What is the most important battle in American history?

In our ranking it is Normandy in 1944, the largest amphibious invasion in history, which put Allied armies back into France and decided the war in the west. For American independence the decisive battle was Yorktown in 1781, with Saratoga in 1777 bringing France into the war; for the Civil War, Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863; for the Pacific, Midway in 1942.

What was the bloodiest battle in American history?

Counting both sides, Gettysburg in July 1863, with about 51,000 killed, wounded, captured or missing over three days, the most of any Civil War battle. Antietam on 17 September 1862 is the bloodiest single day, with about 23,000 casualties. Counting American losses alone, the Battle of the Bulge cost about 80,000 US casualties, among them 19,246 dead by the Army's official count.

What was the turning point of the American Civil War?

Gettysburg in July 1863, where Lee's second invasion of the North was broken. Paired with the fall of Vicksburg the next day, which gave the Union the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in two, it marked the point after which the Confederacy never regained the initiative.

What was the turning point of the war in the Pacific?

Midway in June 1942. On 4 June US Navy aircraft struck four Japanese fleet carriers, all of which were lost, and the battle ended the run of Japanese expansion that had begun at Pearl Harbor. The Navy's historians call it the strategic high-water mark of Japan's Pacific war.

What was the turning point of the American Revolution?

Saratoga in 1777: the surrender of about 6,300 British and German soldiers persuaded France to sign an alliance with the United States in February 1778. The war was won four years later at Yorktown, where French troops and ships helped force Cornwallis to surrender, which is why Yorktown ranks second on our list and Saratoga seventh.

Has the United States ever been invaded?

Rarely on the mainland. The most serious case was the War of 1812, when British troops burned Washington in 1814; Fort McHenry's stand that September inspired the national anthem. The great American battles have mostly been fought abroad or in civil war.

The 15 Greatest Battles in American History, Ranked

At a glance
Rank	Battle	Date	Forces	Result
1	Normandy	1944	About 150,000 to 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day	Allied victory; Paris freed
2	Yorktown	1781	About 16,000 to 20,000 allies vs 7,500 to 9,000 British	British army surrendered
3	Midway	1942	3 US carriers and Midway's planes vs 4 Japanese carriers	US victory; 4 carriers sunk
4	Gettysburg	1863	93,921 Union vs 71,699 Confederate	Union victory; Lee retreats
5	Pearl Harbor	1941	353 Japanese aircraft vs the US fleet in harbor	Japanese raid; US enters the war
6	The Bulge	1944 to 1945	Over 200,000 Germans vs 80,000 Americans at the start	Allied victory
7	Saratoga	1777	About 15,000 Americans vs 6,000 to 7,500 British and Germans	British army surrendered
8	Vicksburg	1863	About 77,000 Union vs 33,000 Confederates	Confederate army surrendered
9	Iwo Jima	1945	About 70,000 vs 18,000 to 20,000	US victory
10	Lexington and Concord	1775	About 4,000 militia vs 700 to 1,500 regulars	American victory
11	The Alamo	1836	189 to 257 defenders vs about 1,800 attackers	Mexican victory
12	Antietam	1862	About 87,000 vs 41,000 to 45,000	Draw; Lee withdrew
13	Guadalcanal	1942 to 1943	About 16,000 Marines at first; about 37,700 Japanese in all	US victory
14	Little Bighorn	1876	About 600 soldiers (our sum) vs 1,500 to 1,800 warriors	Lakota and Cheyenne victory
15	Trenton	1776	About 2,400 vs 1,500	American victory

Quick answer

What are the greatest battles in American history?

Normandy in 1944 tops our ranking: the largest amphibious invasion in history put American, British and Canadian armies back into France, and Paris was free by late August. Next come Yorktown in 1781, Midway in 1942, Gettysburg in 1863 and Pearl Harbor in 1941. The fifteen battles run from Lexington and Concord in 1775 to Iwo Jima in 1945.

From the first shots at Lexington and Concord in 1775 to the flag on Mount Suribachi in 1945, these fifteen battles made the United States what it is, and some of the best-remembered were defeats: Pearl Harbor and Little Bighorn belong to American history as much as Yorktown does. They are ranked by score, with most weight on how well known each battle is and on what it decided for the war it belonged to, so Normandy comes first and Saratoga, often called the turning point of the Revolution, seventh; see how we chose and ranked them. Each entry gives the place, the forces and the outcome, with a link to the full story.¹

This page ranks the greatest battles. For the whole story, from the colonial wars to Vietnam, with every American battle on this site grouped by era, see our guide to the military history of the United States.

