Military History

Soldiers of the 42nd Highlanders maneuver in the jungle during the Ashanti War of 1874. Their general, Garnet Joseph Wolseley, disliked war correspondents but put them to good use.

Military History

General Garnet Wolseley & The First War Correspondents

By Harold E. Raugh, Jr.

War correspondents are relatively new to history. The Crimean War (1854-1856), pitting Great Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia against Russia, was the first conflict in which an organized effort was made for civilian correspondents reporting news directly to the civilian population of the home country. Read more

Noted Napoleonic artist Louis LeJeune painted this extraordinary canvas of the critical attack on the Russian Great Redoubt at the Battle of Borodino.

Military History

Napoleon Bonaparte & The 1812 Battle of Borodino

By Jonathan North

At 11 o’clock on the evening of June 23, 1812, the first elements of Napoleon’s mighty army marched on three pontoon bridges over the river Niemen and set foot on Russian soil; the epic invasion of Russia had begun. Read more

Wellington’s artillery commander at Waterloo said that without Henry Shrapnel’s devastating new shell, Allied forces could not have taken a key position on the battlefield.

Military History

Henry Shrapnel & The Battle of Waterloo

by Robert Whiter

“And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air …”

That, as most people know, is a line from the American national anthem, words by Francis Scott Key, to the tune of Anacreon in Heaven by John Stafford Smith. Read more

Saint Louis, King Louis IX of France receives Robert of Nantes, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in Damietta, Egypt, in June of 1249. Robert is lending his knights to the battle ahead, the Seventh Crusade. Nineteenth century painting by French artist Oscar Gué.

Military History

The Battle of Al Mansourah and the Seventh Crusade, 1251

By Douglas Sterling

After a century and a half of efforts—with mixed success—by Western Europe to seize control of the Holy Land, the Seventh Crusade of 1250 led by Louis IX of France was the last best chance to change the political and military situation in the Eastern world before the Reformation. Read more

Westmoreland decorates the standard of a fighting unit in Vietnam. He left the country in 1968.

Military History

Soldier Profiles: General William C. Westmoreland

By Blaine Taylor

In 1989, this writer had occasion to interview four-star General William Childs Westmoreland, now 86, formerly U.S. military commander in South Vietnam and at the time of the interview a retired Chief of Staff of the Army. Read more

A Japanese POW commander (Sessue Hayakawa) and a British colonel (Alec Guinness) conduct a battle of wills in The Bridge On the River Kwai.

Military History

Military Films

By Blaine Taylor

From earliest recorded history to yesterday, it is now possible to trace virtually all major human conflicts on videotapes and DVDs through both rental and purchase. Read more

Nineteenth-century artist Eugene Delacroix depicted Trajan as a young soldier on his war horse. Trajan had good training as a warrior and fought in many areas of the empire. While in his 30s he skillfully crushed a rebellion on the German frontier. He also held important administrative posts.

Military History

Emperor Trajan of Rome

By R. Manning Ancell

The ancient city of Selinus, a major trading center in Cilicia, sat atop a steep outcropping of rock that rises abruptly from the edge of the Mediterranean on the southern coast of Asia Minor, now modern Turkey. Read more

Military History

The Brooklyn Campaign: The Battle of Long Island

By James E. Held

For General Washington and his Continental Army the situation had become desperate. The ink had hardly dried on the Declaration of Independence when 30 British warships and 400 transports under Admiral Lord Richard Howe sailed unchallenged past the Sandy Hook lighthouse to the Tory stronghold of Staten Island. Read more

Military History

Return to Leyte

By David H. Lippman

Apprised of an approaching LCM full of VIPs, the beachmaster surveyed his busy dock full of ships loading and unloading troops and supplies at Red Beach on the Philippine island of Leyte. Read more

Military History

The Battle of Corinth

By Robert L. Durham

In the fall of 1862, Confederate armies were making their first and only coordinated effort to carry the war into the North. Read more

Military History

The Ambitious Vietnam Operation

By Victor Kamenir

By January 1967, the buildup of Communist forces in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) convinced Gen. William Westmoreland that a large-scale incursion by North Vietnam’s People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) was only a matter of time. Read more