The CWPT Preservation Puzzle

Print out the puzzle and the clues to solve it! (Hint: to make solving the puzzle a little easier, click here for a list of battles to choose from. Click here for the answers to the puzzle.)

1. President Lincoln met with Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan and visited the wounded soldiers here after the September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam.

2. This battle, January 19, 1862, broke a Confederate stronghold in eastern Kentucky and was the first significant victory of the war for the Union Army.

3. In this May 1-3, 1863 battle, Lee outflanked Hooker's forces with a brilliant march by Stonewall Jackson's men. Jackson was mortally wounded by his own men in one of the tragic accidents of the war.

5. In this conflict on September 14, 1862, troops led by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan confronted Confederates at three key mountain passes, finally forcing a retreat. The engagement distracted McClellan's troops from the defense of Harpers Ferry, which was captured simultaneously.

6. Confederate forces under Jubal Early started this battle when they attacked a Federal encampment October 19, 1864. The Union commander, Philip Sheridan was temporarily absent from the camp and the Federals were surprised by the unexpected attack.

8. In this clash, Maj. General Thomas C. Hindman failed to destroy two Union forces led by Brig. Gens. Francis Herron and James Blunt, December 7, 1862. His failure and retreat established permanent Federal control of northwest Arkansas.

10. Confederate forces under Braxton Bragg captured Col. John T. Wilder's 4,000 Union soldiers after a short siege and secured a vital railroad supply line at this site on September 17, 1862.

11. The Battle of ____________ opened December 13, 1862. Ambrose E. Burnside attacked Robert E. Lee's well-positioned forces throwing his men repeatedly at the Confederates on Marye's Heights. The Confederate position was so strong the Federals were slaughtered.

13. This battle in North Carolina, March 15, 1865, was the first time since Atlanta that the Confederates attempted to resist William T. Sherman's Federal advance in a large-scale action.

16. Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's plan to enter middle Tennessee to disengage supply lines to Union troops continued with this stunning defeat of Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis, June 10, 1864.

17. The most important battle of the Civil War in Kentucky, this clash on October 8, 1862 ended in Union victory when Don Carlos Buell's Federals halted Braxton Bragg's Confederate invasion of Kentucky.

19. Though tactically a Confederate victory, this May 14-15, 1864 battle gave Sherman's Federals an advantage by forcing Johnston's Confederates from their stronghold on Rocky Face Ridge in one of the first steps of the Atlanta Campaign.

22. This site in Louisiana was an earthen fort built to defend the Red River. It was captured on March 14, 1864.

23. Maj. Gen. George G. Meade defeats the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by Gen. Robert E. Lee in this most decisive battle of the war, July 1-3, 1863.

26. This major rail center was the focus of an extended siege as Maj. Gen. H.W. Halleck's troops advanced on P.G.T. Beauregard's entrenched Confederates. Withdrawing in the face of superior numbers, the Confederates gave Corinth up to the Federals in May, 1862, returning that October when Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn tried to take it back.

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4. In this skirmish, November 29, 1864, Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield eluded Confederates led by Gen. John Bell Hood. Hood lost his chance to defeat an isolated Union army, and was defeated at Franklin a day later.

7. A Union victory here on March 28, 1862 put an end to Confederate incursions into the Southwest and marked the turning point in the war in New Mexico.

9. In the last engagement of the Seven Days' Battles near this city, Gen. Robert E. Lee failed to destroy McClellan's Federals largely due to the superiority of the Union artillery at Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862.

12. McClellan's troops under William S. Rosecrans attacked a vastly outnumbered force of Confederates under Lt. Col. John Pegram at this site on July 11, 1861. The Union victory opened the road to Beverly and helped establish McClellan's military reputation.

14. In September 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price crossed the Arkansas border into southeast Missouri with 12,000 soldiers, beginning "Price's Raid." This was the first battle of Price's campaign.

15. During the Antietam Campaign, McClellan's forces followed Lee through the mountain gaps at the Maryland/Virginia border trying to stop his invasion of the North. The Federals fought their way through this gap and met up with Lee at Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862.

16. In this first clash of the Gettysburg campaign, June 9, 1863, Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton was unable to defeat Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry, thereby failing to discover Lee's infantry camped near Culpeper.

18. This November 30, 1864 battle featured a desperate charge by the Army of Tennessee across two miles of open ground. Amazingly, the assault was successful and the Federals withdrew towards Nashville.

20. Part of Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's North Carolina Expedition in which he defeated Confederate troops led by Brig. Gen. Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, captured nine forts and 41 heavy guns. Branch's defeat at this site, March 14, 1862, caused the Confederates to reconsider their military strategy in North Carolina.

21. Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans pursued then defeated Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederates in this December 30, 1862 - January 2, 1863 battle, forcing them into further retreat and leaving a strong Federal presence in middle Tennessee.

24. School House Ridge played a major role in Confederate General Stonewall Jackson's September 15, 1862 capture of this town.

25. This October 25, 1864 battle featured the largest cavalry charges west of the Mississippi.

27. This June 8, 1862 battle occurred as part of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson's forces, commanded by Richard S. Ewell, were attacked by Federals under John C. Fremont, but the Confederates successfully beat them back.

28. In 1863, Vicksburg and this city were the last two remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River. Confederate General Gardner surrendered the site to General Banks on July 9 after the longest siege in U.S. military history - leaving the Mississippi River entirely in Union hands.

29. This site on the Big Blue River was the scene of a cavalry engagement between Pleasonton's Union forces and Marmaduke's Confederates during the October 23, 1864 Battle of Westport, Missouri.

30. Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan attacked Confederates under Lt. Gen. Jubal Early on September 19, 1864 and drove them from the field. It was the third battle at this location.

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