1 Normandy, 1944

Where: The Normandy coast and its hinterland, northern France
War: World War II, Western Front
Sides: The United States, Britain, Canada and 12 other Allied nations vs Germany
Strength: About 150,000 to nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on 6 June, more than 850,000 by the end of June, vs 58 German divisions in the West
Result: Allied victory; Paris liberated on 25 August 1944

By the spring of 1944 the Germans knew an invasion was coming, but they expected it at Calais, the narrowest point of the Channel, where the Atlantic Wall was strongest and most of their 58 divisions in the West stood. Instead, on 6 June 1944, troops from the United States, Britain, Canada and 12 other nations came ashore on five Normandy beaches, carried by over 7,000 vessels and covered by about 12,000 aircraft. The Americans landed at Utah and Omaha, the British and Canadians at Gold, Juno and Sword.²

The National WWII Museum counts nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed that day, over 34,000 Americans at Omaha alone; the US Holocaust Memorial Museum says more than 150,000, and the National WWII Museum warns that D-Day figures are approximations on which sources vary widely. It was the largest amphibious invasion in history. The first day cost the Allies over 10,300 killed, wounded or missing, about 2,400 of them on Omaha Beach. By the end of June more than 850,000 Allied soldiers were ashore. Caen, a first-day objective, held out until mid-July, and the Americans broke through at Avranches on 31 July. In mid-August much of the German army in Normandy was encircled and destroyed near Falaise, and on 25 August Paris was liberated, with French forces in a prominent role.³

Why it ranks here: Full marks on all five criteria: D-Day is the American battle the whole world knows, it opened the second front in Europe, and within three months it had broken the German army in France. It is first outright, not on a tie, the only one of the 25 candidates with a perfect score.

Read the full story of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy ›

2 Yorktown, 1781

Where: Yorktown and Gloucester Point, Virginia
War: American Revolutionary War
Besiegers: About 16,000 to 20,000 American and French troops under Washington and Rochambeau; de Grasse's French fleet offshore
Defenders: About 7,500 to 9,000 British, German and Loyalist troops under Cornwallis
Outcome: Surrendered 19 October 1781; 7,416 British missing and captured

In the summer of 1781 Lord Cornwallis fortified Yorktown, on the York River, as a base the Royal Navy could supply. It became a trap. On 5 September a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse beat the British at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, while Washington and his French ally Rochambeau marched south from New York. By late September the allies at Williamsburg numbered about 16,000 by our sum of the park historian Charles Hatch's figures, or about 19,900 by the American Battlefield Trust's count; Cornwallis had about 7,500 by Hatch's count, 9,000 by the Trust's.⁴

On 28 September the allies closed around the town. They dug a first siege line on 6 October and a second on 11 October, and on the night of 14 October French troops stormed Redoubt 9 while American light infantry took Redoubt 10. Three days later a British officer with a flag of truce appeared on the parapet, and on 19 October the garrison marched out to Surrender Field and laid down its arms: a third of all British forces in North America, the National Park Service notes. Parliament voted to make peace in March 1782, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783 recognized independence. Myth vs fact: the British band playing “The World Turned Upside Down” at the surrender is a story the American Battlefield Trust calls apocryphal.⁵

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty: the surrender ended the major fighting of the Revolution and won the independence of the United States. Memory scores 4, as the anniversary is a local one; it is level on points with Midway, equal on recognition and consequence, and goes ahead as the older battle.

Read the full story of the siege of Yorktown ›

3 Midway, 1942

Where: Around Midway Atoll, central Pacific
War: World War II, Pacific War
Fleets: US Pacific Fleet (Nimitz) vs Japanese Combined Fleet (Yamamoto)
Strength: 3 US carriers and the aircraft of the Midway base vs 4 Japanese fleet carriers
Result: US victory; 4 Japanese carriers sunk for 1 US carrier; about 3,057 Japanese and 362 American men lost

Six months after Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned to seize Midway, the American outpost in the middle of the Pacific, and destroy the US carriers when they came out to save it. But Navy cryptanalysts in Hawaii had been breaking Japanese codes since early 1942. When Midway sent out a false message that it was short of fresh water, the Japanese reported that their target, “AF,” was short of water, and the trap was set.⁶

Early on 4 June 1942 planes from four Japanese carriers bombed Midway. While they were back aboard to rearm, dive-bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown found the fleet and set Akagi, Kaga and Soryu ablaze. Hiryu, the only survivor, struck back twice and crippled Yorktown, then was caught herself that afternoon. Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, hundreds of aircraft and about 3,057 men; the United States lost Yorktown, a destroyer, 144 aircraft and about 362 men. The Navy's own historians call Midway the strategic high-water mark of Japan's war: before it Japan chose where and when to attack, after it the fleets were equals and the Americans soon took the offensive. In 1999 the Chief of Naval Operations ordered the battle commemorated every year alongside the Navy's birthday, and the fleet still receives an anniversary message, as it did for the 83rd anniversary in June 2025.⁷

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and certainty: the strikes of 4 June cost Japan four fleet carriers and ended its offensive in the Pacific. Memory is 4, because the anniversary is kept mainly by the US Navy; level with Yorktown on points, recognition and consequence, it goes after it as the younger battle.

