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Battle Exhortation
The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership
Keith Yellin, Thomas W. Benson
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eBook - ePub
Battle Exhortation
The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership
Keith Yellin, Thomas W. Benson
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About This Book
A commanding study of the motivational speech of military leaders across the centuries
In this groundbreaking examination of the symbolic strategies used to prepare troops for imminent combat, Keith Yellin offers an interdisciplinary look into the rhetorical discourse that has played a prominent role in warfare, history, and popular culture from antiquity to the present day. Battle Exhortation focuses on one of the most time-honored forms of motivational communication, the encouraging speech of military commanders, to offer a pragmatic and scholarly evaluation of how persuasion contributes to combat leadership and military morale.
In illustrating his subject's conventions, Yellin draws from the Bible, classical Greece and Rome, Spanish conquistadors, and American military forces. Yellin is also interested in how audiences are socialized to recognize and anticipate this type of communication that precedes difficult team efforts. To account for this dimension he probes examples as diverse as Shakespeare's Henry V, George C. Scott's portrayal of General George S. Patton, and team sports.
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1
Bracing for Combat
Speeches alone do not compel men to fight or fight well. Xenophon rightly observed, âThere is no exhortation so noble that it will in a single day make good those who are not good when they hear it. It could not make good bowmen, unless they had previously practiced with care, nor spearmen, nor knights.â There are innumerable sources of combat motivation: previous training, the prospect of reward or punishment, the comfort of overwhelming odds, self-defense, even hormones. But situations arise in war in which other combat motivators come up short. âThe soldier will forget or discount much that training has taught him as the danger mounts and fear takes hold,â S. L. A. Marshall notes. âIt is then that the voice of the leader must cut through the fear to remind him of what is required.â1 Consider examples of such speech across considerable time and space:
When Moses prepares the Hebrews for crossing the Jordan and beginning a national existence without him, he issues five dictates for waging war. The first prescribes battle exhortation: âWhen you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: âHear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.ââ2
When Agamemnon, leading Greek at the battle for Troy, ranges through his embattled ranks, he exhorts: âBe men now, dear friends, and take up the heart of courage, and have consideration for each other in the strong encounters, since more come through alive when men consider each other, and there is no glory when they give way, nor warcraft either.â3
Caesar almost without fail encourages his men before battle. Regarding battle exhortation a custom of war, he lists it among the activities he barely has time for when surprised by an enemy: âCaesar had to see to everything at once. The flag must be unfurled (this was the signal to stand to arms), the trumpet sounded; the soldiers must be recalled from working on the defenses, and all those who had gone some way off in search of material for the earthworks had to be ordered back to camp. He must draw up his battle line, encourage the men, give the signal. There was too little time, the enemy pressed on so fast, to complete these arrangementsâŠ. Once he had given all the appropriate orders Caesar ran down where luck would take him to speak his encouragement to the menâŠ. His speech was long enough only to urge them to remember their long-established record for bravery, and not to lose their nerve but to resist the enemy assault with courage.â4
When CortĂ©s implores his conquistadores to strike inland for Mexico City, exceeding his orders from Cuba, Bernal DĂaz del Castillo recalls: âWhen the ships had been destroyed, with our full knowledge, one morning after we had heard mass, when all the captains and soldiers were assembled and were talking to CortĂ©s about military matters, he begged us to listen to him, and argued with us as follows: âWe all understood what was the work that lay before us, and that with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ we must conquer in all battles and encountersâŠand must be ready for them as was fitting, for if we were anywhere defeated, which pray God would not happen, we could not raise our heads again, as we were so few in numbers, and we could look for no help or assistance, but that which came from God, for we no longer possessed ships in which to return to Cuba, but must rely on our own good swords and stout heartsââand he went on to draw many comparisons and relate the heroic deeds of the Romans.â5
Queen Elizabeth I's most famous address is battle exhortation, encouraging English troops before Spain's expected invasion. Mounted sidesaddle, wearing a breastplate, holding a truncheon, she exhorts at Tilbury: âMy loving people, [my entourage and I] have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourself to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved my self, that under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of all my subjects, and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour, and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a King of England too, and think foul scorn thatâŠany Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realmâŠI myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.â6
Young Hawk, a seventeen-year-old Arikara scout attached to Custer's Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn, remembers of that day: âBefore the attack began, the older men spoke to the younger men, as is the custom of our tribe. Stabbed [one of the elders] said, âYoung men, keep up your courage. Don't behave like you are children. Today will be a hard battle.â He said these things because he saw many of us were young and inexperienced. He wished to prepare us for our first real fight.â7
