Military History

Marines manning a fighting top on the USS Bonhomme Richard fire on British seamen while another prepares to hurl a grenade at the Serapis.

Military History

Triumph Off Flamborough Head

By Eric Niderost

Standing on the quarterdeck of his flagship Bonhomme Richard, Commodore John Paul Jones took his telescope and trained it northwards, sweeping the instrument to the left and right to see what his lookouts were reporting at midafternoon on September 23, 1779. Read more

British Lt. Gen. George Augustus Eliott points to the rescue of defeated Spanish sailors on when the British destroyed the Franco-Spanish fleet's floating batteries late in the siege in a painting by John Singleton Copley.

Military History

Grand Assault On Gibraltar

By David A. Norris

Great Britain’s war with her rebellious American colonies was about to conclude as diplomats crafted a peace treaty. Read more

Thick black smoke seen in the distance beyond a burned-out Iraqi tank streams skyward after Iraqi forces withdrawing from Kuwait set fire to the Arab emirate’s oil fields.

Military History

Lightning Victory In The Persian Gulf

By Victor Kamenir

IN November 1990 the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. Read more

Justin of Nassau hands the keys to the city of Breda to Ambrogio Spinola in 1625 following his successful siege of a city that was considered impregnable at the time.

Military History

Ambrogio di Spinola

By William E. Welsh

The crown of Spain and the wealthy banking families of Genoa had a symbiotic relationship during the Renaissance. Read more

The Duke of Villeroi committed the bulk of his cavalry in a fearsome counterattack on the open plain south of Ramillies late in the battle in a quest to shatter the Allied center.

Military History

Grand Alliance Triumph At Ramillies

By Joshua Shepherd

Late in the day on May 23, 1706, the troops of the Colonel William Borthwick’s regiment of Argyll’s Scots Brigade formed up for an unenviable assignment. Read more

The French Imperial Guard advances on Magenta. Stiff Austrian resistance and the confined nature of the terrain combined to slow the French advance toward Austrian-held Milan.

Military History

Triumph of Spirit

By Eric Niderost

On April 20, 1859, Emperor Franz Josef paid a respectful visit to Prince Klemens Wensel von Metternich’s place at Rennweg in Vienna. Read more

Military History

Army Combat Engineer Paul Ray Smith

By William E. Welsh

T he lead elements of the First Brigade of the U.S. Third Infantry Division became heavily engaged against Iraqi forces at the Saddam International Airport on the southwest outskirts of Baghdad on April 3, 2003, but by the end of the day they had secured it. Read more

Military History

English Man-at-Arms in the Wars of the Roses

By William E. Welsh, Artwork by Graham Turner

The Wars of the Roses (1455-1487) encompassed three civil wars that were fought between two rival branches, York and Lancaster, of the House of Plantagenet, for control of the English throne. Read more

With a Christian cross prominently displayed at left, Charles Martel’s Frankish forces beat back Muslim invaders at Tours in Charles Steuben’s 19th-century painting.

Military History

Charles The Hammer At Tours

By William E. Welsh

In the late spring of ad 732, an 80,000-man-strong Muslim army spilled northward through gaps in the western Pyrenees onto the verdant, gently rolling landscape of Gascony. Read more

An 1804 political cartoon lampoons President Thomas Jefferson for his unsuccessful attempt to include West Florida in the Louisiana Purchase.

Military History

The Florida Annexation

By Peter Kross

Almost a decade after winning the Revolutionary War against Great Britain, the youthful United States was determined to expand its territorial boundaries and become a truly continental nation. Read more

Throne of the Duke of Alva suggests the duke’s rule was ordained by Satan.

Military History

Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, the Duke of Alva

By Matthew Peszek

The Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Netherlands, which lasted from 1568 to 1648, developed not only from economic difficulties but also from religious tensions that eventually resulted in several Dutch riots in 1566. Read more

Military History

Gas Masks of the Great War

By Peter Suciu

With World War I in a seeming stalemate, German forces in late April 1915 introduced a horrific new weapon to the fighting. Read more

The Baltimore waterfront, here looking deceptively peaceful, was a focal point of pro-war rioting in 1812, when ships carrying British goods had their sails and rigging slashed.

Military History

The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812

One of Baltimore’s less flattering nicknames is “Mob Town,” and there have been several notable riots in the city’s history. Perhaps the least known of these riots was the first: the Great Baltimore Riot of 1812. Read more

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