These Photos of Napoleon’s Veterans Are Some of the Oldest Military Portraits
Among the oldest photographs of veterans in the world is a set of 15 sepia portraits of former soldiers from Napoleon’s French Army. The images…
The Knights Templar – The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Crusader Order
A crimson cross emblazoned on a white background; a simple design, perhaps, but behind it lies one of the most remarkable stories in the history…
Napoleon Inflicts The Greatest Defeat in Prussian Military History
The twin battles of Jena-Auerstadt proved a major turning point for not only the Napoleonic wars, but also for 19th century Europe as a whole.…
A Force to be Reckoned With – Mercenaries in the Hundred Years War
There have always been soldiers motivated more by pay than by their cause. In the Hundred Years War, many of these men fought in freelance…
Civil War Spies – The Bureau of Military Information
In 1959, Edwin C. Fishel of the National Security Agency found files concerning the Bureau of Military Information within the records of the Army of…
Ironclad Warships Battle it Out – The Battle of Hampton Roads In The Civil War
The Battle of Hampton Roads was an American Civil War battle fought at the meeting point of three rivers very close to Chesapeake Bay. A showdown…
Civil War Spies: The Confederacy’s Vast Web of Intelligence and Disruption
Reliable Confederate spy records are hard to find. When Union troops were on their way to the South’s capital in Richmond, the Confederate Secretary of…
Deadliest Battles Of The American Civil War
The American Civil War is a devastating mark on the country’s history. The number of lives lost was substantial, and the social and economic repercussions,…
The Impenetrable Castle of Krak des Chevaliers Was Captured With A Single Sheet of Paper
A hulking edifice of sun-bleached stone, Krak des Chevaliers loomed against a clear blue sky. How many men had died to hold those walls, and…
Saladin: The Powerful General Who Pushed Back the Might of the Crusades
In the brutal, hard-fought wars of the Middle Eastern crusades, few figures stand out as brightly as Saladin. Rallying Muslim forces, he drove back the…
Building Armies in the Harsh World of Medieval England
Recruiting an army could be a difficult business in the Middle Ages. Most people’s lives consisted of farming small patches of land. When people didn’t…
The Black Dispatches From the Civil War Spies
The typical Southern officer’s opinion of African Americans was that they were an inferior subhuman race, lacking in intelligence or cunning. Their ignorance and subsequent…