William Mclaughlin

William Mclaughlin is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE

Articles by William Mclaughlin:

The Battle of Actium: Agrippa’s Victory, Octavian’s Glory

Rome after Caesar’s death was a place of great uncertainty. Caesar had a long road to secure power and had finally secured it, and seemed…

1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs: Flemish Butchers & Weavers Defeat French Professional Knights

Heavy cavalry ruled the battlefield in the middle ages, starting way back around the battle of Adrianople. The common system of hierarchal feudal rule was…

The 1,000 Mile Fighting Retreat of the Nez Perce – Native Americans Looking For A Place To Live

The cruel treatment of Native Americans is a long and harsh chapter in American history. Most people remember hearing about the trail of tears and…

The Teutonic Knights, The Hospitallers, And The Templars: Massive Battle of Tannenberg, 1410

The Crusades were monumental military efforts to secure the lands around Jerusalem. Two orders of warrior monks, the Templars, and Hospitallers, had great successes in…

Historical Review: Master and Commander; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It is rare for Hollywood movies to be historically accurate and many people know that making a movie out of a book is usually disappointing,…

The Nika Riots: Sports Riots that Nearly Toppled an Empire

Today soccer is unequivocally the most popular sport in a world with countless different sports vying for fans. In the ancient world there were not…

1571 Battle of Lepanto: The Pope’s Naval Crusade – Destroying the Ottoman Empire Naval Supremacy

The Ottoman Empire grew from being a minor power in modern Turkey to controlling much of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. By 1453, they…

Elite Cavalry Units of the Ancient World – They Were Very Effective

Prior to gunpowder and efficient pike squares, cavalry had a key impact on the battlefield. Cavalry was utilized differently based on their training, equipment, and…

The Pros and Cons of Ancient War Elephants

Elephants are generally peaceful and majestic creatures but throughout history, their size and power were used with devastating results on the battlefield. With the adoption…

Siege of Vienna: Led by a Mercenary, This Desperate Army Turned the Tide on the Ottoman Empire

For four hundred years, the Crusades had seen European powers take war deep into lands far from home, under the banner of Christianity. The clash…

From The Roman Republic To The Third Reich: Four Other Battles Fought At Thermopylae

The Battle of Thermopylae was quite the epic stand. We have talked about the bravery of the Spartans a thousand times over and made multiple…

Hannibal Barca was Rome’s Greatest Enemy – But He Couldn’t Win the War for Carthage

Hannibal Barca inflicted one of the worst defeats ever suffered by the Roman army at the battle of Cannae. Nearly 70,000 men were killed in…