Read the full story of the Battle of Midway ›

Two American dive bombers flying over a burning warship far below — US Navy SBD Dauntless dive bombers over the burning Japanese cruiser Mikuma on 6 June 1942, in the final phase of the Battle of Midway (4 to 7 June). US Navy photograph. Public domain

4 Gettysburg, 1863

Where: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
War: American Civil War
Sides: Army of the Potomac (Meade) vs Army of Northern Virginia (Lee)
Strength: 165,620 engaged: 93,921 Union vs 71,699 Confederate
Result: Union victory; about 51,000 killed, wounded, captured or missing

After beating the Union at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Robert E. Lee marched north to revive Confederate morale and relieve the pressure on Vicksburg, which Grant had under siege. On the morning of 1 July his men ran into Union cavalry west of Gettysburg, a crossroads town in southern Pennsylvania, and the largest battle of the Civil War began by accident.⁸

For three days about 165,000 men fought over the ridges and hills around the town. On the third afternoon some 12,000 Confederates advanced across open fields against the Union center in what became known as Pickett's Charge; it failed and cost Lee over 5,000 men in an hour. On 4 July, the day Vicksburg surrendered, Lee began his retreat to Virginia. The American Battlefield Trust estimates 51,112 casualties, 23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate, the most of any battle of the war. The battle ended Lee's second invasion of the North. On 19 November 1863 Abraham Lincoln spoke for a few minutes at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, after the orator Edward Everett had spoken for two hours, and the Gettysburg Address became one of the best-known speeches in American history.⁹

Why it ranks here: Recognition and memory are full: it is the best-known battle fought on American soil, and Lincoln's address keeps it alive. It broke Lee's invasion but the Confederacy fought on and Vicksburg fell the same week, so decisiveness and consequence are 4, which keeps it below Yorktown and Midway.

Read the full story of the Battle of Gettysburg ›

5 Pearl Harbor, 1941

Where: US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
War: World War II, Pacific War
Sides: Japan vs the United States
Strength: 353 Japanese aircraft from six fleet carriers vs the US Pacific Fleet in harbor, whose three carriers were at sea
Result: Japanese success in the raid; 2,403 Americans killed and 19 US Navy ships sunk or damaged; the United States entered the war

The attack, planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was a gamble: all six of Japan's fleet carriers crossed some 3,000 miles of ocean in secret and stopped a few hundred miles north of Hawaii. At 7:55 on Sunday 7 December 1941, 353 aircraft fell on the Pacific Fleet at its moorings.¹⁰

In an hour and 15 minutes they sank or damaged 19 US Navy ships, eight of them battleships, and killed 2,403 Americans, 68 of them civilians, for the loss of 29 aircraft and five midget submarines. Half the dead were aboard USS Arizona, which still lies in the harbor with her crew. Yet the three American carriers were at sea on maneuvers and untouched, and a planned third wave never flew. The next day Franklin D. Roosevelt told Congress that 7 December was “a date which will live in infamy,” a line that in his typed draft read “world history”; the Senate voted for war unanimously and the House with a single vote against. On 11 December Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Six months later the US carrier fleet sank four Japanese carriers at Midway. Since 1994, 7 December has been National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, marked every year at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.¹¹

Why it ranks here: Recognition, consequence, memory and certainty are full: the raid brought the United States into the war and is remembered every 7 December. It missed the carriers and decided nothing on the battlefield, so decisiveness is 2; level with the Bulge on points and recognition, it goes ahead on consequence.

Read the full story of the attack on Pearl Harbor ›

6 The Bulge, 1944 to 1945

Where: The Ardennes, Belgium and Luxembourg
War: World War II, Western Front
Sides: The United States, with British and other Allied forces, vs Germany
Strength: Over 200,000 Germans with about 600 tanks vs barely 80,000 Americans at the start; over 600,000 American troops in all
Result: Allied victory; the line restored by 25 January 1945; about 80,000 US and 80,000 to 100,000 German casualties

Hitler gathered his last reserves for one more blow through the wooded Ardennes: cross the Meuse, take Antwerp, the port that supplied the Allies, split the British from the Americans and push the Western Allies toward peace talks. By mid-December more than 200,000 German soldiers with about 600 tanks faced barely 80,000 Americans on that stretch of front, many of them inexperienced replacements.¹²

