Military History Photo Friday: The Battle of Dogali

I was chatting with science fiction author David Drake this week and he mentioned a recent visit to Italy, where he got to see this splendid painting. It's by Michele Cammarano and depicts the Battle of Dogali on January 26, 1887.

This was an early engagement during Italy's attempt to colonize Abyssinia, modern Eritrea and Ethiopia. The Italians had taken the coastline, modern Eritrea, and the Emperor Yohannes IV sent an army to push them back. After the Abyssinians unsuccessfully attacked an Italian fort, the 10,000 warriors ambushed an Italian relief column headed for the fort. The column consisted of 500 Italians, 50 native irregulars, and two machine guns. The machine guns soon jammed and the Italians were overrun.

The Italians quickly vacated the region, but came back in 1896 intent on taking the entire country and regaining the honor they lost at Dogali. Instead, they were defeated at the famous Battle of Adowa, the subject of one of my books.

The detail below certainly makes it look like the Italians are winning. Note the curved shotel sword the Abyssinian to the left is carrying. These were fearsome weapons and were especially good against shield-carrying African warriors.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, where you can see a large format copy of this painting.

Guest Post: Using Real Cultures in Fantasy Fiction

Today I've invited blogger buddy A.J. Walker to talk about his new fantasy novel, The Maze of Mist. I've guest blogged for his Medieval Mondays series several times on topics such as medieval handgonnes and medieval weapons in the Civil War, so it's great to have him here. He's going to talk about using real cultures in fantasy fiction. Take it away, A.J.!

Fantasy fiction is a blend of the familiar and the strange. The familiar helps the reader construct a framework for envisioning the story. It's no surprise, then, that most high fantasy settings are reminiscent of medieval Europe. Writers usually pick medieval England, France, and the Norse region as their settings, and while I love all these cultures, I've always felt there were plenty of others that were being underused.

For my Timeless Empire series, the setting is reminiscent of medieval Spain. That makes it a little different than your typical fantasy novel, but still familiar.

I went further afield with The Maze of Mist. The protagonist, Metis Itxaron, is a mixed-race prince, the son of a goblin mother and a human father. Goblinkin culture is a mix of Native American, the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, the prehistoric Kurgan culture, and a fair amount of my own weirdness. The human culture is medieval European. I wanted something for my reader to find familiar!

I also throw in a new race, the mysterious Amhara from beyond the Southern Sea. These explorers have solved the mystery of the Maze of Mist, a strange labyrinth of fog that has baffled navigators for all of recorded history. For this culture, I borrowed some of Sean's experience and made them Ethiopian. If you're a regular reader of Sean's travel writing you know he's a regular visitor to that ancient land and has even written a book about Ethiopian history.

So why Ethiopia? Because as an archaeologist I know this land is home to one of the oldest and most advanced civilizations in the world. Even Heroditus lists it as one of the great cultures of his time. Yet it is almost entirely ignored in Western history books.

The kingdom of Abyssinia went through several different incarnations that had several similarities. The land was made up of several tribes and held together by a ruler that did not have absolute power except in times of dire emergency such as a foreign invasion. Women enjoyed a relatively high status and compared to medieval Europe (although there weren't female warriors like I have in my novel) and studies such a geography, painting and literature were highly developed.

When my protagonist goes off with these newcomers on a diplomatic mission, he gets to sample their food and drink, learn about their world view, and generally immerse himself in their culture. He's not just journeying across an ocean, he passing from one culture to another. The ancient Abyssinian kingdoms are a perfect model for a civilization that your typical fantasy character would find both strange and alluring.

Plus they had cool swords and strong booze. You gotta have cool swords and strong booze in a fantasy novel!


Thanks, A.J.! Do you have a new release you'd like to shout about? Go to the How Can I Help You? page to learn how, well, I can help you. . .

The Italian Connection

My book Armies of the Adowa Campaign, about the disastrous Italian attempt to invade Ethiopia in 1896, has been translated into Italian by the publisher Editrice Goriziana. I haven't seen an actual copy yet, but I notice that they've changed the cover. You can see the new cover here.

I've also been invited to give a talk at a history conference in Italy this May. The subject of the conference is historical bandits, and my talk is tentatively called "Jesse James, Inc." I'll be talking about how Missouri's most famous outlaw was used to sell books, movies, tourist attractions, and generally make money. The process started even while Jesse was still running around robbing banks!

