“Oh, the Lord, Henry but didn’t the Rebs get the devil sure enough,” Private Charles Grundy of the 10th Illinois Infantry Regiment wrote to a friend three days after the conclusion of the Battle of Nashville fought December 15-16, 1864. Read more
After the Great War, the leading naval powers met to try to avoid another ruinously expensive arms race and, hopefully, prevent future wars. Read more
Robert Morris Peck was strolling the streets of Cincinnati one brisk November day when a yellow poster outside a boarding house caught his eye. Read more
The most nightmarish of World War II alternative history scenarios is the one in which Nazi Germany acquires atomic weapons. Read more
The 15-year-long Hussite War erupted in Bohemia in 1419 between the followers of martyred Czech theologian Jan Hus and the Roman Catholic Church. Read more
Mired in combat during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest of Germany, an American soldier wrote in December 5, 1944: “The road to the front led straight and muddy brown between the billowing greenery of the broken topless firs, and in the jeeps that were coming back they were bringing the still living. Read more
The “few” who defended Great Britain in the sky during the days it stood alone against Hitler would have been hundreds fewer without the volunteers from outside the British Empire. Read more
On May 28th, 1915, Ion Idriess, a trooper of the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment, sat writing in his diary in a dugout at Gallipoli. Read more
Much of what we know today about World War II are the visual images—both still and moving—that combat photographers took to document all phases of this costly human tragedy. Read more
Union General William T. Sherman, not the easiest man to please, always held Colonel Benjamin Grierson in high regard. Read more
The smoke from the heavy artillery had barely begun to clear over the rocky, shattered landscape of Devil’s Den when the camera shutter snapped. Read more
On September 2, 1945, Japanese representatives boarded the battleship USS Missouri, riding at anchor in Tokyo Bay, to sign an instrument of unconditional surrender. Read more
The barefoot crusaders tramped slowly underneath a blazing sun behind bishops and priests chanting and holding aloft relics on July 8, 1099. Read more
If a single airplane has captured the public imagination more than any other, it is undoubtedly the North American P-51 Mustang fighter. Read more
This British cavalry unit was raised in 1715 as Honeywood’s Regiment of Dragoons and continued in service through the 18th century before being renamed the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons. Read more
It was indeed an unprecedented effort to raise a continent from the devastation of a horrific world war, and ironically, the idea belonged to a career soldier. Read more
“In the years to come everyone will remember Arnhem, but no one will remember that two American divisions fought their hearts out in the Dutch canal country,” wrote U.S. Read more
The blue-coated soldiers trudged uphill through the forest trying their best not to get snagged on the laurel branches or stumble over the tree roots. Read more
In warfare, desperate times call for desperate measures, and in the fall of 1944 the empire of Japan found itself in precisely that predicament. Read more
On October 20, 1740, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of Austria, died, leaving his vast holdings and titles to his 23-year-old daughter, Maria Theresa. Read more
European Theater