The commander of the First Marine Division, Major General James Mattis, offers considerable encouragement during the United States's second war with Iraq. Immediately prior to invasion, he exhorts his men: âFor decades, Saddam Hussein has tortured, imprisoned, raped, and murdered the Iraqi people; invaded neighboring countries without provocation; and threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction. The time has come to end his reign of terror. On your young shoulders rest the hopes of mankind. When I give you the word, together we will cross the Line of Departure, close with those forces that choose to fight, and destroy them.â When stubborn resistance in Iraq requires the Marines to return, Mattis explains: âWe are going back into the brawl. We will be relieving the magnificent Soldiers fighting under the 82nd Airborne Division, whose hard won successes in the Sunni Triangle have opened opportunities for us to exploit. For the last year, the 82nd Airborne has been operating against the heart of the enemy's resistance. It's appropriate that we relieve themâŠ. Our country is counting on us even as our enemies watch and calculate, hoping that America does not have warriors strong enough to withstand discomfort and danger. You, my fine young men, are going to prove the enemy wrongâdead wrong.â Even to the Marines' families, Mattis gives confidence: âWe are returning to Iraq. None of us are under any illusions about the challenges that await our troops there. We also know the understandable anxiety that will be felt by our loved ones when we deploy. We are going to stand by one another, all of us, reinforced by our faith and friendship, and together overcome every difficulty. It will not be easy, but most things in life worth doing don't come easily. Our country needs us in the struggle to put Iraq back on its feet. Our enemies are watching, betting their lives and their plans on America not having the courage to continue this fight. Our Sailors and Marines, reinforcing the Army and our many allies' forces already in Iraq, will prove the enemy has made a grave mistake. As the Division goes back to this combat zone, your loved ones will need your spiritual support so they can focus on their duty.â8
These examples do not constitute a scientific sample. They address but a tiny fraction of the wars and battle speech in Western history. But they do bear witness that from the dawn of history commanders have complemented other forms of battle preparation with exhortation, perceiving a need in combat beyond training, planning, and supply.
Previous Consideration
To what degree has this phenomenon been studied before? First, we should acknowledge that the need for combat morale is well appreciated. Defined by the U.S. Army's basic leadership text as that which âholds the team together and keeps it going in the face of the terrifying and dispiriting things that occur in war,â morale is widely recognized as the nebulous, sometimes capricious, terribly important emotional state of a military unit. Typically the higher the morale, the greater the effectiveness of the troops and the likelihood of accomplishing the mission. In Crusade in Europe, for instance, General Dwight Eisenhower regarded morale as âthe greatest single factor in successful war.â Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King told the 1942 graduating class at Annapolis, âMachines are nothing without men. Men are nothing without morale.â Napoleon famously declared, âMorale makes up three quarters of the game; the relative balance of man-power accounts only for the remaining quarter.â Some two thousand years prior, rallying the Greek Ten Thousand to begin their fighting withdrawal from Persia, Xenophon reminded: âYou are well aware that it is not numbers or strength that bring the victories in war. No, it is when one side goes against the enemy with the gods' gift of stronger morale that their adversaries, as a rule, cannot withstand them.â9
A particularly sensitive consideration of combat morale is found in the writings of the nineteenth-century French colonel Ardant Du Picq. âIn the last analysis,â he decided, âsuccess in battle is a matter of morale. In all matters which pertain to an army, organization, discipline, and tactics, the human heart in the supreme moment of battle is the basic factor.â Du Picq was among the first to recognize the special challenge that âmodern battleâ poses to morale. There is something in human nature, he explains, that leads troops to be emboldened by numbers, particularly when they are shoulder to shoulder. The ancients understood this and created their dense formations known as phalanxes, which shoved each other about on relatively small battlefields. By contrast, modern weaponry, communications, and logistics produce immense battlefields, where âthe distances of mutual aid and support have increasedâ and âdeath is in the air, invisible and blind, whispering, whistling.â Dispersion and chance produce a psychologically isolating affect, and âthe more one imagines he is isolated, the more has he need of morale.â For these reasons Du Picq concluded, âCombat requires today, in order to give the best results, a moral cohesion, a unity more binding than at any other time.â10 This perspective might strike the uninitiated as unlikely, since modern war can reduce the gore of hand-to-hand combat. Those left alone in a threatening environment understand the point, however. We despair more easily alone.
Curiously, studies on combat morale are typically silent about battle exhortation. Prominent investigations with promising titles such as Anatomy of Courage; Morale: A Study of Men and Courage; Fighting Spirit; and Combat Motivation do not seriously consider speech as a means for bolstering combat motivation. After World War I the chief of the Morale Branch of the U.S. War Plans Division acknowledged that the commander âmust be able to reach and enthuse his men by the spoken word,â but his 775-page Handbook on the Systematic Development of Morale devotes only 3 pages to the language of military leaders. Likewise, the postâWorld War II social-science study American Soldier: Combat and Its Aftermath contains chapters such as âCombat Motivations among Ground Troopsâ and âProblems Related to the Control of Fear in Combatâ without factoring in speech.11
There are hints in this research that verbal encouragement is an important component of combat leadership. For example, in a survey of U.S. infantrymen who saw action in the Mediterranean during World War II, the combat veterans were asked to describe officer leadership practices that gave them confidence in tough or frightening situations. Comments fell into the following categories:
Led by example; did dangerous things himself, displayed personal courage, coolness (31 percent)
Encouraged men, gave pep talks, joked, passed on information (26 percent)
Showed active concern for welfare and safety of men (23 percent)
Showed informal, friendly attitude; worked along with men (5 percent)
Miscellaneous or unclassifiable (15 percent)12
Responses here are consistent with other research and experience, underscoring the importance of leadership by example. There is no denying the stimulus of a leader who eschews the safety that rank may afford and shares in the danger of the troops. This is the essence of combat leadership, particularly at the squad and platoon level, and why these leaders learn the call and gesture âFollow me.â The practice that receives so much less attention is the second leadership activity identified by the veterans: verbal encouragement.
