Battle of Antietam
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50 free Battle of Antietam trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
On September 17, 1862, two armies met along a quiet Maryland creek and fought from dawn until dusk. By nightfall the course of the Civil War had shifted, and the farm fields outside a small town had become some of the most storied ground in America. This quiz gathers the best fun facts about the Battle of Antietam: the misplaced orders that tipped off the Union, the generals who made or lost their names that day, the farm lanes, bridges and buildings that became landmarks, and the surprising cameos by future presidents, judges and film heroes. It also covers what the battle changed and how the battlefield is remembered today. It suits students of the Civil War, teachers after a ready-made classroom round, and anyone planning a visit to the battlefield. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A lost copy of Lee's marching orders, found by Union soldiers days before Antietam, was wrapped around what?
Three cigars
Three cigars were bundled in the paper when a Union corporal spotted it in the grass at a campground. Passed up the chain of command, it told McClellan that Lee had divided his army.
Q 02Which future US president, then a young sergeant, served hot coffee to his regiment under fire at Antietam?
William McKinley
William McKinley, a commissary sergeant in the 23rd Ohio, carried hot coffee and warm food to every man in the regiment without orders. A monument on the battlefield now marks the spot.
Q 03Which nurse had a bullet tear through her sleeve at Antietam, killing the wounded soldier she was tending?
Clara Barton
Clara Barton reached the field with a wagon of bandages and lanterns she had collected herself, and worked until dark. She went on to found the American Red Cross.
Q 04What grim record in American military history has the Battle of Antietam held since September 17, 1862?
Bloodiest single day
Bloodiest single day in American history: about 22,700 men were killed, wounded or missing by dusk. That was a quarter of the Union troops engaged and nearly a third of Lee's.
Q 05Which Union division commander at Antietam was later wrongly credited with inventing the game of baseball?
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday never made the claim himself; a commission named him baseball's inventor in 1908, fifteen years after his death. Historians of the game have since debunked it.
Q 06What unexpected attackers threw the rookie 132nd Pennsylvania into confusion at the Roulette farm during Antietam?
Angry bees
Angry bees swarmed the regiment when several hives in the farmyard were knocked over as the men hurried through. Officers had to restore order before the advance went on.
Q 07The Union's strategic win at Antietam gave Lincoln the confidence to announce which landmark measure five days later?
Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln issued its preliminary version on September 22, giving the rebel states until January 1, 1863, to return or see their slaves declared free.
Q 08At Antietam, Robert E. Lee failed to recognize which powder-blackened Confederate gunner until the young man spoke?
His own son
His own son, Robert E. Lee Jr., was a private in an artillery battery that had been heavily engaged. The general knew him only by his voice when he asked if the guns were going back in.
Q 09Which Union general's corps took three hours to capture the stone bridge at Antietam that now bears his name?
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Burnside also gave the world the word sideburns, a reversal of his surname inspired by his whiskers. After the war he won three terms as governor of Rhode Island.
Q 10Lee's men marched toward Antietam singing 'Maryland, My Maryland', which shares its tune with which Christmas carol?
O Tannenbaum
O Tannenbaum lends its melody to the pro-Confederate anthem, written in 1861. It was the official state song of Maryland from 1939 until lawmakers dropped it in 2021.
Q 11Which Civil War film starring Matthew Broderick opens with its hero wounded at the Battle of Antietam?
Glory
Glory begins with Captain Robert Gould Shaw hurt in the fighting, before he is offered command of the Black 54th Massachusetts. The real Shaw did fight there, with the 2nd Massachusetts.
Q 12Photographs taken at Antietam in 1862 were the first of an American battlefield to show what?
The unburied dead
The unburied dead had never been photographed on an American field before. Put on display at Mathew Brady's gallery in New York City, the pictures shocked and appalled New Yorkers.
Q 13The Confederacy named the Battle of Antietam after which Maryland town that stood just behind Lee's lines?
Sharpsburg
Q 21Frustrated that Lee's army got away after Antietam, what did Lincoln do to McClellan seven weeks later?
Relieved him of command
Lincoln relieved him of command on November 5, after McClellan spent weeks declining to chase Lee into Virginia. It effectively ended the general's military career.
