Journal of Military History
Vol. 77, No. 4
October 2013
Articles
Frederick C. Leiner, "Privateers and Profit in the War of 1812"
During the War of 1812, American privateers captured more than 1,000 British merchant ships as “prizes.” Because privateers were privately owned, and sought profit, not glory in combat, an obvious question is whether they made money. Perhaps surprisingly, determining the profitability of privateers is difficult. Even early in the war, privateer owners petitioned Congress to make privateering profitable by lowering customs duties. Their complaints led two treasury secretaries to use economic theory to try to understand the economic incentives for privateering. Twice, Congress made decisions guided by competing theories, ultimately lowering customs duties, yet apparently the subsidy did not increase the number of prizes brought into U.S. ports.
Thomas Bruscino, "Naturally Clausewitzian: U.S. Army Theory and Education from Reconstruction to the Interwar Years"
American military theorists between the Civil War and World War II have garnered limited attention in military history, but they developed many ideas about the nature and practice of war. These theorists did not fixate on the writings of Carl von Clausewitz, but they were familiar with his work. But independent of Clausewitz, American military theory emphasized the Clausewitzian concept of the relationships among politics and society in preparing for and fighting wars. This article explores Clausewitz and American military theory, explains how Americans became naturally Clausewitzian, and discusses what their thinking has to do with the conduct of war.
T. G. Otte, "From 'Can-Can Diabolique' to 'Sitzkrieg': The International China Expeditionary Force, 1900–1901"
In terms of modern military historiography, the International China Expeditionary Force (CEF) of 1900-1 is a largely forgotten army. This is wholly undeserved. Based on British, German, Indian and United States Army and other records, this article examines its operations as an overseas counter-insurgency campaign. It also examines the problematic nature of Field Marshal von Waldersee’s ‘Supreme Command’ and the complex relations between the various national contingents of this, the only active military alliance between the Crimean conflict and the First World War. Ultimately, the CEF was an interesting, if flawed, late nineteenth-century experiment in coalition warfare. But it was more than just that. It was also a microcosm that makes evident the problems of turn-of-the-century international politics.
Joseph R. Vergolina, "'Methods of Barbarism' or Western Tradition? Britain, South Africa, and the Evolution of Escalatory Violence as Policy"
The historical significance of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) has traditionally suffered from the conflict’s chronological proximity to the Great War. Compared to the industrial slaughter of 1914-1918, the military extremism employed in the South African conflict has gone largely unanalyzed. A close examination of British military policies during the Second Boer War shows that the resort to escalatory violence sprang from frustration at the elusiveness of decisive battle, deemed vital to shore up Britain’s position as the world’s sole superpower, and was sanctioned by a Western tradition of unrestricted violence towards peoples like the Boers who pursued unconventional battlefield strategies.
Stephen M. Miller, "The British Way of War: Cultural Assumption and Practices in the South African War, 1899–1902"
This essay explores the impact of late Victorian cultural assumptions on the conduct of the South African War of 1899–1902, both at home and on the battlefield. It contends that three cultural values, intrinsic to late Victorian culture—cosmopolitanism, political egalitarianism, and race—shaped British soldiers’ sense of justice at the outset of the war and, as a result, influenced their actions on and off the battlefield. This article emphasizes that the numerous “small wars” fought by British armies in the late nineteenth century, of which the South African War was the largest, were each unique and worthy of study not just as political history but as cultural military history.
Peter Gray, "A Culture of Official Squeamishness? Britain’s Air Ministry and the Strategic Air Offensive against Germany"
Although it waged the largest and most costly of Britain’s Second World War campaigns, RAF Bomber Command was not mentioned in Prime Minister Churchill’s 1945 Victory Speech and its Commander-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, was left off the Victory Honours List. The crowning insult to Bomber Command veterans was the lack of a campaign medal for the strategic air offensive. This article uses case studies of the campaign medal saga, still very much alive today, and the perceived reluctance of the wartime Air Ministry to acknowledge the RAF’s resort to area bombing to test the argument of some historians that this slight of Bomber Command was due to “official squeamishness” in the Air Ministry and elsewhere in the government in the aftermath of the bombing of Dresden.
