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The Continental Army in the Revolutionary War was the first truly national institution abd of course won independence from the Brirish Empire. The United States Army has played a major role in shaping our modern world. The Grand Army of the Republic held America together in the Civil War which meant that a united American was a major influence on the 20th century. The Civil war is often described as the first modern war. And the military forces raised should have raised eyebrows in Europe. European military experts were, however, unimpressed. This was particularly the case in Germany which united for the first time a few years after the Civil War ended. European militaries studied past battles in preparing for the next war. This was almost entirely European battles. It was Europe with conscription laws that had large armies. The American Army after the Civil War was miniscule. Germany built the most powerful army in Europe, but in two world wars, German leadrs would dismiss the potential imporance of American armies. The American Army played major roles in both World wars. American entered both wars without a large trained army and in both instances Germany made a fatefull gamble that they could win the war before the arrival of the Americans in force. When America declared war on Germany (April 1917) there was essentially no American Army. Although America only entered World War I in 1917, German Field Marshal Ludendorf was to say that it was the American infantry that was the decisive force in the West. Again when World War II broke out, the American Army consisted of only a small professional core. Devisive debates were held in the Congress over drafting a sizeable force (1940 and 1941). Only amonth before Pearl Harbor, the Congress almost ended the draft and allow those drafted to return home (November 1941). Few in the American Army had any combat experience, only the older members of the small Regular Army. And they would soon be pitted against the battle hardened Wehrmact arguaably the most professional military in the history of warfare. They were in fact not prepared as the Panzers demonstrated at Kaserine (February 1943). They proved, however, to be fast learners and were backed by the emenese industrial capacity of the United states. Unlike World War I, the U.s. Army did not play the central role in deating NAZI Germany. It did play an important role in defeating the NAZIs and in than in preventing Western Europe from falling within the totalitarian orbit of the Soviet Union.
The Continental Army in the Revolutionary War was the first truly national institution and of course won independence from the Brirish Empire. There was the regular Continental Army augmented with state militias. Their training and reliability were very different. Boys played a major role in the War. The most famous is a young Andrew Jackson who play the British back in spades for his mistreatment three decades later at the Battle of New Orleans. One of the iconic images of the War is how it ended. A British officer with a white flag and drummer boy mounted the ramparts at Yorktown to signal that Lord Cornwallis was ready to surrender.
There were two American armies in the Civil War, the U.S. Army and the Confederate Army. The Grand Army of the Republic held America together in the Civil War which meant that a united American was a major influence on the 20th century. It was the first massive army raised in America. Conscription was introduced for the first time by the Federal Army. The Federal army was a mixture of Regulkar army units and state units. The Federal Army was wonderfully supplied by the developing industrial econmy of the North and the agricultural production of the mid-West. The expanding railroad system of the North also played aey role. Blacks had fought in American armies before, but the first all-black units after the Emancipatiuon Procamation wre raised and played an important part in the Federal victory. The principal problem the Federal Army faced was finding competent commanding officers, especually for the Army of the Potoma--the most important formation in the Federal Army. It was not until after Gettysburg (Juky 1863) that Lincoln finally chose Genral Grant. Boys and youth played a major role in both the Federal and Confederate armies. Younger boys served a muscians, especially drummer boys. Older boys were needed for bugglers. We believe that this was the last War in which younger boys served in combat. The Civil War is often described as the first modern war. And the military forces raised should have raised eyebrows in Europe. European military experts were, however, unimpressed. This was particularly the case in Germany which united for the first time afew years after the Civil War ended. European militaries studied past battles in preparing for the next war. This was almost entirely European battles. It was Europe with conscription laws that had large armies. The American Army after the Civil War was miniscule. Germany built the most powerful army in Europe, but in two world wars, German leaders would dismiss the potential impotrance and effectiveness of American armies.
