Mitchell G. Klingenberg
@MGKlingenberg
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Historian of the US Army, war, and warfare • @DMH_at_CGSC at @USACGSC • Personal account; all views are my own; fully Hatch Act compliant, etc.
Kansas, USA
Joined November 2011
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Last Seen Profiles
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Some exciting professional news: I'm pleased to share that my book, tentatively titled John Fulton Reynolds: American Soldier, Union Martyr, is under contract at
@lsupress
and slated for LSUP's "Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War" series.
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A conversation between Otto von Bismarck and Ulysses S. Grant:
Grant (upon accepting an invitation to attend a review of the Crown Prince's soldiers in Berlin): "The truth is I am more of a farmer than a soldier. I take little or no interest in military affairs ..." [here, as in
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Grant (cont'd, etc.): "There had to be an end of slavery. Then we were fighting an enemy with whom we could not make peace. We had to destroy him. No convention, no treaty was possible -- only destruction" (emphasis added).
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Grant: "In the beginning, yes, ... but as soon as slavery fired upon the flag it was felt, we all felt, even those who did not object to slaves, that slavery must be destroyed. We felt it was a stain to the Union that men should be bought and sold like cattle."
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Source: John Russell Young, Around the World with General Grant.
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Bismarck: "You are so happily placed ... in America that you need fear no wars. What always seemed so sad to me about your last Great War was that you were fighting your own people. This is always so terrible in wars, so very hard."
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Grant: "But it had to be done."
Bismarck: "You had to save the Union just as we had to save Germany."
Grant: "Not only save the Union, but destroy slavery.
Bismarck: "I suppose, however, the Union was the real sentiment, the dominant sentiment."
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Grant (cont'd, etc.): "A great commander like Sherman or Sheridan even then might have organized an army and put down the rebellion in six months or a year, or, at the farthest, two years. But that would have saved slavery ... and slavery meant the germs of new rebellion. ...
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Bismarck: "I had an old and good friend, an American, in Motley, ... who used to write me now and then. Well, when your war broke out he wrote me. He said, 'I will make a prophecy. ... I prophesy that when this war ends the Union will be established and we shall not lose a
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Grant (cont'd, again): "In fact, the Southern feeling in the army among high officers was so strong that when the war broke out the army dissolved. We had no army -- then we had to organize one. ...
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Grant (cont'd): "Our war had many strange features -- there were many things which seemed odd enough at the time, but which now seem Providential. If we had had a large regular army, as it was then constituted, it might have gone with the South. ...
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Grant: "Yes ... it was true."
Bismarck: "I suppose if you had had a large army at the beginning of the war it would have ended in a much shorter time."
Grant: "We might have had no war at all ... but we cannot tell. ...
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Too many Americans take for granted that their military triumph in WWII was automatic. Projecting power and conducting joint operations is difficult. The theaters of operations were unfathomably vast. US access to the far reaches of the Pacific — something Americans assume,
One thing I've been studying for some time, mostly but not exclusively for teaching, is 1945 and the end of WW2, and how to convey to students how massive and violent and complex it was. Digging more into the Pacific side of things, and the scale of operations is just stunning.
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“[Lee's] sphere of action was, however, local. He never rose to the grand problem which involved a continent and future generations. ... He stood at the front porch battling with the flames whilst the kitchen and house were burning, sure in the end to consume the whole. ...
Who do you think was the better general, Lee or Grant?
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Happy birthday to General of the Armies Ulysses S. Grant.
To better your life, improve your learning, and grow in your appreciation of what it means to be an American citizen, pick up his memoirs and read.
🖼️:
@smithsoniannpg
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Put simply, we should be reading and writing more WWII history — not less. We should be reading it with eyes to see how war invariably demands hard choices that encompass military policy, economic policy, defense-industrial policy, and manpower. And we should read it to see how
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I am increasingly convinced that most Americans should read at least one volume of the Oxford History of the United States per year. Reading McPherson again has me in awe of _Battle Cry_’s erudition and sweep. It’s astounding in its learning and a remarkable testament to what the
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For these reasons and others, it is unhelpful when academic historians complain about all the WWII “Dad History” at Barnes and Noble booksellers, or deny courses to undergraduates on WWII military history when such courses would swell history enrollments, or hand-wave away
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Well, I have some news! In September I will join the faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University as Lecturer of History in the College of Liberal and Applied Arts. I’m deeply grateful to
@SFASU
for this exciting opportunity, and thrilled to begin a new chapter in Nacogdoches.