The attack on 16 December 1944 came as a surprise, and snow and low cloud grounded Allied aircraft. The Germans pushed 50 miles deep across an 85-mile front, the bulge that gave the battle its name. At encircled Bastogne, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe answered a German demand to surrender with one word, “Nuts!” and held out until Patton's Third Army broke through. More than 600,000 American troops took part; the National WWII Museum calls it the largest battle the US Army has ever fought, and the National Park Service the largest and bloodiest single engagement fought by US forces in World War II. By 25 January 1945 the line was restored. The United States suffered about 80,000 casualties, among them 19,246 dead by the Army's official count and more than 23,000 captured; German losses are estimated at 80,000 to 100,000.¹³

Why it ranks here: A household name and a living memory of the American army, so recognition, memory and certainty are full, and it broke Germany's last reserves in the west, so decisiveness is 4. But the outcome of the war was already set, so consequence is 3; level with Pearl Harbor on points and recognition, it goes after it on consequence.

Read the full story of the Battle of the Bulge ›

Wartime situation map of Belgium, Luxembourg and eastern France with the Allied front line bulging west into the Ardennes and unit symbols along it, marked Secret, 24 December 1944 — The front at noon on 24 December 1944, near the deepest point of the German advance into the Ardennes, on that day's situation map of the US Twelfth Army Group. Public domain (US government work). Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons.

7 Saratoga, 1777

Where: Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights, near Saratoga, New York
War: American Revolutionary War
Sides: Continental Army and militia (Gates) vs British and German troops (Burgoyne)
Strength: About 15,000 Americans vs about 6,000 to 7,500 British and Germans
Result: American victory; about 6,300 British and German soldiers surrendered on 17 October 1777

In 1777 General John Burgoyne set out from Canada to take the Lake Champlain and Hudson River corridor down to Albany and cut New England off from the other colonies. The plan unraveled: General Howe marched on Philadelphia instead of coming up the Hudson to meet him, and a supporting column turned back at Fort Stanwix. Burgoyne pressed on, crossed the Hudson and found the Americans under Horatio Gates dug in on Bemis Heights.¹⁴

Painting of a British general offering his sword to an American general before tents and troops — General John Burgoyne surrenders to General Horatio Gates after Saratoga in October 1777. Painting by John Trumbull, 1821, in the US Capitol Rotunda. Public domain

He attacked at Freeman's Farm on 19 September and at Bemis Heights on 7 October, and both attacks failed. The American Battlefield Trust puts about 15,000 Americans against 6,000 British and German soldiers in the fighting, from an army Burgoyne had led south at about 7,500. Benedict Arnold, who led the Americans into Burgoyne's lines on 7 October and was badly wounded there, is honored on the battlefield by a monument that shows his boot but does not give his name: in 1780 he was exposed as a traitor. Surrounded and cut off near Saratoga, Burgoyne surrendered on 17 October 1777: about 6,300 British and German officers and soldiers, with some 600 women and children, laid down their arms. The news decided France: the foreign minister Vergennes offered the Americans an alliance, signed on 6 February 1778, and French troops and ships later helped force the surrender at Yorktown.¹⁵

Why it ranks here: Consequence is full, because the victory brought France into the war. But the fighting went on for four more years and the name is less known than Yorktown or Gettysburg, so recognition and decisiveness are 4; level with Vicksburg on points, recognition and consequence, it goes ahead as the older battle.

Read the full story of the battles of Saratoga ›

8 Vicksburg, 1863

Where: Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River
War: American Civil War
Besiegers: Ulysses S. Grant's Union army, about 77,000 men
Defenders: John C. Pemberton's Confederates, about 33,000 men
Outcome: Surrendered on 4 July 1863 after 47 days; about 29,000 men laid down their arms

Vicksburg was the Confederacy's fortress on the Mississippi, and while it held, the Union could not use the river. Lincoln called it the key: the war, he said, could never be brought to a close until that key was in the Union's pocket. John C. Pemberton had more than a year to ring the city with earthen forts and over 170 cannon.¹⁶

In the spring of 1863 Ulysses S. Grant crossed the river below the city at Bruinsburg, marched inland and closed in on Vicksburg. He tried to take it by storm on 19 May and again, along the whole front, on 22 May; both assaults failed, so he dug in to starve it. For 47 days the Union trenches crept closer while the guns pounded the town, and many residents moved into caves dug into the hillsides. On 4 July 1863, the day after the Union victory at Gettysburg, Pemberton surrendered, and some 29,000 Confederates marched out and stacked their arms. With the river in Union hands the Confederacy was cut in two, and Lincoln wrote that the Mississippi “again goes unvexed to the sea.” The siege lines are preserved today in Vicksburg National Military Park, established in 1899.¹⁷

Why it ranks here: Consequence and certainty are full: the surrender gave the Union the Mississippi and split the Confederacy. It scores 4 for recognition, decisiveness and memory, because Gettysburg, won the day before, took the fame; level with Saratoga on points, recognition and consequence, it goes after it as the younger battle.

