50 Fun Facts About U.S. Military History

Which 1775 battle near Boston was a British victory so costly that it encouraged the American rebels?

Bunker Hill was fought mostly on neighboring Breed's Hill, where colonial troops had dug a redoubt overnight. The British took the ground, but the price made it a Pyrrhic win.

Which national nickname does legend trace to a New York meatpacker who supplied army rations in the War of 1812?

Uncle Sam, the story goes, began as a joke about the U.S. initials stamped on meatpacker Samuel Wilson's ration packages. Historians call the true origin obscure.

Which abolitionist led Union soldiers on an 1863 raid up South Carolina's Combahee River that freed over 700 people?

Harriet Tubman led 150 Black soldiers of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry on the raid, and many of the people they freed went on to join the Union Army.

Which US decoration descends from the Badge of Military Merit that George Washington created in 1782?

The Purple Heart, now given to troops wounded or killed in action, revives Washington's award: a heart of purple cloth that he gave to only three Revolutionary War soldiers.

Which bugle call did Union general Daniel Butterfield arrange in 1862 as a new signal for lights out?

Taps began as Butterfield's lights-out call. That same summer an artillery captain, unable to fire the usual three volleys so close to the enemy, had it sounded at a burial instead, and the custom spread.

Which name did American troops in World War II scrawl beside a doodle of a bald man peeking over a wall?

Kilroy turned up wherever American servicemen were stationed, encamped or visited. Nobody knows whether a real person inspired the name, though a shipyard inspector later claimed it.

Which Native American language did US Marine code talkers use for radio messages in the Pacific in World War II?

Navajo was proposed to the Marines by Philip Johnston, a missionary's son raised on the reservation. With no word for submarine, the code talkers called it an iron fish.

Which Baltimore stronghold withstood the 1814 British bombardment that inspired Francis Scott Key's national anthem?

Fort McHenry is a pentagon-shaped fort whose pointed bastions could cover one another with crossfire. The sight of its flag still flying gave Key his poem.

Which future president won the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, fought two weeks after the peace treaty was signed?

Andrew Jackson beat the British 15 days after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, because news of the peace had not yet crossed the Atlantic.

Which later president was skipper of PT-109 when a Japanese destroyer rammed and sank the torpedo boat in 1943?

John F. Kennedy saved his surviving crew, later scratching a rescue message on a coconut, and the episode made him a war hero.

Which Massachusetts woman disguised herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army and was shot in the thigh?

Deborah Sampson joined an elite unit picked for size and strength, which helped her disguise: nobody was likely to look for a woman among those soldiers.

Which icy river did George Washington's army cross on Christmas night 1776 to surprise the Hessians at Trenton?

Delaware River ice made the night crossing a gamble, but it set up a surprise attack on the garrison the next morning. Emanuel Leutze turned the scene into his idealized 1851 painting.

At which Pennsylvania winter camp of 1777–78 did Prussian drillmaster Baron von Steuben retrain the Continental Army?

Valley Forge turned the army around: under Steuben the Continentals practiced volley fire, standardized their marching pace and drilled with the bayonet.

Which 1777 American victory in upstate New York, where General Burgoyne surrendered, persuaded France to join the war?

Saratoga proved the rebels could beat a British army in the field. France had been slipping the Americans guns in secret, and the news turned that help into an open alliance.

At which Virginia port did Lord Cornwallis's British army surrender in 1781, all but ending the Revolutionary War?

Yorktown's surrender ceremony went ahead without Cornwallis, who pleaded illness. His deputy tried to surrender to the French commander, who pointed him toward Washington.

Which Continental Army general secretly plotted in 1780 to hand the Hudson River fort at West Point to the British?

Benedict Arnold fled to the British when militiamen caught Major John André carrying papers that revealed the plot. André was hanged; Arnold became a British brigadier and a byword for treason.

Which North African state declared war on the US in 1801 over tribute payments, starting the First Barbary War?

Tripoli gives the conflict its other name, the Tripolitan War. During it, William Eaton led a handful of Marines and several hundred mercenaries across the desert to capture the city of Derna.

Which captain, often called the Father of the American Navy, fought HMS Serapis in the Bonhomme Richard in 1779?

John Paul Jones knew he could not win a duel of big guns, so he worked to lock the two ships together. He later became a rear admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy.

Which US Navy frigate earned the nickname Old Ironsides by capturing HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812?

USS Constitution is still in commission and is the oldest commissioned warship afloat. She sailed under her own power for her 200th birthday in 1997.

Which war ended with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which handed California and much of the Southwest to the US?

The Mexican–American War cost Mexico 55 percent of its territory, including present-day California, Nevada and Utah. US troops had taken the capital months earlier.

Which island stronghold in Charleston Harbor was bombarded in April 1861, firing the opening shots of the Civil War?

Fort Sumter fell without a single death in the bombardment. The war's first military fatalities came during the surrender salute, when a pile of cartridges blew up.

Which 1862 battle in Maryland remains the bloodiest single day in American history, with over 22,000 casualties?

Antietam's outcome gave Lincoln the political confidence to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation five days later.

At which 1863 Pennsylvania battle did the failure of Pickett's Charge mark the high-water mark of the Confederacy?

Gettysburg's climactic assault is named for Major General George Pickett, though he was just one of the Confederate division commanders who took part.

Which Mississippi River fortress city surrendered on 4 July 1863 after a siege of more than 40 days?

