October is Family History Month! To celebrate, the Trust is highlighting resources to help you explore your own family history and bring the past to life: battlefields.org/making-the-… Share your connections to history in the comments!

Captured on camera around 1850, Chainbreaker, also known as Governor Blacksnake, was a Seneca leader who fought with the British during the American Revolution, notably at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6, 1777. He recounted his experiences to Benjamin Williams in the 1840s, and this recollection became one of the earliest and most important memoirs of the Revolution from the Indigenous perspective. Discover more rare 19th-century photos that bring Revolutionary veterans to life here: bit.ly/4s0kiLg

After the Civil War had raged for two long years, John Ortega mustered into the United States Navy and was assigned to the USS Saratoga, a sloop-of-war under the command of Commander George Musalas Colvocoresses. In January 1864, the sloop-of-war headed toward Charleston, South Carolina, where it joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron to prevent trade from reaching Southern ports. Ortega joined the ship’s landing party, which launched a series of raids in August and September, destroying supplies and capturing prisoners. For his actions, he was promoted to master’s mate and awarded the Medal of Honor. He deserted the Navy in June 1865 for unknown reasons. #HispanicHeritageMonth Explore the Medal of Honor Valor Trail to learn more about Ortega and other Medal of Honor recipients: bit.ly/47gUFfY

Did you know that without Napoleon, we wouldn’t have evaporated milk? In 1795, Napoleon offered a cash prize of 12,000 francs, about $300,000 today, to anyone who could improve food preservation for a hungry army on the move. In response, French chef and confectioner Nicolas François Appert presented a grateful nation with an airtight preservation process: sealing food in glass jars and then boiling them for a stable shelf life. He tinkered with all kinds of food to develop this process, including preserving milk in sterilized glass bottles and even evaporating it. In the mid-1850s, American inventor Gail Borden, Jr. improved both the process and the taste, and canned sweetened condensed milk was born. Recognizing its convenience and nutritional value, the federal government began placing bulk orders soon after the Civil War broke out. By 1863, factories in New York’s Hudson River Valley were churning out 14,000 quarts per day! battlefields.org/learn/artic…

The fight at Bristoe Station #OnThisDay October 14, 1863, stalled General Robert E. Lee's advance long enough for General George G. Meade to continue his retreat to Centreville, Virginia. Embarrassed at the fiasco, General A.P. Hill apologized to Lee, who cut him off, saying, "Well, well, general, bury these poor men and let us say no more about it." battlefields.org/learn/civil…