American Military History (Vol. 1&2)

From the American Revolution to the Global War on Terrorism (Illustrated Edition)

Richard W. Stewart, U.S. Army Center of Military History

• Publisher: Madison & Adams Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9788026888727
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The story of the United States Army is always growing and changing. Historians constantly seek to reinterpret the past while accumulating new facts as America's Army continues to be challenged on new foreign battlefields. Nor does the Army, as an institution, ever stand still. It necessarily changes its organization, materiel, doctrine, and composition to cope with an ever-changing world of current conflict and potential danger. American Military History provides a comprehensive but brief account of Army's past. The history of an active organization tends to expand rapidly as the organization grows larger and more complex. The first volume covers the Army's history from its birth in 1775 to the eve of World War I. The second volume of this edition takes up that story and extends it into the twenty-first century and the early years of the war on terrorism.

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Richard W. Stewart & U.S. Army Center of Military History

American Military History (Vol. 1&2)

The United States Army From the American Revolution to the Global War on Terrorism

Madison & Adams Press, 2018. No claim to original U.S. Government Works
Contact: [email protected]

ISBN = 978-80-268-8872-7

This is a publication of Madison & Adams Press. Our production consists of thoroughly prepared educational & informative editions: Advice & How-To Books, Encyclopedias, Law Anthologies, Declassified Documents, Legal & Criminal Files, Historical Books, Scientific & Medical Publications, Technical Handbooks and Manuals. All our publications are meticulously edited and formatted to the highest digital standard. The main goal of Madison & Adams Press is to make all informative books and records accessible to everyone in a high quality digital and print form.

Table of Contents

The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775–1917 (I)

The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2008 (II)

The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775–1917 (I)

Table of Contents

Preface

Preface to the 2005 Edition

1 Introduction

What Is Military History?

Theory and Practice of War

The American Military System

2 The Beginnings

The European Heritage

The Military Revolution

Eighteenth Century European Warfare

The Colonial Scene

Colonial Militia

The Colonies in the World Conflict, 1689–1783

The American Rifle

The Colonial Heritage

3 The American Revolution, First Phase

The Outbreak

Formation of the Continental Army

The Invasion of Canada and the Fall of Boston

The New Nation

Evolution of the Continental Army

The British Problem

Of Strategy

The British Offensive in 1776

Trenton and Princeton

4 The Winning of Independence, 1777–1783

The Campaign of 1777

Valley Forge

First Fruits of the French Alliance

The New Conditions of the War

British Successes in the South

Nadir of the American Cause

Greene’s Southern Campaign

Yorktown: The Final Act

Surrender of Cornwallis

The Summing Up: Reasons, Lessons, and Meaning

5 The Formative Years 1783–1812

The Question of a Peacetime Army

Toward a More Perfect Union

The Militia

Military Realities in the Federalist Period

The Indian Expeditions

Battle of Fallen Timbers

The Perils of Neutrality

The Quasi War with France

Defense under Jefferson

The Army and Westward Expansion

American Reaction to the Napoleonic Wars

6 The War of 1812

Origins of the War

The Opposing Forces

The Strategic Pattern

The First Campaigns

The Second Year, 1813

The Last Year of the War, 1814

New Orleans: The Final Battle

7 Toward a Professional Army

Organizing an Army

The War Hatchet Raised in Florida

John C. Calhoun and the War Department

Pioneering in the West

The Second Seminole War, 1835–1842

Westward Expansion and the Texas Issue

The Professional Officer

8 The Mexican War and After

The Period of Watchful Waiting

Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma

War Is Declared

Monterrey Campaign

Battle of Buena Vista

The Landing at Vera Cruz

Battle of Cerro Gordo

Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec

Occupation and Negotiation in Mexico City

The Army on the New Frontier

Increasing the Peacetime Army

Weapons and Tactics on the Eve of the Civil War

9 The Civil War, 1861

Secession, Sumter, and Standing to Arms

The Opponents

First Bull Run (First Manassas)

