July 22 in Military History — On This Day

Battle of Falkirk

Edward I himself returned and caught Wallace's army near Falkirk. Wallace formed his spearmen into 'schiltrons' — hedgehog rings of pikes — which broke the English cavalry charges, but Edward's Welsh and English longbowmen shot the packed circles to pieces from a distance, and when gaps opened the horsemen rode in.

Falkirk was the first great demonstration of the massed longbow, the weapon that would dominate the coming century of Anglo-French and Anglo-Scottish war. Wallace resigned the Guardianship and took to guerrilla resistance and diplomacy abroad.

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⚔️📍 Salamanca, Spain1812

Battle of Salamanca — Wellington's Masterpiece

Wellington exploited an overextension of French Marshal Marmont's army with a devastating flank attack, destroying Marmont's force in about 40 minutes — one of the fastest decisive victories of the Napoleonic Wars. Marmont was wounded; his successor also fell wounded.

Salamanca liberated Madrid and demonstrated that Wellington could fight an offensive battle as well as his famous defensive actions, cementing his reputation as Napoleon's most capable opponent.

Outcome

British victory; French army destroyed; Madrid liberated

Casualties

14,000

Fall of Atlanta

Sherman's relentless campaign through Georgia culminated in the capture of Atlanta, the Confederacy's industrial heart. Confederate General Hood repeatedly attacked and lost, then was forced to evacuate the city.

Saved Lincoln's reelection and ensured the war would be prosecuted to completion. Sherman would then march to the sea, destroying Confederate logistics and morale.

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Battle of Tsaritsyn

Don Cossack forces under Ataman Krasnov besieged Tsaritsyn three times in 1918–1919. Stalin, sent as a political commissar to secure grain supplies, turned the defense into his personal military fiefdom — ignoring Trotsky's orders, executing commanders he distrusted, and using brutal methods to hold the city. The city held through all three sieges, contributing to the strategic stalemate on the southern front. The battle's name would later be immortalized when the city was renamed Stalingrad.

The defense of Tsaritsyn became a cornerstone of Stalin's personal mythology and a source of lasting conflict with Trotsky. The city's strategic location controlling Volga grain supplies made it vital to the Bolshevik war effort.

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