Military History Archives

Napoleon Bonaparte, commanding the French Army of Italy, issues orders during an assault over a bridge at Lodi. At one point in the struggle, Bonaparte led a charge himself. The victory here gave much confidence to both commander and army.

Military History

Napoleon’s Italian Campaign: A Year Against the Odds

By Jeremy Green

The newly appointed 26-year-old commander-in-chief of the French Army of Italy arrived at Nice headquarters on March 27, 1796. Read more

Belisarius is shown triumphant over the Ostrogoths and heading for Rome.

Military History

Military Myths and Legends: Belisarius

By James Allan Evans

It was a sorry tale. A brilliant general, military hero, and faithful servant of the state, blind and reduced to penury in his old age, sitting on the main street of Constantinople begging for his living. Read more

Military History

The Arquebus

By William J. McPeak

In 1503, near the northern Italian town of Cerignola, the famous Spanish commander Gonsalvo de Cordova, Viceroy of Naples (to be known to military history as “The Great Captain”), resolved to turn and stand before the pursuing French army. Read more

Indians attack a building party in the woods. Settlers had to be on their guard for such ambushes.

Military History

Elizabethans vs. “The Naturals”

By Eric Niderost

On April 26, 1607, three small English ships arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay after a grueling and contentious four-month voyage. Read more

The location of Salses fortress in northern Spain was dictated by the presence of a natural spring—a necessity in the event of an enemy siege.

Military History

Forteresse de Salses

By Susan Ludmer-Gliebe

In the autumn of 1495, three years after the Christian reconquest of Islamic Spain, Queen Isabella I of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, sent a letter to their master architect. Read more

Military History

The Duke of Marlborough: Masterstroke at Blenheim

By Jonas L. Goldstein

When Louis XIV assumed the throne of France in 1661, Europe was at peace. He acknowledged as much in his memoirs: “Everything was quiet everywhere. Read more

German cruiser SMS Konigsberg, displacing 3,400 tons, sailed from Germany for Africa in April 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I.

Military History

The German Cruiser Konigsberg

By Michael Vogel

The field telephone rang on the bridge of the trapped German cruiser SMS Konigsberg. On the other end of the line, the coast watcher spoke the words that had been dreaded for almost eight months—the British were coming. Read more

The third-century Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus in Rome shows Romans battling Goths. This detail depicts Hostilian, younger son of Emperor Decius. His other son, Herrenius, was killed in the battle.

Military History

Philippolis: Roman Disaster on the Western Border

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

It was early spring, ad 235, on the Rhine frontier. In the imperial tent of a Roman encampment, 26-year-old Emperor Severus Alexander wept at his mother’s side. Read more

Baron Manfred von Richthofen was not the first flyer to be awarded the “Blue Max.” In fact, he waited anxiously for it. The award goes back to the 17th century.

Military History

The Pour le Mérite

By Robert Whiter

It was early in the year 1917, and a member of the Luftstreiknafte (German Army Air Service), Freiherr (Baron) Manfred von Richthofen, was feeling a trifle disgruntled. Read more

Civil War veteran Capt. Joseph A. Faris completed a depiction of the fight at Point Pleasant long after the action but with a soldier’s sensibilities to combat and terrain.

Military History

Lord Dunmore’s War: The Battle of Point Pleasant

By James K. Swisher

In the lengthening shadows of a late October afternoon, a column of tired marchers attired in dusty, fringed hunting dress emerged from the trees along the north bank of the Kanawha River, raising an exhilarating shout upon sighting its confluence with the Ohio. Read more

Military History

The Medieval Crossbow: Redefining War in the Middle Ages

By Arnold Blumberg

Anna Comnena, daughter of the Byzantium Emperor Alexius Comnenus, writing at about the time of the First Crusade (1096-1099), said of the medieval crossbow, a military tool new to her part of the world, “The crossbow is a weapon of the barbarians [western Europeans], absolutely unknown to the Greeks [Byzantines].” Read more

The USS Olympia (left) leads the U.S. Asiatic Squadron as it destroys the Spanish fleet off Cavite.

Military History

Battle of Manila Bay

By A.B. Feuer

The United States Navy investigation into the February 15, 1898, sinking of the battleship Maine was a difficult undertaking. Read more

Military History

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland

By Arnold Blumberg

The election of the Protestant Frederick V, Elector of the Palatine, to the throne of Bohemia instead of the Catholic Hapsburg, Ferdinand of Austria, sparked what was to become the Thirty Years War. Read more

Military History

Warrior Queen’s Revenge

By Eric Niderost

In the spring of ad 60 Gaius Suetonius Paulinus could look back on the last three or four years with a mixture of pride and satisfaction. Read more

Military History

Mata Hari: The Dancing Spy

By Robert Heege

Just before six o’clock on the morning of October 15, 1917, a caravan of five rickety automobiles departed the prison at Saint-Lazare and proceeded to make its way post-haste through the gaslit streets of Paris. Read more

European knights battle Seljuq Turks outside the walls of Antioch. The city was a stronghold blocking the Crusaders’ way to the Holy Land.

Military History

Deus le Veult! The Siege of Antioch

By John Murphy, Jr.

Shortly before dawn on June 3, 1098, Bohemund of Taranto, one of the leaders of the First Crusade and the survivor of many campaigns, stood in the shadow of the Tower of the Two Sisters, one of the strongest points in the defenses of the ancient city of Antioch. Read more

King Leonidas marched from Sparta to defend the narrow pass at Thermopylae against the gargantuan Persian army. He and his men lost their lives in the process. Jacques Louis David painted this highly romantic scene in 1814.

Military History

Defending the Pass at the Battle of Thermopylae

by Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

What nation of Asia, did not Xerxes lead against Hellas? —Herodotus

On the Doricus, the vast Thracian plain and beach on the Aegean coast, rose a stronghold. Read more

Mike Mannock mixes it up with three German aircraft in this depiction of one of his fights. Mannock’s true record is difficult to determine; he set up and wounded enemy aircraft for younger pilots to finish off.

Military History

Famous Fighter Aces: Edward Mannock

By Mauriel P. Joslyn

The agent from the American consul followed a Turkish guard through the prisoner compound. It was early 1915, and he had come on behalf of the Red Cross seeking prisoner exchange for the worst cases in this miserable, disease-ridden place. Read more

Military History

Fortunino Matania and the Art of War

By Robert Whiter

The short, slim man strove to keep still despite the stifling heat and the perspiration trickling down his face and neck. Read more

Geronimo and Naiche (with dark hat) , both mounted on ponies, pose with other tribe members in the 1880s. Naiche was the son of Cochise and the last chief of the free Chiricahua Apaches.

Military History

Mirrors on the Mountains

By Miles Hood Swarthout

When Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles finally met Geronimo in Skeleton Canyon, four miles above the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona Territory on September 3, 1886, the U.S. Read more

Military History

From Around the Network

The 1650 Battle of Dunbar: Thunder on the Broxburn

Con Thien: Hell on the Hill of Angels

Supreme Force, Supreme Defeat

Accused of insulting Hitler, Jackie the dog’s fate was superseded by the German invasion of the Soviet Union.