Ft. Leavenworth Series - Denis Mahan and the Foundations of American Theory

all right it's uh are we go okay now you bet okay so now we can hear now i'm on and ready to roll right thank you okay um it is like i said this is my fifth time presenting to you guys so um twice i've done it on german last two times i've done it on german subjects and the war in 1866 and so now it is good to get back to the united states of america for this entry in uh the the military theorists series that we're doing here with the army command general staff with you guys as part of the faculty of the army command general staff college um so today my subject is dennis hart mahan and the foundations of american theory um mahan kind of represents an effort to try to kind of you know the american way the american thing of taking european concepts and ideas and trying to meld them with the american environment to try to figure out a way to develop military theory that is appropriate for the american context both political social economic uh technological and um uh doctrinal and and in line with strategic objectives terrain uh geography etc uh so alfred uh excuse me dennis now there's sometimes there's two mahants there is alfred thayer mahan who is the naval theorist and there's dennis hart mahan uh the army theorist the ground war theorist and he will be the focus of today just to make clear which mahan we're talking about here okay next slide all right so the slides just disappeared there we go of course the effort to try to figure out a way to develop a way of war military theory that would be appropriate to the specific context of north america has been ongoing since the time europeans arrived in the new world in the uh 16th and 17th centuries now the 16th to 17th centuries 18th centuries also in europe marks the time of the enlightenment in which will get the emergence of a style of warfare coming out of the religious wars in which as an effort try to limit warfare um make it more contained make it more controllable in line with the thinking of the enlightenment which is an effort to try to identify scientific principles uh that govern um the world that govern human affairs that govern warfare um and so this is most especially manifest in the emergence of artillery and above all engineering as the centerpieces of the military institutions and this especially in france is reflected in the prominence that sebastian vubon the great engineer enjoys in france and the role that siege warfare and fortifications the central role that this plays in european warfare now at the time this is dominating warfare in fr in europe um in america the colonists are dealing with obviously a very very different situation in europe you've got a much more settled area uh much more of the modern modern civilization towns and cities um and institutions whereas in in america uh americans the settlers of the british settlers in north america are trying to develop ways of war that are appropriate to the specific geographic and human context they encounter nonetheless there is some influence um and you can see this in fortifications that are built in places for ticonderoga and quebec there is the effort to build these kind of vulbonian fortifications to protect particularly important um locations now in the but of course generally for the most part warfare in the new world consists of conflict between the white settlers and the native americans and out of this evolves what one historian has called the first american way of war which is a very irregular which is some kind of skulking way of war that involves irregular operations um on the frontiers on the border lands between european settlement and the native americans and you know it's this is very different from the way warfare is being practiced in uh the old world now of course the old world new world conflicts come together um in a number of colonial conflicts king georgia's war the great war for empire and and in the war for american independence that breaks out in 1775 not as the war for american independence uh but as resistance to british rule um and by portions weighed by conflict waged by militia um but quickly becomes clear that if the united states is to wage warfare successfully for its independence it's got to develop the institutions and the ways of making war um that are recognizable uh to europeans to british and the french the british who are adversaries and the french who are eventually going to be our allies and one of the big concerns that develops is fortifications particularly important point in north america identified earlier on by george washington the commander-in-chief of continental forces of defenders of the 13 colonies and he quickly identifies you know the hudson river as a critical as critical to the success of the revolution and especially critical on the hudson river is the place where the river makes a distinctive bend north of new york city um and there is a distinctive point on the western side of the river and so the question of how to what to do about west point um you can't you know do irregular operations um you you need some kind of conventional way of defending west point some kind of fortifications and this proves to be a problem all throughout the american revolution uh george washington excuse the beginning american revolution the question becomes what do we do about west point we need to protect it it's the best way to protect the hudson river uh from british warships it's the best location to do so how do we do that uh where do we find the engineers the the people who know how to um construct fortifications plan fortifications protect fortifications um how do we find people who could do that now initial the the new state the colony of new york um takes the lead in this and contracts with an individual by the name of bernard romans um who is trained as a scientist but doesn't have a lot of experience in military engineering and his initial design is not very effective um they then attempt another uh designs uh south of west point um those aren't very effective those are unsuccessful the british in 1777 are able to overrun them pretty effectively and capture the area around west point now after the british fall back to new york city the americans and their french allies turned their attention to developing a good fortification system for west point um and the key figure in this is going to be the polish patriot thaddeus kosciuszko who um along with other anti-british officers have volunteered their services to the american revolution and kosciuszko begins to design a fortification system around west point which is focused around around the great chain to block the hudson river then there's a series of of batteries along the river then there's a big fortification on the plane at west point then there's a system of fortifications in the higher ground around it um and this is all designed to protect uh west point and it does its job um the british don't challenge the defenses at west point other than when they try to get benedict arnold to sell them to him so this problem of engineering and fortifications at west point american engineers do not have the knowledge or the