for LIBERTY | Preserving American Heritage

Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789

Americans don’t know it and children aren’t taught it, but George Washington is responsible for our Thanksgiving holiday. It was our first president, not the Pilgrims and not Abraham Lincoln, who led the charge to make this day of thanks a truly national event.

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Save Tennessee Hallowed Ground

With the American Battlefield Trust, help is needed to save two critical parcels of historic land at Lookout Mountain and Franklin, Tennessee, for a combined total of 303 acres.

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Christmas During the Civil War

ByJustin M.November 28, 2020

“Christmas in Camp,” an illustration by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly By the mid-19th century, most of today’s familiar Christmas trappings — Christmas carols, gift giving and tree decoration — were already in place. Charles Dickens had published “A Christmas Carol” in 1843 and indeed, the…

Saved By His Bible – Sam Houston, Jr.

ByNathan MoteNovember 25, 2020

After attending preparatory school at Baylor University, he enrolled at the Bastrop Military Academy.. Sam Jr. inherited his mother’s artistic ability and was frequently drawing and sketching. Although his father opposed secession, Sam Houston Jr., enlisted as a private in The Bayland Guards, Company C, of the 2nd Texas Infantry,…

Civil War Railroads

ByJustin M.November 25, 2020

On a hot summer day in 1861, Union and Confederate troops lined up along Bull Run Creek preparing to fight the first major battle of the Civil War. Behind the Confederate lines was the town of Manassas Junction. There the Manassas Gap Railroad came east from the Shenandoah Valley. At…

Battle of New Market Heights

ByJustin M.November 24, 2020

Events leading to the Battle of New Market Heights began during the blistering summer of 1864, when overall Federal commander Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant directed the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, to relentlessly push the Confederates south from the Rappahannock River toward the…

Christmas During the Civil War

It can be difficult to relate to the men and women of the Civil War era. Despite the extraordinarily different circumstances in which they found themselves, however, we can connect…

Saved By His Bible – Sam Houston, Jr.

On May 25, 1843, Sam Houston, Jr. was the first of eight children born to General Sam Houston and Margaret Lea. Sickly when he was born at Washington-on-the Brazos, Texas,…

Civil War Railroads

Confederate troops were rushed by rail to confront the Union army led by Brigadier General Irwin McDowell at Bull Run. Among those who rode by rail was a brigade under…

DOCUMENTS

READ what those who lived through America’s past said about their challenges and choices

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EXPLORE biographies, battles, and events throughout America’s historical past

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The Pilgrims Set Sail For The New World

On September 16, 1620, the Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists—half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs—had…

Columbus: Sailor, Mariner, Providential Pathfinder

Christopher Columbus was born on Oct 31, 1451 and died on May 20, 1506 at the age 54. The famed Italian voyager who stood 6′ tall unwittingly discovered America…

Christopher Columbus

Columbus, CHRISTOPHER (Cristoforo Colombo), discoverer of America; born in or near Genoa about 1435. At the age of ten years he was placed in the University of Pavia, where he was…

Beaver Wars

The Beaver Wars, also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (French: Guerres franco-iroquoises), encompass a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in America. They were battles for economic welfare throughout the Saint Lawrence River valley in Canada and the lower Great Lakes region which pitted the Iroquois against the northern Algonquians and the Algonquians’ French allies.…

Antelope Hills Expedition

The Antelope Hills Expedition was a campaign from January 1858 to May 1858 by the Texas Rangers and members of other allied native American tribes against Comanche and Kiowa villages in the Comancheria. It began in western Texas and ending in a series of fights with the Comanche tribe on May 12, 1858 at a…

Comanche Wars

The Comanche Wars began in 1706 with raids by Comanche on Spanish colonies in New Mexico and continued until the last bands of Comanche surrendered to the United States in 1875 although a few Comanche warriors continued to fight in conflicts such as the Buffalo Hunters’ War in 1876 and 1877.[1] In the 18th century, the Comanche established…

Arikara War

The Arikara War was an armed conflict between the United States, their allies from the Sioux (or Dakota) tribe and Arikara Native Americans that took place in the summer of 1823, along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota.[5] It was the first Indian war west of the Missouri fought by the U.S. Army and its only conflict ever with…

Sabine Expedition

The Sabine Expedition was an expedition approved by the United States Congress in 1806.[1] It was led by Major General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. It consisted of volunteers provided by Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee,…

Illinois Territory in the War of 1812

During the War of 1812, the Illinois Territory was the scene of fighting between Native Americans and United States soldiers and settlers. The Illinois Territory at that time included the areas…

War of 1812

A 32-month military conflict between the United States on one side, and on the other Great Britain, its colonies and its Indian allies in North America. The outcome resolved many issues which…

Database of Battles

From Native Indians, The American Revolution,
and American Civil War

Battle of Carthage

The Battle of Carthage, also known as the Battle of Dry Fork, took place at the beginning of the American Civil War on July 5, 1861, in Jasper County, Missouri. The experienced Colonel Franz Sigel commanded 1,100…

The Battle of Fort Sumter

The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12–14, 1861) was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina…

Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip

The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip (April 18–28, 1862) was the decisive battle for possession of New Orleans in the American Civil War.

Battle of White Marsh

Battle Summary General George Washington spent the weeks after his defeat at Germantown encamped with the Continental Army in various locations throughout Montgomery County, just north of British-occupied Philadelphia. In early November, the Americans established an entrenched position approximately 16 miles north of Philadelphia along the Wissahickon Creek and Sandy Run, primarily situated on several…

The Battle of Yorktown

The Siege of Yorktown or Battle of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by General Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by General Lord Cornwallis. It proved to be the last major land battle of…

The Battle of Eutaw Springs

Background Seven years of British determination to bring South Carolina to her knees met failure. The spirit that had long resisted royal edict and church canon, the fierce desire and indomitable will to be masters of their own destinies, and the dauntless courage that had carved a new way of…

The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

Overview On the bright, late winter day of March 15, 1781, the Revolutionary War came to a remote county seat in north central North Carolina. Guilford Courthouse, with its population of considerably fewer than 100, was on this day the temporary residence of 4,400 American soldiers and their leader, Maj.…

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