Through widespread and relentless surprise attacks and ambushes, Confederate guerrillas drove Union soldiers and their leaders to desperation. Confederate cavalrymen engaged in hit-and-run tactics; autonomous partisan rangers preyed on Federal railroads, telegraph lines, and supply wagons; and civilian bushwhackers waylaid Union pickets. Together, all of these actions persuaded the Union to wage an increasingly punitive war.
Clay Mountcastle presents a new look at the complex nature of guerrilla warfare in the Civil War and the Union Army's calculated response to it. He examines guerrilla attacks and Federal responses in a number of operational theaters to show how the problem grew throughout the South and ultimately convinced the Union to adopt retaliatory measures that challenged the sensibilities of even the most hardened soldiers.
In revealing the impact that Confederate guerrilla activity had on the Union's prosecution of the war, Mountcastle reveals how the character of the war was shaped every bit as much by the troops on the ground as by their Union leaders. He draws on primary sources that vividly convey their reaction to the guerrilla problem and their justification for punitive action-with guerrillas described by one angry soldier as "thieves and murderers by occupation, rebels by pretense, soldiers only in name, and cowards by nature." Showing how much of the impetus for retaliation originated from the bottom up, starting in the western theater in 1861, he describes how it became the most influential factor in convincing Union generals, especially Grant and Sherman, that the war needed to be extended to include civilians and their property. The result was a level of destructiveness that has been downplayed by other scholars-despite the evidence of executions and incidents of entire towns being burned to the ground.
By 1864, punitive action had evolved into such a powerful and decisive force that it produced what has been called "a warfare of frightfulness." And although guerrilla activity deviled the Union until the end, the Union's response ultimately proved a significant factor in persuading leaders like General Lee to call a halt to such actions and, ultimately, to surrender. Mountcastle's book offers the most revealing look yet at this incompletely understood dimension of the Civil War and also raises provocative questions about the relationship between guerrilla and conventional warfare in any conflict.
外层空间争夺是美国人梦想中一个重要主题,在外层空间部署毁灭性的大规模武器,称霸地球成为美国当局的目标,本书为这一目标作了说明。
... 103 , Tuscumbia , Ala . , 197 , 199 , 200 184 Starling , Lyne , 165 Valley Head , Ga . , 105 Steedman , James B. ... 107 , Williams , Alpheus S. , 60 , 61 , 63 , 76 108 , 110 , 120 , 121 , 145 , 146 , 149–151 , Wilson , James H.
This is a curated and comprehensive collection of the most important works covering matters related to national security, diplomacy, defense, war, strategy, and tactics.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
Moss and Hume , p . 352 . 34. The data are described in N. S. Ross , " Employment in Shipbuilding and ShipRepairing in Great Britain , " Journal of the Roval Statistical Society , Series A , 115 , 1952 , pp . 524-533 . 35.
But roughly at the same time as Samuel , a British engineer , W. D. Pearson , made the attempt . In 1901 Pearson — while building a railway along Mexico's east coast — espied standing pools of oil at Tampico , and this led him to seek ...
Military Misfortune by Eliot A. Cohen & John Gooch 296 pages , The Free Press New York , N.Y. , 1990. $ 22.95 ISBN 01-02-906060-5 Why do competent armies fail ? What explains these “ lost victories , ” as Field ...
He installed three 70 - pounders , a 150 - pounder . and a pair of 100 - pound Parrott rifled guns atop the Morro with a 250 - pound French Vavasseur and another four 70 - pounders at a lower battery . He also created two batteries on ...
U.S. Air Force Major Michael Donnelly was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, after his tour of duty in Desert Storm.
257 ― Bergère MarieClaire, Bianco Lucien και Domes J., La Chine au ΧΧe siècle, 2 τόμοι, Παρίσι, Fayard, 19891990. 258 ― Bergère MarieClaire, Sun YatSen, Παρίσι, Fayard, 1994. 259 ― Bianco Lucien, Les Origines de la révolution chinoise, ...