Answers

OK, you guys need to loosen up! Don't you know a good time when you see one? What could be more fun than testing your knowledge about an important turning point in our nations history?

My FIL emailed me all his answers - which he got right, even though he had to look a few up. So since I am semi-OCD I cannot leave a quiz unanswered. So here are the answers I'm sure you're dying to know:

1. Marye's Heights - Fredericksburg, Confederate victory

2. Bloody Angle - Spotsylvania, Confederate victory. See explanation about the mule shoe below.

3. Little Round Top - Gettysburg, Union victory. This is the hill that Joshua Chamberlain, out of ammunition, had his soldiers defend with a downhill bayonet charge.

4. Hornet's Nest - Shiloh, Union victory. Confederates surprised the daylights out of the union troops, but reinforcements allowed Grant defeat the South, killing one of the best generals in Southern arms.

5. Elkhorn Tavern - Battle of Pea Ridge, Union victory in Arkansas in the early days of the war.

6. Ezra Church - Atlanta campaign, Union victory. One of a series of battles as Sherman maneuvered his way into taking Atlanta. this particular battle took place near a tiny country church.

7. Bloody Lane - Antietam/Spotsylvania, militarily a draw, but politically a Union victory because Lee's army had to abandon its northern invasion and retreat back to Confederate territory. This was enough of a victory for Lincoln to follow it up by issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

8. Lee & Gordon's mill - Chickamauga, Confederate victory.

9. the Crater - siege of Petersburg, in the last months of the war Grant's army and Lee's army faced each other in miles of trenches. Some Union miners and engineers built a tunnel under their lines across to the Rebel lines. they packed it with explosives and blew a huge hole in Lee's lines. However, first-class bungling by the officers in charge of the troops intended to exploit the hole caused it to be a first-class embarrassment for the Union.

10. Hell Hole -New Hope church battle, Atlanta campaign, considered a Confederate tactical win, but the Atlanta campaign as a whole was a Union victory. This set-back did not stop Sherman's armies for long.

11. Dunker Church - Antietam/Sharpsburg, see number 7.

12. Stone wall - I would have taken two different answers on this one. There was a stone wall at the battle of Frederickburg which Confederate soldiers stood behind to repel the Union attack. The most famous "stone wall" of course was a person - T.J. Jackson. He got the name at the 1st battle of Bull Run/Manassas when his brigade took a position at the top of a ridge just as the Union soldiers looked to be winning the day. Another Southern general, trying to rally the troops, gestured up to what later became known as the Stonewall Brigade, shouting, "Look, there stands General Jackson like a stone wall!" The troops rallied, and eventually caused the Union troops to fall back in a rout all the way to Washington.

13. Mule shoe - Spotslyvania, Confederate victory. The Confederate entrenchments in one part of the line bowed outwards in a arch, or horse shoe shape. This was referred to as the "mule shoe," though it's name was changed to "bloody angle" at least by the Union boys, after a series of attacks resulted in nothing but hundreds of dead and wounded boys in blue.

14. the peach orchard - Gettysburg, Union victory. Yes, the most famous peach orchard in history is not in Georgia, but the site of a confederate attack on day two of Gettysburg.

15. Missionary Ridge - Chattanooga, Union victory. After being caught in Chattanooga following the loss at Chickamauga, Union troops were in danger of being starved into surrender. Grant came in, help reestablish a supply line, then ordered in reinforcements from both east and west. The besieged army, not liking the fact they had to be rescued, stormed the ridge overlooking the town that was supposedly unassailable.

16. the Sunken Road - there were actually more than one sunken roads. one was at Antietam, which was know as the "bloody lane" because of the heavy fighting and dying that happened there. The other was at Shiloh, where some of the surprised Union troops used the sunken road as an entrenchment. this group was able to hold off the southern army, allowing the leaders to get other areas to be reestablished. However, the troops stayed a little too long, and were surrounded.

17. Hell's Half-acre - Murfreesboro/Stones River, considered a Union victory because the Southern army retreated, ending their campaign into Tennessee afterwards.

18. Seminary Ridge - Gettysburg, Union victory

19. the cornfield - Antietam/Spotsylvania, the attacks went back and forth across the cornfield and the fighting so heavy that the stalks of corn, standing tall and ready for harvest before the battle, was completely shot down.

20. Devil's Den - Gettysburg, Union victory