The first naval intervention in Asia by the U.S. occurred in response to an act of piracy during 1831. Outraged by an attack on an American merchant ship, the Friendship, President Jackson vowed revenge. He dispatched Commodore John Downes, who commanded the Pacific Squadron, to the coast of Sumatra with 260 marines. The U.S.S. Potomac arrived at Quallah-Battoo on February 5, 1832. Downes ordered landing parties ashore to strike four forts along the coast. Skillfully, the marines and the sailors surprised their targets with a combination of hand-to-hand combat and cannonades. The joint land and sea operation ensured that no defenders of the forts survived, leaving the village of Quallah-Battoo in ruins. With two Americans dead and 11 wounded, Downes admittedly failed to locate the original perpetrators of the piracy. Nevertheless, he was hailed as a masterful commander by the Navy Department.
The Navy Department also authorized the official United States Exploring Expedition, which Congress finally agreed to fund in 1836. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, an expert navigator and chart maker, commanded the expedition from 1838 until 1842. During the first national effort at global reconnaissance, Wilkes's expedition visited Samoa and charted the ice and coastline of Antarctica. During a four-month stay in the Fiji Islands, two of his officers were killed. In retaliation, Wilkes ordered the killing of over 50 islanders.
Attentive to detail, the team of scientists accompanying Wilkes studied oceans, weather, geology, and astronomy. In addition to gathering intelligence about Hawaii and the Philippines, they produced an accurate topography of the Pacific Northwest. With great enthusiasm for the harbors, Wilkes foresaw the potential of the West Coast to “fill a large space in the world's future history.” After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the naval expedition ended in New York. In sum, Wilkes sailed over 85,000 miles and studied more than 280 islands. Despite court-martialing him for illegally punishing his crew, the Navy Department deemed his military venture a great success.
During 1842, the Navy Department officially disavowed the aggressive moves of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. As the commander of the Pacific Squadron, he sailed into Monterey in anticipation of a major war between the U.S. and Mexico. He demanded the surrender of California while holding the harbor at gunpoint. Though he soon sailed away, American audacity exposed Mexican vulnerability.
That year, the Navy Department established a center to maintain marine chronometers, accurate charting, and navigational equipment for sailing. Located in Washington D.C., the Naval Observatory kept naval officers informed about the latest advancements in oceanography, astronomy, and other sciences. Confined to shore duty by a leg injury, Matthew Fontaine Maury served as the superintendent for almost two decades. The Naval Observatory provided exploring expeditions with useful information about maritime hazards, weather patterns, wind currents, and ocean basins.
Compared to the advanced navies of Europe, the maritime technology of the U.S. lagged in development. Although commercial steamboats plied the inland waters of North America, the Navy remained tethered to sails on the high seas. Vexed by the winds of change, most officers disregarded the utility of the noisy, dirty steamships. In 1835, Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson finally acted on a project for a steam frigate. Launched two years later, the U.S.S. Fulton was a 130-foot, 700-ton ship powered by two engines that drove side paddle-wheels. Thereafter, Congress provided funds for two paddle-wheeled steamers, the U.S.S. Mississippi and the U.S.S. Missouri, and for the first screw-propeller warship, the U.S.S. Princeton.
On February 28, 1844, the U.S.S. Princeton participated in a firing demonstration on the Potomac River. Over 400 dignitaries attended, including President John Tyler, Secretary of State Abel B. Upshur, and Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer. Captain Robert F. Stockton commanded the steamship, which carried the two largest guns in the naval arsenal – 12-inch cannons that could fire a 225-pound cannonball 5 miles using a 50-pound charge of gunpowder. One cannon was dubbed the Oregon, and the other the Peacemaker. During the third firing, the latter's breech suddenly exploded. The accident left a gruesome scene of heads, limbs, and other body parts strewn about the deck of the warship. Eight of the dignitaries perished, including Secretaries Upshur and Gilmer, but President Tyler survived the blast unharmed. Though dismayed by the tragedy on the Potomac, the Navy continued its gradual conversion to steam technology.
