Branchburg honors the men and women of the community who served in the armed forces of the United States, while also recognizing service across major American wars. In the American Revolution, from 1775 until 1783, patriots joined the cause of liberty and independence as General Washington led troops and militia from Lexington and Concord through the winters at Morristown, Middlebrook, and Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown on October 17, 1781, with Trenton remembered for Washington's Christmas Eve crossing of the Delaware River in 1776 and defeat of the Hessians. In the Civil War, described by Abraham Lincoln as a nation that was "a house divided," the conflict began when Southern troops fired on Fort Sumter on April 19, 1861, became the deadliest war in American history, reached a turning point at Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, and ended when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 19, 1865. In World War I, Americans went overseas into the harsh reality of modern warfare, facing poison gas, machine guns, tanks, aircraft, and submarines in trenches, at sea, and in the air. In World War II, Americans fought for the freedom of America and the free world in the Pacific and European theaters, enduring combat on the beaches of Normandy, in the deserts of North Africa, and on the islands of the South Pacific, in a struggle summed up by Admiral Nimitz's words, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue." In Korea, veterans fought at places such as Heartbreak Ridge and Inchon through bitter cold, summer heat, and heavy odds, with many giving their lives for freedom, justice, and peace. In Vietnam, young people went to war, lost youthful dreams and in some cases their lives, returned with lasting horrors, and did not receive the respect and honor they deserved from the public or the United States government.