NAME THAT BATTLE

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM a/k/a
BATTLE OF SHARPSBURG

Many American Civil War* battles bear two different names--one for the North, and one for the South. Yankees, being more urbanized, tended to have been blasé about man-made projects and frequently named their battles after geographical features. Confederates, on the other hand, often lived in wilderness types of areas and found unnatural man-made things more noteworthy. For example, the First Battle of Bull Run was named by the Bluebellies after a creek by that same name, while the identical battle was called the First Battle of Manassas by the Rebs, in honor of a railway station at that location. The Southerners spoke of the Battle of Sharpsburg (a Maryland village), while the Northerners called it the Battle of Antietam (referring to a nearby river).  And so forth.

*Or, as known south of the Mason-Dixon line, the "War Between the States."