This is the introduction of the background material used to compose a series of short articles on the history of the Danish-Schleswig-Holstein War. Being located in the USA, it is often difficult to find good resources of material covering the military history of foreign countries.

At this time I would like to express sincere gratitude to Soren Fisker of Denmark, who took the time to locate and send me much of the material used to construct these articles. Additional thanks to Gert Laursen who supports a website devoted to material on the Danish wars in the mid-1800s. The information is concise and well supported with maps and artwork. His site can be found at http://www.milhist.dk/

During the 1800s, Denmark was involved in three significant wars.

The first being as an ally of the French during the Napoleonic Wars. Most of the actual fighting would be against their traditional enemies the Swedes. An article on this war will occur in a future issue.

The second was the THREE YEAR WAR, also known as the Schleswig-Holstein War/Revolt, against Prussia and Schleswig-Holstein insurgents which lasted from 1848-50. It began as a revolt by the German ethnic populace in Schleswig-Holstein which escalated into a war between Denmark and The Prussian supported German Confederation.. The article in this issue contains data on chronologies, uniform information, organizational data and facts on specific battles to trace the military history of the Danish - Schleswig-Holstein War.

The final war was the Danish-German War of 1864 which was fought against Prussia, Austria and the German Confederation. This was covered in an earlier issue of Time Portal Passages: 19th Century Danish Wars

The THREE YEAR WAR, also known as the Schleswig-Holstein War/Revolt, against Prussia and Schleswig-Holstein insurgents lasted from 1848-50. It began during a time when there was a rise in national identity. Whether the revolt was a Conservative response, part of a German minority revolt or Prussian inspired, the net result was an escalation into a war between Denmark and Prussia. The Prussian intervention was stalemated by Danish victories on the ground plus Russian and British political pressures which caused the Prussians to end their active support. As a result the war ended as it began, as a civil war between ethnic Germans and the Danish government.

This is a fascinating war to research and would well be worth the focus of a book. The Danes and Germans both learned quickly about the increased lethality of improved muskets and artillery. In many battles the most common formation would be in extended and skirmish order in order to reduce the effects of musketry and artillery fire.

For those gamers who like alternative history, here is a situation in which you can use your Crimean War era troops. With the Russians being very pro-Prussian and the British being pro-Danish, the possibility of Russian, French and British troops being drawn into this war is very high. The Crimean War was only a few years away (1854) so the tensions were there. As well as the possibility of a Russian supported Prussian re-invasion of Denmark in 1854 with the French and British rushing to the aid of the Danes.