Block up the Hall Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The Siege of Fort Sumter was the inaugural action of the American Civil War. It occurred on April 1861. The small Union garrison capitulated after a two-day bombardment. Hailed throughout the South, it proved to be just the beginning of much bloodshed.

The Siege of Fort Pickens occurred throughout the first two years of the Civil War. Fort Pickens, located in Florida, had a Union garrison which refused to surrender. The Confederates blockaded the fort and tried to capture it, but their attempts were unsuccessful and Fort Pickens remained in US hands for the entire length of the hostilities.

The Siege of Yorktown happened in the spring of 1862. The Union Army of the Potomac, led by George B. McClellan, besieged the city and its Confederate garrison, led by Joseph E. Johnston. The siege was a waste of time for McClellan, who spent too much time in fear of the "Quaker guns," i.e., tree logs painted to resemble cannons. Eventually, as McClellan was finally about to order a major assault, the Confederates retreated in good order.

The Siege of Corinth covered the month of May in 1862. Corinth, in the state of Tennessee, was an important railroad hub for the South, which was in peril after the North, led by Ulysses S. Grant, won a strategic victory at the Battle of Shiloh. Nonetheless, although Corinth was abandoned by the Confederates, the Northern press (and US President Abraham Lincoln) were angry at Halleck, for having failed to destroy or capture the CS Army of Tennessee led by P.G.T. Beauregard.

The Siege of Vicksburg was perhaps the most important clash in the entire war, rivalled only by the climactic Battle of Gettysburg. Vicksburg was the Confederate control hub over the Mississippi River and Ulysses S. Grant was determined to capture it, which he did after many battles and a 47-day siege, which ended on July 4, 1863. The CSA was split in two as a result of Grant's tenacity.

The Siege of Port Hudson was more or less simultaneous and ancillary to that of Vicksburg. Port Hudson was the other node of Confederate control over the Mississippi, so Grant's subordinate, Nathaniel P. Banks, was tasked with capturing it. Although his frontal assaults failed at a substantial cost for the Union, eventually the siege forced the CS garrison to surrender on July 9, 1863.

The Siege of Chattanooga began after the CS Army of Tennessee won a pyrrhic victory in the Battle of Chickamauga, in September 1863 and lasted until November of the same year. Although victory seemed to be coming for CS General Braxton Bragg, Ulysses S. Grant, fresh from his Vicksburg triumph, came to aid the besieged Union forces and forced the CS army to retreat with heavy losses.

The Siege of Knoxville was the last major operation of the western front of the American Civil War in 1863. A Confederate force led by James Longstreet (who was "loaned" from the Army of Northern Virginia to the Army of Tennessee, because of the latter's poor performance in combat) besieged a Union force led by the undistinguished General Ambrose Burnside (whose name forms the basis of the word "sideburns"). Although Longstreet had largely succeeding in bottling the Union garrison up in Knoxville, the news of the Union victory forced the CS to withdraw, abandoning the bitterly contested Tennessee.

The Siege of Atlanta was the most decisive engagement in the western front of the American Civil War during 1864. After Ulysses S. Grant went east to fight against Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman was appointed in his stead. Sherman, utilizing scorched earth warfare and an unyielding siege, managed to enter Atlanta victorious in September, 1864 and, before the year was over, he had reached the port of Savannah on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Siege of Petersburg was the last major engagement in the eastern front of the American Civil War and lasted for ten months. It pitted Ulysses S. Grant against Robert E. Lee. Grant had superior forces, with higher morale, better logistics and the strategic initiative. Lee put on a brilliant defensive fight, but ultimately Petersburg was captured, the CS capital of Richmond fell and he himself surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.

The other five battles were fought during World War One.