Battle Digest

23/10/2025

Battle of the Month: Kings Mountain (Oct., 7th 1780)
In 1780, with the Revolution in its fifth year, British attention turned south. After the capture of Charleston, South Carolina, British Maj. Gen. Cornwallis moved inland and destroyed the Continental Army at Camden ‒ setting the stage for his movement north. But as Cornwallis began his campaign, a simple proclamation by a subordinate would unravel his plans. Maj. Patrick Ferguson, a promising young officer in charge of recruiting and training Loyalists on Cornwallis’s western flank, sent the inflammatory message into the “over-mountain” region west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The “over-mountain” men responded by joining up their militias and coming after him. When they caught him at Kings Mountain, the resulting battle ‒ pitting American against American ‒ would end the string of British successes in the South and alter the course of the war.

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06/10/2025

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03/10/2025

Discover the Battles that changed the world — Anytime, Anywhere

The world’s greatest battles…simplified.

For years Battle Digest has captured the most important aspects of history’s greatest and most significant battles in a trifold brochure format.

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02/10/2025

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01/10/2025

Check your mailboxes! This classic goes out tomorrow: The Battle of Lutzen (Nov.16, 1632).
By 1618, complex religious alliances, dynastic influences, and mercenary ambitions had thrown Europe into the tumultuous Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). As the war spread, King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden brought his army across the Baltic Sea to aid the Protestant cause. But this was no ordinary army. Gustavus’s army, often considered the first “national” army, was organized and trained differently than the others of the time. In fact, its success on the battlefield would help usher in fundamental changes in the character of warfare. Gustavus’s final act, however, was in 1632 at the Battle of Lϋtzen. In this bloody struggle, the “Lion of the North” ‒ the man who helped create the dawn of modern war ‒ was killed. And although he had changed warfare, his loss would prevent Sweden from becoming a dominant power on the European continent.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/lutzen

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09/09/2025

Battle of the month: Antietam (17 Sept., 1862)
After a year and a half of fighting, the Confederacy held the military initiative in the Civil War. In the West, Confederate forces were on the march toward the Ohio River Valley. In the East, Gen. Robert E. Lee, who had recently assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, had just defeated Gen. John Pope’s Union Army of Virginia in the Second Bull Run Campaign. During the late summer of 1862, Confederate forces launched their first invasion of the North. When Union forces met them near Sharpsburg, Maryland, along Antietam Creek, the result was the “bloodiest day” in American military history. Although the Battle of Antietam was a tactical draw, Union Gen. George McClellan stopped Lee’s invasion. It was a significant enough strategic “victory” to discourage European intervention in the Civil War and for President Abraham Lincoln to broaden the moral aspects of the conflict by issuing his famous Emancipation Proclamation.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com

11/07/2025

Learn how the Civil War really began, in our just released summer issue "First Bull Run" (July 21, 1861)!

Preview: In April of 1861, after Confederate guns forced the surrender of Fort Sumter, the American Civil War began. Both sides rushed to build armies and prepare for what most thought would be a short war. But the first pitched battle, along a creek in northern Virginia known as Bull Run, would shatter those expectations when inexperienced generals ‒ with untrained staff ‒ led their mostly amateur soldiers to war. As the battle began, a clever Union flanking maneuver initially had the surprised Confederates on their heels. But the Union offensive stalled against determined resistance and reinforcements. And by late afternoon, the humiliated Union army was streaming back to Washington in defeat. The wake-up call had sounded: This war would not be quick or easy. It would require the serious business of building professional armies for the years ahead.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com

16/06/2025

It's the 250th Anniversary of Bunker Hill!
In the weeks following the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, Colonial militia and volunteers rallied around Boston to besiege Lt. Gen. Thomas Gage’s British garrison. But when reinforcements arrived from England, Gage devised a plan to regain the initiative by occupying Dorchester Heights south of town. When the Colonials heard of Gage’s plan, however, they preempted him by occupying different high ground ‒ the heights of Bunker Hill near Charlestown. When Gage awoke on 17 June to the sight of rebel positions on Breed’s Hill, he quickly attacked in what would be the first pitched battle of the American Revolution. The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove a costly and shocking victory for the British, while giving the Colonials faith in their militias and an important boost of confidence for the long struggle ahead.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/bunker-hill

17/04/2025

It happenned 250 years ago! Lexington/Concord (April 19th, 1775).

Tension between Britain and her North American colonies had been building for years. After numerous protests and acts of defiance, things took a serious turn after the December 1773 Boston Tea Party, when an irate King George III and Parliament took more drastic action to teach their rebellious citizens in Massachusetts a lesson. After shutting down Boston’s port, dissolving elected government, and placing the colony under military occupation, the dry tinder of Colonial resentment was ready to ignite. The spark came on the morning of 19 April 1775, as a British force moved west to destroy military supplies secretly stored in Concord. When the column came upon a small company of militia waiting on Lexington Green, the fateful “shot heard round the world” rang out. The American Revolution had begun.

Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/lexington-and-concord

30/03/2025

Mailing out First Marne (Sept. 5-12, 1914) this week!
In the summer of 1914, an assassin in Sarajevo ignited the flames of war among the Great Powers of Europe. Hoping for a quick victory, Germany launched its Schlieffen Plan, a massive offensive sweep through Belgium that turned south toward Paris. Under the onslaught, French divisions and their newly arrived British allies were soon in full retreat. It seemed that France would soon surrender, allowing Germany to turn its attention east toward Russia. But everything changed in early September at the Marne River, where the Allies exploited German mistakes to halt the advance. And because this “Miracle of the Marne” deprived Germany of a swift victory, it changed the war from what was expected to be quick and decisive into a grinding contest of trench warfare and unthinkable attrition.
Learn more: www.battledigest.com/product/first-marne

12/02/2025

Battle of the Month: Verdun (Feb. 21 - Dec. 18, 1916)
By early 1916, World War I was in its second year. Germany was fighting on two fronts – France and Great Britain in the West and Imperial Russia in the East. With the prospect of prolonged fighting in the East, Gen. Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff, believed the war would be decided in the West. To break the western stalemate, Falkenhayn planned a battle of attrition. He believed the French would defend Verdun, with its significant military and historical importance, to the last man. He would, therefore, bleed them “white” and force France to sue for peace.

But a competent Gen. Pétain leading determined French defenders thwarted German plans. Over 10 months, in the largest and longest battle of World War I, it became clear that Falkenhayn’s attrition strategy had utterly failed. For the French, the costly victory would become a symbol of national pride and an enduring reminder of the carnage of war.

Learn More: www.battledigest.com/product/verdun

20/01/2025

Here's a nice discussion between me and my West Point classmate, Mark Valley (a Hollywood actor you may have seen in some movies over the years). Here's his podcast episode on Battle Digest. Enjoy!

12 Battles Every American Should Know