Reflective essay

First Reflective Essay:  Drawing on Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army, (First two chapter) plus what you learned in our class lectures and discussions and any of your optional reading, describe the basic military defense system that America’s founders established during the Revolution and the decade that followed.  How did the founders attempt to provide for the national defense without infringing on the people’s liberties?  What, in your opinion, were the chief merits of this system, and what were its defects?  In other words, was this defense system a realistic response to the young republic’s security needs or was it more an exercise in rhetoric and wishful thinking?

Your essay should be at least seven pages long – typed, double-spaced, and in 10- or 12-point font.

THE ARMY OF THE CONSTITUTION
THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY SYSTEM

“. . .provide for the common defense . . .”
These words from the preamble of the Constitution give the government it established a clear military purpose – national security.
(Right) An officer and private of the Legion of the United States, circa 1794.

THE MILITIA: THE ORIGINAL COLONIAL DEFENSE SYSTEM
A Massachusetts militia muster in 1636.

THE MILITIA’S MEDIEVAL ROOTS
Saxon England makes its last stand at the Battle of Hastings, 1066, but the Saxon military system lived on under the Norman regime.

COST TURNS THE MILITIA INTO THE EXCLUSIVE PROVINCE OF WHITE MEN WITH PROPERTY

EXCLUDED FROM MILITIA SERVICE
Among those Americans eventually excluded from militia service were slaves, free blacks, apprentices, Indians, and the poorer members of white colonial society.

PROVINCIAL TROOPS REPLACE THE MILITIA
(Below) George Washington gained his early military experience as a Provincial officer from Virginia. (Right) Enlisted men from Pennsylvania’s Provincial Regiment, circa 1758.

PROVINCIAL TROOPS REPLACE THE MILITIA
With the decline of the militia, colonial governments turned to hiring Provincial soldiers and rangers who would be paid to serve set periods of time in frontier garrisons or units formed for offensive purposes.

BRITISH MILITARY PROTECTION UNAPPRECIATED
American colonists proved unappreciative after London sent enough British regulars to drive the French from North America during the Seven Years’ War and then left hundreds of Redcoats to guard the American frontier.

SOURCES OF BRITISH ANTI-MILITARISM
The military dictatorship established by Oliver Cromwell (left) after the English Civil War and the efforts of James II (right) to turn England into an autocratic Catholic state caused English and American Whigs to regard standing armies with suspicion.

AMERICAN ANTI-MILITARISM REINFORCED
The use of the British Army to uphold Parliament’s claimed right to tax the Thirteen Colonies gave Americans new reasons to mistrust standing armies, a view vividly represented by Paul Revere’s inflammatory engraving of the so-called Boston Massacre of
March 5, 1770.

THE NEW ENGLAND MILITIA CHALLENGE BRITISH POWER, APRIL 19, 1775
Massachusetts militia engage British regulars in a running fight as the Redcoats attempt to retreat from Concord, Massachusetts, back to Boston. The British attempt to seize Whig arms and military supplies stored at Concord sparked a series of armed clashes that quickly escalated into a rebellion that gripped all of the Thirteen Colonies.

THE BIRTH OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
(Left) John Tumbull’s 1780 portrait of General George Washington with his slave and faithful wartime companion, William Lee. (Right) A modern painting of General Washington taking charge of his new army at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1775.

SHORT-TERM ENLISTMENTS FOR THE NEW AMERICAN ARMY
When the Continental Congress first created the Continental Army, it originally opted for short-term enlistments, allowing troops, like these New Englanders at the siege of Boston in 1775, to take their discharge after eight to twelve months.

CONGRESS SWITCHES TO A LONG-TERM ARMY
After the British came close to crushing the Revolution during the New York Campaign of 1776, Congress decreed on September 16 that Continental troops should be recruited for terms of three years or the duration of the war.

AMERICA’S MULTI-CULTURAL ARMY, 1781
This watercolor by a French officer during the Yorktown Campaign illustrates the multi-cultural character of George Washington’s long-term Continentals. Note the black infantryman from Rhode Island at left and the frontier rifleman in the fringed rifle shirt second from right.

AN ENDURING RELIANCE ON THE MILITIA
A persistent shortage of trained Continental soldiers forced General George Washington (right) and other Continental commanders to swell the ranks of their field armies with sizeable drafts of militiaman.