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It is true that Lee won several modest tactical victories. But these proved fleeting. At Chancellorsville, perhaps Lee’s finest hour, the Army of Northern VA routed US Army troops but failed to annihilate Federal corps-echelon formations. Lee’s tactical success at
@MGKlingenberg
‘As an aggressive soldier Lee was not a success’…not against Grant perhaps but Seven Days, 2nd Bull Run and Chancellorsville beg to differ. By the time Grant came East the ANV was on the defensive and hamstrung in defending Richmond. Grant was a great general but numbers do help
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"Between these two men as generals I will not institute a comparison, for the mere statement of the case establishes a contrast."
William Tecumseh Sherman, "Grant, Thomas, Lee," _The North American Review_ 144 (May 1887): 442, 444.
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Max Duggan went to Austin to chew bubblegum and score touchdowns. And folks, he ran out of bubblegum.
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Thanks to all for the encouragement and support. It feels great to have successfully defended my dissertation, and to have fulfilled all requirements for the Ph.D. I am thankful to have had the privilege to do so at a world-class university. Praise to Thee,
@TCU
! (📷 by Dad)
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“Let us give these southern fellows all the fighting they want, and when they are tired we can tell them that we are just warming to the work.” ~ W. T. Sherman to U. S. Grant, August, 1864
“Grant habitually wears an expression as if he had determined to drive his head through a brick wall, and was about to do it.”—William Tecumseh Sherman
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One could narrate the campaigns of the West (and the Overland Campaign in the East) to underscore Sherman’s point, but in the final analysis,
1) More than win tactical decisions, Grant’s forces captured armies, forts, and garrisons of strategic importance
2) Grant proved more
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It’s Gettysburg Season, apparently. A couple observations: first, Lee lost the fight early (probably before, but almost certainly on, day two) because of decisions on campaign that hamstrung his tactical options in the close fight. Day three brought those failures into starkest
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A professional update: I’m pleased to share that I’ve joined
@westpointhist
at
@WestPoint_USMA
as an assistant professor. I’m excited for the year ahead and humbled to partner with USMA faculty and staff to educate for Duty, Honor, and Country.
•
•
•
•
📸: USMA public affairs
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.
@marinamaral2
, crushing it with her historical photographs (yet again). Dunkirk remains one of the greatest testaments to Western courage, fortitude, and endurance.
Allied soldiers climb aboard a ship during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
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"[General] Grant's 'strategy' embraced a continent, Lee's a small State; Grant's 'logistics' were to supply and transport armies thousands of miles, where Lee was limited to hundreds. Grant had to conquer natural obstacles as well as hostile armies, and a hostile people ...
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I’m proud to share I’ve joined the
@DMH_at_CGSC
faculty at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (
@USACGSC
) at historic
@FortLeavenworth
! I’m thrilled and thankful for this opportunity to join the great DMH Team and continue educating our women and men in uniform. [1/3]
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Today I moved into my
@SFASU
office — the very first office of my professional career as a university-level educator and historian. I feel very fortunate to be at this special university, to work with great students, and to partner alongside kind and generous colleagues.
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"His 'tactics' were to fight wherever and whenever he could capture or cripple his adversary and his resources; and when Lee laid down his arms and surrendered, Grant, by the stroke of his pen, on the instant gave him and his men terms so liberal as to disarm all criticism ...
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Sherman is thus correct to weigh in the balance and find wanting Lee’s approach to maneuver warfare — more reminiscent of the classical and Napoleonic “strategy of a single point” than a strategy, like Grant’s from ‘64 onward, that attrited and exhausted the enemy through
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I had forgotten that in 1870, while governor of Maine, Joshua Chamberlain offered his services to Prussian King Willhelm I. War transformed Chamberlain absolutely: nothing in life after combat — not politics, academic prestige, nor status — could match the fullness of life or
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"As an aggressive solder Lee was not a success, and in war that is the true and proper test. 'Nothing succeeds like success.' In defending Virginia and Richmond he did all a man could, but to him Virginia seemed the 'Confederacy,' and he stayed there ...
