Digital Commons Network^™

"What Good Can There Be In This Kind Of Human?" Spanish Justification For The Conquest Of The Americas, John R. Pittenger

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most brutal episodes in human history. Entire cultures of American natives were suppressed, murdered, raped, and enslaved by Spanish conquistadors on an incessant quest for precious metals and other material wealth. The devastation wrought upon the natives was so great that some Spaniards felt that what they were doing violated God's will and was naturally and morally wrong, but they were vastly outnumbered. The majority saw it as their right, duty, and privilege to conquer and subject these millions of people to Spanish rule. Since they were trying to justify …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2008

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Complete issue of The Gettysburg Historical Journal 2008.

Saving Grace On Feathered Wings: Homing Pigeons In The First World War, Brandon R. Katzung Hokanson

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Soldiers of the First World War came in all shapes and sizes. The humble homing pigeon is one of the more unique and critical examples of such. They served in the armed forces of both the Allies and the Central Powers. Used as a last-ditch form of communication, the homing pigeons were exceptional in the work of sending messages back and forth between the battle lines. Little has been written about their vital role and even less in the rigorous training the birds and their handlers both endured. Understanding their training is critical to understanding how the homing pigeons performed …

The Castle Of Intelligence: Camp Ritchie Maryland And The Military Intelligence Training Center During The Second World War., Kevin M. Aughinbaugh

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Abstract: During the Second World War, Camp Ritchie, Maryland played an important role in the training of intelligence soldiers. This camp was one of the many that taught men the various ways to gather intelligence on a battlefield. From aerial photography to prisoner interrogations, soldiers learned the skills required to gather information, make sense of it, and propose plans based on what they knew about enemy troop positions and movements. These skills would be put to the test once the men graduated their six months of intensive training, and were sent abroad to assist in the war effort. Despite Camp …

The Nazi Fiscal Cliff: Unsustainable Financial Practices Before World War Ii, Parker Abt

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The Nazis inherited a weak economy, withered by the Great Depression and periods of hyperinflation, when they took power in 1933. Over the next six years, primarily through a military buildup, the Nazi economy grew like none other in the world. This paper traces the methods the Nazis used to finance this economic rebound. Through an analysis of secret government documents, Nuremburg witness statements, and the latest scholarly research, this paper posits that the methods used to finance the economy were unsustainable. Further, it finds that by September 1939, the economy was in a state of dangerous disarray.

A Different Way Of Touring Europe; One Aid Man's Journey Across Europe During World War Ii, Abigail M. Currier

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Robert Bell Bradley enlisted in the United States Army in October of 1942 as an aid man. He spent several months training to be a first responder on the front lines of combat and learning how to deal with a variety of issues. He was then attached to the 30^th Infantry Division and sent to England in preparation for operation OVERLORD and the D-Day Invasion. Two months later, he was captured by the Germans and this event began a year long journey filled with death and near misses. [1] While Bradley’s experiences cannot speak for all prisoner of war …

From Crusaders To Flunkies: American Newspaper Coverage Of Black First World War Soldiers From 1915 And 1930., Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This article concerns itself with the U.S. newspaper coverage given to black soldiers (primarily African-American) in the lead up to the U.S. entry into the First World War, through the war, and into the 1930's. In so doing, it chronicles the divisions that appeared within the black community in America as black Americans debated whether or not to serve a country that did not respect their liberties at home, the portrayal of black soldiers in U.S. newspapers, and the post-war betrayal that saw the rise of a popular silence on the rights of black veterans, and a forced return to …

A Divided Front: Military Dissent During The Vietnam War, Kaylyn L. Sawyer

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Emerging from a triumphant victory in World War Two, American patriotism surged in the 1950s. Positive images in theater and literature of America’s potential to bring peace and prosperity to a grateful Asia fueled the notion that the United States could be the “good Samaritan of the entire world.”[1] This idea prevailed through the mid-1960s as three-quarters of Americans indicated they trusted their government. That positive feeling would not last, and America’s belief in its own exceptionalism would begin to shatter with “the major military escalation in Vietnam and the shocking revelations it brought.”[2] The turmoil in social …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2016

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2015

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

No abstract provided.

Learning The Fighting Game: Black Americans And The First World War, S. Marianne Johnson

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The experience of African American veterans of the First World War is most often cast through the bloody lens of the Red Summer of 1919, when racial violence and lynchings reached record highs across the nation as black veterans returned from the global conflict to find Jim Crow justice firmly entrenched in a white supremacist nation. This narrative casts black veterans in a deeply ironic light, a lost generation even more cruelly mistreated than the larger mythological Lost Generation of the Great War. This narrative, however, badly abuses hindsight and clouds larger issues of black activism and organization during and …

"Under The Auspices Of Peace": The Northwest Indian War And Its Impact On The Early American Republic, Melanie L. Fernandes

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This paper examines the influence of the Northwest Indian War on the development of the early United States republic. In the years between the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 and the establishment of a new federal government in 1789, the United States frontier was plagued by rivalry between citizens and Native Americans. The United States federal government viewed the success and progress of the nation as contingent upon possession of the Northwest Territory, and as such developed and adjusted their Indian policies to induce the Indians to peacefully accept United States authority in the Northwest Territory. The violence …

Strange Bedfellows : The Rise Of The Military Religious Orders In The Twelfth Century, Sarah E. Hayes

