They Died with Their Boots On, Volume 1 Quiz

Answer: Leonidas I

The attempt by the Persian Empire under Darius I to invade Greece had ended in failure at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. His successor Xerxes I launched a much stronger force against the Greek city-states in 480 BCE. Leonidas I, one of the two Kings of Sparta, commanded the force sent by Themistocles to block the narrow pass at Thermopylae. Having held the pass for four days and with the threat of being outflanked, Leonidas dismissed the bulk of the Greek army and held the pass for a further three days with about 2,000 men.

The Spartan and Thespian contingents fought to the death - Leonidas included - while a small Theban contingent surrendered. The Persians took the pass and marched on to capture Athens. However, the Greek fleet inflicted a major defeat on the Persians at Salamis, forcing Xerxes to retreat to Asia with most of his army; the remaining Persian forces were defeated at Plataea, ending the invasion.

Answer: Lucius Aemilius Paullus

As the Second Punic War went on, Hannibal invaded Italy in 218 BCE and inflicted two major defeats on the Roman Army. After a brief experiment with granting dictatorial powers to Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrocosus, the Roman Senate reverted to tradition and put the army under the control of the two consuls, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus. They commanded eight legions, some 45,000 men, plus cavalry and auxiliaries. Command of this force alternated between the two consuls on a daily basis.
Varro is presented by contemporary sources as being reckless, while Paullus was prudent and cautious. When the opportunity to attack Hannibal's smaller army arose, Varro pressed Paullus to attack. By the end of the day Paullus was dead along with approximately 48,000 legionaries; a further 19,000 were captured. Carthaginian dead numbered about 5,700.
It was a classic battle of envelopment and annihilation, and it is still studied today. But despite his crushing victory, Hannibal refused to march on Rome; one of his commanders confronted him, saying, "You, Hannibal, know how to gain a victory; you do not know how to use it". Eventually he was forced to retreat to Africa and was defeated at Zama.
The Roman army underwent wholesale changes in organisation, command structures and tactics after Cannae, developing into a professional force.

Answer: Marcus Licinius Crassus

As the Roman Republic staggered towards its end, Marcus Licinius Crassus was a member of the governing First Triumvirate along with Julius Caesar and Pompey. He was the richest man in Rome and was attracted to the idea of military glory and plunder. He decided to invade Parthia without the permission of the Senate with an army of seven legions, but owing to local political issues he was forced to take a route into Parthia through the deserts of Mesopotamia.
The Parthian army was composed almost entirely of cavalry: light mounted archers and heavily armoured soldiers called cataphracts. The archers in particular caused heavy casualties among the Romans, leading to a retreat and an attempt to parlay. Crassus was murdered during these negotiations, and in the following days his army was effectively wiped out: 20,000 were killed and 10,000 captured. Parthian casualties were minimal.
In the latter days of the Empire, both Eastern and Western legions adopted the use of the cataphracts, and it has been argued that the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are to some extent based on these heavily-armoured cavalrymen.

Answer: Publius Quinctilius Varrus

Publius Quinctilius Varrus was a promising leader and married into the family of the Emperor Augustus, so it was no surprise when he was appointed commander of the Roman forces in Germania in 7 CE. After a season's campaigning, Varrus was leading three legions back to winter quarters along narrow, muddy trails in the Teutoburger Forest when he was ambushed by a German chieftain, Arminius, who had previously expressed loyalty to Rome. The fighting retreat continued for some days but the adverse weather and geographical conditions conspired against the Romans and the force was nearly wiped out; casualties amounted to between 15,000 and 20,000.
Emperor Augustus was so shaken by the defeat that he took to banging his head on walls, shouting "Varrus, give me back my legions". In fact, Legion numbers XVII, XVIII and XIX were never used again.
Despite wholesale retaliatory action by the Romans, no subsequent serious attempt to occupy Germania permanently was made.

Answer: Emperor Valens

In 376 CE, pressure from the movement of tribes such as the Huns in Eastern Europe led to the Goths abandoning their homelands and applying to the Eastern Roman Empire for new lands in the area south of the Danube. They were granted this, but the dishonesty of local Roman commanders led the Goths to revolt. Valens, the Eastern Roman Emperor, decided to attack the Goths in the region of Adrianople; he was advised to wait for reinforcements from Gratian, the Eastern Emperor, but he decided to go it alone with about 15,000 to 20,000 men. On the day of the battle in August, Valens' army marched about eight miles from Adrianople to attack the Goth camp on top of a hill.

In the midst of this attack the large Goth cavalry force returned from a foraging expedition and surrounded the Roman infantry, who were physically exhausted and unable to move in cramped conditions. About two-thirds of the Roman army, including Valens, were slaughtered.