THE MILITIA: GUARDIANS OF THE HOME FRONT
Although American militiamen occasionally performed well in major battles, they played an even more vital role in their home districts suppressing Loyalists, opposing British raiders and foraging parties, and guarding the coastline and the frontier.

CONGRESS: A WEAK CENTRAL GOVERNMENT, 1775-87
Congress became the rebellious Thirteen Colonies’ central government by default in 1775, and that arrangement was formalized by the ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781.

AMERICA’S FIRST CONSTITUTION TRIES TO PROVIDE “FOR THE COMMON DEFENCE”
(Left) John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, the man who originated that phrase.

CONGRESS QUICK TO DISCHARGE CONTINENTAL ARMY
(Left) General Washington decorates two gallant enlisted men just before their discharge from his cantonment at Newburgh, New York. (Below) Washington bids farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern before relinquishing his command.

WASHINGTON’S “SENTIMENTS ON A PEACE ESTABLISHMENT”
At the invitation of Congressman Alexander Hamilton (below), General Washington recommended that Congress leave the newly independent United States with a standing army of 2,631 officers and men.

CONGRESS REPLACES THE CONTINENTAL ARMY WITH THE
1ST AMERICAN REGIMENT,
JUNE 3, 1784
On June 2, 1784, Congress discharged the last regiment in the Continental Army. The following day, it authorized the 1st American Regiment – 700 men to be drawn from the militias of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.

THE 1ST AMERICAN REGIMENT TOO SMALL TO SAFEGUARD THE FRONTIER
Under strength, poorly supplied, and frequently unpaid, the 1st American Regiment provided nothing more than a token American military presence at a string of frontier posts in the Ohio Valley.

SHAYS’ REBELLION AND THE SPECTER OF MOB RULE
Though Massachusetts militia easily crushed Shays’ Rebellion, the disturbance made influential and affluent Americans like George Washington decide a stronger national government was necessary to preserve law and order.

VETERANS DOMINATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
Thirty of the fifty-five delegates had fought in the War of Independence.

EDMUND JENNINGS RANDOLPH’S AGENDA
Governor Edmund Jennings Randolph of Virginia, a former Continental Army officer, persuaded his fellow delegates to not merely revise the Articles of Confederation, but to create a strong new constitution.

SOME FOUNDERS ARGUE FOR A MODEST STANDING ARMY
George Washington of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and William Paterson of New Jersey all spoke out at the Constitutional Convention on the necessity of a regular army to protect Americans from outside threats and preserve internal security.

DEBATE AND WRANGLING SHAPE THE CONSTITUTION

ELBRIDGE GERRY ATTEMPTS TO LIMIT THE PEACE ESTABLISHMENT
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts (seen below as a young man and at right in old age) vainly proposed that the U.S. Army be limited to 2,000 to 3,000 troops in peacetime.

VIRGINIA’S GEORGE MASON PROPOSES FEDERAL REGULATION OF STATE MILITIAS

HAMMERING OUT THE MILITIA CLAUSE
(Clockwise starting at right) Edmund Randolph of Virginia, James Madison of Virginia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and Rufus King of Massachusetts played a leading role in the debate over the relationship between the federal government and state militias.

THE CONSTITUTION SIGNED,
SEPTEMBER 17, 1787

23 REVOLUTIONARY WAR VETERANS SIGN THE CONSTITUTION
(Left) An ill John Dickinson had a colleague affix his signature to the document. (Right) William Jackson, the convention’s secretary, was not a delegate, but he signed the Constitution anyway.

ANTI-FEDERALIST VOICES
Some of the Anti-Federalist voices who took alarm at the military clauses in the Constitution were (left to right) James Winthrop of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia, and Luther Martin of Maryland.

“SHOT BY A HIRED SOLDIERY”
British soldiers shoot down rampaging Londoners during the bloody Gordon Riots of 1780. Patrick Henry feared the Constitution would cause the repetition of such scenes in America.

ANTI-FEDERALIST VOICES
Some of the Anti-Federalist voices who took alarm at the military clauses in the Constitution were (left to right) James Winthrop of Massachusetts, Patrick Henry of Virginia, and Luther Martin of Maryland.

“THE PURGINGS OF THE JAILS”
These British cartoons from the 1770s and 1780s reflected the American view that standing armies drew their recruits from the dregs of society.

CREDITING THE MILITIA WITH WINNING THE WAR
New England militiamen overrun their German opponents at the Battle of Bennington, August 16, 1777.