capability to take care of it so we have to rely on uh foreign engineers to begin constructing fortifications that will actually do the job we need to do and so when the war is over and those um international officers go back to their home countries the question becomes of okay we need to find some kind of engineering ability in engineers we develop our own artillerists who can handle these technical aspects of warfare um and in the process provide the foundation for a standing army um which is a controversial ish issue uh because the american rep much of the american revolution the build up the revolution the resistance of british rule um much of it was much of the complaints that the colonists had was about the conduct of the british regular army in north america um and in america we re in the colonial period mostly relied on militia for defense and the idea that the citizen soldier was the way to go um that we did not need a professional standing army was fairly very widely held in the united states um and there are also fears of a standing army um americans were very conscious of the fact that they were establishing a republic a type of government that not had a very good track record in history the most notable of course being the roman republic which of course was overthrown by its general when he had a standing army at his disposal so while you have people come on the american revolution like george washington henry knox and others who are convinced of the need for a standing army um they're unimpressed with the performance of the militia in various battles during the revolution in addition you know fortifications and artillery are not just things that can be improvised they require planning they require training they require education and consequently they need people whose full-time job it is they can't be part-time militia building fortifications or manning artillery um these these need to be full-time soldiers these need to be a permanent standing army um and so there's this debate and but again the people who don't want the cost of standing army and are worried that a standing army can be a threat to uh the republic um and so for the most part in our early early national period efforts by people like washington to promote the standing army um don't do very well or very are very unsuccessful um now during the quasi war in 1798 when the united states nearly goes to war with france and there's a shooting they're shooting on the high seas there's no formal declaration of war uh federalists during the adams administration um do push efforts to try to develop the military institutions and the military leadership uh that could provide this sort of effective standing army um it's primarily done under the leadership of alexander hamilton um who's effectively the commanding general army washington is sort of the titulary uh commander of the army but really he leaves most the management of the army to to hamilton and hamilton and his associates do what they can to use this military emergency to build up the standing army and some of the efforts are undertaken at west point there's the effort west point has been occupied continuously since 1778 and during the adams administration there's efforts to try to establish some kind of military school there to kind of serve as a place where artillerists and engineers can get trained now a school is established there in 1798 which is sort of supposed to under the direction of major henry burback they began concentrating some forces there to try to give some training in artillery and engineering and finally in 1802 under thomas jefferson this school of application is formally redesignated the us military academy in 1802 however the military academy efforts established by jefferson does not receive a lot of attention the curriculum is not standardized the standards are not and it's to the point where in the army regulations of 1810 discussing the military academy everything that can be discussed about the military academy is addressed in less than a page because there's just very little attention paid to the academy um because there's a sense and the jefferson jefferson administration comes into power in part in reaction against the federalists and their effort to try to build up their regular army um jefferson's motives for establishing the military academy haven't debated uh much by um historians because it seems to be inconsistent that jefferson uh this person who tended to be anti-military anti-standing army he is the father of the military academy um and explaining this most historians have said that jefferson's motivations were won he did want a military academy to train engineers because there was a shortage of that in the country it would advance uh science um and jefferson was very much into advancing science and also the federalists when they had built up their army in 1798 and 1799 have been very politically partisan about how they did it and so jefferson was thinking if we get an academy it could be a more objective less partisan way of selecting the people who will be officers in the army nonetheless after establishing the the academy uh jefferson as president undertakes an effort to tr retrenchment of um reducing the national debt of reducing government spending and for that reason the military academy from 1802 to 1812 is not a very well established institution again there's no standardization there's no clear sense of curriculum what its purpose is it's training what is it trying to do what is it trying to teach its what are military officers supposed to learn um and what role graduates of the academy will have in the army this is this is not established either uh so up until 1812 the academy at west point is not a very large concern but that is going to change next slide because in 1812 next slide the united states in 1812 the united states goes to war again with great britain and at the time of course great britain is um engaged in perceiving a life and death struggle against napoleon uh actually can you go back to the previous slide there's some images up there that uh i want to explain okay third map on the left obviously is west point at the time you see the distinctive bend in the river on the west side you see the point you see the chain see the fortifications that were established um these two individuals louis du partel he was the french officer who was sent over and became head of engineers in the continental army again reflecting uh the lack of expertise that americans themselves have at engineering the gentleman next that is jonathan williams who is the first um who is the first superintendent of the united states military academy but kind of reflective of you know how little tension and how little priority academy has williams devotes as much attention to trying to develop a u.s military us military philosophy military philosophy society as he does to trying to develop the academy and uh so the academy like i said really is suffers from neglect and lack of standardization lack of attention lack of resources until 1812. next slide please then we get these images from 1812 to 1815. the united states goes to war with great britain and presuming with