Buckskin-clad Texas troops overrun white-uniformed Mexican forces in this panoramic depiction of the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texans’ victory guaranteed their independence.

Texan Victory at San Jacinto: Eighteen Minutes to Freedom

By John Walker

As long afternoon shadows rolled across the prairie near the confluence of the Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River in eastern Texas on April 21, 1836, two armed camps—one a small Texan force, the other a 1,400-man-strong Mexican army—lay within a scant 1,000 yards of each another. Read more

Captain Horatio Gibson’s battery of the 3rd U.S. Artillery in park at Fair Oaks, Virginia, in June 1862. The unit was one of five batteries that comprised the Union Army’s first horse artillery brigade in 1861.

Elite Units of the Civil War

By Christopher Miskimon

The Civil War came at a crossroads moment in world history. New weapons made possible by industrialization were putting paid to old techniques of warfare that had endured since the Napoleonic Era. Read more

In this painting by war artist Jack Fellows, Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter pilot Henry T. “Hammerin’ Hank” Elrod scans the skies above Wake Island for Japanese aircraft on the morning of December 12, 1941. The defenders of Wake Island were among the first American heroes of World War II.

Flying Leathernecks

By Robert F. Dorr and Fred L. Borch

Marine aviators of Fighter Squadron 211, or VMF-211, looked up in frustration as Japanese war planes thronged over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Read more

Unholy Sabbath in Flanders

By William E. Welsh

With his one good eye, French King Philip II looked east down the straight line of an old Roman road in the disputed county of Flanders on Sunday, July 27, 1214. Read more

Collecting Medieval Military Books

By William McPeak

The special packaging of the printed word between compact durable covers and a stitched spine—the book—is one of humanity’s greatest and most enduring achievements. Read more

The Costly Kyushu Invasion of Operation Olympic?

By Sam McGowan

During the more than half a century since the end of World War II, there has been much speculation about what would have happened if President Harry Truman had not dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the invasion of Japan had actually taken place. Read more

Jackson Confounds the Yankees

By Brooke. C Stoddard

Arguably the most celebrated campaign feat of arms of the American Civil War is that of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley in May and early June 1862. Read more

The USS Macon

By John J. Geoghegan

It is sometimes difficult to understand just how immature aviation was in the 1920s and 1930s. Everything about flying was new. Read more

A provost marshal’s office at Aquia Creek, Virginia, in February 1863 draws a desultory crowd. Some soldiers used provost duty to avoid combat.

The Confederate Provost Guard

By Joan Wenner

With the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, the Civil War began in earnest. The first recruits, on both sides, were completely uninitiated in the ways of military life. Read more

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