Du Picq is a case in point. For him the morale required today was realized through minimizing the change of personnel within combat units, practicing âiron discipline,â and employing tactics that maximize close-order formation. He appreciated that rifle fire permitted a reduction in the number of infantrymen and that it necessitated they be engaged as skirmishers, âin thin formation, scattered,â but he would keep troops in morale- and supervision-preserving column as long as possible. What is it about column, a denser, follow-the-leader formation? For Du Picq it was two things: the soldier imagines âthat the more numerous we are who run a dangerous risk, the greater is the chance for each to escapeâ and, from the commander's perspective, once troops deploy from column to skirmishers, âthey no longer belong to you.â The extent of Du Picq's documented appreciation for battle exhortation is a single, indirect sentence about animating the troops with passion. In practice he seemed to have thought more of it, cut down in 1870 while directing his regiment from a road under fireâdesiring âto put heart into his troops by his attitude.â In the moment that Prussian shell exploded over the road and mortally wounded Du Picq, we find him doing two things, almost assuredly. First, by standing amid incoming artillery fire, he was displaying a contempt for danger, a physical example for his men. It is unlikely that the colonel was sharing his attitude in silence, however. An eloquent writer, a successful field commander, Du Picq was almost certainly putting heart into his troops by exhorting them, too.13 Other studies about morale probably assume battle exhortation as well.
Quite simply, while histories and chronicles record hundreds of battle exhortations, there is little theoretical investigation into the matter. Even the first-century C.E. authority of Roman oratory Quintilian did not probe the matter, though he recognized battle exhortation's frequency and import by asking: âHas not oratory often revived the courage of a panic-stricken army and persuaded the soldier faced by all the perils of war that glory is a fairer thing than life itself?â14 Study of battle exhortation is sometimes brief, sometimes fuller, but interest tends to be on antiquity, and nowhere is there a book-length investigation.
A review of the surviving literature finds Onasander, a Greek contemporary of Quintilian, to be the first to discuss battle exhortation at any length. We know little more about Onasander than that he wrote a commentary on Plato's Republic, which no longer exists, and a military work titled âThe General,â which does. In âThe General,â which enjoyed considerable popularity through the Renaissance, Onasander's sketch of the ideal commander includes the characteristic of âa ready speaker,â because âno city at all will put an army in the field without generals, nor choose a general who lacks the ability to make an effective speech.â Onasander's rationale: âIf a general is drawing up his men before battle, the encouragement of his words makes them despise the danger and covet the honour; and a trumpet-call resounding in the ears does not so effectively awaken the soul to the conflict of battle as a speech that urges to strenuous valour rouses the martial spirit to confront danger.â15
Conceiving exhortation broadly, Onasander considered the encouraging effect of example and drama alongside speech. In fact, âThe general must inspire cheerfulness in the army, more by the strategy of his facial expression than by his words; for many distrust speeches on the ground that they have been concocted especially for the occasion, but believing a confident appearance to be unfeigned they are fully convinced of his fearlessness; and it is an excellent thing to understand these two points, how to say the right word and how to show the right expression.â
Pursuing this nonverbal vein further, Onasander explained how skillfully displaying prisoners can embolden the army. Basically the general should kill or hide fearsome-looking prisoners but terrify the weaker ones, then âlead them, weeping and supplicating, before his army, pointing out to his soldiers how base and wretched and worthless they are, and saying that it is against such men that they are to fight.â16 In our first theorist to address battle exhortation at any length, then, we already see its necessity, its limitations, and larger communication practices. (Such flagrant treatment of prisoners, however, is unlawful today.)
The insights of Vegetius and Paleologus are briefer but also relevant. Vegetius, the fourth-century C.E. Roman author of Epitome of Military Science, popular and influential into the nineteenth century, proffered maxims that are still commonplace. He coined âFew men are born brave; many become so through training and force of discipline,â as well as âHe, therefore, who aspires to peace should prepare for war.â While Vegetius' agenda was to provide a roadmap for restoring Roman military virtue through proper selection, drill, and discipline, he did briefly recognize a role for battle exhortation. Developing his rule of thumb that âTroops are not to be led into battle unless confident of success,â he recommended gauging their self-confidence by observing them closely. When more confidence was necessary, it could be added through battle exhortation: âAn army gains courage and fighting spirit from advice and encouragement from their general, especially if they are given such an account of the coming battle as leads them to believe they will easily win a victory. Then is the time to point out to them the cowardice and mistakes of their opponents, and remind them of any occasion on which they have been beaten by us in the past. Also say anything by which the sol...