britain focusing its efforts against napoleonic france um there's a lot of ambition about you know it should be pretty easy for them united states to mobilize its militia get its citizens soldiers going and then go up and attack canada and take canada and this should be pretty good things don't work out in 1812 um instead of taking canada the american force detroit surrenders to the british and then the ultimate humiliation in 1814 the british come into the chesapeake bay and they burn the white house and they burn the capital and capture the capital of the united states after a fight in which the militia uh run away pretty quickly so 1812 1815 you've got this mixed success the united states military does achieve some successes but in the minds of military officers much more compelling are the embarrassments of this conflict in a sense that the informal amateur system that the united states has been pursuing up into 1812 with neglect of this military academy and institution that this is something that needs to be remedied and something that needs to be addressed and consequently the war of 1812 is going to set the stage for efforts at army reform now a burn capital and burned uh executive mansion definitely provide a lot of encouragement to members of congress to rethink and the president of the united states james madison to rethink their ideas about relying on amateur soldiers next slide please and ultimately what's going to happen is going to be a period of army reform and taking place associated largely um with secretary of war john c calhoun in james monroe's administration and under calhoun's direction a series of reforms are undertaken that are going to fundamentally shape the army going forward um calhoun the leader within the administration one of the leading people advising him in the army is winfield scott who during world war during the war of 1812 um had developed had been captured initially and during his time in captivity gets an opportunity to see how the british army operates um the professionalism of it the way it's its officers conduct themselves and when phil scott comes back determined to improve the professionalism of the army and he works very closely with calhoun to do this and some of the basic concepts that guide calhoun is the concept of a re the regular army the permanent army um should be kept relatively heavier in officers in peace time than it would be in wartime and the idea is when the war comes the army will expand by bringing you know the question of militia soldiers versus recruits volunteers versus professional troops you know this has been a big issue because americans tend to want to rely on militia and belief as you know militia is safer for the republic because militia are the people as opposed to a regular army well calhoun gets the basic concept that we should in peace time we should maintain an army that's heavier on officers than unlisted men and when war comes volunteers and militia will come in as enlisted men but those permanent officers will provide a a core of experience a core of professionalism um that they can then provide direction for a much more effective american military system second priority is to develop coastal forts and infrastructure american strategy um it revolves around a couple basic concepts one uh first line of defense is the navy because if any foreign country wants to fight the united states obviously they're going to have to cross the atlantic ocean to do so so the navy will be our first line of defense second line of defense will be these coastal fortifications and after the war of 1812 um the united states brings in a french officer by the name of simone bernard and under bernard's direction begins the development of what becomes known as the third system of fortifications a series of coastal fortifications there have been a first system in a second system but the way the british had been able to relatively easily land forces in the chesapeake land forces on the mississippi river in preparation for the battle of new orleans um had reinforced had created a sense that our current fortifications protecting our seacoast were inadequate and so in order to build these fortifications um you are gonna need um engineer officers artillerists and um so this this idea we need stronger coastal fortifications is also going to place a premium on developing the regular army developing the officer core of the regular army particularly emphasizing artillery and engineering in addition um the office of commanding general is created um to create a have one officer who's in charge of the line army in addition there's an idea of creating permanent staff bureaus in washington dc to improve the logistics and the management administration of the army the idea is these will be long-standing professional staff officers who are providing the sort of technical knowledge and expertise and ability and have the training in order to manage the army's um like i said logistics administration effectively and finally all of these the single theme in all this is to improve the leadership of the army and its officer corps and so one of the parts of calhoun's reforms is going to be especially um improving and enhancing the place of the united states military academy in america's military system um as calhoun operates in the assumption you know there's an assumption among american american people that you know by the virtue of the american people natural genius um will emerge and provide the net the military leadership we need but calhoun's emphasis is on you know constructed officers professional officers full-time officers a regular army that can provide the permanent educated leadership that the united states needs in order to avoid the war of 1812 again now west point if they're going to reform west point they need to find the right guy next slide and no we're gonna get we're getting into mahan don't don't worry we'll get to him but the key figure here is sylvanas thayer who in 1817 is sent up to the united states military academy to uh take direction of it as the new superintendent uh now sylvanas thayer had been in charge of the defenses of norfolk in 1814 when the british passed by norfolk and went up to washington and burned the capital um so he had had a front row seat at the inattic and in i in view of the the inadequacy of um shortcomings of america's military system he's a graduate of dartmouth and graduate of the academy um and he's sent up there to become the new superintendent of west point he arrives in 1817 and to assist him in his efforts to develop military academy um he bring he brings with him a french officer by the name of claudius crozet who had graduated from the french echolopolis technique and had was a veteran of waterloo who served under napoleon um and together working together thayer and crochet develop the military academy its academic curriculum focused large along engineering they standardize the curriculum into a four-year program um they divide the west point corps of cadets into four classes the first classman um the fourth classman you know kind of backwards the new cadets are the fourth classmen their second year they're known as third classmen the