Katherine K. Reist, "The American Military Advisory Missions to China, 1945–1949"
The Pacific War ended in 1945 before the American government had established a plan for the implementation of its postwar goals for its relationship with China. Although China lacked unification, the Guomindang (GMD), the “allied” government, sought to create a more modern military along American lines, with American equipment, using American advisers and funding. GMD leaders did not want American influence or control, desiring to maintain their culturally organized structures and ways of functioning, including the use of guanxi (personal networks and favors). The Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group attempted to operate within this nexus of conflicting goals, purposes, and missions.
Walter Dorn, "The UN’s First 'Air Force': Peacekeepers in Combat, Congo 1960–64"
The United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) was created in July 1960 to help the Congolese government quell its mutinous army and reestablish order. After ONUC’s mandate was expanded in 1961 to stop the Katanga province’s secession, a shooting war developed, in which Katanga paralyzed UN operations with a single armed jet. An aerial “arms race” and open combat followed. In December 1962 ONUC implemented Operation Grand Slam: Swedish jets neutralized Katanga’s air force, and the UN’s coordinated air-ground manoeuvers forcibly ended the secession. This article uncovers the unprecedented use of air power in UN peacekeeping and evaluates it for twenty-first century lessons.
Research Note:
William Michael Yarborough, "Undocumented Triumph: Gulf War Operational Records Management"
William Michael Yarborough, "Undocumented Triumph: Gulf War Operational Records Management"
The incomplete nature of operational records generated during and preserved after the Persian Gulf War (1990–1991) has and will continue to challenge historians’, medical researchers’, and veterans’ understanding of the conflict. This war exposed the deterioration of the U.S. Army’s records management after the disestablishment of The Adjutant General’s Office (TAGO) in 1986. TAGO had overseen Army records management, holding commanders accountable for their units’ records and using trained personnel to manage records within units. Focusing on operational records, this paper explores the breakdown of records management during the Gulf War, discusses the presidentially mandated Gulf War Declassification Project (1995–1996), and briefly reviews current Army operational records management.
Reviews:
The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Vol. 6: “The Whole World Hangs in the Balance” January 8, 1947-September 30, 1949, edited by Larry I. Bland, Mark A. Stoler, Sharon Ritenour Stevens, and Daniel D. Holt, reviewed by Katherine K. Reist and by Günter Bischof, 1439-42
Talking About Naval History: A Collection of Essays, by John B. Hattendorf, reviewed by Andrew Lambert, 1442-43
Rome’s Italian Wars, Books 6-10, by Titus Livius (Livy), new translation by J. C. Yardley, introduction and notes by Dexter Hoyos, reviewed by Craig H. Caldwell III, 1443-45
The Byzantine Art of War, by Michael J. Decker, reviewed by J. P. Karras, 1445-46
Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291, edited by Jessalyn Bird, Edward Peters, and James M. Powell, reviewed by Timothy Guard, 1446-47
Poltava 1709. The Battle and the Myth, edited by Serhii Plokhy, reviewed by Brian Davies, 1447-49
Mayhem: Post-War Crime and Violence in Britain, 1748-53, by Nicholas Rogers, reviewed by Andrea McKenzie, 1450-51
The Seven Years War: Global Views, edited by Mark H. Danley and Patrick J. Speelman, reviewed by Tim Blanning, 1451-52
Guyasuta and the Fall of Indian America, by Brady J. Crytzer, reviewed by Colin G. Calloway, 1453-54
Memories of War: Visiting Battlegrounds and Bonefields in the Early American Republic, by Thomas A. Chambers, reviewed by Thomas J. Brown, 1454-55
