October 2011 Archives

Flourishing his famous red-and-white headquarters flag, Union General Phil Sheridan rides along the front ranks after his dramatic return to the battlefield at Cedar Creek. Painting by Thure de Thulstrup.

Military Heritage

Glory Enough for One Day: Phil Sheridan’s Victory at Cedar Creek

By Roy Morris Jr.

Phil Sheridan had a bad feeling. The bantam-sized Union general always trusted his instincts, and now, in mid-October 1864, those instincts were telling him that trouble was brewing back at the front, where his Army of the Shenandoah was encamped near Cedar Creek, Virginia, resting and relaxing after a busy few weeks burning civilian farms and slaughtering thousands of head of livestock from Staunton north to Woodstock. Read more

Military Heritage

Red Eclipse: Halting the Communist Drive on Seoul

By Marc D. Bernstein

By mid-April 1951, the war in Korea was nearly 10 months old. United Nations forces had suffered a reversal of fortunes in late 1950 with the entry of Communist China into the war, losing the South Korean capital of Seoul but later regaining it. Read more

Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes attack a Tangut (Xi) fortress in western China in ad 1205 in this highly imaginative 16th-century Indian painting.

Military Heritage

The Mongol Hordes Invade China

By Steven M. Johnson

In ad 1205, Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, having completed the unification of his Gobi Desert empire, began looking south toward China for further conquest. Read more

Military Heritage

The Battle of Tannenburg: Massacre in the Marshes

By Eric Niderost

On August 2, 1914, Russian Czar Nicholas II appeared on the balcony of the Winter Palace in St. Read more

Military Heritage

Shifting Sands of Nieuwpoort

By Louis Ciotola

The Dutch revolt against Spain reached one of its many climaxes on July 10, 1584, when an assassin took the life William the Silent, stadtholder of the new Dutch Republic and the most prominent member of the House of Orange. Read more

Military Heritage, Editorial

Robert E. Lee Wanted to Avoid Repeating the Mistakes of His Father

Robert E. Lee never knew his father, Revolutionary War hero “Light Horse Harry” Lee. True, he saw him a few times, on the infrequent occasions of the elder Lee’s visits to his family at their gloomy mansion, Stratford, in Westmoreland County, Virginia But Light Horse Harry, living up to his nickname, was never anywhere for very long—certainly not in the confining bosom of his family. Read more

Athenian general Iphicrates modified the battle gear of his peltasts, shown in this Johnny Shumate illustration wearing lightweight linen instead of bronze armor and carrying half-moon shields, swords, and javelins.

Military Heritage, Soldiers

General Iphracates: Innovative Commander of Ancient Greece

By Charles Hilbert

The 3rd century BC in Greece was an age of military innovation. The lessons learned in the Peloponnesian War (431-404) led to the increased use of lightly armed troops and cavalry. Read more

Military Heritage, Ordnance

WWII Tanks: Italy’s Failed Iterations

By Arnold Blumberg

Although it suffered, like all combatants, from the costly stalemate and horrendous casualties of trench warfare during World War I, Italy never used tanks during that conflict. Read more

Military Heritage, Militaria

Collecting Vintage Grenades

By Peter Suciu

Even now, six decades after the end of World War II, the words “potato masher” just as easily conjure images of the legendary German hand grenade as they do kitchen utensils. Read more

The Baltimore waterfront, here looking deceptively peaceful, was a focal point of pro-war rioting in 1812, when ships carrying British goods had their sails and rigging slashed.

Military Heritage, Intelligence

The Great Baltimore Riot of 1812

One of Baltimore’s less flattering nicknames is “Mob Town,” and there have been several notable riots in the city’s history. Perhaps the least known of these riots was the first: the Great Baltimore Riot of 1812. Read more

Military Heritage, Books

Bob Drury and Tom Clavin’s ‘Last Men Out’

By Al Hemingway

On April 30, 1975, the American-backed government in Saigon, South Vietnam, fell to the Communists. For those who served in what was then our nation’s longest war, it was a time of sadness, bitterness, and anger. Read more

Military Heritage, Games

Battlefield vs. Call of Duty

There is a war being waged. I’m not talking about a real-life struggle in another country, or a virtual facsimile of said war projected from an oversized high-definition television screen. Read more

October 2011

From Around the Network

Out of Defeat, a Hard-Won Triumph

A Time to Celebrate—And Remember

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding & Hermann Goering

Attack on a Tank