Prussian Fusiliers of the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War: Uniforms, Organisation and Equipment This new comprehensive study of Frederick II's Fusilier and Garrison Regiments is organised by province reflecting contemporary practice rather than using the regimental number. It combines sources from the earliest available to the most recent studies, details their Chef (colonel-in-chief), campiagn history, organisation, uniforms, flags and equipment. The strength of this study lies in the lavish number of illustrations. There are over 750 colour illustrations, including over 315 drawings by Dessauer (1729, 1737), Accurate (1759), Stammliste (1762), Etat Militaire (1770), and Menzel (1857) with schematics from Hans Bleckwenn, Eduard Bolz, Hans Brauer and Richard Knotel. The uniform and equipment chapters have 250+ uniform details, equipment, fusilier caps, lace and weapons plus 92 flags. In addition there are 8 maps, 15 tables and 16 orders of battle. This is the companion volume to the author's acclaimed study of 'Prussian Musketeers of the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War'.

At the beginning of this period, the battalions of the Prussian Line usually fought in a linear formation three ranks deep, overwhelming the enemy with fire before a well-timed bayonet attack. By the end, the preferred formation was eight to 12 ranks deep. The responsibility for conducting the fire-fight was now given to the skirmish elements and the artillery. The formed battalions provided support for the fire line, and conducted the decisive bayonet charge. Whatever the change, the spirit and ability of the infantry remained consistently high throughout this bloody period.

The fighting in Europe during the Seven Years War hung in the balance. After initial successes the Austro-French forces had been driven back across the Rhine. With the opposing sides reinforcing their armies, the campaign of 1759 was going to prove decisive.Britain and her German allies met the French at Minden in Germany. Due to a misunderstanding of orders the British infantry actually attacked and dispersed the French cavalry. That action is still commemorated on 1 August each year with the wearing of roses by the infantry and artillery regiments whose predecessors picked flowers and put them in their coats as they passed through German gardens on the way to the battle.By contrast Lord Sackville, who commanded the British cavalry, was accused of ignoring orders to charge the retreating French which could have turned defeat into rout. He was court-martialled and cashiered.The victory at Minden was just one in a number of British successes that years against French forces and overseas territories across the globe. This led to 1759 being described by the British as the Annus Mirabilis the year of miracles.

In The Seven Years’ War: Global Views, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, and sixteen other contributors reach beyond traditional approaches to illuminate the conflict as world war. An introduction addresses the challenges of discretely defining the war. Chapters examine theaters such as the Carnatic, Bengal, the Philippines, Portugal, Senegal, and the Caribbean. Other chapters treat understudied topics such as the Anglo-Cherokee campaigns, Sweden’s participation, Ottoman neutrality, the Vatican, European perceptions of Cossacks and Kalmyks, the Enlightenment and the war, the choosing of sides in Europe and North America, social and political aspects of French and British military life, operational reconnaissance, and the war’s complex ending in western Germany. A conclusion situates the war as a marker of modernity. Contributors are in order of appearance: Juergen Luh, Armstrong Starkey, Matthew C. Ward, G.J. Bryant, Johannes Burkhardt, Gunnar Aselius, Virginia H. Aksan, Julia Osman, Ewa Anklam, Mrian Fuessel, James Searing, Richard Harding, John Oliphant, Mark H. Danley, Patrick J. Speelman, Nicholas Tracy, and Matt Schumann.

First published in 1987. War in the 18th century was a bloody business. A line of infantry would slowly march, to the beat of a drum, into a hail of enemy fire. Whole ranks would be wiped out by cannon fire and musketry. Christopher Duffy's investigates the brutalities of the battlefield and also traces the lives of the officer to the soldier from the formative conditions of their earliest years to their violent deaths or retirement, and shows that, below their well-ordered exteriors, the armies of the Age of Reason underwent a revolutionary change from medieval to modern structures and ways of thinking.

The Prussian light infantry branch was founded in the reign of Frederick the Great (1740-1786) and continued to develop from then onwards. It was the light troops of the Austrian army, the Croatian border soldiers, which so impressed Frederick in the Seven Years War that he considered it necessary to create an effective counter-force. Initially, there was a degree of reluctance amongst certain sections of the army towards this formation of light infantry. However, the Fusilier Battalions came to be regarded as elite formations, being well-trained, disciplined and carefully selected men led by young, fit and intelligent officers. This book described in detail the uniforms, organisation, training and weapons of this spectacular force.

American Military Shoulder Arms, Volume I: Colonial and Revolutionary War Arms focuses on the arms used from the early exploratory period throughout the colonial period and the American Revolution. Arranged chronologically, it contains definitive descriptions of the pre-flintlock and flintlock shoulder arms used in North America and detailed accounts of the development and progression of military regulation shoulder arms of the major colonial powers from the early eighteenth century through the Revolutionary War. Lavishly illustrated with more than four hundred vivid photographs of muskets, rifles, carbines, and other arms, this book offers an intelligent analysis of the shoulder arms procured and used by the colonists, colonial and state governments, and the Continental Congress.