JAMES MONROE FAVORS A STRENGHTHENED MILITIA
Though a Continental Army veteran, James Monroe of Virginia believed that a reformed militia was preferable to a standing army controlled by the federal government.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON: CHAMPION OF A STRONG AMERICAN MILITARY
Alexander Hamilton of New York devoted eight of the more than fifty essays that he wrote for The Federalist to military affairs. He managed to refute every anti-Federalist argument against allowing the federal government to firm steps relating to military preparedness.

THE ARGUMENT OF PREPAREDNESS
Hamilton argued that America needed a regular army so it could be instantly prepared to ward off foreign threats.

“War, like most other things, is a science. . . .”
Alexander Hamilton argued that maintaining a regular army was essential to national security because it took time, training, and experience to mold men into competent soldiers.

HAMILTON DEFENDS THE MILITIA CLAUSE
(Left) A grenadier from the New York City Independent Militia, 1773. (Below) A modern reconstruction of a member of the Philadelphia Associators’ Artillery, 1775.

THE BILL OF RIGHTS RESTRAINS FEDERAL MILITARY POWERS
James Madison, seen here as a young man in 1783 (left) and middle-aged (right), wrote the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

WASHINGTON’S MODEST MILITARY POLICY
Initially, the Washington Administration followed a cautious military policy, expanding the U.S. Army from 840 to 1,216 men in April 30, 1790. (Left) Washington’s first inauguration in New York City in 1789. (Right) U.S. Artillerymen, circa 1786-94.

DEFEAT IN THE NORTHWEST, 1790
Brigadier General Josiah Harmar’s punitive expedition of 353 regulars and 1,133 militia failed to intimidate the Ohio Indians. In two sharp battles, the militiamen fled, leaving seventy-five regulars to be slaughtered.
(Left) Soldiers of the 1st American Regiment, circa 1786-87.

THE ARMY ENLARGED
Eager to avenge Harmar’s blunders, Congress added a second infantry regiment to the regular army and authorized a “Corps of Levies,” 2,000 citizen soldiers recruited for six months. Major General Arthur St. Clair (right), the governor of the Northwest Territory, received the mission of subduing the Ohio Indians.

ST. CLAIR’S DEFEAT SHAKES THE NATION
One thousand Ohio Indians overran St. Clair’s unfortified and unwary camp on November 3, 1791, killing 657 of the 1,400 men present and routing the rest.

WASHINGTON AND KNOX RESTRUCTURE THE
U.S. ARMY
President George Washington (left) and Secretary of War Henry Knox (right).

ANTHONY WAYNE CREATES THE LEGION OF THE UNITED STATES
Major General Anthony Wayne (left) and infantrymen of the Legion (right).

WAYNE’S LEGION VICTORIOUS AT FALLEN TIMBERS, AUGUST 20, 1794
Wayne’s aggressive tactics win the day for the Legion of the United States.

HENRY KNOX PROPOSES FEDERAL MILITIA REGULATION, JANUARY 1790
(Left) Secretary of War Henry Knox. (Right) Volunteer militiamen of the Richmond Blues.

HAMILTON AND WASHINGTON CONFRONT THE WHISKEY REBELLION
Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (left) urged President George Washington (right) to use force to suppress the Whiskey rebels in western Pennsylvania.

A MASSIVE SHOW OF FORCE
Washington decided to awe the Whiskey rebels by federalizing 15,000 militia from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia and sending them into western Pennsylvania. (Above and below right) President Washington reviews his militia army at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

RESTRAINED USE OF FORCE
At Carlisle, Washington turned over command of his federalized militia army to Governor Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee of Virginia (bottom right), but admonished the latter that his mission was to re-establish civil authority and not institute martial law.

HAMILTON GOES TOO FAR
During the Quasi-War with France, Hamilton (left) prevailed on Congress to create a large standing army with himself as acting commander. The public saw this as a Federalist attempt to crush political opposition, and that damaged the popularity of President John Adams (right).

FEDERALISTS DESIRE A LARGE ARMY TO CRUSH JEFFERSONIAN RADICALISM
(Left) A Federalist political cartoon depicting Jefferson as a traitor to his country and its freedoms.

A POLITICIZED OFFICER CORPS
Thomas Jefferson inherited a standing army with an officer corps full of Federalists, such as Captain John Pratt of the 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment (left) and Major David Van Horne (right).

REGULARS, MILITIA, AND VOLUNTEERS, 1800-1860

JOHN ADAMS EXPANDS THE MILITARY
(Below) President John Adams. In 1798, the Adams Administration gave America a frigate navy (upper right) and a marine corps (lower right).