I'll post more details on this conference when the plans get finalized.

Busy, busy, busy

I've been a busy bee lately. As I mentioned before, my wife and I are running a photo exhibition on Ethiopia to benefit the charity A Glimmer of Hope. Opening night was on Sunday and we met some interesting folks as well as seeing many of our friends. I wrote an article about running a photo exhibition for Gadling that might be of interest to you shutterbugs out there.

I've also been busy on the sequel to A Fine Likeness. The most recent scene involved two bushwhackers hunting each other through the dark rooms of an abandoned plantation, while our hero, a naval officer who has never fought on land, tries to help one of them and finds it's all he can do to survive. I had a lot of fun writing that scene. Always a good sign!

In completely unrelated news, my fellow blogger Melanie Renzulli recently visited the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. This museum has many grim anatomical samples from Civil War casualties. Worth reading. Be warned about the photo gallery, though, it's not lunchtime viewing!

Ethiopia photography exhibition opens Sunday!

My wife and I are opening a photography exhibition about Ethiopia this Sunday at 8pm here in Santander, Spain. If on the off chance you happen to live nearby, please come along. You can find the details in this poster. It was designed by my brother-in-law, who also used his talents to design the cover of my Civil War novel.

All proceeds will go to benefit A Glimmer of Hope, an NGO that's doing excellent work building schools over there. You can read an article I wrote about them here.

The local paper El Diario Montañes gave us a nice writeup today, and they even mentioned my novel!

Our upcoming photo exhibition on Ethiopia

My brother-in-law Andrès, the same talented guy who designed the cover to my Civil War novel, has made a poster for my wife's and my upcoming photo exhibition. The photos are from our travels around Ethiopia and feature the people and places of Africa's oldest nation. All proceeds go to A Glimmer of Hope, which specializes in rural education. You can read more about them in an article I wrote here.

We're opening on June 1 at one of our favorite bars here in Santander, Spain. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, come to the grand opening! If you can't make it, check out two series I wrote for Gadling about this fascinating African nation. One was a tour around Ethiopia, and the other was about my two months living in Harar, a medieval walled city near the Somali border.

Three good reviews for my military history books

This week I've discovered three more reviews of my military history books. My Armies of the Adowa Campaign got its fourth five-star review on Amazon:

"A very good introduction to this forgotten battle. This is the only english language book that I know of devoted to the battle of Adowa.
"Twenty years after Little Bighorn which ended in the massacre of nearly 300, the Italians suffered nearly 6,000 killed in a huge catastrophe that resulted in the collapse of an Italian government. The two battles had many similarities--mis-judged indiginous enemy's strength; allowing an already outnumbered force to be split in the face of the enemy; over-estimated ability of a modern European/American army to overcome indigenous numbers; indigenous forces armed with modern weapons (in some cases more modern than that of the European/Americans).
"However, the scale of the battle, and the Italian disaster was exponentially greater with concomitant strategic effects. Despite this, Adowa gets hardly a notice in English language military histories where the writing and study of Little Big Horn is prolific. This Osprey volume is a good start to remedy this knowledge gap of a very dramatic and horrific battle."

My Civil War book, Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863, also got a five-star review on Amazon. The reviewer gives his review the unfortunate title "a moderate success", which is actually my assessment of the raid, not his assessment of my book!

"There are a good selection of supporting illustrations, both contemporary photographs and line illustrations, along with several colour paintings. There are also some modern photographs of memorabilia, such as cannon. Unfortunately there are also a number of photographs of modern re-enactors. Unfortunately, these do nothing for me, but they probably make up a good proportion of the audience for these books. That aside, this is an entertaining and well-researched volume."

The Civil war wargaming blog Charge! also reviewed my Shelby book:

"McLachlan gives a thorough overview of the strategic situation, the troops involved in the raid, some insight into Jo Shelby’s personality and previous experience, and the Northern (and Southern) reaction to the daring incursion. Lavishly illustrated, like all Osprey books, Ride Around Missouri includes an array of vintage period photographs, original maps commissioned for the book, bird’s-eye views, first-person accounts drawn from primary sources, and the usual excellent color illustrations of men, uniforms, equipment, and events. The book is 80 pages, including the index and bibliography. It’s a useful addition to your wargaming or Civil War library."

