*Welcome to War and American Society.  This course will cover all the major (and some minor) wars fought by Americans from the colonial period through the current conflicts in the Middle East.  It will also investigate ways in which warfare has changed American society—economically, culturally, and politically.

*To begin, what is war?

*Carl von Clausewitz, a German soldier, wrote On War between 1816 and 1830, and described not only strategy and tactics, but also many political, social, and economic issues involved in warfare despite not taking place on the battlefield.  Indeed, he defined war as an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will—war is simply a way for a group or a country to achieve some larger aim. In fact, he said that war is simply a continuation of politics by other means.

*Other soldiers, politicians, and philosophers have had other thoughts on war.  Nathan Bedford Forrest said, 'War means fighting, and fighting means killing.'  Sherman said, 'War is all Hell.'    John Stuart Mill, however, said that there are worse things than  war, particularly people who are too self-centred to fight for anything.  Robert E. Lee said that 'it is well was is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.' 

*This course is not designed to glorify war, but neither is it meant to vilify it.  It celebrates American soldiers (and our allies), their sacrifices and accomplishments, and considers how the conflicts in which they fought shaped America and the world.

*To fully understand the content of this course, it is important to understand some military terms, including a number of historic terms that apply to the conflicts prior to the twentieth century. 

*There will be a quiz on these terms and on ranks in the army and navy.

*A skirmish is a battle between small forces.  It is named after the skirmish line, or skirmishers, lightly-armed soldiers who move ahead of the main army to scout out enemy positions and harass them until the main army catches up.

*A battle is a fight between large forces, particularly whole armies (although what counts as a battle in one area or one time period may seem like a skirmish when compared to battles in other areas or eras).

*Several battles in a row, and the movements of armies between them, form a campaign if they are meant to achieve a fulfil a particular strategy, such as capturing or defending an important city or region.

*A large area in which a group of campaigns takes place is a theatre (or theatre of operations)—for example, the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi Theatres in the Civil War or the European and Pacific Theatres of World War II.

*During most of the 1700s and 1800s, the main unit of most armies was the regiment, usually commanded by a colonel.  These were theoretically made up of 1,000 men each, usually divided into ten companies of 100 men each, usually commanded by a captain.  However, as men were killed, wounded, or went missing, the numbers declined:  a typical regiment that had been in service for some time might have 300-500 soldiers in it.  Each regiment in the 1700s and 1800s had a distinctive flag that allowed generals to tell units apart from a distance, and many also had distinctive uniforms.

*Several (usually two to five) regiments would be organized as a brigade, commanded by a brigadier general.  Several brigades could make up a division, and multiple divisions could make up a corps.

*There were (and are) different types of soldiers, as well.  Foot soldiers are known as infantry.

*Soldiers who fought on horseback were known as cavalry.  Some soldiers who rode on horseback but dismounted to fight on foot were called dragoons.  Today, many cavalry units still exist, but use tanks, other armoured vehicles, or helicopters.

*Cannon are artillery. Coastal fortifications had large cannon to defend against ships.  To attack fortifications, artillerists might use mortars, which have a shorter range, but fire in a high arc to get over walls.

*A group of artillery pieces is known as a battery.

*Until the mid-19th century, most soldiers used muskets.  These were smoothbore firearms that were (relatively) quick and easy to load, but not very accurate.  Their effective range was probably around 100 yards or less.  To make up for this, bayonets could be attached to them for close fighting.

*Many private citizens owned rifles.  They were slower to load but were accurate to a much longer range, making them useful for hunting.  By the mid-1800s, armies were beginning to use them in large numbers as well.  In the 1700s they had a useful range of at least 500 yards, and by the mid 1800s could fire over a mile.

*A rife is accurate because of the rifling, or grooves, in the barrel.  These impart a spin to the ball or bullet that flies out of it, making it maintain the same direction much longer.

*In the early 1600s, firearms had matchlocks in which a flaming match (a sort of slow-burning fuse) set off the gunpowder.  In the 1700s and early 1800s flintlocks were the only weapons available.  Around 1800, percussion caps that fit over a metal nipple at the base of the barrel ignited the powder.

*Until the mid-1800s, most firearms used round lead balls.  In the 1850s, bullets with a conical base that expanded to fit the grooves in a rifle barrel became common.  The most famous of these was called the Minie Ball (although it was really a bullet) after its inventor, Claude Etienne Minié.

*Artillery used a wide range of projectiles as well.

*Solid cannon balls were called shot. 

*Shells were hollow so they could be filled with gunpowder and would explode either after a timed fuse burned down or, when technology became good enough during the Civil War, they could explode on impact.  Exploding shells were also known as bombs.

*For fighting at close range, cannon could be loaded with grapeshot (or grape for short), which fired many smaller shot at once.

