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4.AmateurismandSlaughter1861-90.pptAMATEURISM 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.
