Military History

Bare-headed, French King John II leads a swirling melee at the climax of the Battle of Poitiers in this 1830 painting by Eugene Delacroix.

Military History

Death at the Hawthorn Hedge: Poitiers, 1356

By William E. Welsh

­The Black Death that ravaged England and France for a half-dozen years in the mid-14th century served merely as a brief intermission between the first and second acts of the painfully protracted struggle known as the Hundred Years’ War. Read more

Military History

Death Penalty for Desertion

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

British Army privates Thomas Highgate, Ernest Jackson, and Louis Harris shared a distinction in World War I that they undoubtedly would rather not have had. Read more

Military History

Benedict Arnold’s Invasion of Canada

By Earl Echelberry

Fresh from his capture of Fort Ticonderoga, Colonel Benedict Arnold in the summer of 1775 lobbied hard to the Continental Congress for authorization to lead an expedition to the lower St. Read more

The Union cavalry’s final charge at Winchester in 1864. Lowell rides a white horse, with his sword raised. Custer is on his left and Captain Theodore Rodenbough is on his right.

Military History

Charles Russell Lowell Memorials

By Helen Hannon

The unique persona of Charles Russell Lowell, a gifted Union cavalry officer from Massachusetts, inspired a series of memorials in his honor, ranging from famous monuments to obscure frontier forts. Read more

Military History

Blaise de Monluc

By William McPeak

A hundred miles north of the mountainous region near the Pyrenees was the rolling land of the Garonne River, home of the Gascon noble families. Read more

Western artist Frederick Remington’s romantic painting, Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, did much to make Theodore Roosevelt famous. Courtesy Frederick Remington Art Museum, Ogdensburg, NY

Military History

Roosevelt’s Crowded Hour

By John Wukovits

By mid-June 1898, a potent American military conglomeration had assembled off the extreme southeastern coast of Cuba. Thirty-two troop transports brought 819 officers and 15,058 enlisted men to Cuba from Florida, along with 89 newspaper correspondents, 11 foreign military observers, and 10 million pounds of rations. Read more

While it doesn’t take an army to produce, the scene is the result of many working together.

Military History

Military Dioramas

By Peter Suciu

The scene appears to be one of utter chaos, as several dozen soldiers react to an enemy attack on their troop train. Read more

Hueys prepare to pick up members of Company A, 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry to airlift them to a reported enemy ammunition dump in Thang Binh province, 24 miles north of Chu Lai, Jan. 17, 1968.

Military History

The UH-1 Iroquois “Huey” Helicopter

By Ignacio Pullum

As an icon of the Vietnam War and an angel of mercy for American troops who fought there, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, affectionately known as the “Huey,” has gone on to become the most recognizable helicopter in the world. Read more

Military History

King Arthur Saves Britain

By Robert Barr Smith

Britain was a battleground in the last years of the fifth century. The occupying, and in some sense stabilizing, Roman legions long since had gone, never to return, and the native Britons found themselves locked in a long, heartbreaking struggle against waves of brutal North German invaders—Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—who delighted in bloodshed, rape, and murder. Read more

Military History

Bairnsfather’s “Fragments from France”

By Robert Whiter

You should send that into one of the illustrated papers or magazines,” said a young subaltern, looking over the shoulder of an officer who was sitting in front of a makeshift table finishing a pen-and-ink drawing. Read more