Richard Eller Cowan
A 22-year-old heavy machine gunner who held back a German attack in the Battle of the Bulge
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Robert E. Lee resigns from the United States Army
Just days after the call for volunteers, a respected career officer faced his own decision. On April 20th, 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army rather than take command against his native Virginia. Lee had served for decades in the regular army, distinguishing himself as an engineer and commander during the war with Mexico. In the tense weeks after Fort Sumter, senior leaders
Robert M. Viale
A Medal of Honor story of sacrifice and courage in World War II’s Pacific campaign.
Robert Smalls seizes the Planter
Before dawn on May 13th, 1862, an enslaved harbor pilot named Robert Smalls puts a quiet plan into motion in Confederate-held Charleston. While the white officers of the steamer Planter are ashore, Smalls and a small crew of fellow enslaved sailors steam the vessel out of the harbor, picking up their families along the way. Wearing the captain’s coat and hat, Smalls issues the right whistle signals to pass Confederat
Roosevelt’s Navy Day address
In the autumn before formal American entry into the Second World War, United States warships were already escorting convoys and trading shots with German submarines in the North Atlantic.
Sadr City operations
A story of exposed convoys, hidden fighters, and the soldiers and medics who kept moving through an urban kill zone.
Salerno landings and the Italian armistice
In early September 1943, the strategic picture in the Mediterranean shifted rapidly.
San Francisco Peace Treaty
When the peace treaty with Japan came into force on this day, it formally ended the Allied occupation that had begun after World War II. United States forces remained in Japan under a separate security agreement, but the legal relationship changed from occupier to ally. American bases now operated with the consent of a sovereign Japanese government, and the two nations began to frame their cooperation in terms of sha
Sand Creek Massacre
On the High Plains of the Colorado Territory, a column of Colorado volunteer cavalry descended on a Cheyenne and Arapaho encampment along Sand Creek.
Secession of Alabama
Just two days after the Star of the West was fired upon, delegates in Montgomery voted on Alabama’s future in the Union. On January 11th, 1861, the state convention adopted an ordinance of secession, aligning Alabama with the already departed South Carolina and Mississippi. The decision brought another of the Deep South states into the emerging Confederate camp, tightening the ring of seceded territory along the Gulf
Second assault on Vicksburg
Undeterred by the first setback, Grant prepared a larger, more coordinated assault for May 22nd, 1863. Union artillery pounded the Confederate lines through the morning, and attacking columns moved out with specially chosen volunteers—the so-called “forlorn hope”—carrying ladders and planks to cross obstacles. Across the front, Union regiments advanced against steep slopes, dense abatis, and well-sited rifle pits, en
Second Battle of Fallujah
A story of block-by-block urban fighting and the hard decision to take back a city at any cost.
Second Battle of Sabine Pass
Along the Gulf Coast, Union planners sought to open a route into Texas by sending a naval expedition and troop transports toward Sabine Pass at the border with Louisiana.
Second Battle of Saratoga (Bemis Heights)
One year after Valcour Island, American forces under General Horatio Gates and field leaders like Benedict Arnold clashed with General John Burgoyne’s army near Bemis Heights, south of Saratoga.
Second Bull Run, heavy Union assaults
On August 29th, 1862, Union forces under Major General John Pope hurled repeated attacks against Confederate positions near an unfinished railroad grade outside Manassas, Virginia.
Selective Service Act signed into law
On May 18th, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signs the Selective Service Act, creating a national mechanism to draft men into military service. The law requires eligible males to register for possible induction, and it lays out how local boards will classify and call individuals. For the United States, whose small prewar Army cannot sustain large operations in Europe, the act is essential to raising a mass citizen for
Selective Training and Service Act signed into law
As war raged overseas but before the United States formally entered the Second World War, political leaders grappled with how to prepare a peacetime democracy for potential conflict.
Seoul recaptured in Korean War
Finally, on September 28th, 1950, United Nations forces led by General Douglas MacArthur, alongside South Korean troops, completed the recapture of Seoul during the Korean War.