next year they're known as second classman and then the last year they're known as first classmen so these are the five classes um they make they decide to organize to develop a curriculum which is heavily emphasizes what is believed to be missing from the american military system which is an understanding of military engineering of mathematics drawing heavily on the french example which traced back to vauban of a very technical approach to warfare um a scientific approach to warfare and so thayer and crochet begin developing the curriculum and uh so and this become this begins to lay the foundation uh for the military academy they establish a culture of strict discipline and accountability cadets are assessed every single day on their performance in class and these records are kept day to day today each class is divided into sections which with the best students in the first section and the students who aren't doing so well in other sections and most the class work is done by recitation and examinations are held in june and december there's an entrance exam to get in and a lot of emphasis is heavily on french and mathematics to provide to lay the foundation for cadets to develop the skills and understanding and the knowledge to provide professional administration um there are encampments every summer uh west point is very isolated so cadets are subjected for four years to this sort of isolation away from the rest of america develop their soldier skills from the school of the company up to the school of italian in the summer encampments they are taught how to use artillery they're taught how to do drill and above all in the classroom they do a lot of mathematics and they do a lot of drawing and they do a lot of work to prepare them to become engineers even if they're not going to become engineers in the army the idea was the mental the mythical mathematical skills the mental discipline that math instills the idea of fundamental principles it instills this kind of mental discipline will serve graduates of west point no matter what branch they go into with their infantry they need to know how to paper do paperwork they know they need to know how to administer things um they need to do things with precision and have this i this idea that it develops it meant mathematics develops a mental discipline an appreciation for fundamental principles um that govern uh the way things are done and so the idea is this provides a standardized curriculum standardized experience so it will create an officer core um that that has very much the sense of cohesion of corporate um sense of belonging to haven't had a common experience a bonding experience that will provide the foundation for a much more professional much more technically proficient officer corps and over the course of um this period we have when alfred excuse dennis mahan is at west point we are going to see west pointers gradually develop establish almost a monopoly over junior commissioning in the office in the officer corps in 1820 west point graduates are 18 of the officer corps 10 years later after the failure of reforms and with people like winfield scott who support these reforms in charge of the army gradually the new commissions in the army at the rank of lieutenant second lieutenant overwhelmingly go to west point uh graduates by 1830 west point graduates have gone from 18 of the officer corps 10 years before to 64 of the officer corps in 1830 by 1860 west point graduates are 76 of the officer corps so this west point experience becomes foundational for the development of the united states army in these decades between the war of 1812 and the war of mexico and then the american civil war now thayer serves from 1817 until 1833 um and playing a key role in carrying forward his legacy um and expanding on it building on it is going to be the subject of today's lecture um dennis hart mahan next slide here is dennis hartmahn um that's a picture of him there on the right um his nickname old common sense um and hopefully i'll get to that point why he's called that uh mahan was born in 1802 in new york uh to a family had just recently immigrated from ireland um his mother dies when he is young um and the family relocates to norfolk virginia um there behan becomes interested in perhaps pursuing medicine and moves to richmond to begin studying medicine with a doctor there um when he finds out that the united states military academy um he finds about the military academy and he particularly has begun to develop an interest in drawing and because military engineering and fortifications are becoming important um part of thayer's reform is introduced much more drawing and art into the uh into the curriculum at west point um and mahan finds out about you know he's got interest in drawing and so he decides to apply and attend the us military academy he receives the appointment through a congressman and this practice is going to develop in the 1820s 1830s as part of the standardization of the academy prior to the war of 1812 people were selected to go to the academy some were in the army some were um you know there was no system for how people were selected to go to the academy but gradually what developed eighteen twenty thirties is a system whereby members of congress nominate cadets to go to the academy a system that still persists to this day mahan is able to secure an appointment and in 1820 he shows up at west point and he comes up the river the only way to get to west point is by the river because there are there is no re decent road network that links west point um with other places until really the 1830s late 1840s so really you do have the sense of isolation you come up the river you arrive at west point you you get off the boat at the docks you walk up to the plane and there you enter this separate world from the rest of america from the rest of the world although artists because the hudson river school of romanticism becomes popular this time often find west point a compelling subject uh but for the cadets who are there um they're you know the boats move up and down the hudson but it really does foster the sense of isolation that you are in this separate place from the rest of america to learn how to be an army officer and above all a successful effective engineer so mahan enters west point in 1820 and by 1821 sylvanas thayer is already starting to notice this guy who's got a great talent from mathematics and by his third class been here again just his second year at the academy um mohan has asked not just to be a cadet and take the classes but also to teach mathematics and becomes appointed an acting assistant professor of mathematics during only his second year at the academy um and even though he's got his teaching his teaching requirements on top of doing all the other things the other cadets are doing he still manages to finish first in the class of 1824 a class that has 31 graduates he is first and reflecting the prestige uh he's appointed the corps of engineers that is where top graduates of the academy usually get appointed into to kind of underline the importance of engineering and its prestige its relative prestige compared to the other branches of the military