Great Battles
“MORE AMERICANS DIED ON 17 SEPTEMBER 1862, THAN ON D-DAY, 6 JUNE 1944”
ANTIETAM CREEK, MARYLAND 17 SEPTEMBER 1862
The first year of the American Civil War (1861-65) had shown the people of both north and south that it would be a long, bloody conflict. A decades-long feud over states’ rights to own slaves in the south, versus the determination in the north to abolish the evil trade, had culminated in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in November 1860. Lincoln had won on a platform not to abolish slavery, but to reform it and prevent its spread into the new states being formed in the west of the continent.
To southerners, who had not voted for him, this was a step too far and they openly argued for secession – that is, to leave the Union and set up their own government. Eleven states would form what would become known as the Confederacy. By April 1861, with Lincoln now in office, both sides became belligerent and armed conflict became a distinct possibility, with Americans on both sides of the political divide rushing to join local militias, state units and armies.
Denne historien er fra Issue 107, 2022-utgaven av History of War.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 107, 2022-utgaven av History of War.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war
