A Lewis gunner explains how the Lewis gun was loaded and used in short bursts for the best effect and how it could even be taken into No Mans Land to support troops in an attack

A soldier describes the Battle of Edge Hill and how Prince Rupert's cavalry charged into the Parliamentarians.

Casimir Pulaski, or Kazimierz Pułaski if you prefer, lived a heck of a life. Was the Bar Confederation ultimately successful in preventing the partition of Poland? Maybe not. Would someone else have saved George Washington's life if Ben...

A description of the brass box given to every serving soldier; it explains why and what the different boxes contained.

A WW1 soldier describes the Christmas Truce 1914, he explains it was more an opportunity for burying their dead than playing football.

Buboes, black spots, and bloody froth: it was all in a day’s work for Black Death body collectors. The plague, which may have killed as many as 200 million people worldwide, changed everything—including body disposal.

Gericault was able to turn a tragedy into a monument of universal suffering.

Medieval Europe had no shortages of super deadly disease outbreaks that could wipe out a chunk of the population without much effort. But none of them were quite as fun as the bizarre case of Frau Troffea and the dancing plague that had...

Ambroise Pare explains how he found an alternative way to treat wounds.

Samuel Pepys gives an eye witness account of the Great Plague in London in 1665.

A description of the flamboyant cavalier Prince Rupert who was not only commander of the King's cavalry but also his nephew

A description of the Lewis gunner, the first machine gunner who could pick up his gun and take it with him even though it weighed over twelve kilos.

An introduction to Ambroise Pare, his early career and his experience of treating wounds with boiling oil.

An introduction to the new poor laws introduced in 1834 together with an overview of the conditions in a workhouse.

A description of a trench; the traversing, loop holes and the use of trench periscopes to view the enemy. Part 2 of a 7 part series

A WW1 nurse talks about her first experience of dressing a gangrene wound and the limited pain relief available

Six weeks after his bloody repulse at the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Napoleon led his reinforced army back across the Danube. The resulting clash with Archduke Charles's Austrian army was the biggest and bloodiest battle yet seen in...

A munitionette describes how they worked, the explosives they came into contact with and the reason their skin turned yellow. Part 1 in a 4 part series

A look at the development of hand grenades and the ingenuity of the soldiers who made their own.

An account of how whole families often had to go into the workhouse and once there, they were separated and made to work for no pay

A description of the practicalities and problems the army faced in the trenches when it came to supplies and latrines. Part 3 of a 7 part series

A description of a middle-class family holiday at the seaside booked through Cooks Travel Excursionist.

Slave labor was a huge aspect of Roman life and the Republic depended heavily on free work from human beings who had no rights, no possessions, and were left at the whims of their masters to be worked to death, starved, tortured, and...

A war widow explains how women were given the news of their loved one's death and shows that some war pensions were only temporary