A detailed account of the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862, which saw Confederate forces under “Stonewall” Jackson overwhelm a series of superior Union forces in a 48-day campaign.
The forces which Wellington led in Portugal and Spain and up into southern France between 1808 and 1814 achieved a record of victory perhaps unmatched in the history of the British Army. Among his infantry the regiments of the Light Division were self-consciously an élite, trained to fight with initiative and independence on the exposed edges of the marching army. This book explains their evolution and tactics, details the campaigns in which they fought and illustrates the uniforms and equipment of the Light Infantry regiments: the 43rd (Monmouthshire), 52nd (Oxfordshire), 51st (2nd Yorkshire), 68th (Durham) and 85th (Bucks Volunteers).
Taking a populist approach to a serious subject, Myke Cole combines a novelist's flair for drama with an ancient historian's eye for detail to create a unique book that delves into one of the most popular areas of the Ancient World.
From the time of Ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder with shields interlocking, the men of the phalanx presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. Until, that is, the Roman legion emerged to challenge them as masters of infantry battle.
Covering the period in which the legion and phalanx clashed (280–168 BC), Myke Cole delves into their tactics, arms and equipment, organization and deployment. He draws on original primary sources to examine six battles in which the legion fought the phalanx – Heraclea (280 BC), Asculum (279 BC), Beneventum (275 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and Pydna (168 BC).
Cole shows how and why the Roman legion, with its flexible organization, versatile tactics and iron discipline, came to eclipse the hitherto untouchable Hellenistic phalanx and dominate the ancient battlefield.