So, I'm finishing up Sears' "Lincoln's Lieutenants" for the 2d time, and it remains an exceptional work. One of the most solid examinations of brigade and higher leadership of the Army of the Potomac that exists. But while I love everything Sears does, he's in the tactics trap For example, he has nothing but disdain for Sigel and Butler, and other "political" generals

And yes, from a tactical level, they're not great. Not really bringing in the battlefield Ws

But that's only half the story.

There's a decent chance y'all are gonna hear about some conspiracy theorist shit from the 1600s based on my consumption of the alcohols this evening

This acts as your WARNORD

So, like, be warned or whatever Ok so like, you think America today is bad with conspiracy theories

I mean, it's pretty shitty, I won't lie, but it's got nothin on 1689 when everyone apparently lost their shit and just decided to overthrow govt

This historic rant brought to you by 3 incredibly generous G&Ts

Modern war remains artillery intensive. Ever since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, belligerents have been constrained by availability of artillery ammunition. To believe that precision fires significantly changes this is to live in a delusional world. We need more production.

https://twitter.com/HoansSolo/status/1693139263565521201

And for the love of the gods, spare me with the "faltering offensive" takes. Operational offensives require mass reserves and mass logistics, as well as incredibly difficult synchronization of combined arms -- and they don't look flashy. They are nasty, grinding, bloody things

Ok SO

I may have had some wine and yo, if you think this was the first time in American history a presidential candidate tried this exact thing, baby, have I got a story for you

It's been a hot minute since we did some #drunjhistory huh

Let's remedy that

https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/1686498413796614144

So it's 1876, and America is, as many historians have said, a hot ass mess

Like, former treasoners in the south are actively fighting the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and using lots of violence to try to keep white supremacy, US troops are actively fighting them

Dear god, who deconflicts SDZs on Mandalorian firing ranges A warrior culture but literally no one is on guard duty against the MANY large hostile creatures on their planet

Well, that's what "warriors" gets ya

Teaching cadets about the 2003 invasion of Iraq...They would look at me quizzically after doing the reading, saying "this still doesn't make sense, everyone knew this was a bad idea, why did it happen?"

I'd sigh, and say

"Well, you kinda had to be there at the time" Well that blew up. Been off Twitter all day.

A few thoughts

One, I was one of those neocons who thought it was a good idea - all of 17 years old, of course. I believed that we wouldn't go to war without true and valid reasons for doing so. I was one of many, many Americans

For St Patrick's Day, lemme introduce you to Irish-born James Allen - someone we should all emulate. In 1861, James enlisted into Co F, 16th NY Infantry at Potsdam to help put down the rebellion

Look at that stache - it could probably suppress a few regiments on its own So it's 1862 and Jimmy and the 16th are chasing down the rebs in Maryland, when they get to a mountain pass called Crampton's Gap. The Confederates are behind a stone wall at the base of this steep, rocky hill, and the 16th charges at them through a cornfield

So, it's a nice thought. But the historical execution of it leaves a lot to be desired. Wasn't aware the New England militia of 1775 were all wearing perfect Continental Army uniforms. And, uh, interesting choice to skip the Civil War, to say the least

https://twitter.com/USArmy/status/1633506425036054530

It's a fairly sterile way of showing history that also isn't speaking to today's generation which values social awareness. I would've shown an integrated Continental Army unit - 1st Rhode Island comes to mind, but there were many - and not in perfect uniforms...

My family is stupid creative. We are now playing a game my 18yo nephew made up with illustrations from his sister Burt got himself a hat for armor and looking super fetch, while Anne got herself a wrench. Presumably for smashing the patriarchy.

The game is about getting these characters to gather all the gems and escape the house, without getting destroyed by monsters

Visited the Petersburg battlefield yesterday - was fascinating to see how trench warfare never really changes

Here's my eloquent opinion on traitors who murder surrendering and surrounded US soldiers - especially when they do so based on the color of their skin. Literally the only thing that Mahone did in his career that "distinguished" him was be a war criminal

The UDC is one of the most virulently toxic organizations that has worked tirelessly to shore up the cause of treason, glossed over with the varnish of patriotism

I've had most of a bottle of wine and I can tell that the chances of me drunkenly playing the mandolin are definitely not zero After all of a bottle of wine, I can say that my suspicions were confirmed and that holy crap, my fingers are going to hurt in the morning

Thus it ever was.

