The Army and the Philippines
Christopher L. Kolakowski | May 5, 2021
The United States and its armed forces have been militarily involved with the Philippine Islands for over a century. As part of a far-flung campaign of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. conquest of the Philippines in 1898 wrested control of the strategic islands from Spain, and gave American arms a vital toe-hold in the western Pacific Ocean. Soon afterwards, U.S. troops and Filipino nationalists fought a bloody conflict over the islands’ independence and America’s disputed involvement in their rule. In World War II, the Philippines was the scene of difficult terrain, a harsh climate, and bitter fighting, including Bataan and Corregidor, the Bataan Death March, Leyte, and the urban battle for Manila. The National Museum of the U.S. Army hosted Christopher L. Kolakowski, Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and author of “Last Stand on Bataan: The Defense of the Philippines, December 1941-May 1942,” for a discussion with Museum Educator John R. Maass about the U.S. Army’s role in the military history of the Philippines since the end of the nineteenth century through World War II, and into the Cold War years.
Battle of the Wilderness
John R. Maass | April 6, 2021
The National Museum of the U.S. Army looks at the hard-fought Battle of the Wilderness in early May 1864, the first face-off between General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee in war-torn Virginia. Originally aired as part of the Museum’s 2021 Civil War Week.
The U.S. Colored Troops at New Market Heights, 1864
John R. Maass | April 5, 2021
Learn the remarkable story of the Union Army’s brave Soldiers of the U.S. Colored Troops at the 1864 battle of New Market Heights during the Civil War. Part of the grueling Petersburg Campaign between General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee, a brigade of U.S. Colored Troops in the X Corps under Maj. Gen. David Birney served bravely in an attack on Confederate positions at New Market Heights, south of Richmond, Virginia on September 29, 1864. For their extraordinary heroism, 12 men of the U.S. Colored Troops later received the Medal of Honor, the first Black Soldiers to be awarded an American military decoration. Originally aired as part of the Museum’s 2021 Civil War Week.