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“Headquarters, Camp Clark
Washington, D.C., July 14, 1861
My Very Dear Wife:
Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps to-morrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines, that may fall under your eye when
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"Soon after midnight, May 3d-4th, the Army of the Potomac moved out from its position north of the Rapidan, to start upon that memorable campaign, destined to result in the capture of the Confederate capital and the army defending it. ... [1/6]
[Map no. 243, "The Wilderness
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More seriously, Lee was overmatched in the East by the US Army of the Potomac and George Meade in the summer of ‘63. What narrow opportunity Lee might have had to change the fortunes of war in his theater of operations during the summer invasion, Meade seized and destroyed. [2/4]
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It was great spending Saturday with
@WestPoint_USMA
colleagues and friends facilitating a
@GettysburgNMP
staff ride for Cadet Candidates at
@USMAPS
. Not even an April PA downpour could keep the CCs from unfurling the colors and walking the attack of the 1st Minnesota Volunteers!
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Third, as a field army commander, Meade did what a successful general officer must: understand the operational environment; anticipate and visualize how he wanted to shape the operational environment; conceptualize a coherent plan of campaign with the available means; describe
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This is a book that true military historians long have awaited.
@Kent_M_Brown
skillfully examines the Army of the Potomac commander in ways useful to practitioners of war. Other promising Meade projects are forthcoming—Stowe, Douds, Murray—but the bar is high.
#MeadeRenaissance
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“The atomic bombs were evil and never should’ve happened” takes on this website (a perennial phenomenon) are almost always ignorant and devoid of context and historical complexity. They are indicative of an ahistorical kind of thinking that reads the past in reverse, and assumes
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Militaries exist to win wars. War colleges were created to steep officers in the complex problems of warfighting and to equip them to solve those problems. We have forgotten that purpose. We must recover it—together.
@BruscinoTom
(and me) at
@CityJournal
:
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My thanks to the WOTR team for their excellent editing and for skillfully guiding this essay to publication. Winfield Scott’s 1847 campaign still has much to teach war planners. | “When Americans Marched to Mexico City,” my latest, at
@WarOnTheRocks
.
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This is a helpful article by
@andrewmichta
at
@AtlanticCouncil
with good insights. Attrition is real. Mass trumps precision. Mass counters mass. Mass matters for structure and posture. To paraphrase
#Clausewitz
, in war it is best always to be very strong.
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LTG Fred Franks on command essentials for mid- to high-intensity combat operations:
1) Get the whole organization in the fight
2) Stay balanced
3) Maintain face-to-face contact with subordinate commanders; give clear orders in common language
4) Forget logistics and die
Franks,
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Second, more important than the “how could Lee have won Gettysburg?” counter-factuals that seem invariably still to arise, is a deeper (and more compelling) reality: Meade won the campaign — Lee did not lose it — precisely because the US Army commander performed better at higher
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From today's readings, various excerpts from the Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman on the Vicksburg Campaign (December 1862 to July 1863) illustrative of warfare in nineteenth-century America ... [a 🧵...]
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The 2023 annual meeting of the
@SMH_Historians
was a success. It was great to see colleagues and friends and enjoy beautiful San Diego. Particular highlights were the
@USSMidwayMuseum
and Kansas City Barbecue — the latter a film set for the iconic piano scene in Top Gun.
#SMH2023
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Eisenhower’s moral courage — what Clausewitz defines as willingness to accept responsibility before a tribunal, or submission to the dictates of conscience — is a striking feature of this note, but so, too, is the intellectual and psychological strain of command, which wore on
Eisenhower scribbled a note accepting responsibility for the invasion and taking full blame should the
#Normandy
landings fail.
This "In Case of Failure" message is mistakenly dated for July 5 instead of June 5.
@IkeLibrary
#WWII
#DDay80
#DDay
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In his “What to the Slave Is the
#FourthofJuly
?”,
#FrederickDouglass
argued that the Founding of the Nation was anti-slavery. The U.S. Constitution, far from being a sinister vehicle for racial slavery, Douglass believed to be a “GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT” (original emphasis)🧵👇🏼
“It is answered in reply to all this, that precisely what I have now denounced [slavery] is, in fact, guaranteed and sanctioned by the Constitution ... that the right to hold and to hunt slaves is a part of that Constitution framed by the illustrious Fathers of this Republic. ...
