Museum of American Exceptionalism
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Valor

Where Americans went when ordered, and what they did when they got there.

1779–1991 · 17 exhibits
  1. Bonhomme Richard, center, and HMS Serapis locked together and burning under the moon off Flamborough Head, painted by Thomas Mitchell in 1780.
    1779Open nowI Have Not Yet Begun to FightHis ship sinking under him, John Paul Jones lashed it to a British frigate and took her.3½hours
  2. Constitution’s broadsides shatter HMS Guerriere, 19 August 1812 (Thomas Chambers, about 1845).
    1812Open nowOld IronsidesUSS Constitution left HMS Guerriere without a mast standing in under 30 minutes. British cannonballs bounced off her oak sides.30minutes
  3. Andrew Jackson rides among his gunners and riflemen as the British assault breaks on 8 January 1815 (Dennis Malone Carter, 1856).
    1815Open nowThe Battle of New OrleansJackson’s line of riflemen, pirates and militia shattered a veteran British army in half an hour.2,000+British casualties
  4. Pillow’s column storms Chapultepec on 13 September 1847, scaling ladders against the castle walls (Carl Nebel, 1851).
    1847Open nowTo the Halls of MontezumaWinfield Scott landed at Veracruz, cut loose from his supply line and marched on an enemy capital, winning every battle.6months
  5. The 20th Maine charges down Little Round Top with fixed bayonets, 2 July 1863, in H. Charles McBarron Jr.'s National Guard Heritage painting.
    1863Open nowLittle Round TopAt the far end of the Union line at Gettysburg, out of ammunition, the 20th Maine fixed bayonets and charged downhill.386men of the 20th Maine
  6. Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt rides at the head of the charge up Kettle Hill, 1 July 1898, in Frederic Remington’s Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill
    1898Open nowSan Juan HillRoosevelt’s Rough Riders and the regulars charged up the heights outside Santiago under fire and took them.1day
  7. Sgt. Alvin C. York at the hill in the Argonne where he captured 132 German prisoners, 1919
    1918Open nowSergeant YorkA Tennessee marksman in the Argonne Forest silenced a German machine-gun nest and marched 132 prisoners back.132prisoners
  8. How Twenty Marines Took Bouresches (Belleau Wood, June 1918), painting, 1919
    1918Open nowBelleau WoodTold to fall back, a Marine captain answered “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.” Then the Marines took the wood.26days
  9. Dauntless dive bombers of Scouting Squadron 8 from USS Hornet close on the burning Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma, 6 June 1942 (80-G-17054).
    1942Open nowMidwaySix months after Pearl Harbor, American dive bombers set three Japanese carriers burning in a few minutes. Before dark they got the fourth.4carriers sunk
  10. A B-25B clears the bow of USS Hornet at the start of the Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, as sailors watch from the island (80-G-41196).
    1942Open nowThirty Seconds Over TokyoFour months after Pearl Harbor, 80 volunteers flew Army bombers off a Navy carrier and struck Japan.16B-25 bombers
  11. Rangers' command post atop Pointe du Hoc with the U.S. flag spread to stop friendly fire, June 1944
    1944Open nowThe Boys of Pointe du Hoc225 Rangers climbed a sheer cliff under fire and destroyed the guns aimed at the D-Day beaches.100ft of cliff
  12. 101st Airborne troopers move out of Bastogne after the ten-day siege, 1944
    1944Open nowBastogneSurrounded and told to surrender, the 101st Airborne’s acting commander sent back one word.Nuts!the reply
  13. Marines raise the larger second flag as the first comes down atop Mount Suribachi, 23 February 1945
    1945Open nowIwo JimaThirty-six days on eight square miles of volcanic rock. More Medals of Honor than any other battle of the war.27Medals of Honor
  14. 1st Marine Division column breaks out from the Chosin Reservoir, December 1950
    1950Open nowChosin ReservoirSurrounded by 120,000 Chinese troops at twenty-five below, the Marines attacked in a new direction: out, all the way to the sea.17days
  15. Marines climb wooden scaling ladders over the seawall from their landing craft at Inchon, 15 September 1950.
    1950Open nowInchonMacArthur landed behind enemy lines on a 31-foot tide, and Marines climbed the seawall on ladders to turn the Korean War.12days from the seawall to Seoul
  16. Maj. Bruce Crandall’s UH-1D Huey climbs away after landing infantrymen of the 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965.
    1965Open nowWe Were SoldiersDropped by helicopter into a valley held by thousands of North Vietnamese, Hal Moore’s cavalrymen held on for three days.450troopers held the landing zone
  17. A Navy F-14A Tomcat of Fighter Squadron 114 flies over a Kuwaiti oil well set ablaze by Iraqi troops, 1991.
    1991Open nowThe 100-Hour WarThe ground war to free Kuwait ended in 100 hours. Iraq’s army, then billed as the world’s fourth-largest, was routed.100hours