so he's appointed into the corps of engineers but even though he's appointed the corps of engineers he's kept at west point for two more years to stay on the faculty after which he is ordered to go to europe to go study engineering there thayer is clearly viewing mahan as a protege and so mahan is sent to europe to study public engineering military engineering he spends a year at the school for application for engineers and artillerists at mets in france um he spends time with lafayette and uh in 1828 he he makes a strong impression on the people of france and is elected a member of the geographical society of france in 1828. now in 1830 he returns back to the united states of america and right back to west point um he's invited to join the faculty permanently um and in 1832 he formally resigns his commissions and the engineers never having served a day in any soldiers or troops duties um you taught the academy goes to france to study comes back in 1832 he resigns his commission to accept the professorship of civil and military engineering at the academy now at the time he is uh becomes he becomes a point he is appointed to this position um the academy is relying largely for its teaching on a textbook um that was written by guido verdon and interpreted excuse me and um translated by john michael o'connor and its title is treaties in the science of war and fortifications composed for the use of the imperial polytechnic school and that is only two of the six lines in this title it's a translation it places a heavy emphasis on permanent field fortifications their constructions um it does look at campaign theory derived from european texts authors like henry lloyd and antoine germany and it looks at historical examples and relies heavily on geometry to explain um how army should operate in the field it just talks a lot about lines of operations it draws heavily on popular currents and military theory in europe especially that reflected in the works of baron antoine jean monique with its emphasis on lines of operations lines of communications geometric geometric formification geometric concepts and again it kind of reflects an enlightenment concept through geometry and enduring principles that um that you can figure out how to how the rules the science of warfare um and so this is the textbook when uh mahan takes over but when mahan takes over in the 1830s in america things are changing during the era of good feelings that followed the war of 1812 the administrations of james monroe and john quincy adams there was support for the vision of the military academy as thayer is viewing it um supporting nation building institution building um first with the republicans under um james uh james monroe and then the national republicans under john quincy adams they both share this idea of using institutions to develop the country um in 1824 um john c calhoun as secretary of war champions a general survey act to have the army allow army officers to help develop internal improvements there's this real interest in using the power of the federal government to provide greater direction to national development and again this is something through the monroe administration the john quincy adams administration well then 1828 elected of the presidency is uh andrew jackson andrew jackson is writing a very different wave to power in the united states he reflects the emergence of democratic government the idea of of government from the bottom up the natural leaders of natural talent and natural genius like andrew jackson himself who didn't need any military academy who didn't need any engineering classes to become a successful general and very much embraces this idea the amateur general the natural genius of americans a reliance on militia um and a view and the suspicion of west point bringing in these french books and these french concepts there's something un-american about that um and a belief that you know a belief going back to the american revolution the reliance on militia and volunteer soldiers and all this over-educated elitist uh west point stuff was not the best thing for the country in addition during jackson's administration there becomes a greater emphasis on westward expansion um and it's hard for and jackson and his supporters have a hard time we're training these officers to build these fortifications you know what application does that have to western expansion we're very unlikely to fight a war against uh great britain uh but we have problems with the native americans on the frontier or west expanding westward in this great western uh movement and jackson very much a man of the westward movement of expansion and mahan senses there is this current developing against the academy and while mahan very much wants to preserve the academy that um thayer developed mahant also as he begins teaching his classes senses there is a need to try to americanize his approach to the ideas of military theory that we cannot have a purely european approach because we have distinctive specific american issues in addition jackson is is going to clash with uh the academy um in 1833 sylvanas thayer leaves the academy in part because jackson and his political supporters um are having a hard time with their because there has set up this objective system um of discipline and when people subjected to it complained to their political leaders they then complained to jackson and jackson and his war department stick their fingers in a few too many times until vance there eventually leaves now the people he's going to appoint to succeed him are largely going to be men of the fair mode and but mahan plays a really important role because eventually he's going to become the head of the academic board and the academic board you know there's a series of superintendents all of whom are engineers but really it's the permanent professors who make up the academic board led by mahan who are going to be responsible for ensuring that the academy is is maintained and is run and what adaptations it makes are in line with with the america larger interests now mulholland recognizing this critique he looks to reduce the reliance on strictly european texts and try to americanize somewhat his approach his civil engineering course which is one of the courses he teaches um he coordinates it he tries to give a theoretical foundation um he tries to reduce the french instruction somewhat he gets rid of the text that was being used and tried to replace it with english translations in his own works um in addition he takes the engineering course and tries to work in some time for military strategy and finally he begins to publish his works to try to expand to try to bring what west point is doing to a much larger american audience his first work in 1836 is a treatise on field fortifications which he explicitly dedicates to the officers of the u.s militia um and he publishes it is a very short booklet and the idea it is something that militia officers and volunteer officers can take with them out into the field and seeks to simplify these complex fortification systems and concepts so that militia officers and volunteer officers can understand and imply them as well he also addresses