I would have done this as a poll, but there are just too many possibilities.
For me, it’s the following:
US Revolutionary War Harlem Heights – sort of; it’s not marked well, but there are areas on the Columbia University campus where where it was fought. Bennington – Actually, in New York state, not in Bennington. The monument in Bennington marks the objective of the British – a grainery – but they never got near it. Very impressive terrain – a small clearing at the top of a hill; the British had a great position and it’s amazing that the Colonials defeated them (though there seemed to have been a lot of British overconfidence). Saratoga – both Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights.
US Civil War Gettysburg
Antietam
First Manassas
Second Manassas Fredricksberg
Chancellorsville
Wilderness – just drove by; it’s next to Chancellorsville and seeing one puts you on the other
World War II Pearl Harbor – the Arizona Memorial Normany – Juno, Gold, and Omaha beaches.
Most of the Civil War sites near DC during a trip in the 80s (Gettysburg, Chancellorville, etc.)
Pea Ridge in Arkansas (another Civil War battlefield)
Pearl Harbor
Several sites across Scotland on visits (Culloden, the stuff near the Wallace monument)
In Wisconsin we’d start our canoe trips down the Little Pecatonica at Bloody Lake, site of a battle (brawl) during the Blackhawk War.
In the navy 1987 I loitered on the flying bridge as we passed through the Surigao Straights in the Phillipines, where the USN had “capped the T” of the IJN 33 years previously, the last time it was done in naval warfare.
And of course we got into dress whites and rendered honors when we pulled into Pearl Harbor past the Arizona
Gettysburg (American Civil War)
Pearl Harbor (World War II)
Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord (also the sites of the Boston Massacre and Tea Party) (American Revolutionary War)
Berlin Wall (also Nazi Party rally sites in Nuremburg) (Cold War)
First Defenestration of Prague (Hussite Wars)
Second Defenestration of Prague (Thirty Years War)
Some of those aren’t exactly battlefields, but still significant.
I’m from California, where I believe our battlefields are mostly under the LA freeway :p. While I haven’t gotten to go see any cool battlefields back east yet, I did go to New Orleans last year and head out toChalmette Battlefield (site of the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812).
Gettysburg. Being as I was 15 I just thought it looked like a crummy old field, though I guess I was somewhat moved as I later tried to write a play wherein Bob Dylan played at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Yorktown. My Dad insisted I see it because one of our ancestors got his hair frozen to the ground there. Looked like a field to me but it had some pretty butterflies.
Glorieta Pass, as I recall, at least had some ruins to check out.
Queenston Heights (Battle of 1812) – I got to climb Brock’s Monument while we were there. Very nice view from the top, as I recall.
Little Bighorn (Indian Wars, 1876) – Visited this one three times now. I’m rather fascinated with this battle and the characters involved.
Batoche (Northwest Rebellion, 1885) – A pivotal location in Canada’s early years as a nation.
If you can make an argument for St. Petersburg during the blockade being a battlefield, I think that’s the only one I can count. Seen the sign that’s still on the wall of a building on Nevsky Prospect warning comrades which side of the street was more dangerous to walk on…