*Another type of anti-personnel ammunition was canister, which fired a can filled with small shot (and sometimes rocks, nails, and any other handy pieces of heavy material) at the enemy.  The can would burst on (or before) impact and the shrapnel inside would kill or injure anyone nearby.

*Explosive devices called torpedoes were sometimes buried underground or set to float in the water in the late 1700s through the mid 1800s, but were first widely used during the Civil War.  These were later called mines.  Later, ‘torpedoes’ meant explosives that could be propelled through the water.

*As a matter of defense, soldiers often dug trenches or created earthworks.  These were typically seen as a temporary or simple fortification, but some were maintained for months or years, when it was either not worth improving them or difficult to do so.

*Trenches and earthworks (and more elaborate fortifications and defensive works) might also have other defenses around them.  From the Roman Empire through the Civil War, a relatively quick and easy way to create additional (and very effective) lines of defense was by cutting and sharpening trees into abatis.  The sharpened trees trunks and branches often had wire twisted and stretched between them.

*Later on, barbed wire was used to defend trenches and other works, and by the late 1930s, Czech Hedgehogs were used to slow down enemy troops and tanks.

*When studying warfare, it is important to distinguish between conventional and unconventional warfare.

*Conventional warfare is based on manœuvering troops against each other on the battlefield.  Soldiers could be arranged in lines (shoulder to shoulder), columns (marching behind each others), or in other formations, such as a square.

*Unconventional warfare is anything besides the movement of organised troops against each other.  It can involve spying, intimidation, propaganda, and guerilla fighting.

*Guerilla warfare gets it name from the Spanish for ‘little war,’ and involves small groups of fighters harassing another, usually more conventional, force.  The Indians used it against Europeans, Americans used it against the British during the Revolution, both Northerners and Southerners used it against each other during the Civil War, and the Viet Cong used it against Americans in the Viet-Nam War.

*Somewhere between the regular army of professional soldiers and the unconventional guerilla fighters were militia.  Militia were citizens trained to fight when called upon.  They typically were required by law to train on a regular basis, and were sometimes (but not always) equipped either by the community as a whole or by a wealthy member of the community who then became their commanding officer.  Others were equipped with whatever weapons they owned personally.

*They had a reputation as poorly-trained, ill-disciplined, and likely to run away from a fight.  This was not always true, but was true often enough that militia were often held in contempt by regular, or professional, soldiers.  Some militia did make excellent scouts or guerillas, and sometimes their unreliability was used as a trick to lure attackers into a false sense of security or an ill-advised attack.

*At different times, state militia were placed under the control of the national government, and at the time of the Spanish-American War (1898) state militia began to be reorganised as the National Guard.

*Soldiers are commanded by officers.  Commissioned officers usually enter the military as officers after undertaking some kind of training (or, in previous centuries, buying a commission or obtaining it through political connections).  Lieutenants and Captains (in the army—a naval captain is equal to an army colonel) are considered company grade officers (sometimes called junior officers), because they command part or all of a company.  Majors, Lieutenant-Colonels, and Colonels are field officers (sometimes called senior officers) because they command a larger unit, such as a battalion or regiment, in the field (in some armies even a brigadier is considered a field officer).  General officers command large forces and are called ‘general’ officers because they need a general knowledge of infantry, artillery, cavalry (or armour), not just one branch of service.

*Below commissioned officers are warrant officers, who are generally highly trained specialists (such as helicopter pilots) who need authority in a specific area, but are not in line for promotion to command large groups of soldiers.

*Soldiers who do not begin their careers with officers’ training may be promoted through experience to be non-commissioned officers, becoming corporals and then sergeants.  These are the men who typically have day-to-day authority over private soldiers.

*Within warfare, it is important to differentiate between tactics and strategy, but the difference is simple:  tactics are how officers command soldiers in a particular battle, while strategy is the overall plan for a campaign. 

*Both strategies and tactics can fail without good logistics:  the planning needed to provide and move men and supplies.

*Some important tactics to know include the frontal assault—a direct attack on the enemy.  It is meant to overwhelm him with speed and force of numbers.  In the 1600s, 1700s, and sometimes in the 1800s it often worked.  More often in the 1800s, and certainly since then, it often has not.

*Flanking manœuvers or envelopments attempt to attack the enemy from the side—or, in a double envelopment, both sides.

*An ambush is a surprise attack from a concealed position.  It is usually made by one small group against another one, but sometimes even works against a large force.  It is particularly important in guerrilla warfare.

*To avoid sneak attacks at night and attempt to capture spies, armies often stationed a picket line around their camps.  This consisted of a few men chosen for guard duty who could challenge anyone trying to enter the camp to see if they had a legitimate reason to be there.

*A siege is an attempt to surround an enemy position to cut its forces off from escape or re-supply until they are forced to surrender due to starvation.

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