Read the full story of the siege of Vicksburg ›

9 Iwo Jima, 1945

Where: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 660 miles (about 1,060 km) south of Tokyo
War: World War II, Pacific War
Sides: The United States vs Japan
Strength: About 70,000 US Marines vs 18,000 to 20,000 Japanese
Result: US victory; 6,821 Americans killed; almost the whole garrison dead

Iwo Jima is a small volcanic island 660 miles south of Tokyo, and by 1945 the United States had made it a primary objective in its plans to finish the Pacific war. The Japanese had turned it into a death trap of caves and strongholds that had to be cleared one at a time in close-quarter assaults. On 19 February 1945 the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions landed after a 72-hour bombardment that did little damage.¹⁸

On the morning of 23 February a patrol raised a small flag on Mount Suribachi. That afternoon a second, larger flag replaced it, and Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press photographed the moment; the picture won a Pulitzer Prize and became the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial. Myth vs fact: the famous photograph shows the second flag, not the first, and the Marine Corps has since concluded that two of the men long named in it were not there. The island was declared secure on 26 March, after 36 days. The landing force lost 6,821 killed and 19,217 wounded, and of a Japanese garrison the National WWII Museum puts at 18,000 to 20,000, the Marines captured only 216. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor were awarded for Iwo Jima, more than for any other campaign.¹⁹

Why it ranks here: The flag raising, Rosenthal’s photograph and the Marine Corps War Memorial make it one of the best-known battles in American memory, so recognition and memory score 5. It took an island and decided no campaign, so decisiveness and consequence score 3. It is the only entry on 42 points, one below Saratoga and Vicksburg and one above Lexington and Concord.

Read the full story of the Battle of Iwo Jima ›

Marines on a rocky summit holding up a small American flag on a pole while one keeps watch with a carbine — The first American flag on the summit of Mount Suribachi, 23 February 1945, photographed by Marine Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery shortly before the famous second flag raising. Public domain

10 Lexington and Concord, 1775

Where: Lexington, Concord and the road back to Boston, Massachusetts
War: American Revolutionary War
Sides: Massachusetts minutemen and militia vs British regulars
Strength: About 4,000 militia vs 700 regulars, about 1,500 with reinforcements
Result: American victory; about 300 British and 93 American casualties

By April 1775 General Thomas Gage, the royal governor of Massachusetts, faced open rebellion, and he sent some 700 regulars to seize the provincial military stores at Concord. Patriot spies learned of the plan. On the night of 18 April Paul Revere and William Dawes rode out, and the alarm outran the column.²⁰

At dawn on 19 April about 70 militiamen faced the regulars on Lexington Green. They were already dispersing when a shot rang out; the British fired and killed eight of them. Who fired first is still unknown. At Concord’s North Bridge the militia fired back, and the British began a 16-mile retreat to Boston under fire from behind walls and trees along what is now Battle Road. About 4,000 militiamen joined the fight during the day, and the American Battlefield Trust counts about 300 British and 93 American casualties. The New Englanders who gathered afterward besieged Boston and became the core of the Continental Army. The North Bridge volley is Emerson’s “shot heard round the world,” and the first stanza of his “Concord Hymn” is carved on the Minute Man statue by the bridge. The day is still marked as Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts and Patriot’s Day in Maine.²¹

Why it ranks here: The first shots of the Revolution, Emerson’s line and a state holiday give it full marks for recognition and memory, but the column got back to Boston and nothing was decided that day, so decisiveness 2, and certainty 4 because no one knows who fired first. It ties the Alamo, Antietam and Guadalcanal on 41 and leads all three: Antietam and Guadalcanal on recognition, the Alamo as the older battle.

