Featured battle : Island No.10, capture of

Part of American Civil War

Date : 04 April 1862 - 08 April 1862

An island fortress in the Mississippi blocking all Union progress down river, it was taken when Union gunboats under Foote surrounded the island on three sides, and Pope's Army of the Mississippi with makeshift barges sealed the fourth. The 7,000 strong Confederate garrison surrendered.

Battle Understanding Conflict Hastings to Helmand

Graeme Callister & Rachael Whitbread
This is a rather different sort of book in not being about a war, campaign or battle but rather about all battles. It gives the reader a framework through which to assess any particular battle or conflict. The authors make the case that every conflict has a number of contributing factors which add or subtract from the outcome. Their approach is to give each of these factors a chapter which concludes with an account of one or two battles in which the particular factor was significant. They do stress that all the factors have a part to play to a greater or lesser degree in every battle. They also point out the ever present difficulty of finding accurate information about these matters.
The aim of the book is to aid in the understanding of battles and in this it succeeds very well indeed.
We highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand battles of any place or period.

Pen & Sword Military, 2022