A NEW PRESIDENT WARY OF HIS MILITARY
(Left) Thomas Jefferson painted in 1796, four years before his election to the White House. (Right) Captain John Pratt, 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment, exuding the aristocratic aura that Jefferson found so disturbing in the Federalist officer corps he inherited.

JEFFERSONIAN DEFENSE POLICY: A LAND AND SEA MILITIA AND COASTAL FORTS
(Upper right) A gunboat of 1800. (Lower right) Fort McHenry, the guardian of Baltimore Maryland. (Below) An unknown officer of the New York City Legion, circa 1795.

JEFFERSON ESTABLISHES WEST POINT TO PRODUCE EDUCATED, REPUBLICAN OFFICERS
(Left) A cadet from the U.S. Military Academy, circa 1805. (Below) A view of the Hudson River from West Point painted later in the 19th century.

JEFFERSON USES THE REGULAR ARMY FOR SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL PURPOSES
Two U.S. Army officers led the Lewis and Clark Expedition and many of their men were soldiers. (Lower right) Captain Meriwether Lewis in the frontier dress he wore on the trail.

AN AGGRESSIVE USE OF THE NAVY
(Upper left) Commodore Edward Preble’s squadron of American frigates and gunboats bombards Tripoli on August 3, 1804. (Below) Philadelphia’s own Stephen Decatur became one of America’s first naval history thanks to his exploits at Tripoli. (Lower left) Decatur and his sailors seize a Tripolitan gunboat in a fierce hand-to-hand melee.

JEFFERSON’S AGGRESSIVE USE OF THE ARMY
(Left) Major General James Wilkinson, the senior officer in the U.S. Army, who would have commanded an attack on New Orleans. (Right) Captain Zebulon Pike, 2nd U.S. Infantry, who dared Spanish wrath by exploring present Oklahoma , Colorado, and New Mexico in 1806.

THE ROYAL NAVY BULLIES A VULNERABLE UNITED STATES
With the resumption of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, Britain’s Royal Navy made a habit of stopping American merchant ships to confiscate cargoes meant for French ports and also to refill the crews on its warships by impressing or kidnapping American sailors. Seen here are various views of British press gangs at work.

JEFFERSON’S MIXED LEGACY
Thomas Jefferson increased the size of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy before leaving office in 1809, but the army’s leadership and the quality of its rank and file did not augur well for the future. (Right) A private of the 4th U.S. Infantry Regiment, circa 1811.

AMERICA GOES TO WAR WITH BRITAIN, 1812
(Left) James Madison, Thomas Jefferson’s successor as fourth President of the United States. (Right) A private of the 4th U.S. Infantry, a captain of the 13th U.S. Infantry, and a drummer of the 22nd U.S. Infantry in front of Fort Niagara, circa 1812.

AMERICA’S REGULAR ARMY: LARGER BUT NOT NECESSARILY BETTER
(Left) A contemporary cartoon depicting the typical U.S. Army officer as a well dressed dandy incapable of hard military service. (Lower left) An unknown U.S. Infantry officer, circa 1812. (Lower right) An officer of the tiny U.S. Marine Corps in 1812.

AMERICA’S SHAKY MILITIA
Poorly trained and poorly led, American militia proved unsteady on campaign and in battle, especially when confronted by Britain’s Indian allies in the Old Northwest.

U.S. VOLUNTEERS – A MIXED RECORD
Some volunteer units did not perform well, like the Kentucky infantrymen (left) who were roundly defeated by a mixed force of Redcoats and Indians on the River Raisin on January 22, 1813. Yet Colonel Richard M. Johnson’s Kentucky Mounted Volunteers (right) would rout the same foes at the Battle of the Thames ten months later.

AN ARMY CRIPPLED BY ELDERLY GENERALS
Born in 1751, Henry Dearborn trained to become a doctor, but abandoned his medical studies to fight in the American Revolution. He saw action at Bunker Hill and the failed American attempt to capture Quebec in 1775. He also participated in the Saratoga, Monmouth Court House, and Yorktown Campaigns. Named America’s senior major general in January 1812, his slow-moving maneuvers during the War of 1812 earned him the nickname “Granny Dearborn.” He was removed from active command in July 1813 and retired from the army in 1815.