“Light Horse Harry” Lee in the War for Independence: A Military Biography of Robert E. Lee’s Father, by Jim Piecuch and John Beakes, reviewed by Ricardo A. Herrera, 1455-57
A Generous and Merciful Enemy: Life for German Prisoners of War during the American Revolution, by Daniel Krebs, reviewed by Greg Eanes, 1457-58
No Turning Point: The Saratoga Campaign in Perspective, by Theodore Corbett, reviewed by John Coltrain, 1458-59
The Blood Be Upon Your Head: Tarleton and the Myth of Buford’s Massacre. The Battle of the Waxhaws, May 29, 1780, by Jim Piecuch, reviewed by Carole Watterson Troxler, 1459-61
Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution, by James P. Byrd, reviewed by George C. Rable, 1461-62
Under the Shadow of Napoleon: French Influence on the American Way of Warfare from the War of 1812 to the Outbreak of WWII, by Michael A. Bonura, reviewed by Bruce Vandervort, 1462-65
War, Clausewitz and the Trinity, by Thomas Waldman, reviewed by Peter Paret, 1465-66
Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821-1846, by Samuel J. Watson, reviewed by Robert Wooster, 1466-67
The Richardson Light Guard of Wakefield, Massachusetts: A Town Militia in War and Peace, 1851-1975, by Barry M. Stentiford, reviewed by George N. Vourlojianis, 1468-69
The Great Game 1856-1907: Russo-British Relations in Central and East Asia, by Evgeny Sergeev, reviewed by Elena Andreeva, 1469-71
Civil War Dynasty: The Ewing Family of Ohio, by Kenneth J. Heineman, reviewed by Jeremy Taylor, 1471-72
A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War, by Thomas Fleming, reviewed by Neil Greenwood, 1472-73
The Election of 1860 Reconsidered, edited by A. James Fuller, reviewed by Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, 1473-75
The Civil War Begins: Opening Clashes, 1861, by Jennifer M. Murray, reviewed by Wesley Moody, 1475
Across the Divide: Union Soldiers View the Northern Home Front, by Steven J. Ramold, reviewed by Eric D. Duchess, 1476-77
This Distracted and Anarchical People: New Answers for Old Questions about the Civil War-Era North, edited by Andrew L. Slap and Michael Thomas Smith, reviewed by Christopher S. Stowe, 1477-78
The Diary of a Civil War Marine: Private Josiah Gregg, edited by Wesley Moody and Adrienne Sachse, reviewed by Steven J. Ramold, 1478-79
The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History, by Louis S. Gerteis, reviewed by Matthew C. Hulbert, 1479-80
The Battle of Carthage, Missouri: First Trans-Mississippi Conflict of the Civil War, by Kenneth E. Burchett, reviewed by Jerry Keenan, 1481-82
Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi, by Earl J. Hess, reviewed by Brian Holden Reid, 1482-83
Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston and the Atlanta Campaign, by Earl J. Hess, reviewed by Richard L. DiNardo, 1483-84
1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal Year, edited by Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard, reviewed by Bruce J. Einhorn, 1485-87
The Chancellorsville Campaign, January-May 1863, by Bradford A. Wineman, reviewed by Debra Sheffer, 1487-88
Lee’s Army during the Overland Campaign: A Numerical Study, by Alfred C. Young III, reviewed by Colin Woodward, 1489-90
Ruined by this Miserable War: The Dispatches of Charles Prosper Fauconnet, a French Diplomat in New Orleans, 1863-1868, edited and translated by Carl A. Brasseaux and Katherine Carmines Mooney, reviewed by Rien Fertel, 1490-91
Frontier Cavalry Trooper: The Letters of Private Eddie Matthews (1869-1874), edited by Douglas C. McChristian, reviewed by Michael L. Tate, 1491-92
The Cambridge History of War, Volume IV: War and the Modern World, edited by Roger Chickering, Dennis Showalter, and Hans van de Ven, reviewed by Ralph M. Hitchens, 1493-94
Preparing for Blockade, 1885-1914: Naval Contingency for Economic Warfare, by Stephen Cobb, reviewed by Eric W. Osborne, 1494-95
