One of the leading voices on national-security issues in the US Congress demonstrates how words have been sharp and powerful weapons of victory in this compilation of great military speeches that helped turn the tide of history. Congressman Israel has included speeches that have motivated and mobilized, challenged and comforted. Some were blurted in the heat of combat, others carefully written in places far removed from the brutality of the battlefield, but all will inspire readers with the courage that moved people forward against all odds. This dramatic sweep of military history in the words of history's military leaders serves to reinforce the concept that the pen is mightier than the sword. Congressman Steve Israel represents New York's second district and is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and former member of the Armed Services Committee.

The Battle of the Silver Helmets was an engagement orchestrated according to the previous successes of the cavalry of Frederick the Great. It was staged so that the magnificently equipped and trained German Fourth Cavalry Division would charge into glory, sabres rattling; instead, 24 German officers, 468 men, and 843 horses were lost during the eight separate charges conducted that day. The entire right wing of the Imperial German Army consisted of only nine cavalry brigades in the Schlieffen Plan, and in the battle of 12 August 1914, two of these brigades were catastrophically beaten. This battle has not yet been explored in the English language because it took place before the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) landed in the Channel ports and well before any American involvement. British historians have also generally focused on Germany s efforts to enter Belgium through the forts at Liège, which are east of Halen. However, the Battle of the Silver Helmets so impacted century-old cavalry tradition that large-scale charges would never again be attempted on the Western Front. Thoroughly researched and hugely revelatory, The Last Great Cavalry Charge is a blow-by-blow account of the moment that the cavalry went from a prestigious, pivotal role in German Army tactics to obsolescence in the face of newly mechanised infantry. It provides essential and moving insight into the wider socio-cultural repercussions of technical military innovations in the First World War.

In 1519, the Conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the mainland of the Americas. His quest to serve God, win gold, and achieve glory drove him into the heartland of what is now Mexico, where no European had ever set foot before. He marched towards to the majestic city of Tenochtitlan, floating like a jewel in the midst of Lake Texcoco. This encounter brought together cultures that had hitherto evolved in complete isolation from each other – Catholic Spain and the Aztec Empire. What ensued was the swift escalation from a clash of civilizations to a war of the worlds. At the conclusion of the Conquistador campaign of 1519–21, Tenochtitlan lay in ruins, the last Aztec Emperor was in chains, and Spanish authority over the native peoples had been definitively asserted. With the colourful personalities – Cortés, Malinche, Pedro Alvarez, Cuitláhuac, Cuauhtémoc – driving the narrative, and the vivid differences in uniforms, weapons, and fighting styles between the rival armies (displayed using stunning specially commissioned artwork), this is the fascinating story of the collapse of the Aztec Empire.

Civil War historians have long been puzzled by Pickett’s seemingly suicidal frontal attack on the Union center at Gettysburg. Here, for the first time, Paul D. Walker reveals Robert E. Lee’s true plan for victory at Gettysburg: a simultaneous strike against the Union center from the front and rear—Pickett’s infantry to charge the front, while Stuart’s cavalry struck the rear. The frontal assault by Pickett went off as scheduled, but as Stuart’s forces approached from the rear, they encountered a Union cavalry contingent. As the forces joined, the Union cavalry leader was quickly killed, and command fell to one of the most dynamic figures in American history—George Armstrong Custer. What followed was America’s greatest cavalry battle: 7,500 Confederate horsemen ranged against 5,000 Union cavalry, Jeb Stuart against George Custer, with the outcome of the Civil War at stake.

An award-winning historical study of the important role played by Union and Confederate horse soldiers on the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg. The Union army’s victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 3, 1863, is widely considered to have been the turning point in America’s War between the States. But the valuable contributions of the mounted troops, both Northern and Rebel, in the decisive three-day conflict have gone largely unrecognized. Acclaimed Civil War historian Eric J. Wittenberg now gives the cavalries their proper due. In Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions, Wittenberg explores three important mounted engagements undertaken during the battle and how they influenced the final outcome. The courageous but doomed response by Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth’s cavalry brigade in the wake of Pickett’s Charge is recreated in fascinating detail, revealing the fatal flaws in the general’s plan to lead his riders against entrenched Confederate infantry and artillery. The tenacious assault led by Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt on South Cavalry Field is also examined, as is the strategic victory at Fairfield by Southern troops that nearly destroyed the Sixth US Cavalry and left Hagerstown Road open, enabling General Lee’s eventual retreat. Winner of the prestigious Bachelder-Coddington Award for historical works concerning the Battle of Gettysburg, Eric J. Wittenberg’s Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions rights a long-standing wrong by lifting these all-important engagements out of obscurity. A must-read for Civil War buffs everywhere, it completes the story of the battle that changed American history forever.