in this issues of military reconnaissance uh military communications geography and about 10 000 copies of this treatise on field fortifications are published and circulated um and it goes through six editions again the idea is try to you know this point may be physically isolated but to try to connect what he is doing at west point with the united states of america largely um in addition he begins publishing his notes um in 1837 elementary he takes the course he's doing on civil engineering he takes his course notes and he publishes those as well and this effort to try to reach out to a larger society is effective and successful in 1837 brown and princeton recognize what he's doing um and the following year he becomes the head of the academic board at west point um he stops using vernon in o'connor and instead replaces them with printed copies of his own 30 pages of notes for his class on the science of war um in his class which only really the only exposure to strategy that our military theory or campaigns of the field that cadets at west point receive come in the course of his class on military engineering and um the science of war in which he delivers in six three-hour lessons um with 24 hours of study outside the class devoted now again he moves away from this textbook that they were used before instead the reading comes from his own notes and the basic concepts are again in line with the enlightenment ideas and germany is the concept of lines of operations of conducting operations in the field he places a lot of emphasis on basis of operations lines of operations he values the offense it deceives the initiative it's a lot of emphasis on field fortifications in part because this is part of mahan's effort to adapt what he's doing to current circumstances um he recognizes and understands that unlike in europe where you have professional armies when united if the united states goes to war a lot of the soldiers are going to be volunteer soldiers who are members of the political community and so field fortifications in addition providing bases of operations and siege warfare they're also important for because they will protect and spare the lives of soldiers mahan points to napoleon as a great commander as a as the epitome of the science of war and draws a lot of his ideas as germany did from and uses the illustrate from napoleonic campaigns the same time he points out that there's a difference napoleon can be much more aggressive and fight a lot more battles and accept more bloodshed than an american commander could because america you know napoleon was an absolute ruler and could turn to conscription in order to replace his losses basic concept is because soldiers are going to be volunteers in the american system and in the american system the political system the people you're drawing into your army are voting citizens who are also going to have a say in the war you have to make a point of trying to protect american soldiers and thus field fortifications are very important and this reinforces this enables to reinforce the engineering priority at west point in service of the american context the american political context um now in 1842 um he is assigned responsibility by chief engineer joseph totten to put together a course of advanced instruction for west point engineer instructors on top of the top of the course on top of the lessons they received when they were cadets um he developed basically a two year a two two year curriculum and officers who go through this include william rosecrans william f smith gustavus smith and governor k warren in addition uh there is there becomes people from the outside begin talking about how we need to bring in more literary studies um and mahan is the chair of the academic board promises to give that some consideration um because there is again there's outside criticism of the academy of being out of touch with what america the united states needs for its military service and these conflicts come out in the mexican-american war next slide please when the united states goes to war in mexico this is going to be the first significant test of the military concepts and theories and instruction that mahan has provided to the west point cadets who have been coming through the school um as long as he's been in charge of the engineering curriculum and the science of war curriculum and of course the war in mexico you have in all you have 523 west point graduates serving there um and they dominate the staffs now when the united states goes to war the president is james k polk who was a protege of andrew jackson and james k polk very much shares andrew jackson's prejudices in favor of citizen generals in favor of citizen soldiers and lack of enthusiasm for west point graduates and engineers and and the engineering concepts and the engineering focus of west point um and so what james k polk is going to do during the during the war is he is going to use his appointment power to appoint general officers who are politically favorable to the to the democratic party and exemplify his idea of what a citizen soldier should be now the commanding general the army winfield scott one of the ways he counters this is by appointing to the staffs of these generals these these political generals west point graduates to stand to be by their side and provide them the sort of professional and technical expertise that these amateur generals do not possess and this proves very very critical in scott's decisive campaign against mexico city which opens with a siege against veracruz conducted largely at the direction of west point officers the army then penetrates deep into mexico captures mexico city with west point graduates like george mcclellan robert e lee pgt beauregard joseph hooker all playing significant roles as engineers or staff officers and when the army captures mexico city and the war is over and winfield scott the commanding general the army is asked by congress what was the critical point what was the critic what was so critical to your military success and scott gives famously what he calls this fixed opinion that for the graduated cadets the war would have lasted longer than it did more uh defeats than victories and when the united states and dennis hart mahan very closely follows the operations in mexico and the victory there and the conspicuous role that west point graduates very much taken by mahan as validation of the direction that thayer and himself have taken towards military theory milita developing the american military system and when graduates come back from west point um mahan is going to continue to see his role as as as a military theorist not just in the classroom but to reach a broader audience in 1847 next slide he produces um was probably his most his most famous work which is titled advanced guard outpost and detachment of troops and this is designed to take the basic ideas of tactics and operations and military theory that he's been teaching the west point cadets and bring it to a much larger audience in the united states of america and uh amanda's principles is his focus he spends a good part of the early part of the book talking about military history the evolution of