Thursday, February 26, 2009

Google Earth Quiz Number Two

A little over a year ago, I posted a series of photos from Google Earthsatellite views of Civil War battlefieldsand invited people to try to identify as many as possible. If you missed it, the Quiz can be found here. And the answers to the Quiz are here. It's a very different perspective than you're used to, but many of you are so oriented toward maps in studying Civil War battles, the topographical clues soon lead to recognition. I had planned to do a second quiz long before now, and the good people over at TOCWOC put it back into mind with their posting of coordinates for various battlefields.

For Quiz Number Two, I've given you six photos of battlefields already lost to development. This makes it a little more challenging, since familiar battlefield landmarks are non-existent. To aid your efforts, I've given you additional (easy?) clues in the accompanying captions, including whether it's Eastern or Western Theater, and some modern roadways. If you're a veteran of organized Civil War campaign tours, some of these should jump right out at you. Of course, if you live in one of these areas, that should help too.


Repeating a passage from the last time around:
Post your answers as comments to this blog entry, and in a day or two I'll identify each image, and post some maps and other photos to show how the fighting transpired, or how the troops were aligned in these landscapes. I'll also heap plaudits upon the winner, if there is one. Click on each image for a larger view. Good luck.

No. 1:
The tiny yellow pushpin in the center shows all that's left of this Northern Virginia battlefield. The large diagonal road above is U.S. 50. The large diagonal road below it is Interstate 66.




No. 2:
The pushpin in the center denotes the site where a Union general was killed in a western battle. That big road, Interstate 20, was not there at the time—Sherman could have made good use of it.



No. 3:
On this Tennessee hill, the Federals broke through the Confederate left, and it was all downhill for the Rebels after that. The hill was renamed for a Confederate Colonel who died there.



No. 4:
The fort on this site was at the center of the Confederate line in a June, 1864 battle. Federal troops under David Hunter failed in their hours-long assault against this position. I've left the road names visible, guessing that most people are not that familiar with this neighborhood. Note some of the street names: Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire. Cruel Reconstruction joke?



No. 5:
Federals in the Western Theater captured this Confederate fort, which is now home to the fishes. It was wet at the time of the war, but not this wet.


No. 6: Now a historic ghost town in the Deep South, somewhere near the center of this photo is the site of a POW camp for Union soldiers, whose misery was compounded every time the river left its banks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

David,

I'm going to go with:

1) Chantilly
2) Atlanta (Bald Hill)
3) Nashville
4) Lynchburg
5) Fort Henry
6) Probably not Andersonville, but I'm not that familiar with Confederate POW camps.

Anonymous said...

6) Cahaba Prison, AL

dw said...

Brett,

Not too bad -- you more or less got them all. Here are the answers (I thought these were posted elsewhere, but can't find them):

1. Chantilly Battlefield, near Dulles airport

2. Battle of Atlanta (Gen. James B. McPherson)

3. Known as Compton Hill at the time, this Nashville hill was later named for Col. William Shy (CSA).

4. Battle of Lynchburg, Virginia

5. Fort Henry, Tennessee

6. Site of Cahaba Prison, near Selma, Alabama