One of the great American stories is immigration. After the Civil War, especually by the 1880s, Europeans began emigrating from Europe in huge numbers. It was one of the great mass migrations in history. The emigrants included Catholics from southern Europe and Jews from Eastern Europe among many others. They would remake the ethnic map of Europe. There were aange of creasons that people came to America, but one of the primary reasons they came was to escape onerous European cionscription laws. Conscription, dspecially in Russia was a draconian event, but all the major countruies and most of the smaller countries had conscription laws. And many nationalities fought themselves fighting in the armies of the three grat empires (Austrian, German, and Russian), armies for which they had little affinity. Britain was a rare exception of a great power without a conscription law. In one of the ironies of history, the sons and grandsons of the men who sought freedom by evading conscription in America would return to the continent in the 20 century to iberate their countries of origin and to prevent Soviet domination.
Throughout the 19th century except for the Civil War, the regular United States Army was a very small force. The militia provided the bulk of the men used in the wars Ameruca fought, beginning with the War Of 1812. This was also true at the onset of the Civil War. Militia units provided the bulk of the troops used in the Mexican War abd the Spanish-American War. The term National Guard was, however, not used until the 20th century. Militia units were federalized and called the National Guard (1903). It was organized as a Reserve force for the U.S. Army. This essentially was the founding of the National Guard. The Guard would play a major role in World War I. The National Guard made up 40 percent of the U.S. combat divisions deployed to France. The Guard would also play a major role in World War II and was a substantial part of the U.S. Army divisions available after Pearl Harbor.
The American Army played major roles in both world wars. American entered both wars without a large trained army and in both instances Germany made a fatefull gamble that they could win the war before the arrival of the Americans in force. When America declared war on Germany (April 1917) there was essentially no American Army. And in the run up to the war, despite 3 years of war in Europe, the United States had made no important effort to prepare. The Allies were over joyed to have America enter the War, but were shocked to find there was no American Army to join them. There was not even a concription law when America declared war (April 1917). President Wilson chose General John Pershing to command the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). General Pershng abd his staff arrived before the United States had a sizeanle combat force. The United States had to begin sending untrained men to France nd they were trained there. Pershing first job was to begin training his men. The AEF had to use many Allied weapons because American industry was not yet prioducing weaponns in large quantity. The Germans after knocking Russia out if the War, launched their Spring offensive to win the War before the Americans could be brought to France and committed to battle. German advances force the Allies to commit the Americans early than planned. Pership inisisted that the AEF be commoted as an American force and not part of British and French units.
Although America only entered World war I in 1917 and was commited to combat (1918), German Field Marshal Ludendorf was to say that it was the American infantry that was the decisive force in the West.
The U.S. Army that was to liberate Western Europe and play an important role in defeating NAZI Germany did not exist in the 1930s. What existed was a very small professional core. The War Department after the Armistice on the Western Front (November 1918) recomended that Congress authorize a permanent Regular Army of about 0.5 million men and a 3-month universal training system that would create a ready reserve thatv had basic military skills. This would give the United States the capability of rapidly creating a major force to provide for future defense needs. Congress accurately reflecting American public opinion firmly rejected these proposals. Americans thought they had won the "War to End All wars". With Imperial Germany defeated, few Americans saw the need for a large army or major military expenditures. There was a willingness to approve some naval spending, because the Navy was seem as America's shield. Most Americans thought that was all that was necessary. This became the conerstone of American defense thinking theoughout the 1920s and 30s. The world situation, however, changed dramatically in the 1930s. The United States found itself in an increasingly dangerous world. It was a world world in which Stalin was building a vast Red Army and the Japanese were building the Imperial Army which would undertake the conquest of China. Mussolini was building an army of 6 million bayonets. The tipping point was in 1935 when Hitler announced the introduction of conscription. This mean that the totalitarian powers possessed the overwealming balance of power in the world. In Europe the democracies placed their hope on the French Army, the force tht had stopped the Germans in World War I. The United States throuhout the 1930s even after Hitler reintoduced conscription, made nol effort to significantly expand its army. There was efforts to expand the U.S. Navy and later in the decade the air force. The Army remained, however, a small professional force. Even small countries in Europe had a larger army. Neither were there major efforts to upgrade weaponry.
