BATTLES & CAMPAIGNS

Early in the Revolutionary War, control of the Tidewater region of Virginia hinged on a narrow causeway at Great Bridge, south of Norfolk.

Near the end of the Revolutionary War, British forces raided the harbor town of New London, Connecticut, to burn supplies and shipping that supported the American cause.

A story of a grinding hill assault, exhausted rifle companies, and a single ridge that reshaped the war back home.

A story of street-to-street fighting, shattered assumptions, and how one city battle reshaped the Vietnam War.

A story of air cavalry, hidden armies, and a brutal valley fight that previewed the grinding war still to come.

A story of a risky harbor landing, brutal tides, and how it broke a grinding stalemate in Korea.

A story of a volcanic ridge, two flags in the wind, and a fight that reshaped the Pacific war’s final months.

On August 31st, 1864, after months of maneuver and fighting around Atlanta, William Tecumseh Sherman turned his army’s weight against the rail junction at Jonesborough.

As the Atlanta Campaign ground on, Union forces under Major General William T.

A story of a painful first defeat and how it forced a new army to relearn leadership, tactics, and trust in combat.

Three years later and hundreds of miles to the south, another October 7th saw frontier riflemen climbing a steep Carolina ridge toward Loyalist breastworks on Kings Mountain.

On this day in the War of 1812, Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry led a hastily built American squadron against a British flotilla on Lake Erie.

On August 27th, 1776, British forces struck the Continental Army positions on the heights and fields around Brooklyn in the first major battle after the Declaration of Independence.

In the Civil War, Union forces fighting to break the Confederate siege of Chattanooga turned toward a steep, fog-shrouded height locals called Lookout Mountain.

On a summer evening near Niagara Falls, American and British forces collided in one of the War of 1812’s bloodiest battles. United States troops under Major General Jacob Brown and Brigadier General Winfield Scott assaulted a British-Canadian position anchored on a ridge lined with artillery. The fighting quickly turned into a close-range slugging match, with infantry charges going in against loaded guns and both sides trading control of the crest several times.

The next day, on July 1st, 1862, the Union army took a strong defensive position on Malvern Hill, a rise of ground supported by powerful concentrations of artillery and nearby naval gunfire from the James River. Confederate commanders believed they had an opportunity to crush George McClellan’s retreating forces, but turning that belief into a coordinated assault proved disastrous.

At the opening of the Spanish–American War, Commodore George Dewey led the United States Asiatic Squadron into Manila Bay to find and destroy Spain’s Pacific fleet. In the pre-dawn darkness his column of cruisers and gunboats slipped past coastal batteries and closed with the anchored Spanish ships. Once in position, Dewey gave his famous order to his flagship’s captain to open fire, unleashing a methodical bombardment that overwhelmed the outgunned enemy squadron.

In the pine woods and fields of northwestern Louisiana, the Battle of Mansfield checked the advance of a large Union column pushing inland along the Red River. The Red River Campaign had been conceived as a way to project Union power deep into Confederate territory, disrupt supply lines, and assert control over the region’s cotton and river routes. At Mansfield, Confederate troops used the terrain and a series of defensive positions to throw the attacking Union forces into confusion.

A story of a risky carrier ambush, frantic searches, and a sudden shift in the Pacific war.

Early in the Civil War, control of Kentucky and the border states was still uncertain, and both sides understood how much those regions mattered. On January 19th, 1862, Union forces under Brigadier General George H. Thomas clashed with Confederate troops near Mill Springs, also known as Logan’s Cross Roads, in south–central Kentucky. Fighting in cold, muddy conditions, the Union line held against confused Confederate attacks that had begun before daylight.

Almost ninety years later, early June once again found American soldiers in desperate combat, this time along the Mississippi River during the Civil War. On June 7th, 1863, Confederate troops attacked Union positions at Milliken’s Bend, a key supply point supporting the siege of Vicksburg. Many of the defenders were newly raised African American regiments, still short on training and equipment but determined to prove their worth.

The day after Lookout Mountain, Union forces turned against the main Confederate positions east of Chattanooga, dug in along Missionary Ridge.

By August 5th, 1864, Union forces had spent years tightening the naval blockade that ringed the Confederacy, but the port of Mobile, Alabama, still offered the South a gateway to the Gulf. On that morning, Admiral David G. Farragut led a column of Union wooden warships and ironclads past the minefields—then known as “torpedoes”—and fortifications guarding the narrow channel into Mobile Bay.

A story of an urban raid that turned into a street-by-street survival fight and how it reshaped American intervention abroad.