Battle Rattle

Wagon Box

On August 2, 1867, a small group of U.S. soldiers found themselves outnumbered and surrounded in the Wyoming Territory. Armed with new rifles and shielded only by wagon-box walls, they faced hundreds of Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. In this episode, we explore the Wagon Box Fight and the lasting impact of one of the most pivotal but often forgotten battles of Red Cloud’s War.

Guns

In 1532, the tiny town of Guns is all that stood between the Ottoman Empire and Vienna. A young knight, Nikola Jurisic, inspired fewer than 1,000 villagers to stand up against the brutal daily assaults of nearly 100,000 Turks. The heroism of those defenders helped halt the Muslim takeover of Europe, and that’s why the battle of Guns is a battle you might not know, but should.

The Last Stand Of The Swiss Guard

Rome spent centuries flexing its muscle as one of the greatest military forces the world has ever known, but on May 6, 1527 Rome failed to keep out a bloodthirsty army that spent the subsequent months murdering Romans and stripping the city of its wealth. Many of the invaders had a bigger target than mere looting: The Catholic Pope Clement VII. These early supporters of Martin Luther sought to imprison or ransom Clement VII, and standing between them and the Pope were a few hundred Swiss Guards, sworn to protect the Pope with their life. Their sacrifice during this Sack of Rome bought the precious minutes Clement VII needed to escape capture. His survival contributed to, in parts, motivating King Henry VIII from breaking from the Catholic Church, as well as promoting the Lutherans into their irrevocable break with the Church. And that’s why the Last Stand of the Swiss Guard is a battle you might not know, but should.

Wabash

You’ve heard of US military tragedies like Pearl Harbor and Custer’s Last Stand, but arguably the worst defeat on a US army force is so unknown that it doesn’t even have a name. Most call it St. Clair’s defeat, named after the general who lost 1/3 of the US’s standing army in a single morning. We call it Battle of the Wabash, named after the river where a smaller Native American force wiped out an American encampment on November 4, 1971.

Colenso

Britain’s introduction to “modern” warfare came a few years before World War I against an unlikely foe: farmers on horseback. Except these farmers geniusly employed smokeless powder, machine guns, and trenches. The farmers were called Boers, and 3,500 of them fended off 21,000 British troops at a small river crossing in South Africa called Colenso.