Upton and the Army

Stephen E. Ambrose

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 1993
• ISBN:
  9780807155967
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Emory Upton (1839–1881) was "the epitome of a professional soldier, " according to Stephen E. Ambrose. Indeed, his entire adult life was devoted to the single-minded pursuit of a military career. Upton was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Fifth United States Artillery on May 6, 1861, the day of his graduation from the United States Military Academy, and by age twenty-five he had risen to the rank of major general. He distinguished himself in battles at Spotsylvania, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Charlottesville, in Sheridan's Shenan­doah Valley campaign, and in Wilson's celebrated cavalry raid through Alabama and Georgia at the end of the war. After the war, Upton traveled abroad as an observer for the army, an experience that resulted in his first book, The Armies of Asia and Europe. He also served as commandant of cadets at West Point and finally as commander of the Presidio in San Francisco. He was highly respected as a military tactician, and his Infantry Tactics became a widely used resource. Despite his successes, the ambitious Upton felt that his military talents were insufficiently recognized. His last book, The Military Policy of the United States, which advocated a number of sweeping changes in the organization of the American military system, went unpublished at his death by suicide in 1881. The book was finally published in 1904 at the urging of Elihu Root, Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of war. First published in 1964, Ambrose's thorough and well-researched study of Emory Upton's career has proven to be an important addition to American military history as well as to the history of the Civil War.

Notes

Chapter I

1 James Harrison Wilson, in the introduction to Peter S. Michie, The Life and Letters of Emory Upton (New York, 1885).

2 Merritt Starr, “General Emory Upton—His Brothers, His Career,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine (May, 1922), 12–14; Michie, Upton, 1–3.

3 James Harris Fairchild, Oberlin, the Colony and the College (Oberlin, 1883), 11–53; Starr, “Upton,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine, 14; Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone (eds.), Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1931), VI, 394–95; Robert S. Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College (Oberlin, 1943), II, 665–87.

4 Starr, “Upton,” Oberlin Alumni Magazine, 14.

5 Michie, Upton, 3–9.

6 Henry du Pont to his mother, June 23, 1856, Henry Algernon du Pont papers in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Manuscripts, Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, Wilmington, Delaware. All Du Pont letters cited in this work are printed with the permission of the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library. The collection will hereinafter be cited as Du Pont Papers.

7 See Du Pont’s letters to his parents for the period 1856–61, Du Pont Papers; Sidney Forman, West Point: A History of the United States Military Academy (New York, 1950), 36–74; R. Ernest Dupuy, Where They Have Trod: The West Point Tradition in American Life (New York, 1940), 8–183.

8 Du Pont to his mother, July 14, 1856, Du Pont Papers.

9 Michie, Upton, 12.

10 Du Pont to his mother, September 14, 1856, Du Pont Papers. Scott’s cockade was nonregulation.

11 Michie, Upton, 23.

12 Ibid., 12.

13 Henry Wager Halleck, Elements of Military Art and Science (2nd ed.; New York, 1862).

14 Du Pont to Mother, September 14, 1856, Du Pont Papers.

15 Michie, Upton, 13–24.

16 Morris Schaff, The Spirit of Old West Point, 1858–1862 (Boston, 1907), 142–48; Wilson’s introduction to Michie, Upton.

17 Michie, Upton, 29.

18 Ibid., 31–33.

19 Ibid., 33–34.

20 Michie, Upton, 34; Du Pont to his father, April 14, 1861, Du Pont Papers.

21 Du Pont discusses the possibilities in a letter to his father, April 28, 1861, Du Pont Papers.

Chapter II

1 James Harrison Wilson, Under the Old Flag (New York, 1912), I, 181.

2 Michie, Upton, 42.

3 Emory Upton, The Military Policy of the United States (Washington, 1904), 42.

4 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, 1880–1901), Series I, Vol. II, 350–51, cited hereinafter as Official Records (unless otherwise indicated all citations are to Series I). Michie, Upton, 42–51.

5 Official Records, XI, Pt. 1, pp. 618–22; Michie, Upton, 51–59.

6 Richard Barry, “Emory Upton, Military Genius,” New York Times Magazine (June 16, 1918); Michie, Upton, 63–67; Isaac O. Best, History of the 121st New York State Infantry (Chicago, 1921), 28.

7 Best, 121st New York, 28–51.

8 Official Records, XXVII, Pt. 1, p. 673; Best, 121st New York, 42–79.

9 Official Records, XXVII, Pt. 1, p. 673; Best, 121st New York, 84–91; Michie, Upton, 75.

10 Official Records, XXIX, Pt. 1, pp. 587–89, 592–93; Best, 121st New York, 99–103; Michie, Upton, 83–85.

11 Michie, Upton, 76–91.

12 All letters and recommendations are in the “Appointment, Commission, and Personnel File of Major General Emory Upton,” Records of the War Department: The Adjutant General’s Office, National Archives, Washington, D. C.

13 Upton to Du Pont, March 6, 1879, Du Pont Papers.

14 A. F. Becke, An Introduction to the History of Tactics, 1740–1905 (London, 1909), 57–108; Robert S. Quimby, The Background of Napoleonic Warfare, the Theory of Military Tactics in Eighteenth Century France (New York, 1957), 308–14.

15 George T. Stevens, Three Years in the Sixth Corps (Albany, New York, 1866), 331–32.

16 Best, 121st New York, 127–36; Official Records, XXXVI, Pt. 1, pp. 67, 665–71.

17 Best, 121st New York, 138–39; Michie, Upton, 116.

18 Bruce Catton, A Stillness at Appomattox (Garden City, New York, 1954), 125–26; Official Records, XXXVI, Pt. 1, pp. 665–71; Best, 121st New York, 141–45.

19 Best, 121st New York, 152–63; Official Records, XXXVI, Pt. 1, pp. 70, 665–71.

20 Official Records, XXXVI, Pt. 1, pp. 670–73; Theodore F. Vaili, History of the Second Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Infantry (Winsted, Connecticut, 1868), 61–67.

21 Michie, Upton, 108–109, 123.

22 Official Records, XL, Pt. 1, p. 492; Michie, Upton, 116.

23 Michie, Upton, 122.

Chapter III

1 Wilson, Under the Old Flag, I, 554; Michie, Upton, xxiii, 125; Official Records, XL, Pt. 1, p. 492, and XLIII, Pt. 1, pp. 162–64; 173, and Pt. 2, pp. 119, 199; P. H. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs (New York, 1888), II, 27–30.

2 Michie, Upton, 123.

3 E. N. Gilpin Diary, December, 1864, Journals and Diaries of E. N. Gilpin, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

4 Wilson, Under the Old Flag, I, 553; Official Records, XLIII, Pt. 2, pp. 630, 637, and XLV, Pt. 2, pp. 171, 173, and XLIX, Pt. 1, p. 598, and Pt. 2, p. 663; Michie, Upton, xv, 130–43.

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