I know a great proportion of the senior brass in both the Union and Confederate armies came from West Point but when the Union Army surged in size at the outbreak of the war, there surely weren't enough graduates to fill in general staff, company, and regimental positions within the army. The army wasn't just pushing people through West Point to meet the demand for company and field-grade officers and there existed no equivalents to ROTC or OCS that I'm aware of. It seemed like many of the men receiving commissions in the army were extremely inexperienced and young (like Col. Shaw of the 54th Mass who was only in his early 20s). So what sort of military training - if any - both of formal and informal varieties could these newly recruited officers expect?

In other words, topics beside history that re/tells events?

I learned about Cleopatra's historical background story in my old school where I was saw my former teacher's presentation about Egyptian history. She was the last pharaoh of Egypt and she ruled for 21 years. She was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, Egypt and she died in 30 BC.

​

I really desire to ask you a mysterious question.

Why didn't she allow one of her kids to take over in that reign?

I am currently creating a setting based on the 17th century, and need to remake a character's clothes to be more period appropriate.

What would be clothes fit for a scholar (a field researcher) that would serve in an adventure? Something practical but still of high standing that demands respect? Something not too difficult to draw? I want to bring forth a feeling of a character who's a shut in obsessed with their work, and has difficulty socializing with others. What would be the 17th century equivalent of what they currently wear, an open coat with a tie and shirt, pants and boots?

I'm looking for specifically men's clothes.

Europeans colonized almost the entire planet but never established colonies in Europe itself. For example, no one colonized France or Germany despite having been conquered several times.

Why was there no intra-European colonialism?

Hello, I'm a bit of a History nerd (mostly into Classics, but overall interested in many topics). For the passt years, I learned a bit about the Viking Age (I guess the TV series Vikings got me inspired). Most of the times we hear about England being invaded (Great Heaven Army, Danelaw) and I know that vikings were in Ireland, too and founded Dublin. How ever what is mostly missing in the picture for me is Wales. Was ist ever invaded by vikings/ norse/ scandinavians or not? Did it perhaps even benefit from the raids and conquests of the various Anglo-Saxon states in a way? Thanks a lot for your answers!

I've been interested in the Crusades for a while and I'm currently reading Asbridge book on the Crusades. I know that in Europe the Crusades coincided with the rise of antisemitism and this made me wonder if there's any jewish witnesses of the time.

Are there any books that specifically study the Crusades from the Jewish point of view? As in is it possible to know what Jewish people both in Europe and the Middle East thought about the Crusades?

Bonus questions : Would my father give me anything as a ''parting'' gift like an horse or a set of armor ? How common would my circumstances be in the holy roman empire and europe ?

Busy researching this, and wanting to know if there's anything I am missing. I am not finding too much of what the Luftwaffe thoughts against these fighters.

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Come share the cool stuff you love about the past!

We do not allow posts based on personal or relatives' anecdotes. Brief and short answers are allowed but MUST be properly sourced to respectable literature. All other rules also apply—no bigotry, current events, and so forth.

For this round, let’s look at: **Hinduism **! It's time for Diwali and all things related to Hinduism! Let this thread become a festival of knowledge where we celebrate all things related to the followers of the world's third largest religion.

To expand on it, how did conservatism as an ideology shift electorally from a total loser to a total winner in half a generation?

The Khmer kingdom of Angkor was Hindu, but Cambodia has been predominantly Buddhist for hundreds of years. There are various theories suggesting a link between the rise of Buddhism and the fall of Angkor, but what does the current historical scholarship have to say about this transition?

I know these are two different time periods but I'm curious to both. It seems like Rome ruled the world for a while but I haven't heard anything about other countries during these time periods. I was curious about Asia specifically, and how the cultures might have interacted.

Aren’t there a lot of older sports that would’ve had more time to get popular and spread around the world?

With the exception of some areas in Louisiana and New England, there are virtually no large communities of French speakers in the United States. In contrast, French is the official language of Quebec.

There is a rather large independence movement in Quebec due to perceived cultural and political differences between them and the rest of Canada, going so far as to have a formal independence referendum in the 1990s where independence was defeated by barely 1%. In contrast, virtually all of the territories that were part of the Louisiana Purchase are thoroughly American. With the exception of some quirks of Louisiana state law, nobody would say there are meaningful differences brought about by their French history.

What led to this difference?

The Soviet Union under Stalin did massively industrialize. Stalins focus was heavy industry to not only produce thinks like tractors but also arms when necessary. The Soviet government did fear a second invasion like during the Russian civil war. But where they right? Did other countries besides Nazi Germany really plan to invade the Soviet Union? Or was Stalin simple super paranoid (even when it was to some degree understandable (he was still a very terrible person, but yeah))?

Through documentation of their presence and archaeological findings in battle sites, we know that women belonging to the Bushi class fighting in Japan's civil wars was a relatively common sight, particularly during the Sengoku Period. One such warrior was Tomoe Gozen, who fought under Minamoto no Yoshinaka in the Genpei War. Yoshinaka was defeated in the Battle of Awazu in 1184, and there, he supposedly told Tomoe to flee because "He would be ashamed to die with a woman." For me, this incident raises the question on the title. How were Onna-musha generally perceived by their lords, comrades, and the general population of Japan, particularly during the conflicts of the Heian and Muromachi periods, when they were most common on the battlefield?