1812:
YEAR OF SHAME FOR THE U.S. ARMY

(Left) A timid Brigadier General William Hull surrendered Fort Detroit (above) to an inferior force of Redcoats and Indians. (Below) The ignominious American defeat at Queenston Heights.

MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: SAVIOR OF THE OLD NORTHWEST

(Left) General Harrison in his ornate, gold-embroidered uniform. (Upper right) Harrison’s mounted Kentucky volunteers overrun the British at the Battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. (Lower right) Some of Harrison’s infantry stand watch at Fort Meigs, Ohio.

MAJOR GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON: “OLD HICKORY”

(Above) Jackson crushed the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814. (Below) He then defeated a numerically superior British army at New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

BRIGADIER GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT TURNS AMERICANS INTO SOLDIERS
(Lower left) A terra cotta bust of Brigadier General Winfield Scott, circa 1815. (Center, lower right, and upper right) A shortage of blue cloth forced Scott’s regulars to wear gray coatees, normally the uniform worn by poorly trained militia.

SCOTT’S METHODS VINDICATED AT THE BATTLE OF CHIPPEWA, JULY 5, 1814

WINFIELD SCOTT MOLDS THE REGULAR ARMY
(Left) Brevet Major General Winfield Scott, circa 1820. (Right) One of the men who met Scott’s standard, Captain Stephen Watts Kearny, 13th Infantry, who survived a wound and capture while fighting beside Scott at Queenston Heights.

WEST POINT GROWS UP
(Below) Major Sylvanus Thayer, Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, 1817-1833. (Right) West Point cadets, 1816-17.

EXCLUDING AMATEURS
(Lower left) Henry Dodge, a political appointee who was the first colonel of the 1st U.S. Regiment of Dragoons, 1834. (Lower right) A West Pointer in the full dress uniform of Dodge’s regiment. (Upper left) A West Point cadet on sentry duty. (Upper right) An officer of the U.S. Artillery, circa 1840.

MILITARY GENIUS VERSUS PROFESSIONALISM
To many Americans in the 1820s and 1830s, the ideal soldier was Andrew Jackson, who became a general and won stirring victories without the benefit of military schooling and years of sustained military experience.

LAMPOONING THE MILITARY ARISTOCRACY
A cartoon from the 1830s showing regular army officers loafing in their tents instead of fighting Indians.

ABOLISH WEST POINT!
Congressman David Crockett of Tennessee (below) called for abolishing the U.S. Military Academy. He later proved his natural military genius by getting himself trapped and killed at the Alamo, March 6, 1836.

THE AMERICAN SOLDIER’S LOT: ISOLATION, DISCIPLINE, HARD WORK, LOW PAY, POOR FOOD, AND OTHER HARDSHIPS

THE DANGER OF INDIAN OUTBREAKS
Scenes from the Second Seminole War in Florida, a frustrating conflict that occupied most of the U.S. Army from 1835 to 1842.

THE U.S. NAVY: ABLE OFFICERS AND BRAVE VICTORIES
(Upper left) Captain Isaac Hull commanded the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” when it bested HMS Guerriere on August 19, 1812 (below). (Lower left) A young American officer who also served on the Constitution.

AMERICAN NAVAL SUPREMACY ON THE GREAT LAKES
(Upper right) Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry secured American control of Lake Erie in a hard-fought action at Put-in-Bay on September 10, 1813. This victory allowed Major General William Henry Harrison to invade Canada.

THE CREATION OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY
The U.S. Navy standardized the training of its future officers with the establishment of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1845. Franklin Buchanan, pictured here, served as the Naval Academy’s first superintendent. (Left) Buchanan as a lieutenant in 1828. (Right) Buchanan as a captain commanding the Washington Navy Yard in 1859-61.

THE CREATION OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY
(Left) A midshipman, circa 1847. (Right) Midshipman Charles W. Flusser, USNA Class of 1853. Flusser would be killed during the Civil War in 1864.

THE MEXICAN WAR, 1846-47
American regulars advance quickly under fire to engage their Mexican opponents outside Mexico City, September 1847.

PRESIDENT POLK PROVOKES A WAR

(Upper right) Brigadier General Zachary Taylor led half the U.S. Army, 3,922 men, into a disputed area along the Texas frontier between the Nueces River and Rio Grande. (Below) American troops on the march.

WINFIELD SCOTT WANTS TO FIGHT THE WAR WITH REGULARS
(Right) Major General Winfield Scott. (Left) Uniforms worn by regular infantry officers and men in the Mexican War.