Q 22George McClellan, the Union commander at Antietam, ran against Lincoln for president in 1864 for which party?
The Democrats
The Democrats nominated him in 1864, but Lincoln beat him. McClellan never held another field command and later served as governor of New Jersey.
Q 23The Union army's commander at Antietam was affectionately known to his soldiers by which nickname?
Little Mac
Sharpsburg gave the battle its Southern name, while the North named it for the creek. The town was founded in 1763 and named for a colonial governor, Horatio Sharpe.
Q 14The sunken Confederate position at the centre of the Antietam battlefield earned what nickname after the fighting there?
Bloody Lane
Bloody Lane saw about 5,600 casualties in under four hours along just 800 yards of road. Years of wagon traffic had worn it down into a natural trench.
Q 15Which Confederate general captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, then hurried his troops to join Lee at Antietam?
Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson processed more than 12,000 prisoners there, then held the northern end of Lee's line against the morning attacks.
Q 16What kind of farm field at Antietam is said to have changed hands some fifteen times in a single morning?
A cornfield
A cornfield on the Miller farm was swept by attack and counterattack from dawn. The first Union corps sent in lost 2,500 men in two hours and ended up back where it started.
Q 17Antietam was fought on September 17, the anniversary of the 1787 signing of which founding document?
US Constitution
The US Constitution was signed in Philadelphia 75 years to the day before the battle. September 17 is now observed across the country as Constitution Day.
Q 18The outcome at Antietam helped dissuade which two European powers from recognizing the Confederacy?
Britain and France
Britain and France had both abolished slavery, and once Lincoln tied the war to freeing the enslaved, neither government could be seen backing the South.
Q 19Which plain white house of worship, built by a pacifist sect, stood at the heart of Antietam's morning fighting?
Dunker Church
Dunker Church took its name from the German Baptist Brethren's full-immersion baptisms. A storm flattened it in 1921, and it was rebuilt for the battle's centennial.
Q 20Lee's army escaped after Antietam by crossing which river back into Virginia on the night of September 18?
Potomac
The Potomac lay at Lee's back throughout the battle, with only a single ford near Shepherdstown close enough to use. It made his position a risky one.
Little Mac was George McClellan, also called the Young Napoleon. At Antietam his caution left two corps standing in reserve while the fighting hung in the balance.
Q 24Which Union unit of mostly immigrant soldiers was given a priest's absolution before charging Antietam's sunken road?
Irish Brigade
Irish Brigade soldiers advanced under emerald green flags as Father William Corby rode across their front. They lost 540 men to heavy volleys before being ordered back.
Q 25Each December, volunteers at Antietam National Battlefield set out about 23,000 of what, one for every casualty?
Candle luminaries
Candle luminaries, each a paper bag holding sand and a candle, are set out in rows by more than a thousand volunteers. The memorial illumination began in 1989.
Q 26What were the 51st New York and 51st Pennsylvania promised back if they stormed the stone bridge at Antietam?
Whiskey rations
Whiskey rations had recently been cancelled for the two regiments, and they were told a successful charge would restore them. They took the bridge at the third attempt.
Q 27A few hundred riflemen from which state held the stone bridge at Antietam against a whole Union corps for hours?
Georgia
Georgia supplied the two thin regiments posted on the bluff above the bridge. They cost the attackers more than 500 casualties and lost fewer than 160 themselves.
Q 28Whose Light Division marched 17 miles from Harpers Ferry and struck the Union flank late in the day at Antietam?
A. P. Hill
A. P. Hill arrived at about 3:30 p.m. with some 3,000 men the Federals did not know were coming. His surprise counterattack ended the battle.
Q 29Why did many of the Confederates who struck the Union flank late at Antietam confuse the defenders?
They wore blue uniforms
They wore blue uniforms taken from the captured Harpers Ferry garrison, which left Union regiments in the tall corn unsure who was friend and who was foe.
Q 30On the Antietam battlefield, each upturned cannon barrel set in a block of stone marks the spot where what happened?
A general was killed
A general was killed or mortally wounded at each of the six mortuary cannon, three from either army. Twelve more generals were wounded in the battle.