Again when World War II broke out, the American Army consisted of only a small professional core. Devisive debates were held in the Congress over drafting a sizeable force (1940 and 1941). Only a month before Pearl Harbor, the Congress almost ended the draft and allowed those drafted to return home (November 1941). A journalist working in Britain recalls seeing the first boatload of American infantry arriving in Britain (January 1942). They were an Iowa National Guard unit, the 43th infantry. They landed in Belfast still wearing the old World War I helmets. They were singing, "Ioway--Ioway--Out Where the Tall Corn Grows". The journalist writes, "I hoped with all my heart that the men who led them knew what they were doing. They seemed a little dewy behinf the ears, almost surprised that they were overseas so far from Iowa where they might soon have to fight an ememy who wanted to kill them," [MacVane, p.75.] Few in this and subsequent units had any military experience. And they would soon be pitted against the battle hardened Wehrmact arguaably the most professional military in the history of warfare. They were in fact not adequately prepared as Rommel and the Panzers demonstrated at Kaserine (February 1943). The U.S. Army proved, however, to be fast learners. The prncipal World war II commnanders emerged from the fighting in Tunisia and Sicily. Most imprtant of all, Eisenhower emnerged as he indespensible Allied commander of the War. [Atkinson] Even major American commanders were guilty of amateurish mistakes. It is not diffcult to understand. Only a few years earlier many had been majors and lieutenant colonels in the peacetime army. The Army created specialized units, both paratroopers and rangers who compiled storied combat records.
The U.S. Army was inexerienced, but had three major advantages over the Wehrmacht, First, it was backed by the emenese industrial capacity of the United states. Second, it did not have a political commander that micro-managed operations. Three, the U.S. Army could focus much of its strength on the Germans in France, while the Wehremacht bogged down in the East, could deploy only a fraction of its strength in France. Unlike World War I, the U.s. Army did not play the central role in defeating Germany. It did, however, play an important role in rentering the Continent. This not only meant that it played a role in defeating the NAZIs, but also prevented Western Europe from falling within the orbit of the Soviet Union and totalitarian Communism.
Militry leadership is commonly assessed by studying the generals. One author writes, "Generals are born, and generals are made. The promotion from colonel to brigadier (or sone-star) general is one of the largest psychological leaps an officer can take. It is richly symbolic: The promoted officer removes from his or her collar the insgnia of an Army branch (the crossed rifles of infantry, for example, or the tiny triple-turreted castle of engineers) and puts on a sinle star .... As members of the Army's select few, they are expected to control and coordinate different branches, such as artillery, cavalry, engineers, -- that is becoming a generalist." [Ricks] American military leadership, the generals, in the various military conflicts, has varied widely overtime, in large measure because their was no military accademy to train officers and even when established the performance of gtaduates vafied widely. Severl merican commanders in the Revolutionary War like Horatio Gates and Lighthorse Harry Lee. One of the most competent, Bendedict Arnold, proved to be Americ's greatest traitor. Generl Wwashington saw at the very beginning of the Revolutiinarfy War that aroperly traubned an armed regular army--the Continental Army), was needed if Americ was to pervail. There was atendency of the Democratic-Republicans to rely on poorly trained militias. President Madisin saw the folly with this when the British chsed him out of Washington during the War of 1812, Americn military leadershio was the deciding factor in the Mexican War. World War II produced great leaders like Marshall, Eisenhower, and Patton. Eisenhower had to, however, send several generals home. One of his superb abilities was to get rid of the commanders that were not capable of the job. The Army in Korea neither punished mediocrity or rewarded daring, in part bev\cause the objective was to limit not win the War. One author describes American military leadership as bottoming out in Vietnam. After the War the Armyb and other services were reinvigorated from the bottom up. Competent leadership won battles, but the wars ended badly as aesult of less competent political management.
Atkinson, Rick. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (Henry Holt, 2007), 791p.
MacVane, John. On the Air in World War II (William Morrow and Company: New York, 1979), 384p.
Ricks, Thomas E. The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today (2012), p. 576.
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