Vicksburg's fall, followed days later by Port Hudson, put the whole river firmly in Union hands and split the Confederacy in two.

Which Union general won the nickname Unconditional Surrender after capturing Fort Donelson in Tennessee in 1862?

Ulysses S. Grant had demanded exactly those terms from the fort's commander, and the Northern press noticed that the phrase matched his initials.

Which Virginian was offered a senior Union command in April 1861 but instead became the Confederacy's leading general?

Robert E. Lee received the offer just three weeks after being promoted to colonel in the US Army. He resigned his commission instead.

Which Union general presented the captured city of Savannah to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift in 1864?

William T. Sherman had marched from Atlanta to the sea, his men heating railroad rails over fires and twisting them around trees into what became known as Sherman's neckties.

At which Virginia village did the Army of Northern Virginia surrender in April 1865, effectively ending the Civil War?

Appomattox Court House hosted the surrender in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, who had moved there to escape the war after its first big battle was fought on his farm.

Which Civil War nurse, nicknamed the Angel of the Battlefield, went on to found the American Red Cross?

Clara Barton earned the name by coming to the aid of an overwhelmed surgeon after the battle of Cedar Mountain in 1862. Before the war she had worked as a patent clerk.

At which 1876 Montana battle did Lakota and Cheyenne warriors wipe out George Custer's 7th Cavalry detachment?

Little Bighorn is known to the Lakota as the Battle of the Greasy Grass. Their war leaders included Crazy Horse and Gall, inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull.

Which US warship exploded and sank in Havana Harbor in February 1898, helping to trigger the Spanish–American War?

USS Maine's sinking was blamed on Spain by American newspapers, but the cause is still debated: a 1970s study led by Admiral Hyman Rickover pointed to a fire in one of the ship's own coal bunkers.

Which volunteer cavalry regiment did Theodore Roosevelt help lead at the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898?

The Rough Riders fought in Cuba as light infantry despite being cavalry, because their horses were not sent there with them.

Which general, nicknamed Black Jack, commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I?

John J. Pershing is the only American promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies, the Army's highest rank. George Washington received it posthumously in 1976.

Which intercepted German message of 1917 offered Mexico its lost territory if it joined a war against the US?

The Zimmermann Telegram promised Mexico the recovery of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. British intelligence intercepted and decrypted the cable.

Which Tennessee soldier, drafted despite seeking conscientious objector status, led the capture of 132 Germans in 1918?

Alvin York received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest. He had first claimed that his religious denomination forbade violence.

At which June 1942 battle in the Pacific did American aircraft sink all four Japanese fleet carriers present?

Midway was an ambush: US code breakers had worked out the date and place of the Japanese attack, and Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu all went down.

Which American general was Supreme Allied Commander for Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of June 1944?

Dwight D. Eisenhower had never seen combat himself: in World War I he trained tank crews at home, a gap that rivals such as Bernard Montgomery held against him.

Which Union strategy, proposed by Winfield Scott, paired a blockade of Southern ports with a drive down the Mississippi?

The Anaconda Plan began as an insult: critics who wanted a faster war likened the passive blockade to a snake's coils suffocating its victim, and the image stuck.

On which Pacific island did Joe Rosenthal photograph US Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi in 1945?

Iwo Jima's famous photograph actually shows the second flag-raising that day, when a larger replacement flag went up in the hands of different Marines.

Which general escaped to Australia in March 1942 and promised that he would return to the Philippines?

Douglas MacArthur is the only person ever to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army, which he had advised before the war.

Which B-29 bomber, named after its pilot's mother, dropped the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima in 1945?

Enola Gay got its name only the day before the mission, when Colonel Paul Tibbets took command. His mother had herself been named for the heroine of a novel.

Which American unit of World War II earned the nickname Red Tails from the paint on its fighter planes?

The Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators in the US armed forces, painted the tails of their fighters red, which is how the nickname was coined.

Which president ordered an end to racial discrimination in the US armed forces with Executive Order 9981?

Harry S. Truman signed the order in July 1948, and it led to the integration of the services during the Korean War.

Which line of latitude was chosen in 1945, using a National Geographic map, to divide Korea into two occupation zones?

The 38th parallel was picked on short notice by two young American officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel. Rusk later said that had he known Korean history he would almost surely have drawn a different line.

Which Korean port was the site of a risky UN amphibious landing in September 1950 that led to the recapture of Seoul?

Inchon was a gamble because of fast currents and tides so extreme that follow-on landings had to wait. The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels.

Which 1964 naval clash off North Vietnam, involving the destroyer USS Maddox, drew the US deeper into the Vietnam War?

The Gulf of Tonkin incident included a reported second attack two days later that was eventually shown never to have happened. Congress still passed a resolution used to justify open warfare.

Which Vietnamese city fell in April 1975 during the largest helicopter evacuation in history?

Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the late North Vietnamese president. Operation Frequent Wind had lifted some 7,000 people out of the city by helicopter.

Which oil-rich neighbor did Saddam Hussein's Iraq invade in August 1990, prompting Operation Desert Storm?

Kuwait was freed by a coalition of dozens of countries led by the United States, which halted its ground advance after just one hundred hours.

Which special operations unit killed Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan?

SEAL Team Six carried out the raid as Operation Neptune Spear, and lost one helicopter in a crash during the insertion without any casualties.

Which French region did the Allies invade on D-Day, landing on beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword?

Normandy was the target of the largest seaborne invasion in history, with nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft taking part.