PRESIDENT POLK PREFERS AN ARMY OF CITIZEN SOLDIERS
(Upper left) President James Knox Polk, a hard-headed partisan Democrat from Tennessee. (Lower left) An unknown militia officer. (Below) An early photograph of New Hampshire Volunteer Militia, the kind of men with whom Polk wanted to fight the war.

RAISING A VOLUNTEER ARMY
(Upper left and right) Two of Polk’s politician generals, Gideon Pillow of Tennessee and Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. (Lower left) The regimental colors of the 4th Illinois Volunteers. (Lower right) A recruiting poster distributed through New Hampshire.

SOUND LEADERSHIP AND COURAGE: AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS IN COMBAT
Colonel Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate turned planter and politician, leads his 1st Mississippi Volunteers at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847.

U.S. VOLUNTEERS – A CHRONIC DISCIPLINARY PROBLEM
Rampaging American volunteers murder the occupants of a Mexican hacienda.

ZACHARY TAYLOR CHECKS THE MEXICANS IN THE NORTH
(Below) A portrait of General Taylor. (Upper and lower right) Scenes from Taylor’s early victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.

“TO THE HALLS OF THE MONTEZUMAS”
American regulars and volunteers under Major General Winfield Scott fight their way past Chapultepec, a castle guarding the approaches to Mexico City, September 13, 1847. Scott’s troops took both Chapultepec and clawed their way inside Mexico City though opposed by an enemy that outnumbered them three to one.

A NEW AMERICAN TRADITION OF VICTORY
(Below) American infantry overruns a fortified Mexican position at Churubusco. (Upper right) General Scott and his staff enter the main plaza in Mexico City, September 14, 1847. (Lower right) Scott reviews his victorious troops.

AMERICA DOWNSIZES THE ARMY OF THE MEXICAN WAR
(Left) American civilians thrill to news of more victories during the Mexican War. (Right) Discharged volunteers from the Mormon battalion reunited with their families after the war.

THE REGULAR ARMY RETURNS TO THE FRONTIER
(Upper left) U.S. Dragoon uniforms of the late 1840s. (Lower right) Infantry uniforms of the early to mid 1850s.

THE PERMANENT INDIAN FRONTIER, 1830-48
(Left) A map of the area in question. (Upper right) Troops removing Indians from the Old Southwest to Indian Territory. (Lower right) U.S. Dragoons parley with Comanche Indians on the Central Plains.

THE U.S. ARMY INTO THE WEST
(Upper right) U.S. Dragoons attacking a Comanche camp. (Lower right) U.S. Cavalry and Dragoon uniforms in the late 1850s. (Below) Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke, 2nd U.S. Dragoons, on duty in Utah Territory, 1858.

AMATEURISM AND SLAUGHTER, 1861-90

A BLOODLESS BOMBARDMENT SETS OFF AMERICA’S BLOODIEST WAR
A period engraving of Confederate artillerymen firing on Fort Sumter, April 12-14, 1861.

WAR ON AN UNPRECEDENTED SCALE
Americans had never seen war on such a massive scale before 1861. (Upper right) The climax of Pickett’s Charge at Gettsysburg, July 3, 1863. (Below) Union and Confederate infantry exchange fire at the Battle of Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864.

SLAUGHTER ON AN UNPRECDENTED SCALE
Confederate dead killed in the Bloody Lane at Antietam, September 17, 1862 (upper left); Gettysburg, July 1863 (lower left), and Petersburg, April 1865 (lower right).

A REGULAR ARMY TOO PUNY TO QUELL THE SOUTHERN REBELLION
(Left) The U.S. Infantry dress uniform, 1860-61. (Right) A regular cavalry sergeant in his dress uniform.

AN INADEQUATE, SHORT-TERM MILITIA
Three sergeants from the gray-clad 7th New York State Militia, one of the first Northern regiments to reach Washington, D.C., after Fort Sumter.

NORTH & SOUTH TURN TO THE VOLUNTEER SYSTEM TO FILL THEIR ARMIES

A VAST HORDE OF CITIZEN SOLDIERS
(Lower left) Soldiers of Company G, 71st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. (Lower right) A squad from the 2nd Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment. (Upper right and left) Four unknown Union volunteers.

VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS BRING MIXED BLESSINGS
Union volunteer infantry drying their laundry on the march – not the most military-looking procedure.

