Military History

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

Military History

Military Postcards

By Peter Suciu

Many famous photos of military uniforms and personalities are actually taken from vintage postcards. And while today many vintage baseball or football cards can fetch thousands of dollars, military postcards essentially have been forgotten. Read more

Military History

Lust for Glory: Napoleon’s Egypt Campaigns Helped With Invading Europe

By Don Hollway

In May 1798 English spies in Toulon, on the French Mediterranean coast, stood aghast at the gathering of an invasion fleet three times the size of the Spanish Armada: 13 ships of the line, 40 frigates and smaller warships, and 130 cargo vessels bearing more than 17,000 troops, 700 horses, and 1,000 cannons. Read more

American troops guard dangerous-looking Mexican bandits captured in the mountains near Namiquipa. The bandits were among those who raided Columbus, New Mexico, with guerrilla leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa.

Military History

Shootout At Rubio Ranch

By Kevin M. Hymel

When Brig. Gen. John S. Pershing began assembling a force of 10,000 infantry and cavalry for a punitive incursion into Mexico in the spring of 1916, almost every soldier in the U.S. Read more

Military History

Gallant Charge at Antietam

By William E. Welsh

The Union soldiers of Colonel Harrison Fairchild’s brigade prepared to attack uphill against a key Rebel position on the outskirts of Sharpsburg at 3 pm on September 17, 1862. Read more

French men-at-arms assault a formidable English position at Auray in September 1364. An English counterattack shattered the French.

Military History

Bertrand du Guesclin

By William E. Welsh

One month after the disastrous French defeat at Poitiers in September 1356, a large English army besieged Rennes in eastern Brittany. Read more

Military History

Furious Charge Against Malakoff

By Charles Hilbert

The Ottoman Empire of Sultan Abd al-Majid I was in decline. Less than 200 years before, it had reached its high water mark in 1683 when Ottoman armies surrounded the walls of Vienna, only to be beaten back by the forces of Jan Sobieski, King of Poland, and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, who were bankrolled by Pope Innocent XI and the Holy League. Read more

Military History

Weapons of War: the War Hammer

By William McPeak

Not to be confused with Mjollnir, the mythical Norse god Thor’s fabled hammer, the real-life war hammer was a brutal and effective weapon. Read more

Roman troops under Governor-General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus massacre Druid priests at Anglesey, Wales, in ad 60.

Military History

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus

By Eric Niderost

The name Gaius Suetonius Paulinus doesn’t ring across the centuries from the annals of Roman military history like the names of Julius Caesar, Tiberius Nero, or Scipio Africanus. Read more

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