Larry Hama

America's "island hopping" strategy to inch closer and closer to the Japanese mainland was kicked into high gear after the Allied victory on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands in early 1943. The six-month campaign was the first important combined arms Allied victory in the Pacific, putting Japan on the defensive for the rest of the war, resulting in repeated victories for America and its allies, until the Japan's surrender in August 1945.

Three months after the shelling of Fort Sumter, Union and Confederate forces met for the first time in earnest combat. However, neither side was prepared at this early stage of the war, and confusion reigned on the battlefield. Finally, Confederate reinforcements forced the Union army into a panicked retreat. The intensity--and ill preparedness--of both armies convinced the nation that the conflict between the states would be a long, bloody ordeal.