Articles Archive

Joseph Stalin’s Paranoid Purge

By John W. Osborn, Jr.

Officer corps expect to suffer heavy losses in war. The entire 1914 class of France’s St. Read more

Welsh Adventurer Henry Lloyd

By Adrian Lowe

Few men in the 18th century lived a life as varied and unpredictable as that of Henry Lloyd. Read more

During the Allied air campaign against the Third Reich in World War II, well over a million tons of bombs were dropped on German territory, killing nearly 300,000 civilians and wounding another 780,000. Read more

No Quarter at Drogheda

By Al Hemingway

On the morning of September 2, 1649, peering over the immense 20-foot-high wall that surrounded the Irish city of Drogheda, English Royalist general Sir Arthur Aston did not like what he saw. Read more

The “Gallant” John Bell Hood

By Roy Morris Jr.

When Confederate general John Bell Hood assumed command of the embattled Army of Tennessee at Atlanta in mid-July 1864, he was already grievously wounded in both body and spirit. Read more

Crossroads of Destiny: The Battle of the Wilderness

By Jonas L. Goldstein

The year 1864 was shaping up to be a critical one in the three-year-long Civil War. During the previous year, Federal armies had gained control of the Mississippi River and consolidated their grip on Tennessee. Read more

Twisting the Lion’s Tail: Dutch Raid up the Medway River

By Eric Niderost

Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter was a man of action, but he could be formidable even in repose On June 7, 1667, de Ruyter was sitting in the great cabin of the Dutch flagship Harderwijk listening stolidly while Cornelius de Witt finally revealed his plans for a raid on England to a group of assembled naval officers. Read more

The Relief of Ladysmith

By John Brown

In the early hours of October 12, 1899, Commandant-General Piet Joubert and 15,000 Boers crossed the border between Transvaal and Natal near Laing’s Nek in southern Africa. Read more

Spies during the Spanish-American War

By Peter Kross

By the end of the 19th century, the United States had grown into one of the major players on the international stage. Read more

Battling Bishops of Christendom

By William J. McPeak

Bishops in battle? It’s not as unlikely as it sounds. At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Norman Duke William, soon to be dubbed William the Conqueror, held his heavy cavalry in check until the most advantageous moment to charge the right flank of King Harold’s Saxons. Read more

North Sea Duel at Camperdown

By Michael E. Haskew

By the autumn of 1797, revolutionary France had been at war with the combined forces of the First Coalition for four long years. Read more

American Drive to the Moselle

By Allyn Vannoy

On September 5, 1944, American intelligence estimates of German forces in the sector of the 80th Infantry Division, between Nancy and Metz in northeastern France, described scattered units and limited defenses along the east bank of the Moselle River. Read more

French Strategy in the American Revolution

By David Curtis Skaggs

When most Americans think of the triumphant ending of the Revolutionary War, they almost exclusively credit George Washington for the miraculous outcome, forgetting that the war was part of a much larger worldwide contest of which the revolution in the colonies was only a part. Read more

Old Rough and Ready at Monterrey

By Chris Dishman

On the morning of September 19, 1846, General Zachary Taylor and his advance party could see little through the mist that shrouded the city of Monterrey, Mexico, Taylor’s next objective in his ongoing northern campaign. Read more

Dream of the Polish Eagle

By Blaine Taylor

”The subject of Poland is by far the most complex of all the problems to be considered,” the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles was told in 1919, as it was preparing to sort out the incredible mess in European affairs following the end of World War I. Read more