Midway… It was won by a combination of technological superiority…and dirty downright cheatin’. We read their codes. Also by a lot of luck.
High tech, unsportsmanlike conduct, and sheer luck. What could be more American?
Tet?
Wouldn’t it be the Defence of Fort M’Henry?
I think all three are good local candidates. Gettysburg is likely the closest to a nationwide iconic battle, considering Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Pickett’s Charge, etc.
This is a good candidate, too, although I think the details are not well known.
The wife and I viewed the actual Star-Spangled Banner from that battle at the Smithsonian a couple of years ago.
I’d suggest Midway was the turning point in the Pacific war. In western Europe, the Battle of the Bulge was the last chance the Germans had to defeat the allies in the West. All they did after that was a delaying action.
I saw a tv show about the painstaking restoration of what is currently left of it, after generations of souvenir hunters have snipped away bits. Fascinating.
There’s a whole catalogue of military history in The Star-Spangled Banner: Congreve rockets, bomb ketches, coastal fortifications, etc.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore? They burned Washington and skedaddled! The fortifications did half their job!
Looking just at how iconic the battle is in terms of its awareness of the approximate dates and the outcome among the greatest number of average, educated Americans who are not particularly history buffs, then I’d say either Pearl Harbor or D-Day. For the former, people know it was when we entered the war and the later was when we invaded occupied France to take the land war to Germany, and in both cases, wound up winning the war.
How about that famously commemorated battle in which
*We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’.
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they begin to runnin’,
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
Yeah, they ran through the briars
And they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes
Where a rabbit couldn’t go.
They ran so fast
That the hounds couldn’t catch 'em,
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.[indent]-- Johnny Horton*[/indent]
According to the internet. Not so?
I’d say it’s a tie between Gettysburg (great battle and greater speech) and D-Day (our troops at their greatest).
The Hessians weren’t drunk. They were exhausted. The world’s greatest army & navy had kicked Washington out of New York. Then the Royal Navy went on to conquer Providence for its better winter harbor. And the Army harried the Continentals through New Jersey–always just hanging back from finishing them off. The Brits & Hessians set up posts across the state; some Jerseyites swore loyalty to the Crown but misbehavior by occupying troops made the natives restless. Messages to the next post required parties of 100–because the unsporting locals tended to pick off smaller groups. Tom Paine traveled with our army, writing on drumheads by firelight; he began his latest piece with “these are the times that try men’s souls.” Washington decided to try a new move…
If we’re talking “iconic” I’ll go with Washington Crossing the Delaware. Everybody knows the image, even if we’re unclear on the details of both Battles of Trenton, the Battle of Princeton & the winter’s Forage War that drove the British army to the coast of New Jersey. Stifling the rebellion suddenly appeared a bit more difficult than it had seemed. (Why, yes, I read David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing.)
The Alamo ™ has a definite image–even if it’s just the chapel as remodeled by the US Army; none of San Antonio’s other missions sport those weird scallops. But it’s a reminder of a defeat–the Battle of San Jacinto was more significant. Texas Independence led to Texas Statehood; a border dispute was the excuse for the Mexican American War; arguments about the status of the territory stolen from Mexico helped kickstart the Civil War. But mostly Texans know about that–the only “icon” we have of that battle is a painting of Sam Houston under a moss-festooned live oak, greeting the captured Santa Ana.
Great news! The History Channel is producing Texas Rising, a miniseries about that whole episode–including the role the Gallant Texas Rangers played. (Hint: They didn’t.) It’s being shot in Durango, Mexico; parts of Texas look like that, but those parts had squat to do with the Revolution. For example, there is a shortage of moss-festooned live oaks. I suspect the series will arouse the same feelings from Texas History buffs as AMC’s TUR(backwards)N did for Revolutionary Buffs…
It was remembered above in post #17
The Normans won the Battle of Hastings. It was the defining battle of the Norman Conquest in which England’s last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold II, fell.
They called him William the Conqueror, not William the Got Kicked out of England.
I’d say that’s correct too.
Aha! So it was! I missed that.
Yeah? Well… they aren’t calling him Guillaume le Conquérant much neither so…
In WW2, the US was still considered by some as the ‘spolled, had it easy, only came in when the war was over’ ally. Many thought we were soft and useless and no good in a pinch. Normandy, while Hell, really didn’t change a lot of opinions,
as the other allies where all there too.
But, it was during “The Bulge”, in a small town called Bastogne, where the US 101st, remnants of the 10th Armored Division and remnants of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion… put aside all animosity and racial divide to fight as one.
Out manned 5-1, out gunned and without cold weather gear, surrounded for days by some of the best German armor and troops… McAuliffe was offered the option of surrender on the third day.
His famous reply was, “Nuts”.
The siege lasted 4 more days until Patton’s armor could break through to them. The newspapers called them “Battered Bastards of Bastogne”. When we were surrounded by superior numbers that were better supplied with no possible way of retreat…
when we put aside all the petty BS and cultural crap, made our supply clerks riflemen, holding on almost impossibly while running low on ammo… when we still looked the enemy in the eye and said “Nuts”?
That was a moment, to me, that defined us as a people… and as a nation.
I’m interested to hear more of your thoughts about this.
Personally I favor Gettysburg, especially the second day when the two armies raged at one another with the balance of the battle and maybe the war often hanging by a thread, or at least by the guts of a single regiment.