The Second Uprising in 1861

10 The Civil War, 1862

The War in the East: The Army of the Potomac Moves South

Jackson’s Valley Campaign

Peninsula Campaign

The Seven Days’ Battles

Second Bull Run

Lee Invades Maryland

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

Fiasco at Fredericksburg

The War in the West: The Twin Rivers Campaign

Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson

Confederate Counterattack at Shiloh

Perryville to Stones River

The War West of the Mississippi

11 The Civil War, 1863

The East: Hooker Crosses the Rappahannock

Chancellorsville: Lee’s Boldest Risk

Lee’s Second Invasion of the North

Gettysburg

The West: Confusion over Clearing the Mississippi

Grant’s Campaign against Vicksburg

Chickamauga Campaign

Grant at Chattanooga

12 The Civil War, 1864–1865

Unity of Command

Lee Cornered at Richmond

Sherman’s Great Wheel to the East

Thomas Protects the Nashville Base

Lee’s Last 100 Days

Dimensions of the War

13 Darkness and Light The Interwar Years 1865–1898

Demobilization, Reorganization, and the French Threat in Mexico

Reconstruction

Domestic Disturbances

The National Guard Movement

Isolation and Professional Development

Line and Staff

Technical Development

Civil Accomplishment

14 Winning the West The Army in the Indian Wars 1865–1890

The Setting and the Challenge

Life in the Frontier Army

The Bozeman Trail

The Southern Plains

The Northwest

The Southwest

The Northern Plains

15 Emergence to World Power 1898–1902

A New Manifest Destiny

Trouble in Cuba

Mobilizing for War

Victory at Sea: Naval Operations in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Operations in the Caribbean

Battle of Santiago

The Fall of Manila

The Philippine-American War, 1899–1902

The Boxer Uprising

16 Transition, Change, and the Road to War, 1902–1917

Modernizing the Armed Forces

Reorganization of the Army Establishment of the General Staff

Reorganization of the Army The Regular Army and the Militia

The Creation of Larger Units

Caribbean Problems and Projects

The Army on the Mexican Border

The National Defense Act of 1916

An End to Neutrality

The Army Transformed

Epilogue The American Army 1775–1917

Preface

Table of Contents

The story of the United States Army is always growing and changing. Historians constantly seek to reinterpret the past while accumulating new facts as America’s Army continues to be challenged on new foreign battlefields. Nor does the Army, as an institution, ever stand still. It necessarily changes its organization, materiel, doctrine, and composition to cope with an ever-changing world of current conflict and potential danger. Thus, the Center of Military History is committed to preparing new editions of American Military History as we seek to correct past mistakes, reinterpret new facts, and bring the Army’s story up to date. This new edition of that textbook, an important element in soldier and officer education since 1956, seeks to do just that.

This edition of American Military History builds on the previous edition, published in 2005, and expands its coverage to include an analysis of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq up to January 2009. This expanded section is necessarily only an initial survey of the first eight years of the war on terrorism; it is far from the final word on the subject. It may take an additional decade or more to collect sufficient documents, interviews, memoirs, and other sources to know the details of military and political planning, the implementation of those plans on the global battlefield, and the impact on the Army as an institution and on the nation. The events of the past eight years are more like current events than they are history. History—the detailed telling of a story over time based upon all the extant evidence—requires more time to find and analyze the documents and facts and bring to bear on that evidence the insight that comes only from perspective. However, today’s soldiers need their story told. The events in which they participate and in which they are such important elements need to be given some form and order, no matter how tentative. The Army continues to be the nation’s servant, and the soldiers that make up that Army deserve their recognition. They continue to protect our freedom at great personal risk to themselves and incalculable cost to their loved ones. This is their continuing story.

RICHARD W. STEWART
Chief Historian

Washington, D.C.
24 September 2009

Preface to the 2005 Edition

Table of Contents

Despite the popular image of the solitary historian immured in the stacks of a library or archives, history is very much a collective enterprise. This is true not only in philosophical terms (all historians stand on the shoulders of previous generations of scholars) but also in the practical sense that historians rely heavily on the work of many others when they attempt to weave a narrative that covers centuries of history. American Military History is truly such a collaborative work.

Over the years numerous military historians have contributed to the earlier versions of this textbook published in 1956, 1969, and 1989. In this latest telling of the story of the U.S. Army, additional scholars inside and outside the Center of Military History have conducted research, written or revised chapters and inserts, or reviewed the texts of others. Other experts have edited text, proofed bibliographies, prepared maps, and located photographs to bring this book together.