In other news. . .

 The ebook edition of my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness has been out a little less than three weeks. I’m busy finishing up a print edition before Christmas. This is important because a print magazine requested a review copy. They want print instead of an ebook so they can photograph it “in context”. Not sure what this means. Are they going to have some reenactors duking it out in the background?

In other news, we just moved into our new place in Santander, on the north coast of Spain. The top view is from my new home office, where I get a sweeping view of the bay. This should provide some inspiration! The photo below is taken from my son’s room, which looks out over the port. Hopefully this will instill the travel bug in him. National Geographic maps did it for me. He has a light-up globe, and that combined with this view should get him itching to travel. He already wants to join me the next time I visit Harar, Ethiopia. My wife likes the new place because it's within walking distance of her astronomy institute. No more long commutes!

We’ve been settling into Santander pretty quickly. I’ve been doing some hiking in the mountains and exploring the town’s nightlife. Also, my wife and I are preparing a photo exhibition of shots taken during last year’s road trip in Ethiopia and my shots of Somaliland.

I’m also on deadline to finish The Last Ride of the James-Younger Gang—Jesse James and the Northfield Raid 1876, my next book for Osprey Publishing. I should be done by the end of the week. Tomorrow I’ll post some interesting tidbits from that research.

Another Osprey book, Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896—The Italian Disaster in Ethiopia, has received its third five-star review. I’ve posted it below.

Excellent addition to the Osprey library

Armies of the Adowa Campaign, an account of Italian colonial defeat in Ethiopia in 1896, is an excellent addition to the Osprey library.

Any English-speaker with an interest in military history (or modeling, or miniatures) knows the Osprey canon. And knows that the quality of the various titles varies extensively. While (almost) never actually bad, there are many titles that are "just okay" while there are others that are outstanding. This is one of the latter.

The illustrations by Raffaele Ruggeri are very good (for the modelers and miniaturists), but what really sets this volume apart is the excellent account of the Adowa campaign itself. Sean McLachlan does a fine job of describing the historical background and then providing a vivid and detailed account of the fateful battle at Adowa itself. Similar to a prior reviewer's comment, this is one of the instances where Osprey has packed a good, though brief, campaign account into one of its slimmer Men-At-Arms series titles (viz Alexei Ivanov's volume on the Russo-Japanese War). The account clearly benefits from McLachlan's personal research at the remote battle site (a factor often missing from Osprey's weaker titles), enhanced with photographs of the terrain by the author which are included in the text.

Surprisingly little remembered today (outside of Ethiopia and Eritrea, one suspects), this battle was, as McLachlan points out, the third great contender (with Isandlwana in 1879, and Anual in 1921) for the title "greatest colonial defeat ever". Perhaps easiest thought of as the Italian version of the Little Big Horn.

Highly recommended, and an absolute must for anyone with a special interest in 19th Century European colonial warfare.

Another five-star review for Armies of the Adowa Campaign

Another review of Armies of the Adowa Campaign has appeared on Amazon. This one is by R.A. Forczyk, an Amazon Top 500 reviewer. It's my second five-star review. I also have a four-star review where the reviewer's only beef is that the book is too short! Forczyk's review is below: 

"If You Liked the Movie Zulu, You'll Love This Book

"Osprey's Men-at-Arms series, which has nearly 500 titles in print, has been gradually devolving into a litany of military uniform trivia and has seemingly run out of new or original titles. Then along came Sean McLachlan's Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896, which is both original and focused on the kind of content that the MAA series used to deliver.

"Despite the fact that the Battle of Adowa was a large-scale action, it has received far less coverage than the smaller battles of the earlier Zulu War but it is fair to say that if you liked the film Zulu, you are likely to enjoy this volume. In short, in 1896 the Italians committed an army of 14,000 troops into an invasion of Ethiopia, but ran into an Ethiopian army near Adowa that was five times as large. In the resulting battle, the Italians were defeated piece-meal and were routed with more than 50 percent casualties. This is an excellent volume, with just the right mix of order-of-battle data, uniforms, weapons, campaign narrative and discussion of tactics.

