Buckskin-clad Texas troops overrun white-uniformed Mexican forces in this panoramic depiction of the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texans’ victory guaranteed their independence.
Military Heritage

October 2008

Volume 10, No. 2

COVER: Lieutenant Colonel George S. Patton, Jr., poses in front of a tank at the Tank Corps school near Langres, France, July 15, 1918. Photo courtesy of the National Archives. The article begins on page 42

October 2008

Military Heritage

Unholy Sabbath in Flanders

By William E. Welsh

With his one good eye, French King Philip II looked east down the straight line of an old Roman road in the disputed county of Flanders on Sunday, July 27, 1214. Read more

October 2008

Military Heritage

Patton in WWI

By John Mikolsevek

History is full of great men and great deeds. All American schoolchildren know the story of George Washington crossing the Delaware River in the dead of winter during the Revolutionary War. Read more

Buckskin-clad Texas troops overrun white-uniformed Mexican forces in this panoramic depiction of the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texans’ victory guaranteed their independence.

October 2008

Military Heritage

Texan Victory at San Jacinto: Eighteen Minutes to Freedom

By John Walker

As long afternoon shadows rolled across the prairie near the confluence of the Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River in eastern Texas on April 21, 1836, two armed camps—one a small Texan force, the other a 1,400-man-strong Mexican army—lay within a scant 1,000 yards of each another. Read more

October 2008

Military Heritage, Editorial

From Bouvines to the Magna Carta, and the Founding Fathers

Every war has unintended consequences— that’s why the wise leader never starts one. When King John returned to England in October 1214 from the European continent after yet another defeat at the hands of his lifelong enemies, the French, he faced perhaps the greatest unintended consequence in world history. Read more

October 2008

Military Heritage, Weapons

The USS Macon

By John J. Geoghegan

It is sometimes difficult to understand just how immature aviation was in the 1920s and 1930s. Everything about flying was new. Read more

Slaves are liberated after a slave ship is confiscated in 1861. The trade continued in the Sudan and elsewhere for another decade.

October 2008

Military Heritage, Soldiers

Samuel White Baker: British Explorer and Abolitionist

By Gregory Peduto

The men of the expeditionary force beat a hasty retreat through the seven-foot-tall African grasses. Poison-tipped arrows let loose by pursuing Bunyoro warriors rained down upon them in deadly torrents. Read more

October 2008

Military Heritage, Militaria

Collecting Medieval Military Books

By William McPeak

The special packaging of the printed word between compact durable covers and a stitched spine—the book—is one of humanity’s greatest and most enduring achievements. Read more

October 2008

Military Heritage, Books

The Man Who Transformed the Presidency

By Al Hemingway

Never let it be said that James Knox Polk was not a determined man. Although he suffered from ill health most of his life, this did not deter Polk from working tirelessly to rise to the top in politics as a Democrat, with fellow-Tennessean Andrew Jackson as his mentor. Read more