The Old Army in War and Peace: West Pointers and the Civil War Era, 1814-1865
Abstract
Wars do not fight themselves. Soldiers require some kind of machinery not only to feed, clothe, and equip themselves in the field, but also to go about the business of killing under conditions of extraordinary confusion and stress. Military organizations make all these tasks possible by using methods that are neither obvious nor easy to learn. Before 1861, a political culture that did its best to obscure questions of military policy with paeans to the citizen-soldier militia had allowed, even compelled, a small cadre of regular army officers to monopolize military competence in the United States. When a sectional war broke out, the raw and disorganized state of both adversaries' volunteer military forces dictated that they both draw generals and drillmasters from the old army's leadership cadre. These West Pointers then proceeded to channel the course and conduct of the Civil War through the military machinery that they had created, maintained, and operated in the old army, and which they bequeathed to both contending citizen-soldier hosts. This dissertation focuses on the internal military logic of an antebellum past that both imprisoned and empowered Civil War field commanders.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA519419
Entities
People
- Wayne Hsieh
Organizations
- United States Naval Academy