and while some of those were quite small in scale, a number of them remain some of the most well-known to take place on American soil.

Of the selections in this quiz, the Battle of Fort Sumter was the first, taking place in Charleston, South Carolina in April 1861 when South Carolina seceded from the U.S. The last of these battles was the Battle of Palmito Ranch (taking place in May 1865). By this point, the Confederate army had already surrendered a month earlier. It also happened to be the southernmost battle of the Civil War, taking place on the edge of the Rio Grande in Texas.

A handful of these battles are also quite noteworthy -- at least enough to be quite recognizable by name. The Battle of Gettysburg was the most devastating battle in the way of casualties, of any battle on U.S. home soil, and was considered a turning point for the Union's inevitable victory. The Battle of Antietam, meanwhile, contained the single bloodiest day of the Civil War. After the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Chickamauga had the second-highest number of casualties in the war.

The Battle of Shiloh, or the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was notably devastating to both sides, but it was the Union's first major win in the Western Theater. The Battle of Chancellorsville is the event at which Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded. The Union capture of the city of Atlanta was another turning point in the Civil War. After capturing the Confederate railroad center, General Sherman made his famous March to the Sea, which destroyed everything important to the South's war effort.

As for the other correct options, the Battle of Salineville marked the northernmost encounter in the Civil War, taking place in Northeast Ohio in July 1863. The Siege of Petersburg, on the other end, was the longest ongoing battle of the Civil War, taking place across nine months from 1864 to 1865 in Virginia.

The incorrect battles all involved the U.S. in some way, but not all of them took place on American soil. The Battle of Verdun took place in Europe in World War I while the Battle of Midway was part of the Pacific Theatre in World War II. The Battle of Hamburger Hill was during the Vietnam War.

Many of the options on the wrong side were from the American Revolution and still took place in what would become the United States; these include the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Yorktown. Meanwhile, both the Battle of New Orleans and the Battle of Tippecanoe were part of the War of 1812. The last option, the Battle of Palo Alto, took place on the border with Mexico as the first major battle of the Mexican-American War.