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There’s little the US can do to reinvigorate its industrial base and replenish munitions that would be “over the top,” so to speak. Hard-won historical lessons on planning, preparedness, and mobilization furnished by two World Wars seem largely forgotten.
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I have submitted my completed dissertation manuscript to the committee and to the associate dean. Now, off to Michigan for the Christmas holiday! 🌲❄️🎄
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My general sense, though I’m somewhat removed from academic history, is that a turn to military history would no doubt result in higher enrollments across departments. …
has downplayed military history for sometime. This is darkly hilarious since history departments have been bleeding students and trying all kinds of things to get their numbers up.
Seems like a great opportunity: Lean into military history and (cont.)
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The past year at
@WestPoint_USMA
was full of fond memories too numerous to count. Teaching at USMA was a great honor and privilege — I’m grateful to the Cadets, colleagues, and friends who made it so meaningful.
I look forward to sharing exciting professional news soon. Go Army!
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"[Lee's] sphere of action was, however, local. He never rose to the grand problem which involved a continent and future generations. ... He stood at the front porch battling with the flames whilst the kitchen and house were burning, sure in the end to consume the whole. ...
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These are some of the important things Meade did to seize the initiative in the campaign and defeat the Army of Northern Virginia. [finis]
“Major General George Gordon Meade of General Staff U.S. Volunteers and General Staff U.S. Army in uniform”
Library of Congress
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Mapping operational art [a thread 🧵].
For years, the
@USArmy
and military historians have struggled to depict
#operationalart
on paper. This has resulted in an imperfect grasp of operational art, and has had adverse effects on how future commanders have studied and visualized
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To say I’m excited for
@marinamaral2
and
@dgjones
’s forthcoming _The World Aflame_ would be an understatement. On pins and needles for this book.
#MilitaryHistory
#WarAndSociety
#Color
#Photographs
| The World Aflame |
@Waterstones
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“See you in the fort, Thomas.”
Requiescat in pacem, Andre Braugher, pictured far left as Corporal Thomas Searles in _Glory_ (1989), still the greatest American Civil War film to grace the silver screen.
📷:
@SmithsonianMag
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One high-intensity war in Europe. Another imminent in Israel and Iran. And still the non-zero possibility of a third in the Philippines or Taiwan. War is man’s oldest and most intoxicating urge; the postmodern illusion of perpetual peace is — or ought to be — confined to history.
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Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey, November 1920
"For God, for King and country, for loved ones, home and empire, for the sacred cause of justice and the freedom of the world. They buried him among the Kings because he had done good toward God and toward His house"
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At 900 followers I will reveal whether the reading, study, and writing of military history is good or not.
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Late-Blooming Dad Just Now Getting Into Civil War History
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I feel fortunate to serve alongside such generous and talented colleagues. The
@ArmyWarCollege
faculty are truly great, and it’s humbling—in the best sense of the term—to be a member of this team.
#PrudensFuturi
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Finally, Sherman, with characteristic eloquence and flourish, frames the strategic importance of the campaign in clear and unmistakable terms:
"The value of the capture of Vicksburg, however, was not measured by the list of prisoners, guns, and small-arms, but by the fact that
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Really enjoyed this conversation between
@AaronBMacLean
and Sir Hew Strachan concerning the latter’s essay on Carl von Clausewitz and _On War_ in
@HalBrands
’s _The New Makers of Modern Strategy_ (
@PrincetonUPress
).
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It’s happening.
“John Fulton Reynolds and His Age: Politics, Religion, and Generalship in the Civil War Era”
🗓: January 29
🕰: 1:30 p.m.
📍:
@TCU
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In which I take a long view of W. T. Sherman’s
@USArmy
career and argue we should read his influential (but misunderstood) memoirs. | “Sherman and His Historians,” my latest, at _The US
@ArmyWarCollege
Quarterly: Parameters_ 51 (4) (published by
@SSInow
):
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Article page proofs returned to the publisher. Good things are happening.