Read the full story of Lexington and Concord ›

11 The Alamo, 1836

Where: San Antonio de Béxar, Texas
War: Texas Revolution
Sides: Texian rebels vs the Mexican army of Santa Anna
Strength: 189 to 257 defenders vs about 1,800 Mexican troops in the final assault
Result: Mexican victory; the defenders killed; about 600 Mexicans killed and wounded

Texian rebels had taken San Antonio de Béxar in December 1835. Santa Anna’s army arrived on 23 February 1836 and shut the rebels inside the old mission of the Alamo. Their commander, William Travis, wrote that his men were “determined to defend the garrison to the last” and begged for help. Thirty-two men from Gonzales slipped through on 1 March, but no larger relief ever came.²²

Around 5 a.m. on 6 March about 1,800 Mexican assault troops stormed the walls from four directions, and the fight was over in no more than ninety minutes. The official list names 189 defenders, though research may raise the total to 257, and as many as seven who survived the assault were executed on Santa Anna’s orders. The best estimates put the Mexican killed and wounded at about 600. Myth vs fact: the Alamo did have survivors, nearly twenty women and children and Travis’s enslaved servant Joe. On 21 April Sam Houston’s army charged at San Jacinto shouting “Remember the Alamo!”, won in eighteen minutes and captured Santa Anna the next day, and the Republic of Texas was born.²³

Why it ranks here: A battle of the Texas Revolution, it counts here because it was fought on today’s US soil and its battle cry made it part of the American story, so recognition and memory 5 and consequence 4. Independence was won at San Jacinto six weeks later, so decisiveness 2, and the defenders’ number is still uncertain, certainty 4. It ties Lexington and Concord, Antietam and Guadalcanal on 41, goes below Lexington as the younger and above the other two on recognition.

Read the full story of the Alamo ›

12 Antietam, 1862

Where: Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland
War: American Civil War
Sides: Union Army of the Potomac vs Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
Strength: About 87,000 Union vs 41,000 to 45,000 Confederates
Result: Tactical draw; Lee withdrew to Virginia; about 22,700 casualties

In September 1862 Robert E. Lee carried the war north for the first time. He invaded Maryland hoping that victories on Union soil would sway the Northern elections and win European recognition for the Confederacy. George McClellan followed him, and Lee chose ground behind Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg. Marching and fighting had worn his army down to about 41,000 men against McClellan’s 87,000.²⁴

The battle began at dawn on 17 September in a 24-acre cornfield that changed hands at least six times. In the West Woods 2,200 of 5,300 Union soldiers fell in twenty minutes, and by early afternoon the Sunken Road had earned the name Bloody Lane. Burnside’s corps forced the stone bridge over the creek and pushed toward Sharpsburg until A. P. Hill’s division, marching in from Harpers Ferry, drove it back. After twelve hours some 23,000 men were killed, wounded or missing, the bloodiest single day in American history; the American Battlefield Trust’s estimate is 22,717. McClellan never committed his whole army, and Lee slipped back into Virginia on the night of 18 September. Five days after the battle Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, and a war to save the Union became a war against slavery as well.²⁵

Why it ranks here: The bloodiest day in American history and the opening for the Emancipation Proclamation give it full marks for consequence, but the battle itself was a draw that only ended Lee’s first invasion, so decisiveness 3, and its name is less known than Gettysburg’s, recognition 4. It ties Lexington and Concord, the Alamo and Guadalcanal on 41, goes below the first two on recognition and above Guadalcanal on consequence.

Read the full story of the Battle of Antietam ›

President Abraham Lincoln and General George McClellan seated at a table inside an open army tent at Antietam, 3 October 1862 — President Abraham Lincoln and General George McClellan in McClellan's tent at Antietam on 3 October 1862, photographed by Alexander Gardner. Public domain

13 Guadalcanal, 1942 to 1943

Where: Guadalcanal and the surrounding waters, Solomon Islands
War: World War II, Pacific War
Sides: The United States and its allies vs Japan
Strength: About 16,000 US Marines at the landing, later reinforced by the Army; about 37,700 Japanese in all (estimate)
Result: US victory; Japan evacuated the island by February 1943

On 7 August 1942, two months after Midway, US Marines landed on Guadalcanal, and the next day they took the unfinished Japanese airfield that became Henderson Field. That night Japanese cruisers sank four Allied heavy cruisers off Savo Island, and the transports pulled out, leaving some 16,000 Marines short of supplies.²⁶

For six months the island was fought over on land, at sea and in the air. Whoever held Henderson Field could fly from the island itself, so Japan kept landing troops and hurling them at its perimeter, at Bloody Ridge in September and again in late October, and lost heavily each time. So many ships went down offshore that the strait became Iron Bottom Sound, and in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 12 to 15 November, American sailors and airmen blocked Japan’s last attempt to knock out the airfield from the sea. Army troops relieved the exhausted Marines. On 4 January 1943 Tokyo ordered the island abandoned, and the Japanese slipped more than ten thousand men away by night, taking the Americans by surprise. An estimate reproduced in the Marine Corps' 1949 history of the campaign puts the Japanese land forces on the island at about 37,700 in all and their losses at about 28,600.²⁷

Why it ranks here: Six months that took the initiative in the Pacific from Japan earn decisiveness and consequence 4, not 5, because Midway had already turned the war, and the name is better known to Americans than abroad, recognition 4. It ties Lexington and Concord, the Alamo and Antietam on 41 and comes last of the four, below the first two on recognition and below Antietam on consequence.

