Military History

French soldiers launch a ferocious bayonets assault against German defenders inside Fort Douaumont in a successful counterattack against the strongpoint in October 1916.

Military History

Heroic Stand at Verdun

By Mark Carlson

The morning of June 23, 1916, dawned over the broad crenellated valley of the Meuse River in northeastern France. Read more

Military History

Royalist Reckoning at Naseby

By Joshua Shepherd

Late on the evening of June 13, 1645, King Charles I convened a hurried council with senior officers of the Royalist army at the village of Market Harborough in England’s East Midlands. Read more

Oneida warriors Han Yerry and his wife, Two Kettles, fight alongside the Patriots during the height of the ambush at Oriskany in a modern painting by Don Troiani.

Military History

Ambush at Oriskany

By Eric Niderost

The young Oneida warrior paused, tensing as he spotted some activity in the forest just in front of him. Read more

Cortes and his Spanish conquistadors defeated a mighty Aztec army at Otumba in July 1520. The victory occurred one week after the Night of Sorrows, when the Spanish suffered heavy casualties while fleeing the Aztec capital.

Military History

Cortés Exacts His Revenge

By John Walker

As the year 1520 drew to a close, the half-starved inhabitants of Tenochtitlan, the magnificent capital city of the most powerful city-state in the Aztec Empire, found that they were threatened by a massive host of enemies, both foreign and indigenous, which was led by Spanish Captain-General Hernán Cortés and his small band of conquistadors. Read more

Parthian cataphracts armed with long spears known as kontos assail Roman legionaries at Carrhae.

Military History

Roman Disaster at Carrhae

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

Gigantic clouds of dust rose from the sun-baked plain. The ground shook under the hoofs of thousands of cavalry. Read more

Military History

Soldiers: General Peter Bagration

By Victor Kamenir

Russian General Peter Ivanovich Bagration was one of those rare commanders who received near-universal praise from his contemporaries outside of Russia. Read more

Yermak’s Cossack brigade drives a wedge into Khan Kuchum’s Tatar horde in the climactic Battle of Chuvash Cape on the Irtysh River in 1582.

Military History

Russia’s Conquest of Siberia

By Victor Kamenir

Russian historical documents dating back to 1095 speak of an unknown people living beyond the Ural Mountains in Siberia who spoke an incomprehensible language and traded furs for iron knives and axes. Read more

Military History

Daring Strike on Havana

By Mike Phifer

The guns of the British warships assaulting the Cuban shoreline just east of Havana on the morning of June 7, 1762, roared to life in a flash of orange flames and grey smoke. Read more

Military History

Edward Longshanks & William Wallace at Falkirk

By John Walker

After the disastrous Battle of Dunbar in April 1296, the Scottish revolt against England stalled for more than a year until a rebel force led by Andrew de Moray and William Wallace rekindled the flames of rebellion with a stunning victory over the English at Stirling Bridge. Read more

The tragic death of Continental Army Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery in an assault on the south end of Quebec's Lower Town is vividly, albeit romantically, portrayed in John Trumbell’s period painting. A partial siege of the town that followed the failed assault ended when a British fleet arrived in spring 1776.

Military History

Arnold’s Flawed Invasion of Quebec

By Eric Niderost

On November 9, 1775, a British resident of Quebec wrote a letter back home, a missive that he knew might not even reach England, because the Canadian fortress city would soon be under a state of siege. Read more

Pompey led troops to victory in a series of battles and actions that neutralized threats to Rome’s interests in Asia Minor.

Military History

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

Gnaeus Pompey was one of the pivotal Roman leaders during the last decades of the Republic. He was born into an old and wealthy provincial family from Picenum on September 29, 106 BC. 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

Faces of World War I

By David DeJonge

November 11, 2008, marked the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. Some 4,734,991 American soldiers served in the conflict, and 116,516 Americans lost their lives during the nation’s two-year participation in the war—a casualty rate far surpassing the deaths incurred in the combined wars of Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf. Read more

Croatian nobleman Nikola Zrinski leads a sortie against the Turks at the Hungarian fortress of Szigetvar in 1566. The bloody siege was Suleiman’s last battle.

Military History

Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I

By William E. Welsh

Venetian military engineer Gabriel Tandini listened intently in the semi-darkness of the Knights Hospitaller counter-tunnels beneath the walls of Rhodes for sound of Turkish sappers trying to dig under the city’s walls. Read more

Images from the 1800 edition of Baron von Steuben’s “Blue Book” illustrate part of the Manual of Arms as practiced by the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1778.

Military History

Collecting Field Manuals

By Peter Suciu

It has long been said that there is a right way to do things, a wrong way to do things—and the military way to do things. Read more

U.S. troops fire on Chinese during Battle of Chipyong-Ni, which marked the high tide of the Chinese counteroffensive in the Korean War. The Chinese attacked at night to take full advantage of their superb infiltration tactics.

Military History

Matthew Ridgway’s Eighth Army at Seoul

By John Walker

As Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway boarded a flight to Tokyo, Japan, on December 23, 1950, on his way to a meeting with General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, he was not fully aware of the depth of the crisis still unfolding on the frozen Korean peninsula, where American-led United Nations forces and their South Korean allies, who were seemingly on the verge of complete victory in North Korea, were now suddenly on the brink of collapse and perhaps outright defeat. Read more

Pope Eugenius III presents his pilgrim staff to King Louis VII at the Church of St. Denis. A high-ranking knight holds the Oriflamme, which was the battle standard of French kings.

Military History

Crusader Calamity at Damascus

By William E. Welsh

The hot sun beat down on the mud-brick and wooden buildings, the lush orchards, and the patchwork of pastoral fields around the oval-shaped, walled city of Damascus in southern Syria on the morning of July 24, 1148. Read more