America250 — 250 years since 1776. Explore two and a half centuries of American history. Start the tour

#Military

129 entries

People (28)

Third Vice President of the United States — and Alexander Hamilton's killer

Frontier general, champion of the common white man, and 7th President of the United States

Benedict Arnold

Revolutionary War hero turned traitor, 1741–1801

Sauk leader whose 1832 return to Illinois became the last armed Native resistance east of the Mississippi

Nez Perce leader whose 1877 flight became a symbol of Native resistance

Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross

The Lakota war leader who defended the Plains and never surrendered to the reservation

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Supreme Allied Commander, 34th President, and the man who warned America about itself

Emilio Aguinaldo

The first president of the Philippine Republic, ally then adversary of the United States

George S. Patton

America's most aggressive — and most controversial — World War II commander

George Washington

Commander of the Continental Army and First President of the United States

The Apache leader whose final surrender in 1886 ended the last armed Native resistance in the American Southwest

Pioneer of computer programming and inventor of the first compiler

Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1865

Continental Army Spy and American Martyr, 1776

Nathanael Greene

Self-taught general who drove the British from the American South

Boston silversmith and the most famous midnight rider of the American Revolution

Confederate general and the South's most celebrated — and most contested — military commander

President of Texas, U.S. Senator, and the man who refused to take the Confederacy's oath

Hunkpapa Lakota chief who united the Plains nations against American expansion

Shawnee leader who built the most powerful Indigenous confederacy in American history

The Marquis de Lafayette

The young French aristocrat who became a hero of the American Revolution

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Confederate General, Army of Northern Virginia, 1861–1863

Ulysses S. Grant

Commanding general of the Union Army and 18th President of the United States

William Henry Harrison

9th President of the United States, 1841

William Tecumseh Sherman

Union general whose March to the Sea broke the Confederacy's will to fight

General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army and the Soldier Who Defined an Era, 1786–1866

The Army officer who explored the southern Louisiana Purchase and never climbed Pikes Peak

Places (15)

Appomattox Court House

The Virginia village where the Civil War effectively ended, April 9, 1865

The Florida Launch Site That Has Carried American Ambitions Into Space Since 1950

The Baltimore harbor fortress whose defense in 1814 inspired the national anthem

The South Carolina fort whose bombardment started the Civil War

The Pennsylvania town where the Civil War's deadliest battle was fought

The Pacific island taken without a shot in 1898 and fortified ever since

Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp

The offshore prison built to sit outside the law, opened 2002

The Montana battlefield where Lakota and Cheyenne warriors defeated the 7th Cavalry

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

The Oglala Lakota reservation in South Dakota — site of Wounded Knee

The headquarters of American military power — and a symbol of it

The Philippines

The Spanish colony that became America's largest overseas possession, 1898-1946

The U.S. Naval Academy

Annapolis — where the Navy and Marine Corps train their officers

The United States Virgin Islands

The Danish West Indies, bought for $25 million in 1917

The Pennsylvania encampment where the Continental Army survived its darkest winter

The military academy that trained the officers who led America's wars

Eras (3)

The conflict that tore the United States apart and abolished slavery, 1861–1865

The ideological standoff between the United States and Soviet Union, 1945–1991

The global conflict that made America a superpower and reshaped the world order, 1941–1945

Events (58)

American Civil War

The 1861–1865 war over slavery and union that remade the nation

Battle of Antietam

The bloodiest single day in American military history, September 17, 1862

Battle of Brandywine

The defeat that opened the road to Philadelphia, 1777

Battle of Bull Run

The First Great Battle of the Civil War, July 1861

Battle of Bunker Hill

The 1775 bloodbath that proved American militiamen could stand against British regulars

Battle of Chancellorsville

Lee's tactical masterpiece — and the shot that cost him his most dangerous general

Battle of Cowpens

Daniel Morgan's masterpiece, January 1781

Battle of Gettysburg

The bloodiest battle of the Civil War, July 1–3, 1863

Battle of Guilford Courthouse

The victory that cost Cornwallis his army, 1781

Battle of Kings Mountain

The backcountry victory that turned the Southern war, 1780

Battle of Lexington and Concord

The First Shots of the American Revolution, April 1775

Battle of Long Island

The largest battle of the Revolution — and a narrow escape, 1776

Battle of Midway

The naval battle that permanently shifted the balance of power in the Pacific, 1942

Battle of Monmouth

The army that came out of Valley Forge, 1778

Battle of New Orleans

Andrew Jackson's lopsided 1815 victory — fought two weeks after the war had already ended

Battle of Princeton

Washington's second strike in ten days, January 1777

Battle of Saratoga

The 1777 American victory that brought France into the Revolutionary War

Battle of the Alamo

The 13-day siege that became a Texan rallying cry

Battle of the Bulge

Hitler's Last Gamble in the West, December 1944 – January 1945

Battle of Trenton

Washington's Christmas Crossing and the Revolution's Turning Point

Battle of Vicksburg

The 47-Day Siege That Split the Confederacy in Two

Battle of Yorktown

The 1781 siege that ended the Revolutionary War and secured American independence

The CIA's Failed Invasion of Cuba and Kennedy's Defining Early Crisis, April 1961

The 11-Month Mission That Defied the Soviet Blockade, 1948–1949

Capture of Fort Ticonderoga

The Revolution's first offensive victory, May 1775

Cuban Missile Crisis

Thirteen days in 1962 when nuclear war became a real possibility

The June 1944 Allied invasion that broke Nazi Germany's Atlantic Wall and sealed the war's outcome in the West