Read the full story of the Battle of Guadalcanal ›

14 Little Bighorn, 1876

Where: Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory
War: Great Sioux War of 1876 to 1877
Sides: Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho vs the US 7th Cavalry
Strength: About 600 soldiers (our sum) vs 1,500 to 1,800 warriors (estimates)
Result: Lakota and Cheyenne victory; 268 soldiers, civilians and scouts killed

After gold was found in the Black Hills, land the Treaty of Fort Laramie had set aside for the Sioux in 1868, the army was sent to force the bands who would not give it up onto smaller reservations. On 25 June 1876 Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer found their great camp on the Little Bighorn, about 8,000 people with 1,500 to 1,800 warriors by modern estimates. He split the 7th Cavalry, some 600 men by our sum of the park’s figures, into four parts and kept five companies, about 210 men, for himself.²⁸

Major Reno’s attack on the village was thrown back, and he and Captain Benteen were besieged on the bluffs into the next day. Custer’s battalion was cut off on the ridges and destroyed; about 40 men were cornered on the hill where the monument now stands. In all, 268 soldiers, civilians and scouts were killed, against an estimated 60 to 100 Lakota and Cheyenne. Myth vs fact: “Custer’s Last Stand” was not a chosen defense. Custer attacked and was surrounded, and how his men died is pieced together from Indian accounts, archaeology and the places where the bodies lay. The victory did not last: most of the fighters had surrendered within a year, and the last bands gave up in late 1877. Renamed in 1991, the battlefield now has an Indian Memorial, dedicated in 2003.²⁹

Why it ranks here: Custer’s defeat is one of the most famous names in American history, so recognition and memory 5, but the army still won the Great Sioux War, so decisiveness 2, and certainty 4 because the last phase rests on Native accounts and archaeology. It ties Trenton and Leyte Gulf on 39 and goes above both on recognition.

Read the full story of the Little Bighorn ›

15 Trenton, 1776

Where: Trenton, New Jersey
War: American Revolutionary War
Sides: Continental Army vs a Hessian garrison in British service
Strength: About 2,400 Americans vs 1,500 Hessians
Result: American victory; about 900 Hessian casualties, most of them captured

By December 1776 Washington’s army had been beaten around New York, chased across New Jersey into Pennsylvania and worn down to a few thousand men whose enlistments ran out at the end of the month. Across the Delaware, 1,500 Hessians under Colonel Johann Rall held Trenton, exhausted by weeks of militia raids.³⁰

On Christmas night Washington took about 2,400 men, with horses and 18 cannon, across the ice-choked river in a nor’easter; two other columns could not cross at all. After a ten-mile march through snow they struck Trenton from two sides around daybreak on 26 December and caught Rall by surprise. The running fight through the town was one-sided. Rall was mortally wounded, and the American Battlefield Trust counts 22 Hessians killed, 83 wounded and about 800 captured, against five Americans wounded. Myth vs fact: Trenton was no victory against the odds, since the Americans outnumbered the garrison; its weight lay in its timing. Washington won again at Princeton a week later, and the Ten Crucial Days kept the Revolution alive. Emanuel Leutze’s painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” keeps the night crossing in American memory, though the river where the army crossed was only about 300 yards wide.³¹

Why it ranks here: With Princeton it decided the winter campaign and revived a cause that seemed lost, so decisiveness 3 and consequence 4, and Leutze’s painting keeps it in memory, but it was a small fight whose name is less known than Lexington’s or Yorktown’s, recognition 4. It ties Little Bighorn and Leyte Gulf on 39, goes below Little Bighorn on recognition and above Leyte Gulf as the older battle, which leaves Leyte Gulf off the list.

Read the full story of the Battle of Trenton ›

Painting of George Washington standing in a crowded rowing boat among ice floes on a wide river — Washington Crossing the Delaware, painted by Emanuel Leutze, the most famous image of the Christmas night crossing. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public domain

How we chose and ranked these greatest battles in American history

We counted a battle fought by United States forces from Lexington and Concord in 1775 to the wars of today, defeats as well as victories, because Pearl Harbor and Little Bighorn belong to American history as much as Yorktown does. Battles abroad count, so Midway, Normandy and Iwo Jima are here, and so does a battle on today's US soil that shaped the American story, such as the Alamo in the Texas Revolution. An offensive or campaign known by one name, such as Normandy or the Bulge, counts as one battle. The wider picture of each war is in our guides to the battles of the American Revolution, the battles of the Civil War, the greatest battles of World War I and the greatest battles of World War II; the Alamo and Little Bighorn also appear among the greatest last stands, and Yorktown and Vicksburg among the greatest sieges in history.³²