It is important to highlight those historians and other professionals who have helped make this book a reality. Indeed, there were so many contributors that I hasten to beg forgiveness in advance if I have inadvertently left someone off this list. First, I wish to thank those many scholars outside the Center of Military History who voluntarily gave of their time to review chapters of this book and provide their expertise to ensure that the latest scholarship and sources were included. These scholars include: John Shy, Don Higginbotham, Robert Wright, John Mahon, William Skelton, Joseph Dawson, Joseph Glathaar, Gary Gallagher, Carol Reardon, Mark Grimsley, Perry Jamieson, Robert Wooster, Brian Linn, Timothy Nenninger, Edward Coffman, David Johnson, Stanley Falk, Mark Stoler, Gerhard Weinberg, Edward Drea, Steve Reardon, Allan R. Millett, Charles Kirkpatrick, and Eric Bergerud. Their careful reviews and suggested additions to the manuscript enriched the story immeasurably and saved me from numerous errors in interpretation and fact. Within the Center of Military History, of course, we have a number of outstanding historians of our own to draw upon. The Center is, I believe, as rich in talent in military history as anywhere else in the country; and I was able to take advantage of that fact. In particular, I would like to thank the following historians from the Histories Division for their writing and reviewing skills: Andrew J. Birtle, Jeffrey A. Charlston, David W. Hogan, Edgar F. Raines, Stephen A. Carney, William M. Donnelly, William M. Hammond, and Joel D. Meyerson. Within the division, every member participated in writing the short inserts that appear throughout the text. In addition to the names previously listed, I would be remiss if I did not also thank Stephen J. Lofgren, William J. Webb, Dale Andrade, Gary A. Trogdon, James L. Yarrison, William A. Dobak, Mark D. Sherry, Bianka J. Adams, W. Blair Haworth, Terrence J. Gough, William A. Stivers, Erik B. Villard, Charles E. White, Shane Story, and Mark J. Reardon. Whether they have been in the division for one year or twenty, their contributions to this work and to the history of the U.S. Army are deeply appreciated.

I particularly wish to thank the Chief of Military History, Brig. Gen. John Sloan Brown, for his patience and encouragement as he reviewed all of the text to provide his own insightful comments. He also found time, despite his busy schedule, to write the final two chapters of the second volume to bring the story of the U.S. Army nearly up to the present day. Also, I wish to thank Michael Bigelow, the Center’s Executive Officer, for his contribution. In addition, I would like to note the support and guidance that I received from the Chief Historian of the Army, Jeffrey J. Clarke, and the Editor in Chief, John W. Elsberg. Their experience and wisdom is always valued. I wish to thank the outstanding editor of American Military History, Diane M. Donovan, who corrected my ramblings, tightened my prose, and brought consistency to the grammar and style. Her patience and skilled work made this a much finer book. I also wish to thank those who worked on the graphics, photographs, and maps that helped make this book so interesting and attractive. This book would not have been possible without the diligence and hard work of the Army Museum System Staff, as well as Beth MacKenzie, Keith Tidman, Sherry Dowdy, Teresa Jameson, Julia Simon, and Dennis McGrath. Their eye for detail and persistence in tracking down just the right piece of artwork or artifact or providing the highest quality map was of tremendous value.

Although countless historians have added to this text over the years, I know that any attempt to write a survey text on the history of the U.S. Army will undoubtedly make many errors of commission and omission. I take full responsibility for them and will endeavor, when informed, to correct them as best I can in future editions. In conclusion, I wish to dedicate this book to the finest soldiers in the world, to the men and women who have fought and died in service to the United States over two centuries and those who continue to serve to protect our freedom. They have built America into what it is today, and they continue to defend the principles upon which our great country was founded. This is their story.

Washington, D.C.
14 June 2004

Richard W. Stewart
Chief, Histories Division

1 Introduction

Table of Contents

The history of the United States Army lies firmly in the mainstream of modern Western military development. Heir to European traditions, the American Army has both borrowed from and contributed to that main current. Molded by the New World environment, a product of democratic and industrial revolutions, it has at the same time evolved, along with the nation it serves, uniquely. To the present generation of Americans faced by continuing challenges to their national security, the role that force and military institutions have played in American history becomes of increasing interest and importance. This volume is an introduction to the story of the U.S. Army and the American military history of which the Army’s story is an integral part.

What Is Military History?

Table of Contents

Military history today has a much wider scope than previous generations of scholars granted it. More than simply the story of armed conflict, of campaigns and battles, it is the story of how societies form their institutions for their collective security and how those institutions operate in peace and war. It is the story of soldiers and the sub...

Table of contents

• American Military History (Vol. 1&2)
• Table of Contents
• The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775–1917 (I)
• The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2008 (II)