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this was the first American Revolution, the Massachusetts colonists defied British authority, outnumbered and outfought the Redcoats, and embarked on a lengthy war to earn their independence -
Valley Forge was the winter encampment of the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. The Valley Forge encampment lasted six months -
Benedict Arnold turned traitor by plotting in 1779 to surrender the American fort at West Point to the British in exchange for money and position in the British army -
This battle was a decisive American victory during the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War, where Brigadier General Daniel Morgan’s forces inflicted a devastating defeat on Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s British troops -
The USS Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812, in a battle that earned the American ship its famous nickname, “Old Ironsides”. After the Guerriere surrendered, it was so badly damaged that it was burned the next day. This victory provided a crucial morale boost for the United States during the early, difficult stages of the War of 1812 -
This battle was a sea and land battle that took place between British and American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the port city of Baltimore, Maryland -
This battle was a decisive U.S. victory on January 8, 1815, where General Andrew Jackson’s diverse American forces defended the city against a larger, better-trained British Army, suffering minimal casualties while inflicting over 2,000 on the British -
Jackson took office after defeating John Quincy Adam’s, the incumbent president, in the bitterly contested 1828 presidential election. -
The Battle of Alamo(February 23-March 6, 1836) was a 13-day siege in the Texas Revolution where a small Texian garrison defended the Alamo Mission against a vastly larger Mexican army led by General Antonio López de Santa Anna -
Mexico lost these states along with many other vast territories, after its defeat in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), which concluded with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo -
Abraham Lincoln was first elected president on November 6, 1860, becoming the 16th U.S. president and the first from Republican Party -
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States on December 20, 1860, following the election in November 1860. This action was primarily driven by the South’s fear of Lincoln and the Republican Party’s abolitionist sentiment -
The first battle of Bull Run was the first major battle of the American civil war, fought on July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia. The battle was a Confederate victory, with Thomas J. Jackson earning his “Stonewall” nickname for his staunch defense -
The Battle of Gettysburg was a major Civil War engagement where Union forces defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s invasion of the North. Fought in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and became the bloodiest battle of the war -
This treaty wasn’t a formal peace treaty, but a set of military surrender terms between General Robert E. Lee and General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, ending the civil war -
The USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, an event that killed 261 sailors and it became a major cause of the Spanish-American War. The cause of this explosion remains unknown. -
This battle was a decisive naval engagement on May 1, 1898 in Manila Bay, where U.S. forces under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet, marking the major battle of the war -
The adoption of the star spangled banner as the U.S. national anthem was formalized when Herbert Hoover signed a congressional act into law, though the anthem was written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812