Dept. of Military History at Ft. Leavenwoth’s Command & General Staff College

Dr. Geoff Babb from the Department of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College will discuss Ancient Chinese War with an emphasis on the thirteen chapters of Sun Tzu’s Art of War.  After a brief look at The Six Secret Teachings of Tai Kung, the presentation examines enduring phrases from each […]

Warfare in the European Middle Ages (c. 500-1500) can be broadly characterized as limited: limited objectives, limited budgets, and limited size of armies. Despite medieval society having an overall martial culture, these factors conspired to make warfare episodic, defensively oriented, and positional in character. This lecture will explore the intellectual underpinnings of medieval limited war […]

The Maginot Line has assumed a mythical status as the height of French interwar doctrinal stagnation. The reality, however, is that the Maginot Line represented a potential solution to the difficult French strategic position. Dr. Cameron Zinsou of the Command and General Staff College shows how its development, manning, and the debates about the Line […]

This presentation examines the experiences of American military and political figures who were present in France for the Prussian victory in 1870-71 over Napoleon III, as well as the observations of newspaper editors and columnists in the United States opining on military events overseas. Some of these observers were veterans of the American Civil War. […]

Napoleon remains a character of endless fascination, even more than two centuries after his death.  The God of War, as one biographer identified him, conquered much of Europe before his ultimate downfall, and is often counted with Alexander the Great and Caesar as one of the greatest military minds in human history.  This talk will […]

Following the Declaration of Independence from Great Britian, the United States’ Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington attempted to defend New York City in August of 1776. During the Battle of Long Island, the leadership and actions of George Washington would save his army from capture and defeat and ultimately preserve the cause […]

Perhaps the most memorable campaign that underpinned US Army LTG Ulysses S. Grant’s military strategy of 1864, MG William Tecumseh Sherman’s Savannah Campaign exhausted the Southern Confederacy and hastened an end to the American Civil War. The “March to the Sea” has inspired mixed mythologies of the war: it became synonymous in the Lost Cause […]