18th & 19th Century

Military History Events, Lectures, and Exhibitions – November 2021

The best Military History events, lectures, and exhibitions running from November to April 2022.

Anglo-Boer War Blockhouses: a military engineer’s perspective

The final phase of the South African War of 1899-1902, in which Boer guerrillas were eventually overcome by British forces, has been extensively studied by historians. The concentration camps, in which an estimated 27,000 civilians died as part of a…

RIGHT The newly conserved samurai armour in the Turquoise Room of Snowshill Manor.

Samurai armour goes back on display after conservation

The suit was made in around 1830 in the Japanese province of Kaga, an important centre of armour production

Back to the Drawing Board: the Nock Volley Gun

David Porter on Military History's doomed inventions.

OPPOSITE The Bombardment of Alexandria, 11 July 1882. Admiral Seymour’s ironclads smashed the Egyptian coastal batteries in a few hours. But the Egyptian Army simply retreated inland. An army of invasion would be needed.

All Sir Garnet! The Battle of Tel el-Kebir, 13 September 1882

It signalled a new age of empire – an age of armed intervention by industrialised European armies. The Scramble for Africa had begun. In this extended extract from his new book, MHM Editor Neil Faulkner analyses the battle in which Victorian Britain destroyed an Egyptian nationalist movement and took possession of the country.

1200px Elizabeth Southerden Butler Lady Butler 1846 1933 The Defence of Rorkes Drift RCIN 405897 Royal Collection

The Past

This week: Rorke’s Drift

The Defence of Rorke's Drift remains one of the most celebrated engagements in UK military history. On the night of 22 January 1879, a force of just over 150 British and colonial troops held off an estimated 3-4,000 Zulu warriors during more than 12 hours of bitter, hand-to-hand fighting that would result in the award of 11 Victoria Crosses.

The best military history events, lectures, and exhibitions (September 2021)

MHM's round-up of the best military history activities to explore this September, which includes an exhibition featuring 50 portraits of Holocaust survivors, and the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.

Russia returns remains of Napoleonic general to France

Gudin’s one-legged skeleton was found in the summer of 2019 in a park under the foundations of a dancefloor in Smolensk.

BELOW British infantry fight against the French heavies at Corunna. Moore recognised the need for an agreed and coherent light infantry system across the whole British Army.

Sir John Moore and the Battle of Corunna

Andrew Mulholland analyses a masterful tactical defence by one of the finest British commanders of the Napoleonic Wars.

Military History Matters 123

• Nelson and Trafalgar
• Germany’s brutal Great War POW camps
• Lincoln vs McClellan
• The Battle of Cerami, 1063
• Forgotten battles: Catarelto, September/October ’44

ABOVE John Chard (1847 1897). He was awarded a Victoria Cross for his ‘gallant conduct at the defence of Rorke's Drift’.

Museum acquires items from defender of Rorke’s Drift

At the auction, the museum acquired three lots belonging to Chard: a small archive of material relating to his life; a manuscript copy concerning the battle; and surveying and drawing instruments in a wooden case belonging to the Lieutenant.

Military history events, lectures, and exhibitions – July 2021

MHM offers a glimpse into the best military history exhibitions and experiences available to the public in July 2021, including The Tank Museum's fair and auction, and the National Army Museum's exhibit on West Indian servicemen.

LEFT The Marquess of Anglesey's Column near the Menai Strait in Wales. In the 200 years since its construction, the monument has become a popular local tourist attraction.

Project to restore Waterloo hero’s monument gets funding boost

The site is dedicated to Henry Paget, who was second in command under the Duke of Wellington and leader of the allied cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

OPPOSITE Andrew Gardner’s photo of Lincoln and McClellan meeting in the General’s campaign tent near the Antietam battlefield in October 1862 is famous. It is posed, of course, but the body language still looks distinctly awkward.

