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A new 5,000-square-foot exhibition at Fort Belvoir is bringing visitors face to face with the weapons, uniforms and personal belongings that shaped America’s fight for independence.

“Call to Arms, the Soldier and the Revolutionary War” opened June 7 at the National Museum of the United States Army. Its 287 artifacts come from the original colonies, England, France and Canada, and many are being displayed publicly for the first time. The exhibition and related events will continue through summer 2027.

Among its most consequential objects is a timeworn, four-by-seven-inch copy of “Regulation for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States.” Written in 1779 by Maj. Gen. Friedrich Baron von Steuben, the manual helped bring training and discipline to the inexperienced Continental Army.

Historians consider it a predecessor of the Army’s modern Blue Book, required reading for soldiers entering training. Some present-day Army units can trace their histories to the Revolutionary War.

The exhibition coincides with the anniversary of the Continental Army’s establishment. After years of protests, embargoes of British goods and resistance to King George III, the Continental Congress authorized the Army on June 14, 1775.

Before the war, the colonies relied largely on local militias with little formal training. The militiamen had no standard uniforms and arrived with whatever weapons they owned, including hunting guns and bayonets.

Washington’s Pistols and Cornwallis’ Sword

Several prominent artifacts have direct connections to George Washington. His gilt-brass gorget, engraved with the Virginia coat of arms and dating to 1774, remains strikingly bright.

Also displayed are Washington’s two silver-mounted holster pistols and a gold pocket watch he gave the Marquis de Lafayette in gratitude for Lafayette’s service at Yorktown.

Another major piece is British Gen. Charles Cornwallis’ sword, presented to Washington following the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia.

The collection includes a rare authentic uniform worn by Jeremiah French, a Loyalist who remained aligned with the British crown. Other uniforms in the exhibition are reproductions. Caps, hats, epaulets and additional military accessories help illustrate how soldiers on opposing sides dressed and served.

A six-pound Byers gun made in Philadelphia in 1777 represents an early attempt to manufacture artillery in America. At the time, much of the Continental Army’s artillery had been captured or produced in France.

Visitors can also examine a flintlock blunderbuss, a Jaeger rifle, screw-barrel pistols, muskets, swords, scabbards and a Hessian cuttoe. Ammunition on view includes 18-pound solid shot, grapeshot and sliding bar shot.

The displays also explain the practical origin of the advice to “keep your powder dry.” Soldiers carried black powder in cow horns fitted with stoppers to protect their supply from moisture. Many personalized the horns with intricate hand-carved designs.

The Weight of War

Soldiers typically marched with 45 to 60 pounds of equipment, including a musket, bayonet, powder horn, knapsack, haversack and blanket. Everyday objects on display include a wooden canteen, a wooden snuff box, a vessel used for rum rations, a knife, an axe and a digging bar.

Other highlights include the original flag of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, carried by the Army’s first African American soldiers, and a 1776 Declaration of War.

A muster-roll display recounts how Washington selected men in 1776 to serve as his personal bodyguards. Known as the Life Guard, they were chosen for their “sobriety, honesty and good behavior” and protected both Washington’s correspondence and the Army’s money. The exhibition describes them as possible precursors to the original Secret Service.

Seven cast figures present the experiences of real people who participated in the war. They include Daniel Nimham, the last chief of the Wappinger People, who fought alongside Patriot forces in Massachusetts, and Anna Maria Lane, one of the few women known to have fought in the Revolution.

Video presentations take visitors into major campaigns and battles, from the brutal hand-to-hand combat at Bunker Hill in 1775 to the New York and New Jersey campaigns of 1776. The story also moves south to the 1780 fall of Charleston, South Carolina, a major British victory.

The exhibition culminates with the three-week Siege of Yorktown in 1781. After marching his troops 680 miles from New York to Virginia, Washington led an operation that ended with Cornwallis’ surrender.

“We are at the end of our tether. Now or never our deliverance must come,” Washington wrote.

The conflict officially ended in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris, concluding a rebellion that had grown into a full-scale war and a revolution with worldwide consequences.