From a letter on the 1766 agrarian uprising in New York. I think we forget just how much the concept of individual financial debt shaped this country - and not in good ways

So much civil unrest due to debt and the legal protections ingrained in the system for those imposing debts, from the colonial era to...well, today

Metal af What's even more amazing about this - this is Col. Benjamin "Grimes" Davis - Jeff Davis' 1st cousin. He's the one who said "screw this" at Harper's Ferry in '62 and led a breakout of 1300 US cav, which he then used to not only escape but capture Longstreet's ordnance train

Ya know, I was going to have a nice Sunday not doing any research

And then I find this whole serialized set of reports written by a Yankee Division dude who goes back to his WWI battlefields in 1930

And then of course this happens and now I am an utter MESS My boy is Thomas Howard Kelly, formerly of the 103d Field Artillery, and his account is absolutely sending me

I am SO here for this view of Seicheprey. Suck it, Pershing and the "Fighting First"

Yo, I've been doing a shit ton of research for various different projects lately, and lemme tell ya

1880 was a goddamn weird year for the Army. Just overall STRANGE.

Am I gonna tell you about it? Well as anyone from Wisconsin says, you betcha Have I also been drinking? Assuredly.

Ok, where to begin in the weird ass year the Army has in 1880. Let's take this shit chronologically, shall we

We open on two ongoing controversies from the Civil War

No, not Reconstruction, that's already been lost

Officer's egos

Well, I WAS enjoying Ian Toll's history of the Pacific Theater in WWII until he hopped on the MacArthur bandwagon - well, actually, didn't do much hop on it as jump behind the wheel

Give me McManus, without his hagiographical adoration of people with stars Ironic that an Army historian absolutely - and accurately - pillories Mac, but Toll, a naval historian, is all about him

Sherman to Hancock, 1876, regarding sending US troops to South Carolina to enforce polling: "They form a bad precedent but thus far have prevented a collision of arms between inflamed partisans."
C/O @librarycongress
loc.gov/resource/mss39… Whoa, utterly prescient writing to Sherman from Col Cuthbert Bullitt in KY, 1876: "The way things look out this way and down South, I suppose we shall have to take down our arms and brush them up a little, for I have always thought we put them away too soon...

Even more incredibly, that battery was commanded by the Baden Baddie himself, Cpt Hubert "Leatherbreeches" Dilger, who earned renown and the MOH in '63 for delaying Jackson with one 12pdr at Chancellorsville & who was an *artist* with a fieldpiece

Guaranteed kill, basically

https://twitter.com/reevesjw/status/1618633418006491136

Dilger is the one who, at Gettysburg, with his one Ohio battery gave an entire Reb artillery battalion a really bad day, including spiking one of their guns for them by personally sighting the shot that plugged the muzzle of an enemy gun

Like I said, an artist

As a barely adequate Army engineer officer, I endorse this calendar SO highly

https://twitter.com/clapifyoulikeme/status/1615430301546676224

A cat sitting atop a vessel named Essayons is actually just my entire identity, I realized

I have never been prouder to be an engineer

Time to go on an archeological fact finding mission to dig my inbox out of the disaster that was the National Guard's reply-all debacle last week

It started on Thursday and the latest email I have about it was from yesterday. Which was a holiday. So you know there'll be more This all began on Tuesday, near 1800, when someone scheduled and then cancelled a Teams meeting

All well and good, until you realize there's like 350 ppl on this thing. And most of them weren't supposed to be there. As chaff to the wind, so human nature rushes to reply to all

Reading the history of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers ("Army Life in a Black Regiment") by Thomas Wentworth Higginson today, and came across this timeless line:

"Great are the advantages of military discipline: for anything perplexing, detail a subordinate." Love this: "To look back on twenty broad double-ranks of men (for they marched by platoons),—every polished musket having a black face beside it, and every face set steadily to the front,—a regiment of freed slaves marching on into the future,—it was something to remember"