Military

The story of the Lake Erie Campaign and the culminating Battle of Lake Erie.

On September 10, 1813, the hot, still air that hung over Lake Erie was broken by the sounds of sharp conflict. Led by Oliver Hazard Perry, the American fleet met the British, and though they sustained heavy losses, Perry and his men achieved one of the most stunning victories in the War of 1812. Author Walter Rybka traces the Lake Erie Campaign from the struggle to build the fleet in Erie, Pennsylvania, during the dead of winter and the conflict between rival egos of Perry and his second in command, Jesse Duncan Elliott, through the exceptionally bloody battle that was the first U.S. victory in a fleet action. With the singular perspective of having sailed the reconstructed U.S. brig Niagara for over 20 years, Rybka brings the knowledge of a shipmaster to this war story.

Explore Florida's everglades, its history, the native tribes that called it home, and the fight to preserve the grassy wetlands documented through a collection of images.

The Everglades once blanketed a quarter of Florida. Stretching from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, its saw grass prairies, mangrove swamps, and hammocks were home to a profusion of animals, plants, and prehistoric Native Americans, as well as Seminoles, Miccosukees, and Gladesmen of historic times. In 1904, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward ran for Florida governor with the political platform of creating farmland by dredging the Everglades and spilling its water into the ocean. By 1914, this spectacular natural feature was on the verge of destruction, and environmentalist May Mann Jennings led a grassroots movement to preserve Royal Palm Hammock. In the 1930s, Ernest Coe and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas fought to preserve a larger area, culminating in the creation of Everglades National Park in 1947.

This striking volume presents the military history of Fort Drum and the missions it continues to support in defense of the United States.

Northern New York State has boasted a prominent military presence since the War of 1812. Beginning in 1816 with the establishment of Fort Drum's predecessor, Madison Barracks, troops have trained there throughout the summer months and the harsh winters. Today, Fort Drum is the largest military facility in the northeastern United States, home to the 10th Mountain Division, a tactical unit deployed on missions around the world. Beginning with the history of Madison Barracks, Fort Drum depicts its birth as Pine Plains, a ten-thousand-acre training area, and its continued evolution into a military asset. By 1908, soldiers from Madison Barracks began summer maneuvers at Pine Plains under the command of Brig. Gen. Frederick Dent Grant, son of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Historic images in Fort Drum show these training camps and what are known today as the greatest military maneuvers in peacetime history during 1935. Today, Fort Drum supports the training of almost eighty thousand troops annually.

See how Fort Lesley J. McNair withstood the trials, tribulations and test of time and continues to protect our nation's capital today.

From southeast Washington, DC, where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers meet, Fort Lesley J. McNair still protects America's capital. In 1791, Pierre L'Enfant designated it as a military reservation. The post is the third oldest in continuous operation--as an arsenal, a penitentiary, a hospital, and now, a military education center. It was renamed in 1948 to honor Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, who was killed in World War II. Over the course of two centuries, the fort has borne witness to the British ransacking during the War of 1812; a Civil War explosion that killed female arsenal workers; and the incarceration, trial, and hanging of Lincoln assassination conspirators.

Over time, it became the home of several artillery commands, the first federal penitentiary, the US Army Engineer School, the US Army Music School, the US Army War College and the US Army Band (""Pershing's Own""). Today, it has evolved into the National Defense University, Inter-American Defense College and the headquarters of the Military District of Washington.

Images of America: Delaware Army National Guard presents images of this fabled organization that survived from the Spanish-American War to the present.

The Delaware National Guard traces its roots to 1655, when the Swedish Colonial government formed a militia to defend itself. That tradition carried through Dutch and then English control of the colony. The militia served in all five French and Indian Wars and then distinguished itself during the Revolutionary War as the First Delaware Regiment of the Continental Army, earning its ""Blue Hen"" nickname. The Delaware militia continued to serve in every major war, and currently it remains in the forefront. The people, places, equipment, and facilities of the Delaware National Guard are illustrated in this compilation of historic photographs from the collection of the Delaware Military Heritage and Education Foundation.