From Boer War to World War: Tactical Reform of the British Army, 1902-1914, by Spencer Jones, reviewed by Gary P. Cox, 1496-97
The Influence of Airpower upon History: Statesmanship, Diplomacy, and Foreign Policy since 1903, edited by Robin Higham and Mark Parillo, reviewed by Phillip S. Meilinger, 1497-98
The Making of the First World War, by Ian F. W. Beckett, reviewed by Robert Doughty, 1499-1500
July 1914: Countdown to War, by Sean McMeekin, reviewed by Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., 1500-2
To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War, edited by Vincent P. O’Hara, W. David Dickson, and Richard Worth, reviewed by Lawrence Sondhaus, 1502-3
The Stomach for Fighting: Food and the Soldiers of the Great War, by Rachel Duffett, reviewed by Martin Bruegel, 1503-5
British Artillery on the Western Front in the First World War: ‘The Infantry cannot do with a gun less’, by Sanders Marble, reviewed by Albert Palazzo, 1505-6
Progressives at War: William G. McAdoo and Newton D. Baker, 1863-1941, by Douglas B. Craig, reviewed by Donald B. Connelly, 1506-7
Well Planned and Splendidly Executed: The Battle of Cantigny May 28-31, 1918, by Allan R. Millett, reviewed by Mark E. Grotelueschen, 1508-9
Memory, Narrative and the Great War: Rifleman Patrick MacGill and the Construction of Wartime Experience, by David Taylor, reviewed by Jonathan F. Vance, 1509-10
The German Army and the Defence of the Reich: Military Doctrine and the Conduct of the Defensive Battle 1918-1939, by Matthias Strohn, reviewed by David T. Zabecki, 1511-12
Myths of Demilitarization in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920-1960, by Thomas Rath, reviewed by Ian Roxborough, 1512-13
Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World, by Michael Fullilove, reviewed by David Hein, 1513-15
A Companion to World War II, edited by Thomas W. Zeiler, with Daniel M. DuBois, reviewed by John T. Kuehn, 1515-16
Going for Broke: Japanese American Soldiers in the War against Nazi Germany, by James M. McCaffrey, reviewed by Roger Dingman, 1517-18
Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War, by Garth Pratten, reviewed by Craig Stockings, 1518-19
British Policy and Strategy towards Norway, 1941-45, by Christopher Mann, reviewed by Mary Kathryn Barbier, 1519-20
To Walk with the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941-1945, by Gregor Joseph Kranjc, reviewed by John Ashbrook, 1521-22
Battalion Commanders at War: US Army Tactical Leadership in the Mediterranean Theater, 1942-1943, by Steven Thomas Barry, reviewed by Henry G. Gole, 1522-23
Mussolini’s Death March: Eyewitness Accounts of Italian Soldiers on the Eastern Front, by Nuto Revelli, reviewed by Emanuele Sica, 1523-25
The Liberation Trilogy, Vol. III: The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, by Rick Atkinson, reviewed by Robert M. Citino, 1525-26
Monte Cassino: Ten Armies in Hell, by Peter Caddick-Adams, reviewed by Glyn Harper, 1526-28
September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John McManus; and Operation Market Garden: Arnhem, the Battle for the Bridges, DVD presented by Tom Dormer et al., reviewed by Roger Cirillo, 1528-30
The OSS in Burma: Jungle War against the Japanese, by Troy J. Saquety, reviewed by Raymond Callahan, 1530-31
British Prisoners of the Korean War, by S. P. MacKenzie; and Cold Days in Hell: American POWs in Korea, by William Clark Latham, Jr., reviewed by Steven Casey, 1531-33
Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counterinsurgency in the Kenya Emergency, by Huw Bennett, reviewed by David Strachan-Morris, 1533-34
America’s Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG, by Gaillard R. Peck, Jr., reviewed by James Young, 1535-36
The Soldier and the State in India: Nuclear Weapons, Counterinsurgency, and the Transformation of Indian Civil–Military Relations, by Ayesha Ray, reviewed by John H. Gill, 1536-38
The Modern American Military, edited by David M. Kennedy, reviewed by Richard M. Swain, 1538-39