Veteran's Day 2014

The First World War nominally ended on November 11th. First celebrated as Armistice Day, it became Remembrance Day for the Commonwealth to honor those who had fallen. In the United States where Memorial Day already commemorated those who died defending our country it became Veteran’s Day to also honor the veterans who came home.


Lord Grey, the British Foreign Minister described the beginning of the war as "The lamps are going out in Europe". The immediate costs in dead and treasure of this ultimately pointless war were horrific. The horror of the trenches scarred the psyche of the Western world. The resulting despair allowed political movements to come to influence and power, which have changed for the worse Western culture, the holocaust and gulag being just the tip of the iceburg. Too many of the lamps are still out.

It is a hard truth that this is an especially appropriate day to remember our veterans living and dead. One of the very few bright spots were the solders and sailors whose dedication, loyalty, and valor shamed the politicians and “statesman” who sent them to war. They should always be remembered.

But also we need to remember that in other wars it was this same dedication and valor that bought our Freedom and Liberty, certainly against the forces released as a result of the First World War.


Enjoy the holiday, but remember to think of and pray for those who served.




In 2007 David Duff objected to the war being called pointless. El Jefe Maximo responded. Their interesting and informative discussion is a must read.

Related posts:

Le Soldat Americain dans Afgaistan
Soldiers are People, too
The Last of the Light Brigade.
The Bivouac of the Dead
Roy Nickerson
11/11/1918 (From Kingdom of Chaos)
Rembrance Day - where They Fell HT:David Duff
Requiem for Tommy HT: Anna Racoon



Labels:WWI and Veterans Day posts

Campfire and Battlefield

It is poor business measuring the mouldered ramparts and counting the silent guns, marking the deserted battlefields and decorating the grassy graves, unless we can learn from it some nobler lesson than to destroy. Men write of this, as of other wars, as if the only thing necessary to be impressed upon the rising generation were the virtue of physical courage and contempt of death. It seems to me that is the last thing we need to teach; for since the days of John Smith in Virginia and the men of the Mayflower in Massachusetts, no generation of Americans has shown any lack of it. From Louisburg to Petersburg-a hundred and twenty years, the full span of four generations-they have stood to their guns and been shot down in greater comparative numbers than any other race on earth. In the war of secession there was not a State, not a county, probably not a town, between the great lakes and the gulf, that was not represented on fields where all that men could do with powder and steel was done and valor exhibited at its highest pitch…There is not the slightest necessity for lauding American bravery or impressing it upon American youth. But there is the gravest necessity for teaching them respect for law, and reverence for human life, and regard for the rights of their fellow country-men, and all that is significant in the history of our country…These are simple lessons, yet they are not taught in a day, and some who we call educated go through life without mastering them at all.
Emphasis is mine.


Rossiter Johnson, Campfire and Battlefield, 1884

Related: Bivouac of the Dead The poem on the illistration.


HT: Donald E McClarey at Almost Chosen People

It's Now Obama’s War

Having suggested, with some sarcasm, that the President should make a decision on Afghanistan strategy, I am pleased to note that he has made a decision.

I listened last night on the radio to President Obama’s speech at West Point on our future course in Afghanistan . It came off with his usual excellent presentation, certainly it sounded better than the descriptions of many who saw in on television. The speech had all the right phrasing, aimed at middle of the political spectrum and full of phrases that with high emotional value to the center and right. These would have been more convincing if they were at least not inconsistent with the past perceptions of his personal philosophy.


Obama supporter Charli Carpenter at the Duck of Minerva “But I have some critical reactions too.” and Obama critic Elizabeth Scalia, the Anchoress at First Things “The president is doing the right thing, and he deserves props for it” provide very different but worth while commentary and limited round ups.


His presentation of the conflict’s background was reasonably good, though the nit pickers will have enough material to make them happy. He had the expected up and down playing of things that make the his administration look better and the Bush Administration look bad.

He is going to send thirty thousand of the forty thousand troops that General McChrystal requested, he expects to bring them and most of our troops home in eighteen months, a renewed emphasis on training the Afgan security forces, encouraging reforms in the Afghan Government. The emphasis was on battling al Qaeda, with only passing mention of the Taliban. And no “Blank Checks.”

From a domestic political point of view the eighteen months puts future decisions safely after the 2010 election but well before the 2012 election and is olive branch to his political base who wants a quick withdrawal.

The increase in troops is perquisite for any action if we are going to stay, though I think ultimately the total of the increase will be nearer eighty thousand rather than the forty thousand that was requested. Thirty thousand, in addition to giving the appearance that he is not just rubber stamping General McChrystal’s request, is probably near the maximum that can be deployed in the timeframe he gave, but “unnamed administration sources” are reporting that the amount could be increased. Unless the President has placed unreasonable restrictions on their use, this gives the flexibility General McCrystal needs to respond to and create events.

The primary action will be against the Taliban, while destroying al Qaeda was the reason we went there and is still a leading goal, the road to al Qaeda goes through the Taliban, we need to fight the Taliban to maintain the bases to attack al Qaeda, and in going into Afghanistan we assumed some responsibility for leaving the place better off than we found it, which requires defeating the Taliban. The essential “win the people” part of the insurgency campaign requires that we are in control of the places where the people live and can defend them.