Answer: Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex

A Viking army of about 3,000 men under the leadership of Olaf Tryggvason had encamped on Northey Island in the River Blackwater near Maldon. Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex and a doughty warrior in his 60s, called out the levy and went to face them.
The Viking army tried repeatedly to cross the causeway linking Northey Island and the shore, but were blocked by a small Anglo-Saxon force. Eventually Tryggvason requested that Byrhtnoth allow his troops onto the shore so that a formal battle could take place. Astonishingly Byrhtnoth agreed to this. The result was a defeated Anglo-Saxon army, the death of Byrhtnoth (whose body was found decapitated) and a payment of about £1.8 million to the Vikings to buy them off.
The old Anglo-Saxon poem, "The Battle of Maldon", condemns the pride and hubris displayed by Byrhtnoth - hardly surprisingly.

Answer: Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick

The Wars of the Roses started in 1455, and by 1461 the House of York under King Edward IV had seized the throne from the Lancastrian King, Henry VI. Edward rewarded his main supporter Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick - so powerful he was known as "The Kingmaker" - with lands and titles, but Warwick lost confidence in Edward after the latter advanced the position of the Woodville family in his court. Finally Warwick rebelled, liberating Henry VI from captivity and forcing Edward into exile in 1470. But Edward returned the next year.
Eventually Edward faced Warwick at Barnet, outside London. He was outnumbered by about two-to-one but it was a very foggy day; this masked the collapse of Edward's right wing. The Lancastrian troops who had brought this about went to join their allies in the centre, but they were wrongly identified as Yorkists. Cries of "treason!" rang out as they were attacked by their colleagues and the Lancastrian centre collapsed in disarray; Edward took advantage of this by attacking. The Lancastrians fled and in the course of this retreat Warwick was killed; Lancastrian dead considerably outnumbered Yorkist dead.
The result of this battle, in addition to a subsequent Yorkist victory at Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward, while the Neville family permanently lost their power, lands and fortune.

Answer: King James IV of Scotland

At a time of complex European politics, Henry VIII was in France involved in the War of the League of Cambrai; he had left the Earl of Surrey in command in England. Various unpleasantness - raiding, &c. - was taking place on the Anglo-Scottish border, and this eventually resulted in King James IV of Scotland invading Northumberland. Surrey marched northwards, but found James atop a high, steep-sided hill that would have been difficult to attack.
Surrey's brilliant response was to organise a night march with two river crossings, putting his army to the north of the Scots and thus cutting off their retreat route. James changed his army's position to face this new threat but neglected to reconnoitre the ground; his army advanced but ran into an area of boggy ground that made it difficult for his soldiers to use the long, heavy pikes with which they were armed. The Scottish centre was crushed, with many casualties - including James.
The Scottish nobility and its army suffered grievous losses - possibly up to 10,000 men. A general order to the English soldiers not to take any prisoners probably contributed to the death toll. James' body was found surrounded by the corpses of his Archers' Guard bodyguard, who had been recruited from the Forest of Ettrick and were known as "the Flowers of the Forest". A well-known tune of this name composed in the aftermath of the battle is still played at solemn events.

Answer: King Gustavus Aldolphus the Great

King Gustavus Aldolphus the Great (1594-1632) is credited with the rise of Sweden as a great European power, and because of his military innovations such as mobile artillery he is regarded as one of the greatest modern army commanders. In 1630, the Swedes intervened on the anti-Imperial (Protestant) side in the Thirty Years' War, and in doing so reversed the course of the war. Gustavus Adolphus won a significant victory at Breitenfeld in 1631, the first major triumph for the Protestant side. The following year at Lutzen he again was victorious but due to the smoke and confusion on the battlefield he and his entourage got lost; they ran into an Imperial cavalry unit who shot him.

His death was a major loss to the Protestant side which lost direction and was eventually defeated at Nordlingen in 1634, resulting in large areas of Germany changing religion.

Answer: General Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm

It is no exaggeration to say that the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 changed the course of history. The Seven Years' War (or the French and Indian War, as it's referred to in the US) pitted British- and French-led alliances against each other, and the fighting took place all over the world.
British forces under General James Wolfe moved towards Quebec and besieged it for some months. The French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, sat tight in the heavily-fortified city. Eventually Wolfe decided to disembark his soldiers to the west of Quebec, which would block Montcalm's supply route from Montreal. His army climbed the cliffs at the river's edge and set up a line of battle on the Plans of Abraham. Montcalm's response was ill-advised and precipitous - rather than wait for reinforcements from the city he attacked immediately. Sadly his soldiers were unable to withstand the volley fire of the British and were quickly routed. General Wolfe was shot twice and died quickly (but not before learning that his army was victorious); Montcalm was also struck by shot or by musket balls, and he died the next day.
Within days of the battle the French capitulated and would never regain control of Quebec. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 they ceded most of their possessions in Canada and Louisiana to the British.

