On 2 September 31 BCE, the army of Octavian met the army of Mark Anthony and his lover Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Their allegiance under the Second Triumvirate had collapsed in 33 BCE after Mark Anthony abandoned his duties to join Cleopatra in Egypt, thereafter attempting to undermine... More
The Battle of Ad Decimum unfolded as the Byzantines advanced towards Carthage during their attempt to reconquer Vandal territory in North Africa. Belisarius led the Byzantine Army against the army of Gelimer, king of the Vandals and Alans. The armies met 10 miles (16 km) south of Carthage as the... More
The Battle of Agincourt is seen as one of England’s greatest military victories and a major conquest of the Hundred Years’ War. Henry V and his weakened, exhausted yet well-trained army of 6,000–9,000 men were on their way to Calais to return home, when they came across a French army... More
Antietam was a brutal battle in an idyllic location. George B. McClellan, the Union commander, was handed a great advantage when a Confederate battleplan was discovered wrapped around three cigars. With a 2:1 numerical advantage, this should have been decisive, but it would be squandered through McClellan’s excessive caution. Over... More
The pivotal moment of the battle of Arsuf was an act of insubordination. After taking the Siege of Acre, Richard I of England marched his crusader army south along the coast towards Jaffa, south of Arsuf. Throughout, his forces were harried by the forces of the Ayyubid sultan, Saladin. Richard... More
In the run-up to Atlanta, the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee sacked Joseph E. Johnston as commander of the Army of the Tennessee for his repeated disinclination to engage numerically superior Union forces. His successor, John B. Hood, displayed the requisite aggression at Peach Tree Creek – and was defeated.... More
The Battle of Auburn, Virginia, was from 13–14 October 1863 between Confederate cavalry and Union Infantry. II and III Corps had become separate from the main Union Brigade who were marching northwards after the Battle of Gettysburg. III Corps, under Colonel Charles Collis, came across General Lunsford Lomax’s Confederate cavalry... More
A catalogue of errors and a military failure, Balaclava is notable for containing three iconic episodes in the history of British warfare. The undoubted heroism was burnished by the prose of Times journalist Sir William Howard Russell and poetry of Lord Tennyson. In the lead-up to battle, which took place... More
Ball’s Bluff was a Union tragedy of errors. First, sent across the Potomac to reconnoitre, a unit of the Corps of Observation ‘observed’ a line of trees to be a rebel encampment. By the time the mistake was discovered, California Senator Baker had ordered his brigade across the river; with... More
Baton Rouge, the state capital of Louisiana, was abandoned after the shock Union seizure of New Orleans in April 1862. General (and former US Vice-President) Breckinridge was mandated to retake it for the Confederacy. An amphibious assault was planned, with a land force of 5,000 men launching their assault on... More
The town of Beersheba had both strategic significance, commanding transport links to Jerusalem, and logistical importance, containing wells vital to replenishing troops and pack animals in the desert. It was accordingly well defended by German-led Ottoman garrisons and surrounded by trenches guarded by hilltop redoubts. Manoeuvre was key to the... More
Having advanced westwards to the River Oder, 37 miles (60 km) from Berlin, the Red Army halted and made preparations for a coordinated attack on the city, while the western Allies began pounding it from the air. In March the Germans, under General Gotthard Heinrici, had established a number of... More