Military History Commons^™

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 …

The Evolving Emancipator: An Analysis Of Abraham Lincoln And The Progression And Development Of His Emancipationist Impulse, Sharon N. Rodriguez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This research looks at the narrative of Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator versus the Evolving Emancipator. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the narrative of the Evolving Emancipator and show an imperfect man who achieved this action after trials and tribulations.This has been achieved by examining letters and other primary sources to fully understand the scope of Lincoln’s sentiments regarding slavery. My research shows a man who acknowledged slavery because it was sanctioned by the law. He recognized the rights of slave owners, both to retain their slaves and to have fugitive slaves returned, as they …

A Forgotten Confederate: John H. Ash's Story Rediscovered, Heidi Moye

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

A historical study of a southern family living in Savannah, GA from shortly before the election of 1860 through the Civil War years based on the journals of John Hergen Ash II (1843-1918).

"Our Captain Is A Gentleman”: Officer Elections Among Virginia Confederates, 1861-1862, Ryan C. O'Hallahan

Theses and Dissertations

Enlisted soldiers preferred to elect company- and regimental-level officers during the first year of the American Civil War. This thesis explores how early Confederate mobilization, class conflict between elites and non-elites, and Confederate military policies affected officer elections from spring 1861 to spring 1862 among Virginia Confederates. Chapter 1 explores how the chaotic nature of mobilization and common soldiers' initial expectations regarding their military service influenced elections from April 1861 until late July 1861. Chapter 2 details the changing nature of elections as elite officers faced challenges from non-elites and Confederate policies regarding furloughs and conscription forced officers to reconcile …

Cry Havoc: The Rise And Collapse Of America's Contractors In Iraq, Samuel Brown

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This work aims at examining the development of Private Security Contracting, specifically Blackwater, and their role in destabilizing the United States’ mission in Iraq. In that examination, it looks at existing literature on the subject and the efforts that people involved in the Bush Administration made regarding the War on Terror that allowed these companies and Blackwater to develop. Choices made by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and CPA leader Paul Bremer all added to the chaos and the shortage of manpower that would see these companies fill in the gaps in American planning. This work …

The Business Of Empire: American Capitalists, The Nicaraguan Canal, And The Monroe Doctrine, 1849-1858, Jonathan D. Del Buono

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the mid-nineteenth century, U.S. policymakers designed foreign policy to enhance the reach of American commerce and create a commercial empire in and through Latin America. To create this empire U.S policymakers wanted to construct a canal through Central America, which they envisioned as a joint enterprise between American businesses and the federal government. In 1849, Cornelius Vanderbilt and his associates reserved a charter from the Nicaraguan government to build and operate a canal and transit route through their county. Yet competition between varied business interests prompted the U.S. destruction of the Nicaraguan port city of San Juan del Norte …

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2017

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

"With Nothing Left But Reputation": Reconstructing The Virginia Military Institute, Kaylyn L. Sawyer

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

The Virginia Military Institute was founded in 1839 and flourished throughout the mid- nineteenth century. The Institute remained loyal to Virginia during the Civil War, providing the Confederate Army with top ranking generals and deploying the corps of cadets during the Battle of New Market. Exposed as a target for Union troops marching through the valley, the Institute was virtually destroyed in 1864. The defeat of the Confederacy in 1865 left VMI uncertain of its very existence. Advocates for the Virginia Military Institute faced the daunting task of rebuilding the school while a fractured nation struggled to rebuild itself through …

“Altoona Was His, And Fairly Won”: President Lincoln And The Altoona Governors’ Conference, September 1862, Kees D. Thompson

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article explores the long-forgotten Altoona Conference of 1862, when nearly a dozen Union governors met at the Civil War's darkest hour to discuss war strategy and, ultimately, reaffirm their support for the Union cause. This article examines and questions the conventional view of the conference as a challenge to President Lincoln's efficacy as the nation's leader. Rather, the article suggests that Lincoln may have actually welcomed the conference and had his own designs for how it might bolster his political objectives.

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 …

A Theory Of Veteran Identity, Travis L. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--English

More than 2.6 million troops have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, surveys reveal that more than half feel “disconnected” from their civilian counterparts, and this feeling persists despite ongoing efforts, in the academy and elsewhere, to help returning veterans overcome physical and mental wounds, seek an education, and find meaningful ways to contribute to society after taking off the uniform. This dissertation argues that Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans struggle with reassimilation because they lack healthy, complete models of veteran identity to draw upon in their postwar lives, a problem they’re working through collectively …

The Hopes And The Realities Of Aviation In French Indochina, 1919-1940, Gregory Charles Seltzer

Theses and Dissertations--History

My dissertation examines how and why the French employed aviation in the five constituent parts of French Indochina (Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina, Laos, and Tonkin) during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. I argue that the French, believing that the modern technology of powered flight possessed seemingly endless potential, saw aviation as a vehicle for extending, consolidating, developing, and protecting their interests both within the colony and around Southeast and East Asia. Aircraft, whether civil or military, were viewed and used as a multi-purpose tool of empire. Indeed, planes were employed for a variety of tasks in Indochina: transportation …