military history and then he goes into it looking at how these these various scientific military principles lines of operations maneuver the offensive the role of field fortifications he lays this out quite clearly quite specifically he discusses tactics offering guidance to officers to how to conduct conduct minor tactics in the field not in terms of large campaigns or drill there are drill manuals out but in terms of how you deal with conducting reconnaissance how to conduct an advanced guard how to do outpost duty how to do detached service of troops to try to address the various situations that officers will face in the field and again still at its heart much of its heart is this scientific approach to warfare this germinian approach to warfare an emphasis on basis of operations on fortifications on sieges on lines of operation on taking the offensive on being aggressive but also the idea of in the american context it is better to be aggressive because it gets the war over quicker universally but that is especially important in the american context because in a popular government the united states is going to expect its wars to end more quickly and more decisively patience for a long decisive long exhausted drawn-out war one that's going to strain the political system from which you need to draw your troops and drain and draw militia militia forces draw volunteers again very conscious very acutely aware of the specific american context in which these basic principles how they can work and how they occasionally do need to be modified a bit now in 1848 in addition to publishing outposts in 1847 in 1848 uh mahan um at the suggestion of some of his former cadets now officers forms what is called the napoleon club at west point and basically officers were stationed at west point they come together um a couple of wednesday nights and members uh it's a seminar essentially members of the napoleon club these officers will present papers in various napoleonic campaigns they'll discuss them and it kind of serves as a post-graduate experience for the officers who are there and some of the officers who attend who attend there their pictures are here they'll play a notable role in the civil war george thomas george mcclellan porter alexander cadmus wilcox and there's a question mark by lee because we don't have clear evidence that lee participated in napoleon club nonetheless when lee was there as superintendent in the 1850s um there's probably a good chance that he was aware what mahan was doing and um attended uh probably did attend or at least was aware of what was going on in the napoleon club all right i see i'm running short on time uh so next slide please of course mohan follows the civil war closely um and takes great pride in the way the performance of his former uh students at the academy uh performing the war the conspicuous role west pointers dominate the commanding um the command ranks of union and confederate armies um and in some ways west point is viewed by some as officers as another validation of the academy um but by 1871 uh mahan whose uh health had never been especially robust um he was kind of a thin had a raspy had sinus issues and so when he talked about you know military principles need to be applied according to common sense the the phrase common sense often came out of cobbling things because he had a thymic issue by the late 1860s his health is really really deteriorating so finally in 1871 the board of visitors at the academy uh decide that uh while mahan has been has contributed in the classroom um although tough in the classroom as one as earlier quote one that said the cadets appreciated him the way he appreciated the battle after it was over um in 1871 the board of visitors decided that mahan it's time for him to retire and step down and in september 1871 um he gets on a ship called the mary powell in the hudson river and he jumps off it and commits suicide and uh he's buried at the west point uh cemetery now and of course his legacy is uh the academy going forward which is going to continue in much the tradition that they are the foundation that they are laid that mahan continued forward the ideas on military as an organization military doctrine and theory the ideas of mahan carry forward into the post-civil war army um and of course his legacy is also going to extend into the navy because his son alfred thayer is going to become a big theorist of naval warfare um who i think may be addressed later in this series um hopefully some point hopefully in this series um uh but that's what i have to say about dennis hart mahant um next slide if you have any questions i am ready to um address them and that's mahan hall at west point which houses uh the civil and military engineering departments at west point okay so i have got my uh phone up and uh if you got questions send them on okay question today of course war looks very different than it did during the revolutionary war the war of 1812 or the civil war why is it important for americans to understand the foundations of american of army theory uh excellent question war does look different today than it did in the time of alfred thayer mahan but there's still some basic concepts the idea of you know concepts that mahan taught are still relevant concepts for armies today the need for a base of operations the idea that you want to mass your effects at a certain point against the enemy that you want to protect your lines of communications and logistics one of the things of course that's deteriorated in importance by the 20th century is the importance of these fixed fortifications um like west point fort monroe um fort jackson uh and the various other for other other fixed forts right that's that's declined but nonetheless the basic idea behind them that you do need some kind of there are certain points on the battlefield there's certain points in a theater of operation that you need to secure that remains relevant um and up until the time of you know napoleon most of these things were passed along um but there was no real effort to codify and write them down and so what mahan is trying to do is write these concepts down these basic fundamental principles of logistics and massing your forces and maneuvering your forces is better to hit an enemy on the flank than him in front it's good to fortify your positions when you've got to fight the defensive sometimes the fortifying position can provide economy of force that you can maneuver somewhere else these are still basic relevant ideas that apply even as some of the specific techniques and means of war have changed some of the ways of war um and again this is a basic enlightenment concept is that ways of war there are enduring principles uh that you want to mash your forces that you want to maneuver that you want to have your base successfully secured you want to cut the enemy off from his base the importance of logistics you know much of this as mahan points out you know his nickname is old common sense common sense right much of this is common sense yes you need to establish your base of operations yes you it's it's good to try to deny the enemy his base of operations um but again the idea is mahan you know