Military History

Military History

Russia’s Time of Troubles

The Varangians founded a number of fortified towns in Slavic Russia in the 9th century that would become seats of Eastern Christian principalities. Read more

Military History

Bloody Clash on the Tiber

On October 28, ad 312, a Roman emperor was drowning. The sight must have amazed his soldiers. All summer Rome had been filled with rumors of the western emperor, Constantine, and the ease with which he and his army had crossed the Alps and, once on Italian soil, strung together a handful of victories in the north. Read more

Military History

Cannon Thunder at the Battle of Valmy

Wind lifted away the fog sheltering the French lines. Atop a low ridge where the French army was deployed, a lone windmill provided a vivid range marker for 58 Prussian cannons on the neighboring hills. Read more

Military History

Prisoner of the Gestapo: Freed by Words

With war comes untold stories of unbroken spirits. These are universal stories without bounds and sides, some of which remain buried deep in psyches. Read more

Military History

Frederick the Great at Torgau: “A Picture of Hell”

By Eric Niderost

King Frederick II of Prussia was busy writing dispatches, his face a study of grim determination as he scribbled out the words by the light of a guttering candle. Read more

Military History

Celebrating U.S. Army History

By Mason B. Webb

In the heart of Pennsylvania, not far from the Civil War battlefields of Gettysburg, stands the U.S. Read more

Military History

The Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE: A Story of Roman Revenge

After a summer of starvation and siege had been imposed on the city’s people during the fall of Jerusalem, the great Second Temple was finally on fire. Read more

Military History

Broadside Off San Domingo

Smoke from hundreds of cannon muzzles fueled an ever thickening fog hovering over the Caribbean Sea south of the French-occupied colony of San Domingo on February 6, 1806. Read more

Military History

Soldiers: Casimir Pulaski

A major fight was in the offing when the first streaks of dawn appeared over Savannah, Georgia, on the morning of October 9, 1779. Read more

Military History

Charlemagne: Warlord of the Franks

On Christmas morning, 800 ad, a tall, powerfully built man walked up the steps of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. Read more

Military History

The Duke of Monmouth vs. King James II

The Duke of Monmouth’s rebel army marched briskly out of Bridgwater into the dark of night on July 6, 1685. Read more

Military History

Prince Eugene of Savoy & the Turks at the Battle of Peterwardein

Thousands of dead Turkish soldiers choked the river and littered its bank. It was the fall of 1697 and the young Imperial Field Marshall, Prince Eugene of Savoy, had just vanquished the Ottoman army at Zenta (or Senta), on Hungary’s River Tiza. Read more

Military History

Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens

At last, students of American military history have recently been accorded some measure of respect to the tactical genius of Daniel Morgan. Read more

Military History

The War of 1812: Joseph Willocks and the Canadian Volunteers

During the last two years of the War of 1812, the Americans had a unit serving with them that knew well the people and country they were invading. Read more

Military History

Santa Anna at the Alamo & the Battle of San Jacinto

One of the most decisive battles in American history is also one little discussed, the April 21, 1836 Battle of San Jacinto. Read more

Military History

The Battle at Northallerton: Knights on Foot?

“To be a knight was to be potentially a Lord or Lordling … and a fate worse than death, was to set one’s hand to the plow.” Read more

Military History

George A. Custer’s “Last Stand” at the Battle of Little Bighorn

During the Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25-26, 1876, troopers of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Read more

Military History

Severed Hands: Trophies of War in New Kingdom Egypt

Excavations conducted in a Hyksos palace at Tell el-Daba (ancient Avaris) in Egypt have for the first time provided archaeological evidence for a gruesome practice previously known only from texts and temple reliefs, according to an article by the Biblical Archaeology Review. Read more

Military History

Benjamin Franklin in the American Revolution

By the time the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, Benjamin Franklin was 70 years old. Read more

Military History

The Parchwitz Address: Frederick the Great’s Famous Speech at Leuthen

On the morning of December 3, 1757, Frederick the Great ordered all his generals and regimental and battalion commanders to his headquarters at Parchwitz. Read more