Grave Breaches: American Military Intervention In The Late Twentieth- Century And The Consequences For International Law, Calla Cameron

CMC Senior Theses

The duality of the United States’ relationship with international criminal law and human rights atrocities is a fascinating theme that weaves through all of American history, but most distinctly demonstrates the contradictory nature of American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century. America is both protector of human rights and perpetrator of human rights atrocities, global police force and aggressor. The Cold War exacerbated the tensions caused by American military dominance. The international political and physical power of the American military allowed the United States to do as it pleased in the 20th century with few consequences, …

Kissinger’S Strategy In The Iraqi Kurdish Rebellion Of 1972-75: False Start Or Foundation Of American-Kurdish Partnership?, Jonathan C. Esty

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate Between Parliament And The Public, Kylie D. Johnson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

While it is now clear that appeasement of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler did not prevent another war, there is a historical debate on whether British appeasement policies were shameful, a set of well-intentioned blunders, an attempt at keeping peace internationally, or a strategy to keep domestic resources focused on Britain. Within the debate between historians, lies a debate between the British public and Parliament, and even within Parliament itself. An important factor in the British decision to implement appeasement policy in the 1930s often underemphasized in the literature is the governmental prioritizing of domestic issues and national security over …

Brandishing Our Air, Space, And Cyber Swords: Recommendations For Deterrence And Beyond, Mark Reith

Faculty Publications

This article examines how the nation could better prepare to deter aggressive action in space and cyberspace, and if necessary, prevail should deterrence fail. The key themes throughout this article include a strong need for space and cyber situational awareness, the need for an international attribution and escalation framework, and a national investment in space and cyber education, along with an updated national strategy and military doctrine. Although related, this article focuses on deterrence and avoids the topic of cyber coercion.

Physical Evidence And The Battle Of The Little Bighorn: The Question Of Interpretation, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Archaeologists have identified over a thousand shell casings and bullets at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Many theories on the nature of the battle, the effectiveness of the weapons, and the location of the fighting have been proposed by the location of these artifacts. But there are major problems in interpretation. Only about 1% of the supposed artifacts remain, and the vast majority were plundered long ago. The artifacts are suspect because there is no way to know if they actually had anything to do with the battle or if they were added later. Any analysis …

Remote Sensing Of World War Ii Era Unexploded Bombs Using Object-Based Image Analysis And Multi-Temporal Datasets: A Case Study Of The Fort Myers Bombing And Gunnery Range, Bryan Byholm

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

During World War II, United States Army and Navy pilots trained on several hundred bombing ranges encompassing more than 12 million acres of land, leaving behind crater-scarred landscapes across the country. Post-war estimates suggest that 10-15% of aerial bombs used failed to detonate as intended, so these areas today are contaminated by a large number of dangerous unexploded bombs (UXB) which remain under the surface. Until recently, detecting UXB has been a tedious and expensive process done in three stages: (1) identifying and mapping general areas of concentrated bomb craters using historical air photos and records; (2) intensely searching these …

The Octofoil, January/February/March 2017, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

Murder In Manassas: Mental Illness And Psychological Trauma After The Civil War, Savannah G. Rose

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

Following the American Civil War, the small railroad junction of Manassas, Virginia grew into one of the most prominent towns in the region with the help of town founder William S. Fewell and his family. In 1872, the youngest daughter of the prominent Fewell family was seduced and abducted by Prince Williams County’s Commonwealth Attorney and most prominent orator, James F. Clark without warning. Having just come home from three years of military service in the Civil War, witnessing the death of his twin brother as well as suffering for a year in Elmira Prison as a prisoner of war, …

For Country, Liberty, And Money: Privateering And The Ideologies Of The American Revolution, Scott D. Wagner

Senior Independent Study Theses

Along with service in the Continental Army and Navy and the various state militias, American patriots during the Revolutionary War had the option of sailing aboard privateers, private ships authorized to attack British commerce during the war. Where studies analyzing other military forces during the Revolution have been more nuanced, scholars that have looked at privateering have either focused on its strategic effectiveness during the conflict or merely written it off as a profit-driven phenomenon of maritime plunder. Privateering played a role in the course of the Revolution to a degree, but more importantly the practice was influenced by the …

“Confederate Soldiers In The Siege Of Petersburg And Postwar: An Intensified War And Coping Mechanisms Utilized, 1864- Ca. 1895”, Matthew R. Lempke

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis crafts a narrative about how Confederate soldiers during the siege of Petersburg experienced an intensified war that caused them to refine soldierly coping mechanisms in order to endure. They faced increasing deprivations, new forms of death, fewer restrictions on killing, dwindling fortunes, and increased racial acrimony by facing African American soldiers. In order to adjust, they relied on soldierly camaraderie, Southern notions of honor, letter writing, and an increasingly firm reliance on Protestant Christianity to cope with their situation. Postwar, these veterans repurposed soldierly coping mechanisms and eventually used institutional support from their states. Camaraderie, honor, literary endeavors, …