I have endeavored in the following pages to present the full drama and scope of the 26th Cavalry's heroic but doomed mounted campaign against the seasoned troops, planes, and tanks of the Japanese Army, from the first few hours after the invaders poured from their landing craft onto the shores of Luzon Island in late December 1941, to the final desperate months in Bataan and on The Rock, the Corregidor fortress. Every step of the way, the scouts bought time for MacArthur's army to fight back. It is also not hyperbolic to contend that without the 26th's delaying actions on Luzon--a textbook and innovative campaign studied in modern war colleges--MacArthur might never have had the time to escape the Philippines when ordered to do so in March 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The cavalrymen of the 26th fought the last full-fledged horseback campaign in history, paying a terrible toll but exacting an even higher one upon the Japanese Army. The regiment's story reveals not only the valor of the horsemen, their horses, and the 26th's motorized squadron, but also the way in which the unit's American and Filipino troopers forged ties that transcended race and were forever cemented in blood, suffering, and pride.--from the Prologue, A Vision from Another Century

*Includes pictures *Includes descriptions of the charge made by survivors *Examines the myths and legends surrounding the charge *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents The Charge of the Light Brigade is the most famous British cavalry charge in history, possibly also eclipsing the renown of any other mounted attack conducted by the armed forces of other nations in the general imagination. This cavalry action is certainly remembered far more vividly than the 1854 Battle of Balaclava during which it occurred, and even the wider Crimean War that led to the battle. Of course, the prominence of the Charge in popular and historical memory is due primarily to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem describing the events of that distant late October afternoon. The bearded Poet Laureate crafted a powerful, gripping poetic narrative that fixed the encounter firmly in both the popular imagination and in the English literary oeuvre. Millions of people who know nothing else of the Crimean War between Great Britain and the Russian Empire are familiar with Tennyson's memorable verses. At the same time, however, his words also created a narrative about the combat which has obscured much contrary evidence, replacing fact with legend and completely obscuring the true significance of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Indeed, its perception by historians and depiction in history books has been massively influenced by the sheer artistic power of Tennyson's poem. Sober historians have unwitting cherry-picked the existing original documents to support Tennyson's "version" of the events while disregarding much contrary evidence that provides a very different perspective of the Light Brigade's attack. In fact, a closer examination of source materials casts the Charge of the Light Brigade in a very different light than the widely accepted version of men so highly disciplined and obedient that they obeyed a suicidal order without question. So unquestioningly obedient were the British cavalrymen, the legend declares, that they were willing to charge into a cannon's mouth and die rather than raise a voice of protest against the imbecility of their incompetent officers. This mix of doomed courage and absolute, unfaltering compliance with the orders of their superiors, however idiotic, had given the Light Brigade and the British soldier in general a character of tragic heroism. Powerful as this vision of buffoonish commanders leading soldiers infused with ant-like obedience may be in the world of poetry, considerable documentation still exists which at least partially refutes such an interpretation. These documents, recently revisited by a handful of historians, greatly diminish the role of upper-echelon mistakes in causing the Charge. They restore agency and initiative to the ordinary British soldiers, highlighting them as fierce, independent-minded, and energetic actors in their own right, who very nearly changed the outcome of the entire Battle of Balaclava with their skill, courage, and daring. Ironically, it is possible to argue that the Charge of the Light Brigade was an attack mostly initiated by the rank and file, and that it was largely successful. The actual blunder was the failure of other commanders to support the charge by sending in infantry in its wake, which could potentially have led to the complete rout of the Russian forces. Instead, the British commanders did nothing to exploit the breakthrough created by the initiative, skill, and ferocity of the ordinary cavalryman, squandering the opportunity they had been offered. The Charge of the Light Brigade chronicles the history and legacy of the ill-fated cavalry charge. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Charge of the Light Brigade like never before, in no time at all.

“A mosaic of thousands of tiny pieces that, seen whole, amounts to a fascinating picture of what probably was the most important moment of the Civil War.” —Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times bestselling author of The Generals George Armstrong Custer is famous for his fatal defeat at the Little Bighorn in 1876, but Custer’s baptism of fire came during the Civil War. His true rise to prominence began at Gettysburg in 1863. On the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, Custer received promotion to brigadier general and command—his first direct field command—of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, the “Wolverines.” Custer did not disappoint his superiors, who promoted him in a search for more aggressive cavalry officers. At approximately noon on July 3, 1863, the melee that was East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg began. An hour or two into the battle, after many of his cavalrymen had been reduced to hand-to-hand infantry-style fighting, Custer ordered a charge of one of his regiments and led it into action himself, screaming one of the battle’s most famous lines: “Come on, you Wolverines!” Around three o’clock, the Confederates led by Stuart mounted a final charge, which mowed down Union cavalry—until it ran into Custer’s Wolverines, who stood firm, breaking the Confederates’ last attack. In a book combining two popular subjects, Tucker recounts the story of Custer at Gettysburg with verve, shows how the Custer legend was born on the fields of the war’s most famous battle, and offers eye-opening new perspectives on Gettysburg’s overlooked cavalry battle. “A thoughtful and challenging new look at the great assault at Gettysburg . . . Tucker is fresh and bold in his analysis and use of sources.” —William C. Davis, author of Crucible of Command

Treasury of verse by the great Victorian poet, including the long narrative poem, Enoch Arden, plus "The Lady of Shalott," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," selections from The Princess, "Maud" and "The Brook," more.