Death of Osama bin Laden

The 2011 raid that ended a decade-long manhunt

The June 14 observance marking the adoption of the Stars and Stripes

Fort Pillow Massacre

The Confederate Slaughter of Black Union Soldiers, April 12, 1864

French and Indian War

The North American theater of a world war that made the American Revolution inevitable, 1754–1763

The "Forgotten War" that established the Cold War's logic of limited conflict, 1950–1953

March to the Sea

Sherman's 1864 campaign of deliberate destruction that broke the Confederacy's will to fight

The late-May holiday honoring Americans who died in war

Mexican-American War

The 1846–1848 war of conquest that gave the United States half a continent — and a crisis

The Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, that brought America into World War II

Sand Creek Massacre

The Slaughter of a Cheyenne and Arapaho Village Under a Flag of Truce, November 1864

Spanish-American War

The 1898 war that made America an empire in four months

The 1836 siege that became the defining myth of Texas independence

The American Revolution

The colonial war of independence that created the United States, 1775–1783

The Bonus Army March

The WWI veterans' encampment that Hoover destroyed — and Roosevelt studied carefully

The Burning of Washington

The only time since the Revolution a foreign power has occupied and burned the U.S. capital

Kuwait, Desert Storm, and the war that stopped short, 1990-1991

Petraeus, counterinsurgency, and the Anbar Awakening, 2007

The invasion, the missing weapons, and the insurgency, 2003-2011

The Philippine-American War

The war for the Philippines that followed the war with Spain, 1899-1902

The undeclared naval war that nearly broke the Franco-American alliance

The Texas Revolution

How American settlers broke Texas away from Mexico

The U-2 Incident

The 1960 spy-plane shootdown that wrecked a superpower summit

The War in Afghanistan

America's longest war, from the Taliban's fall to its return, 2001-2021

The Withdrawal from Afghanistan

The fall of Kabul and the end of the longest war, August 2021

The Zimmermann Telegram

The intercepted 1917 message that helped push America into World War I

The November 11 holiday honoring all who served in the armed forces

America's longest 20th-century conflict and the war that broke the postwar consensus, 1955–1975

The strange second war with Britain that nobody won — and that made America a nation

The European catastrophe that pulled America in, remade the world order, and produced the next war

America's 1941–1945 war that defeated the Axis and made it a superpower

Wounded Knee Massacre

The 1890 killing of at least 250 Lakota men, women, and children that ended the Indian Wars

Documents (5)

National Security Act of 1947

The law that created the CIA, NSC, and Joint Chiefs — and built the permanent architecture of the Cold War

North Atlantic Treaty

The 1949 alliance document that reversed 150 years of American foreign policy

The Authorization for Use of Military Force

The sixty words that authorized twenty years of war, 2001

The Platt Amendment

The conditions written into Cuba's constitution, 1901-1934

The Quartering Act

Making the colonies pay to house the king's troops, 1765

Concepts (2)

Military-Industrial Complex

Eisenhower's Warning About the Alliance Between Defense Industry and Government Power

The citizen-soldiers who answered the alarm at a minute's notice

Organizations (14)

The company that built America's airliners and warplanes, founded 1916

The 1949 alliance that bound America to Europe's defense and deterred the Soviet Union for forty years

The Cold War alliance built to contain communism in Asia, 1954–1977

The Cold War spy agency created in 1947 for foreign intelligence — and covert action around the world

The National Guard

The citizen-soldiers who trace their line to the colonial militia

The United States Air Force

The youngest branch, born from the rise of air power, 1947

The United States Armed Forces

From the Continental Army of 1775 to the most powerful military the world has ever known

The United States Army

The nation's oldest armed service, born with the Revolution in 1775

The United States Coast Guard

The maritime guardian older than the modern Navy, founded 1790

The United States Marine Corps

The amphibious force that fights from the sea, founded 1775

The United States Navy

The sea service that carried American power around the globe, founded 1775

The troops' morale organization, from WWII canteens to today, 1941

The Warsaw Pact

The Soviet military alliance that answered NATO, 1955–1991

U.S. Intelligence

The community of spy agencies built across the 20th century to watch the world — and, at times, Americans

Symbols (3)

The American Flag

The Stars and Stripes, from the 1777 Flag Resolution to Old Glory

The Star-Spangled Banner

The poem written during a battle that became the national anthem

The white-bearded personification of the United States government

Technology (1)

Nuclear Weapons

The weapon that redefined war, power, and the survival of nations

All Tags

Politics 178 Economy 171 Military 129 Reform 121 Civil Rights 118 Law & Justice 116 Presidency 113 Science & Technology 112 Foreign Policy 107 Arts & Culture 103 Race 98 Founding Era 96 Industry 90 Constitution 75 Modern America 67 Protest 66 Cold War 65 Civil War 62 Westward Expansion 61 War 59 Revolution 59 Slavery 57 Media & Press 57 Women 56 Indigenous 51 Diplomacy 47 Immigration 41 Labor 40 Environment 36 Colonial America 34 Congress 33 Religion 33 World War II 32 Supreme Court 32 Disaster 29 Exploration 27 Public Health 25 Progressive Era 25 Abolition 22 Finance 22 Reconstruction 22 Democracy 20 Gilded Age 19 Assassination 15 Education 15 Suffrage 11 World War I 9 Sports 9 Corruption 9 Prohibition 1