The Science Of Defence: Security, Research, And The North In Cold War Canada, Matthew Shane Wiseman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the development and implementation of federally funded scientific defence research in Canada during the earliest decades of the Cold War. With a particular focus on the creation and subsequent activities of the Defence Research Board (DRB), Canada’s first peacetime military science organization, the history covered here crosses political, social, and environmental themes pertinent to a detailed analysis of defence-related government activity in the Canadian North. Three contextual chapters on the history of federal defence research in Canada provide the foundation for a close study of defence research projects pursued and supported by the Canadian government. The dissertation …

Star Wars, Syria, And Our Civil War: Bearing Witness To Atrocity And Suffering, Kevin P. Lavery

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Bear with me on this one. The American Civil War will make it into this conversation, but I have a lot of other things to talk about first. And I should also warn: minor spoilers ahead.

I was moved to silence after seeing Rogue One, the first spin-off film of the Star Wars franchise. Even now, tears creep into my eyes as I remember how it shook me. I had heard reviews claiming that it was the first Star Wars movie to put the cost of war at the center of the narrative. I hadn’t expected it to be so …

Rationality, Parapsychology, And Artificial Intelligence In Military And Intelligence Research By The United States Government In The Cold War, Guy M. Lomeo

Theses and Dissertations

A study analyzing the roles of rationality, parapsychology, and artificial intelligence in military and intelligence research by the United States Government in the Cold War. An examination of the methodology behind the decisions to pursue research in two fields that were initially considered irrational.

70 Years Since The Liberation Of The Netherlands From Memory To Remembrance, H.E. Cees Kole, Andrew Burtch

Canadian Military History

On 16 October 2014, the Canadian War Museum partnered with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to host the first in the Embassy’s national series of lectures “From Memory to Remembrance” in the Museum’s Barney Danson Theatre. The Embassy launched the series in the fall of 2014, with subsequent events in February and April 2015, with Canadian and Dutch scholars helping the audience to follow the Canadian military campaign from the Battle of the Scheldt to the German capitulation at Wageningen on 5 May 1945. Attended by His Excellency Governor General David Johnston, the Ottawa event featured Terry …

“The Battle-Fortune Of Marshal Hindenburg Is Not Bound Up With The Possession Of A Hill”: The Germans And Vimy Ridge, April 1917, Holger Herwig

Canadian Military History

On 9 April 1917 four Canadian divisions and one British division of 170,000 men broke through the “Vimy Group” of German Sixth Army of some 40,000 men. By late afternoon, the Germans had been driven off the Ridge. That day, as Brigadier-General Alexander Ross famously put it, constituted “the birth of a nation.” Rivers on ink have been spilled in the Canadians’ actions that day, but little attention has been paid to “the other side of the hill.” Which German units defended the Ridge? What was the quality of their leadership? Why did the defence collapse so quickly? Why did …

A Portrait Of Raymond Brutinel As A Young Man (Part Ii): The Future Canadian Corps Machine Gun Commander As A Business Entrepreneur In The Canadian West, 1908–1914, Cameron Pulsifer

Canadian Military History

The following carries on from an article on Brutinel’s prewar life in Edmonton, Alberta that appeared in the previous issue of Canadian Military History. That account dealt with his arrival in Edmonton from France, the reasons for his immigration, and his adaptation to life in the newly-created Alberta capital. This included an initial involvement with the Edmonton French community, his editorship of the French language Le Courrier de l’Ouest, and his eventual breaking away from these pursuits into a career of business entrepreneurship. The following is specifically concerned with this latter phase of his career, in which, at the height …

Kennedy's Crisis: How John F. Kennedy Used History To Prevent Armageddon, Jordan L. Cerbone

Honors Scholar Theses

The Cuban Missile Crisis may be equated to a dangerous game of chess played between two powerful rival nations, the United States and the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers, including all Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended an air strike to destroy the Cuban missiles. Although Kennedy overruled them, he was nevertheless able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis through a combination of brilliant intuition and successful diplomacy. The mainstream consensus is that Kennedy’s personality was responsible for ending the crisis amicably. Consequently, Americans can consider the Cuban Missile Crisis as Kennedy’s crisis.

This thesis explores the role …

A Hike Through History: Students Explore The Appalachian Trail, Laurel J. Wilson

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Hiking is a great way to get outside, commune with nature, and connect with the surrounding area. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hiking one of my favorite sections of the Appalachian Trail in a manner that was completely different than I had ever before experienced. Instead of dressing in my usual 21st century hiking attire, I, along with several others, opted to take things back about 154 years and dressed as a Union soldier would have in 1862.

[excerpt]