Profiles of the American Revolution Archives

“Shenandoah Valley, September 1864,” first-hand drawing by Alfred R. Waud, a war correspondent for Harper's Weekly. On September 19, 1864, Union General Phillip Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah defeated General Jubal Early at the Third Battle of Winchester.

WHN Free Reports

Crook’s Devils

By Kevin O’Beirne

In the fourth summer of the Civil War, things were not going well for the Union. After more than three years of bloody conflict the Confederacy, although on the defensive and having lost significant territory, was still defiant and dangerous, while the war-weary North wondered if victory was truly attainable. Read more

WHN Free Reports

To the Mons

By Eric Niderost

Southwestern Belgium echoed with the ceaseless tramp of heavy boots on cobbled roads as long brown lines of khaki-clad men marched into Mons and its suburbs. Read more

Loyalists attack Patriot earthworks at Moore’s Creek Bridge in North Carolina on February 27, 1776. Those wearing Scottish kilts, bonnets and stockings, are soldiers of the 84th Regiment who arrived from Canada and New York. Others in simple hunting shirts are likely local recruits. The figure falling on the road at right could be Lt. Col. MacLeod, who was killed in the charge.

WHN Free Reports

Patriots Early Test at Moore’s Creek Bridge

By John Miles

On February 27, 1776, near the west bank of Moore’s Creek, 30 miles above Wilmington in the colony of North Carolina, Lt. Read more

After Operation Market-Garden failed make it into Germany in September 1944, U.S. Lt. General “Lightning” Joe Collins suggested the Hürtgen Forest might offer a safer route into the Reich through the German Siegfried Line.

WHN Free Reports

Into the Hürtgenwald

By Robert A. Lynn

The 1944 invasion of France, the breakout from the beaches, the surprise German counterattack in the Ardennes, and the final reckoning with the Third Reich have all been exhaustively chronicled. Read more

WHN Free Reports

The Berezina Bridges

By Jonathan North

The shattered remains of Napoleon’s once brilliant Grande Armée entered Smolensk on November 9, 1812. Taking stock of the situation, the emperor realized that he and his army couldn’t possibly winter in the charred remains of the city. Read more

“Incoming,” by Ted Zuber, shows soldiers of B Company, Royal Canadian Regiment, reacting to an enemy artillery attack on “Little Gibraltar” (Hill 355). Zuber served as a sniper with the RCR in 1952 and, though not an official war artist, he brought his sketchbook with him and later painted scenes of the war.

WHN Free Reports

Desperate Struggle for Survival on ‘Little Gibraltar’

By Bernd Horn

The ground heaved and trembled under the ferocious climax of the Chinese bombardment that shook the Canadian soldiers from their bunkers and weapon pits. Read more

In an ambush led by Arminius (later known as Hermann), three Roman legions were destroyed in Germania in 9 CE. The event, one of Rome’s worst defeats, was seized upon by nationalists in the 19th-century, and later by the Nazi Third Reich, as the mythological origin of the German state. Paintings such as “The battle of Hermann in the Teutoburg Forest,” (1840) by Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Elder, helped popularize Hermann as the father of the German nation.

WHN Free Reports

Havoc in the Teutoburger Forest

By Michael D. Greaney

One of the most devastating events to shake the early Roman Empire was the defeat of Legate Publius Quinctilius Varus and his army at the hands of Arminius in the Battle of Teutoburgerwald in 9 ad. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Editorial

Tyler Perry’s new film, The Six Triple Eight, is based on a WWII History magazine article

After years of obscurity, the untold story of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion will captivate audiences worldwide with the release of the feature film The Six Triple Eight. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Soldiers

Samuel Pepys

By Kelly Bell

The wind was from the southwest early on the morning of June 13, 1665, as the Dutch and British fleets deployed just off southeastern coast of England, 40 miles east of the town of Lowestoft in Suffolk. Read more

Members of the Military Telegraph Construction Corps, including two balancing atop freshly cut tree trunks, hanging telegraph wire near Brandy Station, Virginia.

WHN Free Reports, Weapons

The Telegraph

By Jim Haviland

Early in the American Civil War, during the first months of 1862, Union General Henry Halleck, commanding from his headquarters in St. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Uniform

British Soldier, 33rd Regiment of Foot, 1780, American Revolution, Southern Campaign

The 33rd Regiment was originally raised in 1702, and gained a reputation for professionalism and military capability, thought by some observers to be unequaled in the British Army. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Valor

Andrews Raiders

By Kevin Seabrooke

A little more than 162 years after they were executed as spies in Georgia, privates Philip G. Shadrach and George D, Wilson of the 2nd Ohio Infantry were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Biden in a ceremony at the White House on July 4, 2024. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Books

10 Military History Book Reviews for Winter 2025

Full Reviews

Forged in War: A Military History of Russia from its Beginnings to Today (Mark Galeotti, Osprey Publishing, Oxford UK, 2024, 368 pp., Read more

WHN Free Reports, Games

Aero Fighters

By Joseph Luster

Known in Japan as Sonic Wings, the Aero Fighters series first kicked off way back in 1992. The original entry started out as an arcade game before making its way to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and now SUCCESS Corporation has its eyes set on a revival. Read more

WHN Free Reports, Games

Under Defeat

By Joseph Luster

Arcade shoot ‘em ups were a dime a dozen back in the day, but developer G.rev did things a little differently. Read more

Profiles of the American Revolution

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