Lacking a formal program for professional training, the Navy offered midshipmen little more than a life of debauchery at sea. Crews suffered rough justice under the high-handed authority of commanders, who administered floggings, lashings, rationings, and hangings. On board full-fledged warships, salty officers demanded teamwork, deference, and routine. In port, the best recruits attended shore academies to learn the naval sciences needed to complement the practical skills acquired on sea duty. For instance, a naval lyceum, museum, and library operated at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Opening in 1839, the Naval Asylum School at Philadelphia provided a shore-based training environment, where midshipmen studied for their lieutenant's examinations. Journals such as the Army and Navy Chronicle provided professional forums in which to disseminate new information, to express common concerns, and to discuss best practices. Even so, naval education relied mostly upon apprenticeships for learning on the job.
In 1842, the inadequacies of the system became apparent on board the U.S.S. Somers, a naval brig housing an experimental school for apprentices. Sailing from New York on September 13, the sleek 103-foot craft was commanded by Captain Alexander Slidell MacKenzie. It carried 110 men and boys on a cruise to the coast of Africa, although its design comfortably accommodated no more than 75. Infractions on board resulted in floggings with the colt, a one-stranded, less damaging version of the cat-o'-nine-tails. Worst of all, 19-year-old Philip Spencer seemed impervious to military discipline. A hard-drinking college dropout, he received an appointment as a midshipman largely because his father, John Canfield Spencer, headed the War Department.
On the return voyage, MacKenzie accused Spencer of plotting mutiny. Accordingly, the reckless youth planned to kill the officers, take the brig, and become a pirate. Instead, he was arrested and chained to the bulkhead on the quarterdeck. Two accomplices, Elisha Small, a senior petty officer, and Samuel Cromwell, a boatswain's mate, faced charges as well. Following a dangerous mishap with the rigging, MacKenzie charged four more subordinates as collaborators. On December 1, 1842, he executed Spencer, Small, and Cromwell by hanging them from the main yardarm. After the captain and his crew reached New York without further incident, a court of inquiry exonerated MacKenzie of wrongdoing. Regardless of doubts about the handling of the case, the Somers affair marked the first mutiny in U.S. naval history.
The Somers affair led to the reassessment of shipboard training and disciplinary procedures by the Navy Department. Ostensibly, midshipmen needed a safe and structured environment for training before they entered the disorderly confines of a ship at sea. However, the proposals for a consolidated school on shore became entangled with the efficacy of applied learning versus theoretical study in the naval profession. Furthermore, the question of appropriations sparked debate in Congress about whether or not the U.S. intended to overhaul its “Old Navy.” To provide a suitable education for responsible leaders at sea and on shore, the Navy aspired to establish a special academy.
The Navy lacked its own academy until 1845, when Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft founded a campus at an abandoned military post. While also serving as the Secretary of War, he transferred control of Fort Severn in Annapolis, Maryland, from the Army to the Navy. On his authority as the Secretary of the Navy, he designated it as the place where midshipmen awaited orders. Meanwhile, he ordered those returning from sea duty to report to Annapolis for proper schooling. To protect them from the dangers of idleness, he directed that they receive a regular course of study at their common residence. After tapping the faculty and staff at the school in Philadelphia, the new location opened that October with 50 students and seven professors. Returning from its recess, Con
gress accepted what Bancroft wrought and soon granted money to the Navy Department for renovating the buildings. Five years later, the facility at Annapolis officially became known as the U.S. Naval Academy.
Profession of Arms
In a time of peace with foreign nations, the expertise of the American military improved significantly. The War Department organized review boards, compiled tactical manuals, and established training programs. Evincing a heightened sense of merit, service members elevated their profession with the formal study of warfare.
During the early nineteenth century, the federal government hailed service members as the repositories of civic virtue. In 1818, Congress bestowed a pension on veterans able to show proof of nine months of service during the American Revolution. The costs grew excessive, however, and Congress revised the statute to require proof of economic need as well as prior service. Congress passed a new pension law in 1832 that reduced the prior service requirement to six months while removing the provision regarding economic need. Four years later, the widows of veterans were allowed to receive the pension on behalf of their deceased husbands. Although many passed away without collecting any pension, the U.S. established an important precedent in acknowledging the status of veterans.
