Military History

Military History

Cannonballs, Grapeshot, and Profanity

By David A. Norris

For nearly a month, 4,000 New England militia aided by the Royal Navy had surrounded the great fortress of Louisbourg, the key to French Canada. Read more

Military History

Last-Ditch Roadblock at Hanau

By Matthew R. Lamothe

Tired, hungry, and typhoid-ridden, the French veterans in the Grand Army of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte staggered through the Fulda Gap in central Germany on October 27, 1813. Read more

Military History

Weapons: The Soviet MiG-17 in Vietnam

By William F. Floyd, Jr.

The American pilots did not see the North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 fighter jets approaching their strike aircraft as they zeroed in on Than Hoa Bridge on April 3, 1965. Read more

Military History

Bloody Repulse at Fontenoy

By Robert L. Durham

The French cavalry thundered ahead, straight for the British open square. The red-coated infantry made ready for them, the front-rank knelt with muskets planted in the ground and their fixed bayonets pointed outward. Read more

Military History

The Baker Rifle: Why it was so Accurate, Deadly, and Dependable

By Arnold Blumberg

The European wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were characterized by large-scale clashes between similarly armed soldiers employing sabers, cannons, and weapons like the iconic Baker rifle. Read more

Military History

Hamilton Fish III and the “Harlem Hell Fighters”

By Blaine Taylor

In July 1918, 30-year-old U.S. Army Captain Hamilton Fish, Jr., was in war-torn France with the 15th New York National Guard Regiment—also known as the (U.S.) Read more

Military History

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

Military History

Fehrbellin: The Battle that Made Prussia

By Louis Ciotola

For nearly two and a half centuries, Prussia celebrated June 28 as a birthday of sorts. On that date in 1675, the Prussians achieved the start of their proud military tradition. Read more

Military History

Disaster at Queenston Heights

By Chuck Lyons

In June 1812, the United States, provoked by arrogant British actions on the high seas and its support of hostile Indians in the Northwest Territories, declared war on Great Britain and immediately began planning an invasion of British-held Canada. Read more

Military History

The M72 LAW & the RPG in the Vietnam War

By Michael Haskew

Among the most effective and feared weapons of the communist North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong insurgency during the Vietnam War was the rocket-propelled grenade, commonly known as the RPG. Read more

Military History

Conspiracy: The Death of Stephen Decatur

By Mark Carlson

To die for personal honor is a long-vanished custom of the pre-industrial age. But 200 years ago it still held great meaning for men, particularly in politics and the military. Read more

Military History

Samurai Kusunoki Masashige

By Charles Hilbert

Fourteenth-century Japan was ruled by an emperor who traced his descent back to the sun goddess Amateratsu. However, the emperor took his orders from the retired or cloistered emperor (usually the father of the emperor), who in turn took his orders from the Sei-I Tai Shogun, who took his orders from the kampaku, or regent. Read more

Military History

Sam Houston’s Stunning Victory at San Jacinto

By Eric Niderost

On March 11, 1836, General Sam Houston rode into Gonzales, a small town near the Guadalupe River in Texas. Read more

Military History

Blood on the Lake

By Joshua Shepherd

As the first streaks of dawn painted the horizon, all was quiet in the American squadron anchored at Put-in-Bay. Read more

Military History

Battle of Omdurman: The Last British Cavalry Charge

By Eric Niderost

It was the morning of September 1, 1898, the day before the Battle of Omdurman. Lieutenant Winston Churchill of the Queen’s 4th Hussars rode out with four squadrons of the 21st Lancers to scout the approaches to Omdurman, a Sudanese village on the west bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum, epicenter of a revolt that had rocked the very foundations of the British Empire. Read more

Military History

Maryland’s Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Towson

By Blaine Taylor

Few in the unincorporated community in Baltimore County that bears his name know of the deeds of the eminent American brevet Maj. Read more

Military History

Battle of the Thames

By Christopher Miskimon

A British squadron lay wrecked on the waters of Lake Erie. Six vessels of war floated in ruins and 135 English sailors lay dead or wounded. Read more

Military History

Napoleon’s Dramatic Rescue

By Robert Heege

On March 18, 1799, a strange thing happened in the Near East backwater that today is Israel. In the years that followed the birth of Jesus, the rise of Christianity, and the fall of Byzantium, things in the region had quieted down considerably since the Mohammedan conquests (apart from the Crusades). Read more

Military History

A Triumph of Naval Gunnery at Cape St. Vincent

By David A. Norris

On the morning of February 14, 1797, the four-decked, 136-gun Santisima Trinidad of Spain’s Armada Real claimed the title of the world’s most powerful warship. Read more

Military History

The Seige of Przemyśl

By Eric Niderost

Four Russian soldiers, a lieutenant colonel and another officer, with an NCO and bugler, strode briskly down Jaroslaw Road just north of the defensive perimeter of Fortress Przemyśl. Read more