The valiant story of the nation's capital facing the challenges of World War II told in over 200 rare, historical images that bring the past to life.

As the country prepared for World War II, the nation's capital took center stage. Washington residents witnessed the local population nearly double in a few short years, as a mostly female work force descended on the city, while its male population was sent off to combat in Europe and the Pacific. Washingtonians planted victory gardens, ran scrap drives, and suffered the effects of severe rationing along with the rest of the nation, while military personnel manned anti aircraft batteries around the city. New government agencies were created and existing ones expanded dramatically-most doubled their workforce and constructed hundreds of temporary facilities on the Mall and throughout the city. Washington also witnessed the construction of the largest office building in the world, the Pentagon, which was completed in just 16 months. Washington, D.C.: The World War II Years captures nearly 200 fascinating images from this era. These archival photographs chronicle the beginning stages of war preparation, little known civic defense organizations, VE and VJ celebratory parades, and the overall spirit of the continually persevering capital city.

The Garden State has made innumerable contributions to our nation's military history, on both battlefield and homefront, but many of those stories remain hidden within the larger national narrative.

Perhaps the most crucial one-day battle of the Revolution was fought in Monmouth County, and New Jersey officers engineered the conquest of California in the Mexican War. During the Civil War, a New Jersey unit was instrumental in saving Washington, D.C., from Confederate capture. In World War II, New Jersey women flocked to war production factories and served in the armed forces, and a West Orange girl helped ferry Spitfire fighters in England. War came home to the coast in 1942 with the sinking of the SS ""Resor"" by a German submarine, but the state's citizens reacted by contributing everything they could to the war effort. Uncover these and other stories from New Jersey's hidden wartime history.

Just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Frederick, Maryland, was poised at the crossroads of the Civil War.

Here, Confederate troops passed west to the Battles of Antietam and South Monocacy, while Union troops marched north to Gettysburg and south to raid the resources of the Shenandoah Valley. Both heroes and villains were made in the spired city, such as Dame Barbara Fritchie, who is said to defied General Jackson; General Jubal Early, who threatened to put the town to the torch; and the local doctors and nurses who cared for thousands of wounded soldiers. Join local historian John Schildt as he recounts the fascinating history of Frederick in the Civil War.

Navigate the treacherous waters of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay to discover the fates of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and his fleet.

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's defeat of the British at the Battle of Lake Erie was a defining moment both in the War of 1812 and American naval history. Yet the story of Perry's fleet did not end there. Come aboard as author David Frew chronicles the years and decades after Perry's victory. Heroic acts and bitter defeats unfold as Frew details the lives of fleet surgeon Usher Parsons, shipwright Daniel Dobbins and fleet commander Oliver Hazard Perry and his successors. The adventure moves from the tribulations of Misery Bay and a crafty British victory in the Lake Huron Campaign to the closing of the naval base in Erie and the raising of the Niagara in the twentieth century. Navigate the treacherous waters of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay to discover the fates of Perry and his fleet.

Once a place of war, then a place of health, and finally, preservation, Fort DuPont has had a long and interesting history.

Fort DuPont is named in honor of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont and located on the Reeden Point tract, land initially granted to Henry Ward in 1675. The first fortification built was the Ten Gun Battery during the Civil War, a heavily armed earthwork fortification dedicated to protecting the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal--as Sgt. Bishop Crumrine wrote in 1864, "These guns command the channel and could blow to atoms any vessel rash enough to attempt to pass.'? In the decades to follow, the battery at Delaware City was gradually modernized into a formidable military post that remained active through World War II. Declared surplus in post-war peacetime, the site reopened in 1948 as the Governor Bacon Health Center, and by 1996, over 300 acres were reestablished as Fort DuPont State Park.