Quick one for the history nerds.

Ever heard of the Battle of Karánsebes? 1788, Austrian army, no enemy in sight — and they still managed to kill somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 of their own men in one night. Drunk soldiers, a language mix-up, some cavalry who thought infantry were Ottoman troops, and by morning the Austrians had routed themselves so badly the actual Ottoman army just walked in two days later and took the town without firing a shot.

That's the kind of story I go looking for. Not the battles you memorized dates for in school — the ones that got buried because they're too embarrassing, too brutal, or too strange to fit the official narrative. Military history is full of them: mutinies covered up for a century, massacres reduced to a footnote, soldiers who lived through things that shouldn't be forgotten.

I started Horrors of History because I kept finding these stories and had nowhere to put them. It's a free newsletter — one gripping, lesser-known military history story at a time. If that's your kind of rabbit hole, come hang out.