Battle of Germantown
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40 free Battle of Germantown trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
On an October morning in 1777, George Washington tried something nobody expected from a beaten army: he attacked. Only days after losing Philadelphia, he sent his troops on a long night march to hit the British camp at Germantown from several directions at once. The plan was daring, complicated, and very nearly worked. This quiz collects the fun facts that make the battle memorable: the stone mansion that stopped an army, the mistakes made when soldiers could not see who stood in front of them, the future famous names in the ranks, and a few stories that sound too strange to be true. It also covers what came before and after, from the fall of the capital to the hard winter that followed. It suits students of the American Revolution, teachers who want a ready-made classroom round, and anyone planning a visit to the old battlefield. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Two days after the Battle of Germantown, what did Washington return to the British commander during a brief ceasefire?
His pet dog
His pet dog, a terrier found wandering the battlefield, wore a collar naming its owner. Washington had the animal fed and brushed before handing it over.
Q 02What did Washington order his soldiers to wear in their hats on the dark night march to Germantown?
A piece of white paper
A piece of white paper in each hat was meant to mark friend from foe in the dark. The columns still lost touch with one another on the 16-mile march.
Q 03Which Tennessee city is named for a North Carolina general mortally wounded by a cannonball at Germantown?
Nashville
Nashville honors Francis Nash, whose brigade was covering the American retreat when a cannonball struck him down. He died of the wound within days.
Q 04What weather on the morning of the Battle of Germantown blinded Washington's columns and wrecked their timing?
Thick fog
Thick fog hung over the ground all day, and gun smoke made it worse. Officers could not see the units beside them, so the planned attack from several sides fell apart.
Q 05Which future Chief Justice of the United States fought as a young lieutenant in the attack on Cliveden at Germantown?
John Marshall
John Marshall, then 22, was wounded in the failed assault on the mansion. He went on to lead the Supreme Court for 34 years.
Q 06Germantown, site of the 1777 battle, produced America's first formal petition against what practice back in 1688?
Slavery
Slavery was attacked by Germantown Quakers in a petition built on the Golden Rule, written nearly ninety years before two armies fought in their village.
Q 07After losing at Germantown in 1777, where did Washington's army spend the winter drilling and rebuilding?
Valley Forge
Valley Forge took in the army eleven weeks after Germantown. A Prussian drillmaster spent that winter turning the survivors into a disciplined force.
Q 08What went wrong when two American divisions met in the murk behind the British line at Germantown?
They shot at each other
They shot at each other, each side taking the other for redcoats, and both fell back. The mix-up tore a hole in an attack that had been going well.
Q 09Which European power did Washington's bold attack at Germantown help persuade to ally with the Americans?
France
France signed its alliance four months later. Its court reasoned that an army able to strike so soon after losing its capital was worth backing.
Q 10Which British commander-in-chief had his army camped at Germantown when Washington struck at dawn?
William Howe
William Howe had taken Philadelphia a week earlier and split his army, keeping the larger part at Germantown. That division was the opening Washington saw.
Q 11Washington modeled his Germantown plan on his surprise defeat of a German garrison at which New Jersey town?
Trenton
Trenton had fallen to a dawn attack the morning after Christmas 1776. Washington hoped a larger version of that surprise would destroy the army at Germantown.
Q 12German soldiers hired out to Britain, some of them camped at Germantown in 1777, were known to Americans by what name?
Hessians
Hessians got the name because most came from the states of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau. Their own rulers rented them out, so in law they were auxiliaries, not mercenaries.
Q 13Three weeks before Germantown, Washington lost which battle on a Pennsylvania creek while trying to shield Philadelphia?
Brandywine
Q 21What sent President Washington to live in a Germantown house in 1793, sixteen years after fighting there?
A yellow fever epidemic
A yellow fever epidemic had put Philadelphia under quarantine. The house he rented had been occupied by the British commander after the 1777 battle.
Q 22Which general took over British forces in America in 1778 after the victor of Germantown resigned?