We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which battles in American history are the greatest and readers will judge the list by the names they know; the other four count twice, except certainty, which counts once:

Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known to almost every American reader and well beyond the United States, 4 if almost every American reader knows it, 1 if only specialists know it.
Decisiveness (×2). What the battle decided in the American war it belonged to: 5 if it decided the war or the fate of the nation, 3 if it decided a campaign, 1 if it decided nothing beyond the battlefield.
Consequence (×2). Consequence for the United States and the world: 5 if it changed the course of American history (independence, union, entry into a war, a turn in a world war), 1 if little changed after it.
Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living memory (a holiday or anniversary, a national memorial, a famous painting, photograph, song or phrase), 1 if it is forgotten.
Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.

The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them, so you can see exactly why Normandy is first and why Saratoga, often named the turning point of the Revolution, sits only seventh: it brought France into the war, but the fighting went on for four more years, and its name is less known than Yorktown, where the war was won.

The scores behind the ranking
Rank	Name	Recognition ×3	Decisiveness ×2	Consequence ×2	Memory ×2	Certainty ×1	Total
1	Normandy	5	5	5	5	5	50
2	Yorktown	5	5	5	4	5	48
3	Midway	5	5	5	4	5	48
4	Gettysburg	5	4	4	5	5	46
5	Pearl Harbor	5	2	5	5	5	44
6	The Bulge	5	4	3	5	5	44
7	Saratoga	4	4	5	4	5	43
8	Vicksburg	4	4	5	4	5	43
9	Iwo Jima	5	3	3	5	5	42
10	Lexington and Concord	5	2	4	5	4	41
11	The Alamo	5	2	4	5	4	41
12	Antietam	4	3	5	4	5	41
13	Guadalcanal	4	4	4	4	5	41
14	Little Bighorn	5	2	3	5	4	39
15	Trenton	4	3	4	4	5	39

Close calls

Six battles came close and did not make the fifteen:

Leyte Gulf, 1944. Some 282 ships and nearly 200,000 men fought off the Philippines from 23 to 26 October 1944, by most measures the largest naval battle in history, and it ended in an American victory. It ties Little Bighorn and Trenton on 39 and misses: it is less known and remembered than Midway, and it came after the Pacific war had already turned.³³

Fort Sumter, 1861. The Confederate bombardment of April 1861 opened the Civil War and is very well known, but no one was killed in the fighting; the only death came from an accident during the garrison’s salute to its flag after the surrender. It decided nothing on the field, decisiveness 1, and misses Trenton by one point.³⁴

Okinawa, 1945. The 82-day battle was the deadliest fight of the Pacific island campaign, with more than 49,000 American casualties, and when Truman met his commanders in June 1945 to discuss invading Japan, its price made him want to avoid “another Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other.” It decided a campaign, not the war, and estimates of civilian deaths run from over 100,000 to as many as 150,000, so it misses on 38 points.³⁵

Tet Offensive, 1968. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces struck across South Vietnam from 30 January 1968 and were thrown back, yet the offensive weakened American support for the war, and on 31 March Johnson said he would not seek another term. It was an offensive in three phases rather than one battle, and it misses on 38 points.³⁶

Fort McHenry, 1814. About 1,000 Americans held the fort through a 25-hour British bombardment in September 1814, the British abandoned their attack on Baltimore, and Francis Scott Key’s verses became “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem since 1931. It saved a city but decided no war, and it misses on 37 points.³⁷

Inchon, 1950. MacArthur’s landing on 15 September 1950, about 150 miles behind the North Korean front, led to the recapture of Seoul within about two weeks and sent the UN armies north, but China’s intervention that autumn turned the war again. It ties Fort McHenry on 37 and goes below it as the younger battle.³⁸

Which battles shaped the United States most?

Three wars made and remade the nation, and each turned on a few battles. Saratoga brought France into the Revolution in 1778, and Yorktown, where French troops and ships helped trap Cornwallis, won independence. In July 1863 Gettysburg and Vicksburg turned the Civil War, after Antietam had given Lincoln the moment for the Emancipation Proclamation. Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, and Midway and Normandy turned that war in the Pacific and in the west.³⁹

Want the wider view? These battles sit inside the full sweep of the greatest battles of all time, and you can meet the leaders behind them in the greatest American commanders or rank the fighting by its human cost in the deadliest battles in history. For American battles won by the side with fewer men, from San Jacinto and Bastogne to the Chosin Reservoir, see American victories against the odds.