William Ledyard Rodgers - Military and Naval Historian and Author

Military and Naval Historian and Author

Rodgers had a lifelong love of military and naval history. Throughout his life, he consistently showed an interest in actual hands-on testing and physical examination of history. He wrote many articles on various historical subjects, such as the rate of fire of the Welsh longbow, which were published in various military journals and magazines of the time, and in 1907 published a book titled A Study of Attacks Upon Fortified Harbors (Artillery Notes), published by Artillery School Press.

In retirement, Rodgers continued to pursue his passion for military and naval history. He wrote the introduction to Captain Dudley Knox's classic A History of the United States Navy, published in 1936. He served as president of the Naval Historical Foundation from 1933 to 1943, and donated much of his father's book collection as well as volumes of his own collection to the United States Department of the Navy.

Rodgers' most enduring legacy are two classic works on naval warfare he wrote in retirement, titled Greek and Roman Naval Warfare: A Study of Strategy, Tactics and Ship Design from Salamis (480 B.C.) to Actium, published in 1937, and Naval Warfare Under Oars, 4th to 16th Centuries: A Study of Strategy, Tactics and Ship Design, published in 1939. While the former work focuses on the ancient Greek and Roman world of the Mediterranean Sea, the latter work also contains chapters on such rare topics as Viking and medieval naval warfare. Rodgers was primarily a military historian who described battles and tactics, but his works also derive principles of naval warfare in the ancient and medieval worlds, and contain some detailed descriptions of archeological finds and commentary on the limitations of materials and the design of ancient and medieval naval vessels.