"The volume begins with an introduction to the creation of the Italian colonies in East Africa and then moves into a campaign narrative that traces the beginning of the Italian confrontation with Ethiopia in 1895. A total of 18 pages are spent discussing the actual Battle of Adowa and includes a tactical sketch map. The author then details the composition, tactics and weapons of each army. The volume has useful B/W photos as well as eight color plates depicting uniforms. Overall, this is a very satisfying volume and provides a great introduction to the worst colonial defeat of the Nineteenth Century. Armies of the Adowa Campaign is very well written and well researched."

Armies of the Adowa campaign gets a four-star review!

I recently mentioned that my book Armies of the Adowa Campiagn 1896: Italian Disaster in Ethiopia  got a five-star review on Amazon. Well, I just got another review. This time it's four stars, and the reasons for losing a star are just fine with me. The review follows:

"I am very surprise that this subject matter, the Adowa Campaign, never made to the Osprey Campaign series. It would have made a great addition. Instead, we are treated with short verison of Men at Arms Series instead. I must ask why the author did not see fit to write an Osprey Campaign book and why he settled on this short version format instead?

"I wrote that because I found this book to be highly interesting reading material, there are a lot of facts packed into this book and it definitely deserves a longer treatment then what this series could afford. The narrative is short but well written, obviously the author did his research and provided many colorful plates on the uniforms and outfits of the two opposing sides. There are quite a few interesting photographs included including one where Italians and their African allies were being released, most of the African allies are missing some limbs of their bodies. Another interesting photo was one of two Italian survivors of the battle barely reaching back to their home base, looking more like escaped slaves then soldiers.

"Overall, its a pretty informative book that deserves a longer format of a Campaign series. Why the author settled for less is mysterious to me. Adowa campaign is a highly interesting campaign where an African power inflicted the greatest military defeat on an European power during the 19th century. Far greater defeat then Islandlwana which was British's smaller version of what Adowa turnout to be for Italy."

So his only complaint is that there wasn't more of it? I can live with that! To answer the reviewer's question, there are a couple of reasons why it wasn't part of the Campaign series. The main reason is that Osprey requires a topographic battle map for each title. I wasn't sure I could get a topo map for the Adowa battlefield. After visiting the Ethiopian Mapping Agency in Addis Ababa, my worries proved to be correct. Another reason it was in Men-At-Arms and not Campaign is that I've been working closely with the editor from the Man-At-Arms series and he offered me the title to do for his line.


So yes, Adowa deserves a longer treatment, but a couple of factors prevented me from doing it. Still, it was a fun book to write, and certainly not my last book on Ethiopia.

Guest blogging about Ethiopia on the Osprey Publishing blog

I have a guest post over at the Osprey Publishing blog about the city wall in Harar, Ethiopia. As regular readers of this blog know, I spent two months living in Harar earlier this year and wrote a series of posts about it.

Osprey being a military history publisher, this post focuses on how the medieval city wall helped preserve Harar's unique culture from outsiders. Head on over there and check it out! I'll be doing some more guest posts over there soon.

Armies of the Adowa Campaign out now!

I've been pretty busy lately dealing with leaving Madrid and moving to Santander in northern Spain. I've also been hard at work preparing my Civil War novel for publication. One bit of good news I didn't get to tell y'all was that a couple of days ago Osprey Publishing came out with my latest book: Armies of the Adowa Campaign.

This work examines the ill-fated Italian attempt to colonize Ethiopia. The Ethiopians had the greatest victory over a colonial army by a native force until that time. This record wouldn't be surpassed until the Moroccans destroyed the Spanish army and Annual in 1921. The book comes with a complete description of the factors leading up to the war, details of the battles, and some excellent and precise illustrations of the uniforms of both sides by Raffaele Ruggeri. Included are almost fifty rare photographs from the Italian archives, and some of my own photos I took while exploring the battlefield.

This book has been selling well for some time now. Osprey readers like to preorder books and it's been in the top ten of books on Ethiopia for months. I've written before about why readers preorder books and I'm glad they do.

For more on this project, check out two posts I did for the Osprey blog. Part one is about researching in Ethiopia, in which I nearly fell off a mountain, and part two is about researching in Rome, where I ran off with a cannon!