instead of have people have to figure this out through their common sense they instead got reference or they've got classroom experience that can teach them and also the basic idea that you know there's basic again the people have these works they've had the teaching experience so they then they can once they've known these fundamental principles they have these ideas then they can once they've got the foundational knowledge then they can start applying it creatively and critically that's the basic idea there why was about napoleon in the french that so influenced american strategy and theory excellent question um obviously two factors at work here um one our opponents in our first wars are the british right the american revolution and the uh and the war of 1812. the war of american revolution of course the french are our most important ally and one of the things the french see their contribution to the to the american war is is to provide the amateur americans with some of the military experience and the technical knowledge they do not possess and of course in the united states there's a conscious sense that we are breaking away from great britain um and so consequently there are british ways of doing things that you know are there better ways of doing things the the french have the most respected army in the world and napoleon obviously takes it to a level of success and not experienced before he ultimately loses um but on the battlefield um napoleon's success definitely you know there's a napoleonic influence that endures in warfare um because just the dramatic nature of his victories um and you know he takes france from its borders all the way to russia it doesn't work out in the end but in the process if you're thinking about battles and campaigns napoleon offers some pretty um impressive things to admire if you're looking to admire those things in addition the french tradition of the military enlightenment um again office engineering and artillery is a way to distinguish the professional officer from the amateur officer the one who is educated in european techniques um you know these these these transatlantic scientific principles that's what distinguishes a professional regular army officer from militia a militia officer and again this is a period in which the army is trying to establish its authority regular army officers are trying to establish their authority their unique responsibility their unique leadership roles in america and one of the ways of doing it is by defining what they have and the amateur generals do not and drawing on french ideas and french concepts um we have it you amateur soldiers do not so therefore you should follow us when it comes to conducting war in what ways if any has west point remain the same since its inception in 1802 um well you know if you talk listen to west point graduates the one thing that's constant about west point since 1802 is that it's been going downhill ever since um remained the same since its inception in 1802. um again 1802 you need to separate 18 1802 to 1812 west point doesn't play a very large role in america's military system it's kind of there but it's not really developed after thayer after the reforms of john c calhoun west point very much plays a large role in laying the foundation for the emergence of the army as a military profession and a regular army officers with west point graduates at the core of this having the expertise and knowledge west pointers dominating the army the small professional army which is a small professional army into well into the 20th century and even as the army expands as america's international responsibilities expand west pointers are still disproportionately represented in our general officer corps okay the confederates were developing there and growing did they base their tactics and strategies on hans theories are they pulled from other source again the graduates of of um west point uh excuse the confederate army commanders um you have to delineate which army commanders are talking about um robert e lee graduated from west point uh before mahan arrived um nonetheless um as a member of the army officer corps in the decades afterwards he had officers coming into the army that he's working with who did serve under mahan and you know lee is a much a part of this professionalizing regular army as anybody else um so undoubtedly he would have been influenced by people who were influenced by mahan as mentioned before robert lee is an engineer and so you know his he robbie lee graduates second in his class in 1829 goes into the engineers and again the interaction between the engineers and the academy because the engineers um engineer officers run the academy um so the fact that lee is a this a distinctive member of the is a significant member of this corps of engineers means inevitably his interaction with officers second hand first hand who have worked with mahan of course he gets first-hand contact with the academy when leah's superintendent there and once again i mentioned earlier the napoleon club is running when lee is there we have no direct evidence that lee participated in it unless west point's pretty small community and uh mahan was the head of the academic board so lee would have definitely interacted with mahan and it's it seems reasonable that lee would have attended some of these um meetings um but again other confederate officers stonewall jackson 1846 graduate he studied under mahan um braxton bragg 1830s he would have studied under mahan um jefferson davis graduated before mahan came along but again the army officer corps is particularly the corps of engineers is relatively small but powerful and influential so mahan's ideas are circulating in the army um whether someone has direct contact with mohan or not they are going to be influenced by mahan or you know again much of mahan himself confesses you know a good deal this establish a base of operations clearly understood sieges are complicated understood um maneuvering to try to cut off the enemies line of communications you know people been doing that before mahan came up with the idea but still um mahan's ideas um and it influenced officers are is pretty clear so uh that's all the questions i have thank you so much okay i either i exhausted the questioners or or something else okay where are we now thank you for joining the dole institute of politics for our program this afternoon if you are a student and would like to join the dole institute student advisory board please contact us by emailing dolesab.ku.edu in a few weeks on wednesday april 14th we look forward to hosting bob kendrick for his program a conversation on race 3 baseball the color barrier you can access this program on the dola institute's youtube channel just like today's program refer to dole for up-to-date information on all of our upcoming programs we hope you enjoyed this afternoon's program thank you and we will virtually see you next time [Music] you

Channel: The Dole Institute of Politics

Views: 818

Keywords: Dole Institute, Dole Institute of Politics, Politics, University of Kansas

Id: nLuEbD_MGbw

Length: 71min 15sec (4275 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021