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The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, were the first major military actions between the British Army and Patriot militias from British America's Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War -
The winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge was a brutal test for George Washington's Continental Army, marked by severe cold, starvation, disease (like typhus and dysentery), and lack of adequate clothing, leading to thousands of deaths, but also transformed the army into a more disciplined force thanks to training by Baron von Steuben -
Benedict Arnold turned traitor to the American cause during the Revolutionary War in 1780, conspiring with the British to surrender the crucial fort at West Point for money and a commission in their army due to debt, resentment, and greed, a plot revealed when his British contact, Major John Andre, was captured, allowing Arnold to escape to British lines and fight against his former countrymen -
The Battle of Cowpens was a military engagement of the American Revolutionary War fought on January 17, 1781, near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. An American army of 2,000 regulars and militia under Brigadier general Daniel Morgan defeated a force of 1,000 British and Loyalist troops commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Banastre Tarleton. It was the worst defeat suffered by the British in North America during the conflict following the 1777 Saratoga campaign. -
USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere was a battle between an American and British ship during the War of 1812, about 400 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It took place on the 19th of August 1812, one month after the war's first engagement between British and American forces. -
The Battle of Baltimore took place between British and American forces on September 12–14, 1814, during the War of 1812. Defending American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy major port city of Baltimore, Maryland, by British forces preventing the United States third largest city at the time from falling to British forces and ending the British Chesapeake campaign. -
The Battle of New Orleans, fought on January 8, 1815, was the decisive American victory in the War of 1812, led by General Andrew Jackson, where American forces used fortified earthworks to defeat a larger, better-trained British army, resulting in massive British casualties and solidifying American control of the Gulf Coast despite the Treaty of Ghent having already been signed -
Andrew Jackson won the 1828 U.S. Presidential election, defeating incumbent John Quincy Adams in a decisive victory that marked a turning point in American politics and the rise of the modern Democratic Party. -
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (now San Antonio). About one hundred Texians were garrisoned at the mission at the time, with around a hundred subsequent reinforcements led by eventual Alamo co-commanders James Bowie and William B. Travis. -
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) officially ended the Mexican-American War, forcing Mexico to cede vast territories, including present-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, plus parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas, in exchange for $15 million and U.S. assumption of debt, significantly expanding the U.S. to the Pacific and impacting Mexican residents' rights, notes -
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, becoming the 16th U.S. President, and then reelected in 1864, serving through the Civil War until his assassination in 1865. His first victory in 1860, a four-way contest where he won the Electoral College despite less than 40% of the popular vote, signaled the deep national divide over slavery and directly led to Southern states seceding, triggering the Civil War. -
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States on December 20, 1860, following Abraham Lincoln's election, triggering the secession of other Southern states and leading directly to the American Civil War, with the state asserting its independence and dissolving its connection to the Union over states' rights and the institution of slavery. -
The First Battle of Bull Run, called the Battle of First Manassas[1] by Confederate forces, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of what is now the city of Manassas and about thirty miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. The Union army was slow in positioning itself, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. -
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in the American Civil War between the Union and Confederate armies in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, is widely considered the Civil War's turning point, leading to the ultimate victory of the Union and the preservation of the nation -
The "Treaty of Appomattox" refers to the April 9, 1865, surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, not a formal peace treaty, but an agreement with generous terms for paroled soldiers to return home, effectively signaling the end of the Civil War. Key terms allowed Confederate officers to keep sidearms and horses, required soldiers to lay down arms and pledge not to fight again, -
The sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, was a pivotal event that fueled American outrage against Spain, leading to the Spanish-American War, though the exact cause of the explosion remains debated, with evidence leaning towards an internal coal fire igniting the ship's magazines rather than an external mine as initially suspected. The disaster, which killed 260 sailors and ignited the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine," propelled the U.S. -
The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931, when President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution into law, following years of advocacy, notably by the U.S. Daughters of 1812, culminating in a bill passed by Congress after a long fight led by Representative John Linthicum. Its adoption culminated a gradual rise in prominence, from its origins as Francis Scott Key's poem after the War of 1812 to its ceremonial use by the Navy -
Battles in the Philippines involve major conflicts from various eras, most notably the brutal World War II campaigns (1941-1945) like the Japanese invasion (Battle of the Philippines), the desperate defense at Bataan and Corregidor, the immense Battle of Leyte Gulf (a decisive naval battle), and the devastating Battle of Manila (1945). Other significant conflicts include the Philippine-American War (late 1890s-early 1900s)