As the U.S. grew, the Military Academy at West Point constituted the center of gravity for the armed forces. Although the graduating classes remained small, the academy educated an officer corps with a degree of success. The first commissioned officer selected specifically as the superintendent was Captain Alden Partridge, who held the position until 1817.
Following a court-martial for disobedience and mutiny, Partridge chose to resign his commission from the regular Army. Accordingly, he denounced West Point for producing an officer class at odds with the egalitarian examples of the greatest commanders such as George Washington and Andrew Jackson. In 1819, Partridge founded the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy at Norwich, Vermont. His curriculum advanced the study of the liberal arts while underscoring the sciences for subsistence agriculture and civil engineering. Likewise, he advocated field exercises as an extension of the classroom environment. His “American System of Education” inspired the establishment of six more private military institutions. Driven by his lifelong opposition to the elitism of West Point, Partridge assisted in the founding of the Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel.
From 1817 until 1833, Captain Sylvanus Thayer served as the superintendent of West Point. Two years before assuming the position, the War Department sent Thayer to Europe to study foreign military schools as well as canals, harbors, and fortifications. He returned with books, manuals, and ideas to revitalize West Point. Consequently, Thayer raised the admission standards and improved the curriculum. To impart tactical training, he appointed an Army officer as the commandant of cadets. Because of his continuing emphasis on civil engineering, West Point graduates contributed mightily to the construction of railroads in the U.S. At his behest, annual examinations of the cadets occurred before a civilian group known as the Board of Visitors. He also instituted the merit roll, which permitted him to rank each cadet within a class based upon four years of work. Upon infractions of the superintendent's rules, demerits lowered a cadet's standing. Before punishing offenders, he announced: “Gentlemen must learn it is only their province to listen and obey.” He never married, for West Point remained his only passion. For his achievements, Thayer was dubbed the “father of the Military Academy.”
Figure 5.2 W. G. Wall, West Point, 1821. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Whereas the academy introduced officers to the military arts and sciences, other schools attempted to give them special preparation for service in the combat arms. The first in the U.S. was the Artillery School of Practice at Fortress Monroe, which came into existence during 1824. Two years later, the War Department also established the Infantry School of Practice at Jefferson Barracks. Despite shortages of funding, both contributed to the development of professional military education in America.
After his inauguration in 1829, President Jackson expressed serious doubts about the funding of West Point. Appealing to the Democratic Party, he spoke against the regulatory “tyranny” imposed upon the cadets. His followers also despised the ostensible “monopoly” over the officer corps. A few endorsed a private system of military education, which complemented the ideas of Partridge. Others complained about the large number of resignations tendered each year by West Point graduates, who pursued their fortunes as civilians after obtaining an education at the public expense. Even during the 1840s, members of Congress openly railed against the high costs of the academy but never passed a bill to abolish it.
Given the political climate in the U.S., the academy became a refuge for Army officers devoting themselves to the study of warfare. Many studied the precepts of Antoine-Henri Jomini, who was a Swiss-born general in Napoleon's army. He wrote more than 27 books on strategic thought, but his most notable remained the Summary of the Principles of the Art of War (1838). Influenced by the European Enlightenment, he insisted that armed conflict revealed orderly principles consistent with the military ideals of Frederick the Great. Like the natural laws of the universe, the principles of strategy for him remained timeless and unchanging.
At the core of the West Point syllabus, the Jominian doctrines accentuated a basic strategy in war. First and foremost, an army must bring the maximum force to bear against the decisive point in the theater of operations. At the same time, operating with interior lines of communication permitted concentrated force in relation to an enemy's inferior strength. In addition, maintaining the initiative against the enemy required the rapid and coordinated deployment of forces. In effect, the domination of the battlefield involved a contest for control of geography. Strategy, in other words, reflected the art of making war upon a map.