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Now, about
@CollegeGameDay
making that trip to Fort Worth next Saturday. Can I get an 'amen'?
@FrogsOWar
@TCUFootball
@_delconte
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“Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. …
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William T. Sherman, "Grant, Thomas, Lee," _The North American Review_ 144 (May 1887): 442, 444.
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ICYMI — *Americans and the Dragon: Lessons in Coalition Warfighting from the Boxer Uprising* — my latest, a
@SSInow
monograph. This project grew from a study I wrote for the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations at the
@ArmyWarCollege
.
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“Andrew Jackson: The Religious, the Classical, & the Improbable in American Public Memory” is concluded at
@TheSouthernSHA
in Birmingham.
@IVMiles
batted first, followed by
@SKayLawton
&
@DanielGullotta
. A truly informative session; great papers, all.
#SHA2018
@AgeofJacksonPod
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They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. / At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them.
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The new office is arranged. Students are moving in. Syllabi are receiving final revisions and edits. The semester is upon us.
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A signed publishing agreement means it’s official. “The Curious Case of Catherine Mary Hewitt & U.S. Maj. Gen. of Vols. John Fulton Reynolds: Bodies, Mourning the Dead, & Religion in the Era of the American Civil War” is forthcoming in
@ANCHjournal
, the journal of
@Branch19th
.
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“My Dear General: Yours of the 13th … is just received. I congratulate you on your splendid success, and shall very soon expect to hear of the crowning work of your campaign — the capture of Savannah. Your march will stand out prominently as the great one of this Great War. …
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One year ago. January 29, 2020: the day I defended my Ph.D. dissertation from
@TCUAddRan
at
@TCU
. It was cold, and I was nervous. But a packed room for the defense was something I won’t forget. Grateful to all who made that day so meaningful.
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Saturday quarantine with the spring 2020 issue of the Journal of Military History. Heck yeah,
@SMH_Historians
.
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“This country will be drenched in blood. God only knows how it will all end. … You people speak so lightly of war. You don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing. … You mistake, too, the people of the North. …
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"[General] Grant's 'strategy' embraced a continent, Lee's a small State; Grant's 'logistics' were to supply and transport armies thousands of miles, where Lee was limited to hundreds. Grant had to conquer natural obstacles as well as hostile armies, and a hostile people ...
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At
#Whiteboard
, a series at
@War_Room_Eds
, we invited practitioners and scholars across
#PME
and academe to consider the question, “In the next large-scale, peer-competition conflict, what will be the critical (or decisive) domain of warfighting, and why?”
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On a scale of one to excited, I’m pumped. It will be great to attend the 89th Annual Meeting of the
@SMH_Historians
in FWTX (my old stomping grounds, and home of
@TCU
, my alma mater) — hands down the greatest city in the Lone Star State.
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2
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No surprise — School of War is easily one of the best pods on war. Congratulations.
I’m thrilled and honestly a little surprised to note that School of War just broke one million total downloads, after almost exactly 2.5 years on the air. Thanks to all our listeners, guests, and the team at
@Nebulouspods
. On to two million!
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As
@JerryHendrixII
wrote months ago in
@TheAtlantic
, Americans long have assumed their immense wealth — manifested in day-to-day quality living and secured by seapower dominance and maritime commercial activity — are automatic and natural advantages built into reality itself. To
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"Between these two men as generals I will not institute a comparison, for the mere statement of the case establishes a contrast."
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Received my March 2019 issue of
@JCWE1
, and just in time for the spring recess. Looking forward to a crackerjack lineup of essays from
@CarrieJanney
,
@BookHistorian
,
@susannahjural
, and
@iaisherwood
. Among the reviews are fine contributions from
@CarlPaulus
and
@sarahbelle721
.
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The Overland Campaign -- begun this day, 1864.
Source: John F. Marszalek, David S. Nolen, and Louie P. Gallo, eds., The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: The Complete Annotated Edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017), 510. [finis]
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I’m pleased to have contributed an article to this issue of the *International Journal of Military History and Historiography* published by
@Brill_History
and
@BrillPublishing
.
The first 2024 issue of the International Journal of Military History and Historiography is out now. See Volume 44, No. 1 here:
#militaryhistory
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