Training and building the Afghan security forces to take over in eighteen months is not going to happen. From the time the US recruits 400 new soldiers, combines them with a cadre of experienced soldiers and graduates an infantry battalion out of the Nation Training Center is nine months. This is in ideal situations with recruits who have the educational background, and already having the experienced soldiers to form the cadre. Building effective security forces is essential, we are having some success but it will take a lot longer than eighteen months. The battalion that starts training today will in two or three years provide cadres for two or three battalions which in two or three more years will provide the cadre for more. That is a little pessimistic, there is some good cadre potential in the Afghanistan Army and not all the security forces need to be fully trained infantrymen, but eighteen months is not enough even if every thing goes well.

The reforms the in Afghan society the President is calling for are going to be as much or more dependent on military success as a perquisite. It will have to be a slow and steady pressure to reform, but pushing to hard and fast and without ensuring the security for them to remain in place will be coounter productive.

Field Marshal helmuth von Moltke (the Elder), said "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." This plan will survive a little longer than the arrival of the troops, but it places the required resources on the ground - so the actual situation as it develops can be dealt with and also gives us the ability to create the satutation on the ground. Whether he realize it or not, the President has signed a blank check.


My Afghanistan topic.

Presidents Day 2009 - The Gettysburg Address.

In July 1863 the Union and Confederate Armies engaged each other at Gettysburg Pennsylvania in the decisive battle of the war. (See Book Reviews: Gettysburg for background.) On November 19, 1863 President Lincoln delivered a short address at the dedication of cemetery for those who had fallen. Reportedly the address, following a two hour oration by the main speaker, was hardly noticed by the crowd. But the short length of the Gettysburg Address put it on the front page of every paper in the North and it’s simple eloquence placed it in the heart and memory of the country.

Lincoln’s words are a still a strong reminder of the ideals on which the country was founded and a call to rededicate ourselves to these ideals.




Performed by Jeff Daniels.

Black History Month: "We're ready, Colonel!"

On 18 July 1863 the Fifty Fourth Massachusetts (more) led an assault on Fort Wagner, one of the Forts guarding Charleston Harbor. One of the first African American regiments it’s bravery at Fort Wagner helped win a place for eventually over a hundred African American regiments during the Civil War. It fought until the end of the war, and it’s colors are now carried by the Honor Guard of the Massachusetts National Guard.

From the movie Glory.






Update 24 feb 2008. The first video with the title Were Ready Colonel was pulled by You Tube "terms of use" violation by it's creator, so I took it off the post.
Update 27 May 2009. The video is back.

Book Review: Mapping the Civil War

Book Review:
Mapping the Civil War: Featuring Rare Maps from the Library of Congress
Authors: Christopher Nelson, Brian Pohanka, Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing, 1992



This book is part of the Library of Congress Classics series. In addition to reproductions of civil war maps, it has contempory sketches and photos, a good narrative history of the Civil War, and some short but detailed essays on the maps used and mapping during the different campaigns.

The narrative history is excellent for giving the novice student of the civil war an overview of the main course of the war. The pictures give a very realistic feel of what the war was like with out being overpowering.

Of course the maps are the interesting things. There are reproductions of maps from all theaters, levels of organization, uses, and quality. They provide a full panorama of the maps used in the Civil War. It is one thing to know in theory that they did not plan a campaign using EarthGoogle. Instead they had maps that were drawn on a very small scale, had roads and key features missing or not correctly located, to plan the movement of very large forces. That the armies often literally did not know where they were, explains much of confusion of the war especially early in the war.



This is a map of the river in front of Vicksburg MS. (It is the lead map on the in the chapter on the Vicksburg Campaign.) The union gunboats and barges running this stretch of the river under fire from the town bluffs is one of the great sagas of the war. But usually there is not a map or it only shows the river in front of the town not the full hairpin turn. Here you see the tricky navigation that was carried out at night along a course where there could be no surprise.


What I found especially interesting were the excellent large scale maps of fortifications, positions and battles that show considerable skill in producing a map when time and surveying resources were available. Individual units or officers, rather than the Topographic Corp, drew many of these maps. This is a skill that is vanishing since much better can be done with computers and aerial photography.

At the beginning of the war the US was mapped in a rather haphazard manner. Collecting maps, drawing new ones, reproducing, and distributing them was a major challenge for both sides. As the war progressed each side developed a better “data base” of areas in which they operated. Reproduction facilities and efficient distribution methods were set up. When it was decided that an army was going to move from point A to B relevant maps were prepared, reproduced and distributed in a few days and available before the movement began. With its greater industrial capacity the Union did better than the confederacy but the confederacy made significant improvements. The best use was General Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign where one map was developed from the best intelligence that could be had, and every one who needed a map was using the same map. There were actually orders issued like “defend by the letter ‘O' in word 'Mountain'” a sign of high quality maps that had the trust of the users. The topographic staff was part of General Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland, which did most of the logistics work for this campaign.

Maps were prepared by the US Coastal Survey and Army's Topographic Corps, most Topographic Corps' officers stayed with the Union at the beginning of the war. Many volunteer officers who had surveying or drawing skills served on both sides. The best of them was Jedediah Hotchkiss, the principal of a small school before the war, who was Lee’s mapmaker. In the Washington-Richmond theater the Confederates almost always had better maps do to his efforts. When the Union captured his maps the Union reproduced and distributed them. There was an injustice to the officers of the Topographic Crops, they were so valuable in that role they would not be released to command regiments brigades and divisions, with the appropriate promotions that many Regular Army officers in other branches recived. None the less they performed excellently thought out the war.

The only problem with this book is that many of the maps are not reproduced on a scale that allows you to use the actual maps used by the armies to follow the action.

This is an excellent book assessable to all levels, well written with good pictures and maps. I would say that for a person is only going to read one book on the Civil War this is a good candidate. If you are person who likes maps this is a gold mine.