OFFICERS AS GREEN AS THE MEN THEY LED
(Left) Russell H. Conwell, the future founder of Temple University, was only nineteen when he was appointed captain of Company F. 46th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. (Below) Two officers from the 104th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, raised in upper Bucks County.

REGIMENTS WITH A PRONOUNCED LOCAL FLAVOR
Civil War volunteer regiments recruited their members from the same counties, towns, and city neighborhoods in specific states.

INBUILT UNIT COHESION
Because volunteers enlisted with their neighbors, friends, and relatives, they were comrades before they even put on uniforms. (Upper right) Privates Elbridge and Luther Franklin served together in the 5th Michigan Infantry. (Lower left) Five mess mates from the 3rd Maryland Infantry. (Upper left) Two zouaves share some tobacco. (Lower right) Giving water to a wounded comrade.

REGIMENTS BOUND BY ETHNIC TIES
Recruiting posters for two ethnic regiments from New York – one filled with German-speaking Americans (left) and the other by Irishmen (right). (Upper center) Major General Franz Sigel, the idol of the Union’s German defenders. (Lower center) Colonel Thomas Meagher, founder of the Irish Brigade.

PROMOTIONS AS POLITICAL PATRONAGE
When the time came to name a new colonel for the 5th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment in the spring of 1863, Governor Austin P. Blair (lower left) rejected an application from Captain George Armstrong Custer (lower center and right), a West Point graduate, because the latter was a Democrat. Blair presented the coveted position to Russell A. Alger (upper right), a Michigan businessman who also happened to be a fellow Republican.

LINCOLN’S POLITICAL GENERALS
To ensure widespread Northern support for the Union war effort, Abraham Lincoln appointed many important politicians as generals. (Lower left) Major General Nathaniel Banks was the former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Lower center) Major General Franz Sigel was idolized by the North’s many German immigrants. (Upper left) Major General Benjamin Butler and (lower left) Brigadier General Daniel Sickles were Democratic congressmen.

FORGING THE IRON BRIGADE
Brigadier General John Gibbon (upper left), a regular army officer, used strict discipline and rigorous training to mold five regiments from Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan into the vaunted “Iron Brigade,” the most renowned infantry brigade in the Army of the Potomac.

BECOMING PROPER SOLDIERS
(Upper left) A company of the 35th New York Volunteer Infantry drawn up in formation in front of its meticulously policed camp. (Lower left) The 50th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment on dress parade at Beaufort, South Carolina, sometime in 1863.

OTHER UNITS CLING TO A RELAXED APPROACH TO SOLDIERING
Company B (upper photograph) and Company C (lower photograph), 93rd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

WHAT COULD MAKE SO MANY AMERICAN MEN FACE THIS?
Twenty percent of all Union soldiers died during the Civil War, as did a third of their Confederate enemies.

“HOW GREAT A DEBT WE OWE”
(Below) Major Sullivan Ballou, 2nd Rhode Island Regiment. (Upper right) Ballou’s regiment drilling in camp. (Lower right) Other Rhode Island officers in camp.

“Give us equality and acknowledge us as men . . .”

REBS FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE AND SLAVERY

WAR’S END – JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME
Photographs of the Grand Review, May 23-24, 1865. It took two full days for the Union armies commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and Major General William Tecumseh Sherman to parade through the capital.

AN EXPANDED REGULAR ARMY, 1866
Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer (seated just right of center in the light, broad-brimmed hat) and officers of his 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, created when Congress fixed the size of the regular establishment at 54,000 men.

A BLACK PRESENCE IN THE REGULAR ARMY
In recognition of black service in the Civil War, Congress authorized two black cavalry regiments and four infantry regiments for the regular army in 1866. (Left) A troop of the 9th U.S. Cavalry. (Right) A member of the 9th Cavalry’s regimental band.

THE REGULAR ARMY SKELETONIZED
By 1874, congressional cuts had reduced the regular army to a paper strength of 27,000, which translated into 19,000 effectives. (Left) A Thomas Nast cartoon condemns this policy. (Below) The U.S. Cavalry dress uniform introduced in 1872. (Left to right) A sergeant, a major, and the chief trumpeter from the black 9th Cavalry.

THE ARMY RETURNS TO THE FRONTIER, 1865-90
Officers from the 7th U.S. Cavalry at Fort Wallace, a post on the desolate Central Pains, in 1868.

