Strategy, Tactical, Leadership, and Technology

In the next eighty years, American troops spent many Independence Days riding horseback across the Great Plains, storming beaches in Cuba, fighting in the Philippines, crossing trenches in France, landing on Pacific islands, and moving through Europe toward Nazi Germany.

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026, it’s worth asking what American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and volunteers were doing on Independence Day during the country’s major wars. Rather than focusing on celebrations at home, this series examines what happened on July 4 over the course of more than two centuries of conflict.

Few formations in American military history possessed a more distinct cultural identity than the Irish Brigade of the Union Army. Established during the early years of the American Civil War, the brigade functioned as both a combat unit and a symbol.

Its origins lay in the British drive for confederation in South Africa, a plan promoted by Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Carnarvon. His vision sought to unify the British colonies, the Boer republics, and independent African states into a single political federation under London’s control.

Theodore Roosevelt had a profound and transformational vision for the U.S. Navy.

After the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia retreated westward, pursued relentlessly by Grant’s forces. This grueling pursuit, marked by constant skirmishes and dwindling supplies, ended at Appomattox Court House, where Lee, recognizing the hopelessness of further resistance, chose to surrender on April 9, 1865.

The War of 1812, often hailed as "Mr. Madison’s War, "1 was a conflict between the United States and Great Britain from 1812 to 1815.

Introduction The Mexican-American War was a pivotal chapter in North American history, characterized by a complex interplay of historical...