All hands, abandon ship
During the May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea the aircraft carrier USS Lexington was hit by Japanese torpedoes. Her crew brought 3 fines under control and...
Battle scene from 1898
During the Spanish-American War, an American officer surveys a battle scene through binoculars. Fought in the Philippines and Cuba, the short war— which lasted from...
Battles on Bull Run
The Cartographic and Architectural Branch holds many Civil War maps including this one of the Battles on Bull Run on July 21, 1861.
Eyewitness report
Col. E.N. Hallowell wrote this account of the battle of Fort Wagner almost four months after the attack. He highlighted the fall of the 54th’s commanding officer,...
Lincoln visits with his generals
After the Civil War battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln was anxious for Major General George B. McClellan to pursue Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s...
One gun and a ram
The CSS Manassas, a one-gun Confederate ironclad ram, rammed the USS Richmond at the Head of Passes at the mouth of the Mississippi River on October 12,...
Punishing an enemy’s termity
Commodore Edward Preble wrote this letter to the Secretary of the Navy on September 18, 1804. This letter records the actions Preble took to free captured American...