Firing the Generals: Lincoln v McClellan

President Abraham Lincoln and Prime Minister Winston Churchill have such iconic status as the victorious leaders of their countries in the American Civil War and World War II respectively that they often seem beyond criticism. Yet, at the height of the conflicts, they both risked all by firing their leading generals. Although Lincoln had no previous military knowledge or experience, whereas Churchill had fought in battles and witnessed war both as a soldier and war correspondent, they acted with similar decision and despatch when their generals seemed either incompetent or not to be fighting with the aggressive spirit they demanded. In the first of two articles, Nigel Jones describes Lincoln’s long search for a war-winning general, and his feud with the ultra-cautious General George B McClellan.

Nelson and Trafalgar

Graham Goodlad concludes our series on naval leadership with a look at the legendary figure of Horatio Nelson.

OPPOSITE The Battle of Trafalgar (1836) by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield. The artist has chosen to depict the duel between HMS Victory, HMS Temeraire, and, between them, the French ship Redoubtable.

Britain’s greatest naval victory

Military History Matters' Neil Faulkner analyses Nelson’s culminating tactical masterpiece.

The Past

This week: Nelson

Who is Britain's greatest military hero? In a poll of the general public, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, came in third place on 11%. In second, on 19%, was Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. But the clear leader – with 27% of the vote – was Horatio Nelson, the inspirational admiral whose victory at Trafalgar is often regarded as Britain's greatest naval triumph.

Blood and Iron: the rise and fall of the German Empire 1871-1918

Just over halfway through her excellent new book on Germany between the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the ‘Captain of Köpenick’ incident. In 1906, an petty criminal called Wilhelm Voigt went around…

Napoleon’s tomb

Finally completed in April 1861,Napoleon’s remains were transferred into this huge object of red aventurine quartzite from a quarry in northern Russia.

Chancellorsville, 1863: A case of nerves, the moon, and mistaken identity

John Lock looks at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 in the first of a series of articles looking at the Butterfly Effect – where small incidents have significant consequences.

ABOVE Major General Edward Braddock (1695 1755). A British Army veteran of 45 years’ service, Braddock was too arrogant to take proper account of the exceptional nature of warfare in the American wilderness.

Debacle in the wilderness: Braddock at Monongahela

‘A volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.’ That was the judgement of Horace Walpole. Fred Chiaventone tells the story.

Raising the dead, 1865

In June 1864, Cold Harbor was the site of a fortnight-long battle during the American Civil War.

A year later, photographer John Reekie visited the battlefield and captured pictures of men as they roamed the fields, collecting and reburying the bones of dead soldiers.

The 9th East Norfolk

Patrick Mercer reports on a tough fighting regiment of the Napoleonic Wars, let down by dismal command in 1809.

The Compleat Victory

In the summer of 1777, British forces were waging a campaign to finally crush the American rebellion. Kevin Weddle here analyses how Continental Army and Militia forces under Major General Horatio Gates turned the situation around, inflicting a stunning defeat…

A 1799 portrait of Nelson. In his letter, he wrote of hearing of ‘a full trial with the cowpox’ which proved to be a success.

Nelson urged mistress to vaccinate their daughter against smallpox

The victor of the Battle of Trafalgar may have been a naval genius. But it has now emerged that Admiral Lord Nelson was also uncommonly wise when it came to another subject: vaccination. In a letter to his mistress, model…

Military History Matters 120

• How the Royal Navy achieved global supremacy
• Jan Smuts: guerrilla, politician, warlord
• Sweden’s greatest defeat: Battle of Kircholm, 1605
• Clash of champions: war by personal combat
• Texel, 1945: Nazi Germany’s forgotten last battle

Smuts: guerrilla, politician, warlord

Stephen Roberts reports on the extraordinary career of Jan Smuts, who went from Boer commander to Commonwealth statesman.

Restoring HMS Victory

MHM'S Assistant Editor Calum Henderson delves into the history of HMS Victory.

LEFT Captain Halswelle of the Highland Light Infantry. He described the misery of the First World War shortly before his death.

War Athletes – Wyndham Halswelle

The life of Wyndham Halswelle - Olympic athlete and soldier in the Second Boer War and Second World War.

Rodney, Howe, and the rise of British seapower

In the half century between the Battle of Quiberon Bay (1759) and the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), Britain’s Royal Navy transformed naval tactics and established global maritime supremacy. Developments in the technology of sail power and naval gunnery had combined…