Henry Clinton
Henry Clinton held the top command from 1778 to 1782. His predecessor's wins around Philadelphia had failed to destroy Washington's army or end the rebellion.
Q 23After Germantown, the British turned to clearing American forts and obstacles from which river below Philadelphia?
Delaware
Brandywine was fought on September 11, 1777, and the loss opened the road to Philadelphia. The city fell fifteen days later.
Q 14Which American victory over Burgoyne, two weeks after Germantown, joined with it to change how Europe saw the war?
Saratoga
Saratoga ended with an entire British army laying down its arms on October 17, 1777. Paired with the near miss at Germantown, it showed Europe the rebels could fight.
Q 15Which hero of the Revolution returned in 1825 to tour the Germantown battlefield and was honored at Wyck?
Lafayette
Lafayette came back nearly fifty years after the fighting, and Germantown turned out to greet him. Wyck had been remodeled by architect William Strickland the year before.
Q 16Which British general seized Philadelphia in September 1777 and rushed reinforcements from the city to Germantown?
Charles Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis cut off a regiment that had broken into the British camp and forced it to give up. Four years later he was the one surrendering, in the siege that decided the war.
Q 17Which Pennsylvania general's troops charged at Germantown shouting a battle cry recalling the bayonet attack at Paoli?
Anthony Wayne
Anthony Wayne had seen his camp overrun in a night attack at Paoli two weeks earlier. His men swore revenge and used the same cry again at Stony Point.
Q 18Which Polish nobleman, later called the father of American cavalry, rode with Washington's army at Germantown?
Casimir Pulaski
Casimir Pulaski had been made a general only weeks before the battle. He died two years later leading a charge at Savannah.
Q 19Which artillery chief urged Washington not to leave British-held Cliveden in the army's rear at Germantown?
Henry Knox
Henry Knox argued that no army should leave a garrisoned strongpoint behind it, and Washington agreed. His small cannon then failed to dent the mansion's stone walls.
Q 20Which South Carolina aide to Washington tried to set Cliveden's door ablaze during the Battle of Germantown?
John Laurens
John Laurens went at the door with a torch under heavy fire, but the wood did not catch. Two days later he was formally named one of Washington's aides.
The Delaware River was the route for supplying occupied Philadelphia by sea, and American forts and sunken obstacles closed it. Opening it took the British until late November.
Q 24The riflemen called Jäger, who picketed the left of the British camp at Germantown, bear a German name meaning what?
Hunter
Hunter is the meaning, because such units were first raised from gamekeepers and foresters. Their woodcraft made them ideal sentries and skirmishers.
Q 25Which Rhode Island general, raised a Quaker, led the late-arriving left wing of Washington's attack at Germantown?
Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene drove back the British right before learning that the rest of the attack had collapsed. Left alone against the whole enemy army, he pulled his column out.
Q 26What was an American officer carrying toward Cliveden when its defenders shot him during the Battle of Germantown?
A flag of truce
A flag of truce was meant to protect the officer sent to ask the garrison to give up. The defenders fired anyway, and he later died of the wound.
Q 27With Philadelphia lost, which Pennsylvania town hosted the Continental Congress during the Battle of Germantown?
York
York became the seat of Congress on September 30, 1777, four days before the battle. The delegates stayed for nine months.
Q 28Why was Benjamin Chew away from his mansion Cliveden when British troops fortified it at Germantown?
He was being detained
He was being detained in New Jersey as a suspected Loyalist by Pennsylvania's new government. He sold the battle-scarred house soon afterward, then bought it back in 1797.
Q 29Which Irish-born brigade commander at Germantown soon gave his name to an alleged cabal against Washington?
Thomas Conway
Thomas Conway won praise for leading the first brigade into action on the American right. Within months the intrigue named after him had ended his American career.
Q 30Which state's 9th Regiment broke deep into the British camp at Germantown, only to be surrounded and captured whole?
Virginia
Virginia lost the entire regiment, colonel included, after it took prisoners of its own and pushed on without support. Fresh British brigades closed in behind it.