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Most people would not describe Christian monks as militaristic. However, there are instances in history when Christians have strayed from their basic pacifist beliefs in the name of defending their religion. The most famous example of this would be the Military Orders of the medieval Crusades, when full scale war was encouraged by the Catholic Church in order to protect the Holy Land. These militant monks formed a new breed of religious organization where brothers were soldiers willing die defending Christianity against the infidel. Although the Order of the Temple, or the Templars, was the most infamous of the Orders, …

A New Officer For A New Army: The Leadership Of Major Hugh J.C. Peirs In The Great War, Marco Z. Dracopoli

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

World War One brought dramatic changes to the officer corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting on the Western Front. The heavy casualties sustained meant that mass mobilization at home had to take place in order to replace combat losses. As a result, the previously small, but professional British army was forced to transition into a large citizen-soldier army. This new force required not just new officers, but an entirely new leadership model. The formation and exercise of this new style of leadership is examined through the letters of Major John Hugh Chevalier Peirs, executive officer and later commander …

"100 Spears Worth 100 Pieces": The Impact Of Ashigaru On Sengoku Jidai, Austin W. Clark

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

In the year 1545, during the latter half of Japan‘s Sengoku Period or ―Age of Warring States‖, the minor samurai Ukida Naoie was assigned thirty men and a small fief in the province of Bizen. His task was to cultivate and defend this small corner of the province from the ambitious and power-hungry lords and bandits that abounded in the Sengoku Period, but Naoie set his sights higher. Given direct control over his thirty men, a mere garrison force of infantry, he used them to conquer and rule over neighboring fiefs in the province. His reputation and his army grew …

“Bloody Outrages Of A Most Barbarous Enemy:” The Cultural Implications Of The Massacre At Fort William Henry, Colin Walfield

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The August 10, 1757 massacre at Fort William Henry contradicted eighteenth-century European standards for warfare. Although British colonial opinion blamed it on Native American depravity, France‘s Native American allies acted within their own cultural parameters. Whereas the French and their British enemies believed in the supremacy of the state as the model for conduct, Native Americans defined their political and military relations on a personal level that emphasized mutual obligations. With the fort‘s surrender, however, the French and British attempted and failed to bring European cultural norms into the American wilderness. While the French triumphed in Fort William Henry‘s capitulation, …

The Ottoman Gunpowder Empire And The Composite Bow, Nathan Lanan

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The Ottoman Empire is known today as a major Gunpowder Empire, famous for its prevalent use of this staple of modern warfare as early as the sixteenth century. However, when Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq visited Constantinople from 1554 to 1562, gunpowder was not used by the Sipahi cavalry who stubbornly, it seems, insisted on continuing to use the composite bow that the Turks had been using for centuries. This continued, despite their fear of European cavalry who used “small muskets” against them on raids. Was this a good idea? Was the composite bow a match or contemporary handheld firearms? Were …

"The Regiment Bore A Conspicuous Part": A Brief History Of The Eight Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Gibraltar Brigade, Army Of The Potomac, Brian Matthew Jordan

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

On April 10, 1850, a sixteen year-old from Xenia, Ohio named Samuel Sexton copied a stanza of Epes Sargent’s poem, “A Life on the Ocean Wave,” into his notebook:

A life on the ocean wave! A home on the rolling deep!

Where the scattered waters rave, and the winds their revels keep!

Like an eagle caged I pine, on this dull unchanging shore.

Oh give me the flashing brine! The spray and the tempest roar!

Before his death in New York City, July 11, 1896, Sexton would serve as the Assistant Surgeon of the Eighth Ohio Volunteers, his entire service …

What Is An Anzac? An American Response To Australian Warriors, Brandon P. Roos

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Rarely, in the annals of historical memory does one find a story as compelling and depressing as the narrative of the ANZACs. Never have men fought so bravely and ultimately so futilely to protect a land they only knew from history and geography books. With a deep sense of responsibility and youthful nationalism, these Australians and New Zealanders volunteered for service to the British Crown. Few knew their actions and the actions of their comrades and enemies would result in the war to end all wars, World War I. Few Australians knew their engagements would be covered in many of …

The 55th College Training Detachment Of The Army Air Corps Program On The Gettysburg College Campus, 1943-1944, Julia Grover

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The 55th College Training Detachment of the Air Force Cadet Program came to Gettysburg College in 1943. It was a separate program designed to provide educated officers for the Air Corps in the United States Army. These trainees would not only learn military drill, physical training, medical aid and flight skills, but they would also study physics, math, English, history, and geography. They were taught by members of the Gettysburg College staff and housed on campus, in dorms and fraternity houses.Their presence on campus was a constant reminder for regular students that the country was in the midst of a …

Kitchener's Volunteers, Peter Brauer

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The fourth of August 1914 was a day of jubilation throughout Britain. German armies, numbering in the millions, had overrun Belgian border stations the previous day and were advancing unchecked across the frontier. As the morning progressed, a buzz of enthusiasm began to grow. News placards throughout Britain broadcast the news of the German invasion to the eager public from every street corner. Those British in the big cities were first to hear. From London to Birmingham, Manchester to Cardiff, and Edinburgh to Belfast, people gathered to hear the news. By noon, Trafalgar Square was packed end to end with …