Answer: Charles II William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick

Following a Prussian declaration of war on France, Napoleon invaded with an army of about 180,000 men. Two battles were fought on the same day within a few miles of each other, at Jena and Auerstedt. At Jena, Napoleon very quickly overcame what he thought was the main Prussian army, but he had sent messages to his Marshals Davout and Bernadotte to come to assist him. Davout found his route blocked at Auerstedt by another, much larger Prussian army led by Field Marshal the Duke of Brunswick, a recognised master of 18th-century warfare. Davout was outnumbered by about two-to-one but despite this his corps endured repeated attacks before it took the upper hand and forced the Prussians to retreat. Benadotte was within earshot of both battles but made no effort to assist Davout.

The Duke of Brunswick was wounded early on in the action by a musket ball that removed both his eyes; he died a few days later. His second-in-command was also a casualty early on, leading to a breakdown in the army command structure. The Duke of Brunswick was succeeded by his son, Frederick William the "Black Duke", who raised an army known as the "Black Brunswickers" (so-called because of their black uniforms worn in mourning for their country occupied by the French).

This little army took part in many guerilla operations against the occupying French forces before joining up with the British/Portuguese army in the Peninsula. In 1815, he raised another army to fight Napoleon in the Hundred Days campaign, but sadly he was shot dead at the Battle of Quatre Bras, a couple of days before Waterloo. His grieving country built him a very fine monument on the site of his death.

Answer: Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton

Despite being convicted of the torture of a 14-year-old slave girl while he was Governor of Trinidad, Sir Thomas Picton went on to serve under the Duke of Wellington as a divisional commander throughout the Peninsula War. There is no doubt that during this period he displayed great personal courage, though he was also known for his bad temper - Wellington said that he was "as rough a foul-mouthed devil as ever lived" while commending his military abilities. These were particularly noticeable at the ending of the Siege of Badajoz, when he turned a secondary attack into the main assault upon the town. His leadership of the Third Division at the Battle of Vitoria was also crucial.
The Hundred Days campaign in 1815 culminated in the Battle of Waterloo. Picton and his division were stationed on the centre-left of Wellington's line, and at about 1.30 pm they were attacked by three divisions of Count D'Erlon's 1 Corps - about 14,000 men. This attack gained considerable ground, but as Picton ordered a counter-attack, shouting "Charge! Charge! Hurrah! Hurrah!", he was shot in the head and killed. The Allied line started to crumble as the French advance continued, but the French were repulsed when Lord Uxbridge ordered two brigades of the heavy cavalry to charge.
Evidence of Picton's behaviour in Trinidad, where he treated the inhabitants brutally, has led to various memorials to him being relocated to less prominent sites.

Answer: General Albert Sydney Johnston

In his 34-year career, Albert Sydney Johnston served as a general in three armies: the Texian, the United States and the Confederate States. In the Civil War, he was assigned command of the whole area west of the Allegheny Mountains, and saw action at Mill Springs. He kept the Union army in a state of confusion by raiding and making it appear that he had more men than he actually did; in fact the Union Brigadier-General Sherman became paranoid and mentally unstable because of this.
Johnston was in command of the Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh on 6th April 1862. In the morning, Johnston launched a successful surprise attack on Grant's lines, but early in the afternoon he was hit behind the right knee by a musket ball. Although not noticed at first his loss of blood was considerable, and within an hour he died. Ironically, he was carrying a tourniquet in his pocket which, if applied, would have saved his life. Beauregard, who succeeded him as on-field commander, called off the Confederate attack early; he hoped to finish Grant off the next day. However, during the night Grant received 20,000 reinforcements and attacked the next day, driving the Confederates from the field and winning the battle.
Johnston was the highest-ranking fatality of the war on either side.

Answer: Major General John F Reynolds

Major General John F Reynolds fought in the Mexican War and then in a number of Civil War battles before arriving at Gettysburg on 1st July in command of 1 Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He found that Confederate forces under Heth were mounting a reconnaissance in force towards the west side of the town, where Union cavalry units commanded by Major General John Buford held a defensive line. Realising the necessity of hanging on to the high ground along Cemetery Ridge, Reynolds began placing artillery and directing men into the fighting in Herbst's Wood - "Forward men forward for God's sake and drive those fellows out of those woods." Immediately after this he was shot in the back of the head and died instantly. His death was seen as a great misfortune as he was among the highest-rated commanders in the army.

It can also be said that by choosing to support Buford where he did he effectively selected the battleground of Gettysburg, turning a chance encounter engagement into a pitched battle.

Answer: Major General John Sedgwick

Major General John Sedgwick commanded the VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and fought in a number of Civil War engagements - the Seven Days battles, Antietam (where he was shot three times) and Second Fredericksburg inter alia.
Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee's troops occupied the strategic junction at Spotsylvania. Grant attacked this position a number of times over a fortnight as both sides entrenched. Sedgwick was inspecting his trenches when he was warned about the activities of Confederate sharpshooters about 1,000 yards away as his staff ducked for cover. He said, "Why are you dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance". Immediately afterwards he was shot through the head and died instantly.
Sedgwick was the highest-ranking Union officer to die in the War.