A HARSH AND OFTEN MERCILESS LIFE
(Upper left) A typical frontier cavalryman with his horse. (Lower left) Two U.S. Infantrymen, circa 1885. (Below) The remains of Sergeant Frederick Wylyams, 7th U.S. Cavalry, killed, scalped, and mutilated by Plains Indians near Fort Wallace, June 26, 1867.

THE RESULTS OF POOR TRAINING AND NEGLECT

The fatal bullet strikes Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876.

SOME HARD-WON VICTORIES
Custer first made his reputation as an Indian fighter by destroying a Cheyenne village on the Washita River in present Oklahoma on November 27, 1868.

A REMORSELESS WAR OF ATTRITION
Four paintings by Charles Schreyvogel provide a romanticized view of soldier versus Indian brave on the broad expanses of America’s Far West. Western films would take their inspiration from such scenes.

A REMORSELESS WAR OF ATTRITION
Frederic Remington won even greater renown for his depictions of the U.S. Cavalry’s role in the winning of the West.

“If I were an Indian . . .”
George Armstrong Custer admired many qualities in the Plains Indians. He liked spending time with his native scouts, conversing through sign language, and joining them in numerous hunts. He also aped Indian appearance while wearing buckskin suits during his Western campaigns.

BLUNDERS AND TRAGEDY STIMULATE PROFESSIONAL REFORM

(Left) Emory Upton as a major general at the end of the Civil War. He was just shy of twenty-six. (Below) Upton’s infantrymen battle entrenched Confederate troops at Spotsylvania Court House, where he demonstrated his flair for infantry tactics in May 1864.

A POWERFUL PATRON SUPPORTS UPTON
(Left) General William Tecumseh Sherman during his tenure as commanding general of the U.S. Army, 1869-84. (Right) Emory Upton as colonel of the 4th U.S. Artillery, circa 1880.

WEST POINT – THE USUAL GATEWAY TO AN ARMY COMMISSION
Scenes of cadet life at the U.S. Military Academy in the decades following the Civil War.

PROFESSIONAL READING FEEDS THE AMERICAN MILITARY MIND

In addition to the Army and Navy Journal, U.S. Army officers established their own professional journals to permit the discussion of issues germane to changes in military practice and warfare.

THE ARMY GETS A GRADUATE SCHOOL AT FORT LEAVENWORTH
(Lower left) General Sherman. (Upper right) The Fort Leavenworth Arsenal. (Lower right) The building that first held the Infantry School of Application, which Sherman established in 1881.

A BETTER BREED OF OFFICER
The West Pointers who went on to Fort Leavenworth or other service schools were better at their jobs and more attuned to the demands of military leadership and the nature of modern war.

THE ENDURING LECACY OF UPTON’S TACTICS
Emory Upton wrote new tactical manuals for the U.S. Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery between 1866 and 1875. (Lower right) Infantrymen deployed in an Uptonian skirmish line.

UPTON’S TACTICS: SKIRMISH LINES BACKED BY COLUMNS
(Upper left) A mounted line of cavalry skirmishers advances on the enemy. (Lower left) An infantry skirmish line gives a firing demonstration on the Custer battlefield at the Little Bighorn.

EMORY UPTON STUDIES THE WORLD’S ARMIES
During Emory Upton’s world tour of 1875-77, he devoted considerable time to studying the British military establishment in India, but he developed an especially high admiration for the German military system. (Right) Sikh and British troops in India. (Below) Prussian troops defeat the French in 1870.

UPTON ADMIRES THE GERMAN GENERAL STAFF SYSTEM
(Lower left) Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke, head of the Prussian General Staff, who planned the dramatic defeat of France. (Upper right) The Prussian Kriegsakademie or War College in Berlin. (Lower right) Kaiser Wilhelm I and his staff invade France.

U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE FOUNDED, 1884
(Lower left) Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce. (Upper right) The Naval War College today. (Lower right) Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt poses with the Naval War College faculty in the late 1890s.

AN INDUSTRIAL GIANT RATES A STEEL NAVY
(Below and lower right) The battleship USS Oregon, launched in 1893. (Upper right) The protected cruiser USS Olympia, launched 1892, celebrates George Washington’s birthday at Hong Kong, February 22, 1898.

CAPTAIN ALFRED THAYER MAHAN: APOSTLE OF SEA POWER
(Right) Mahan in his full dress captain’s uniform.

A NAVY DESIGNED TO WIN WARS
Mahan told the American people they needed a modern navy big enough to engage any enemy fleet and win the kind of decisive battle necessary to safeguard the republic’s commercial interests.