Military History

Military History

The Army of the Ottoman Empire in 1683

The kapu kulu, made up of the regularly paid troops, provided the backbone of the Ottoman Empire army. Read more

Military History

Famous Military Commanders: Fernando de Avolos, Marquis of Pescara

Although Charles de Lannoy, the viceroy of Naples, was the nominal commander of the Imperial forces in the battle, Fernando de Avolos, Marquis of Pescara, controlled the army’s real muscle, its arquebusiers. Read more

Military History

The Chateau de Castelnaud’s Museum of Medieval Warfare

For the last eight centuries, the Chateau de Castelnaud has stood sentinel on a great limestone outcropping 525 feet above the Dordogne River in southwestern France. Read more

Military History

Why Study Military History?

As a writer and editor, it’s been my privilege to spend a great deal of time in the company of my betters: ordinary men and women engaged in the often heartbreaking act of making history. Read more

Military History

Recreating David Bushnell’s Turtle, the World’s First Submarine

After locating and analyzing original letters and written accounts from the American Revolution, and investigating period technologies and materials, they began reconstructing the Turtle as late 18th-century craftsmen might have. Read more

Military History

Frederick the Great: Early Years

Befitting his grandiose nickname, Frederick the Great was a living embodiment of the old axiom that some people are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Read more

Military History

Justus Sherwood: Loyalist Frontiersman

Born in Connecticut in 1747, Justus Sherwood moved west into the rugged New Hampshire Grants (later to become the state of Vermont) in 1766 where he took up trading, surveying and making potash. Read more

Military History

The Battle of Vienna: July 14-September 11, 1683

Ever since Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 they became the relentless terror of Christendom. Read more

Military History

How Arminius Deceived the Roman Empire

With their proclivity for feats of engineering, the Romans methodically advanced their frontiers. The glory-seeking Roman generals saw a wide river, mountain chain, or expansive swath of desert as a challenge. Read more

Military History

Oliver Cromwell’s Folly

After successfully concluding the First Anglo-Dutch War, English strongman Oliver Cromwell turned his severe Puritan attentions to Spain or, more accurately, to Spain’s far-flung possessions in the New World. Read more

Military History

Pikes: A Versatile and Deadly Weapon

Although formal training in the use of the pike—an ash-handled spear 18 to 20 feet long—did not begin until the 15th century, ancient Greeks and Romans used so-called “long spears” as standard infantry issue against cavalry. Read more

Military History

Lake Peipus: Battle on the Ice

In the early 13th century, the Baltic frontier in central Europe remained a hostile and uninviting place. Pagan Europeans far outnumbered Christians, and the area was a focal point for constant conflict between mutually exploitive neighbors slavering to carve out new territorial holdings at the expense of anyone who stood in their way. Read more

Military History

Were the Angels of Mons in World War I Real, or Mass Hysteria?

Some Tommies swore it had been St. George, the warrior saint of England. Others said the “Angels of Mons” might have been St. Read more

Military History

The Politics of Military Heroes

Defeat has a funny way of producing heroes.

The British lost an embarrassing battle to Zulu tribesmen at Isandhlwana, but the improbable defense of an insignificant river crossing 10 miles away by a handful of rear-echelon soldiers, overage officers, and civilians created a new crop of heroes for the public to idolize. Read more

Military History

Battle of the Standard — August 22, 1138 AD

The English commander, William de Aumale, heard the roar of the Scots army even before it appeared out of the early morning mists. Read more

Military History

Siege of Osaka Castle

In 1611 Tokugawa Ieyasu had every reason to be pleased with himself. His son Hidetada was Shogun, supreme warlord of Japan, but in truth it was Ieyasu who ruled the country behind the scenes. Read more

Military History

The Four Days’ Battle: A Dutch Triumph

Admiral General George Monck, first Duke of Albemarle, walked into the great cabin of his flagship Royal Charles with a calm and determined air, tersely greeting his assembled captains before they all sat down at a large table. Read more

Military History

‘General’ William Eaton: To The Shores of Tripoli…

Most Americans can recite the second line of the immortal “Marine Hymn” by memory, but few actually know what it means. Read more

Military History

Joachim Murat: Napoleon Bonaparte’s ‘Premier Chevalier’

Dashing hussars in beautifully braided dolmans and fur-lined pelisses; chasseurs in their brilliant green uniforms; the heavy cavalry of cuirassiers in their glistening breastplates, mounted on magnificent chargers; and the dragoons, wearing brass Grecian helmets with long, flowing manes of black horsehair—all magnificent in their martial and fashionable airs. Read more

Military History

The 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga

On the morning of July 8, 1758, the largest field army yet gathered by the British Empire in North America stood a mile from a French stone fort in the forests of what was then the colony of New York. Read more