Eventually, Army officers sought a more realistic approach to making war. A Prussian officer, Carl von Clausewitz, delivered a single great work, On War (1873). Subsequent to his sudden death from cholera in 1831, his wife assembled the book from his manuscripts. His strategic thought seemed attuned to the complex and uncertain manner in which battles unfolded, taking into account both the “friction” and “fog” of war. However, the writings of Clausewitz made no impact upon the West Point curriculum until after the American Civil War.
West Point faculty preferred the writings of General Scott, who traveled to Europe while holding various commands in the U.S. At the direction of the War Department, he authored Abstract of Infantry Tactics (1830). He also composed a three-volume edition titled Infantry Tactics (1835). Because of his attention to every detail and fondness for spectacular uniforms, West Point cadets referred to him as “Old Fuss and Feathers.”
A professor at West Point for almost 40 years, Captain Denis Hart Mahan insisted that the cadets study Napoleonic warfare. Before his appointment, he spent four years at the School of Application for Engineers and Artillery at Metz, where he studied civil engineering and European institutions. Though emphasizing tactical skill and stationary fortification, he also taught a popular course on strategy called “Engineering and the Science of War.” He authored several textbooks, which often resorted to historical examples to convey lessons. His most memorable yet daunting work was titled An Elementary Treatise on Advanced-Guard, Out-Post, and Detachment Service of Troops, and the Manner of Posting and Handling Them in the Presence of an Enemy. With a Historical Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Tactics, etc., etc. After publication in 1847, cadets knew it simply by the name Out-Post. Eschewing reckless attacks, Mahan stressed the importance of intelligence, maneuver, and defense in warfare.
Lieutenant Henry Halleck, a Mahan student appointed as a professor of engineering, became the first American to author a full treatise on the strategic thought of warfare. Published in 1846, the Elements of Military Art and Science borrowed heavily from his lectures that resonated with the principles of Jominian doctrines. “Strategy,” Hallec
k argued, “is defined to be the art of directing masses on decisive points, or the hostile movements of armies beyond the range of each other's cannon.” He posited that only “disciplined troops” would excel in proper tactics, which underscored “the great superiority of regulars” in the combat arms – infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Impressed by America's geographic advantages, he betrayed a cautious tone in respect to offensive campaigning. Accordingly, the primary role of the military remained to defend American soil against foreign attack.
For decades, individuals in the armed forces meditated on the military arts and sciences. A new generation of leaders understood the logistical, strategic, and tactical elements of war while accepting their professional roles as the managers of violence. Attuned to the importance of decisive points on the battlefield, the officer corps prepared to command men in combat.
Conclusion
Awash in a sea of political, social, and economic changes, the American military helped to stabilize the country after the War of 1812. The Army and the Navy prepared for future wars in spite of austerity measures that limited their assets. Even if the skeletal force structure relied upon voluntary enlistments to fill out the ranks, the officer corps on active duty developed a professional outlook. Their strategies, tactics, and logistics adhered to European standards for military conduct, albeit with a growing nation in mind. Although no major wars erupted, they extended the borders of the U.S. southward across Florida and westward to the Pacific. They removed Indian populations from ancestral homelands while building vital infrastructure for internal colonization. As the American people pushed relentlessly to occupy the continent, the armed forces began to invent a new kind of republic.
In the antebellum period, geographic isolation tended to make the American people confident in their own power. Of course, nation-building did not occur by mere happenstance but rather as a result of unilateral policies that employed force to thwart international rivals. Instead of paying a high price for national defense, the War Department invested in a small cadre of regulars to provide leadership to a large number of militiamen. Soldiers used almost any means necessary to pacify the contested frontiers and to achieve the territorial ambitions of the U.S. The rapprochement with Great Britain and the dissolution of the Spanish Empire permitted the Navy Department to keep its sails light. With oceans surrounding most of North America, sailors patrolled the blue waters to ensure unimpeded access to offshore markets. The myth about free security notwithstanding, Americans spread their arms from sea to shining sea.
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