Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812

Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812
Author: C. Edward Skeen
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2014-07-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 081314955X

Winner of the Army Historical Foundation Book Award During the War of 1812, state militias were intended to be the primary fighting force. Unfortunately, while militiamen showed willingness to fight, they were untrained, undisciplined, and ill-equipped. These raw volunteers had no muskets, and many did not know how to use the weapons once they had been issued. Though established by the Constitution, state militias found themselves wholly unprepared for war. The federal government was empowered to use these militias to "execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;" but in a system of divided responsibility, it was the states' job to appoint officers and to train the soldiers. Edward Skeen reveals states' responses to federal requests for troops and provides in-depth descriptions of the conditions, morale, and experiences of the militia in camp and in battle. Skeen documents the failures and successes of the militias, concluding that the key lay in strong leadership. He also explores public perception of the force, both before and after the war, and examines how the militias changed in response to their performance in the War of 1812. After that time, the federal government increasingly neglected the militias in favor of a regular professional army.

Every Citizen a Soldier

Every Citizen a Soldier
Author: William A. Taylor
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2014-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 162349169X

Beginning in 1943, US Army leaders such as John M. Palmer, Walter L. Weible, George C. Marshall, and John J. McCloy mounted a sustained and vigorous campaign to establish a system of universal military training (UMT) in America. Fearful of repeating the rapid demobilization and severe budget cuts that had accompanied peace following World War I, these leaders saw UMT as the basis for their postwar plans. As a result, they promoted UMT extensively and aggressively. In Every Citizen a Soldier: The Campaign for Universal Military Training after World War II, William A. Taylor illustrates how army leaders failed to adapt their strategy to the political realities of the day and underscores the delicate balance in American democracy between civilian and military control of strategy. This story is vital because of the ultimate outcome of the failure of the UMT initiative: the birth of the Cold War draft.

Forgotten War Stories in History

Forgotten War Stories in History
Author: Janet Slingerland
Publisher: 12-Story Library
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN: 9781632356475

Brings to light 12 forgotten war stories such as George Washington's Immortals, a group of citizen-soldiers from Maryland who changed the course of the American Revolution; Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic who saved the lives of an estimated 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust; and more. The book features historic photos, interesting sidebars, and thought-provoking prompts.

Two Wars and One Love

Two Wars and One Love
Author: Robert E. P. Moranda
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2009-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1440139342

This is the story of Bob Moranda, citizen soldier, who fought with honor, courage, conviction, and valor during one of World War II's most critical campaigns-the Battle of the Bulge. Both his capture by the Germans and liberation by the Russians were perilous. This is also the story of Bob and his brother George, who both served in Korea. In the National Guard after WWII, they were called to active duty again. Not too many years after WWII, they had to adjust once more from civilian life to that of soldiers in training and combat. Bob writes of the joys and frustrations of the common soldier doing his duty. George adds historical perspective to the events recounted in the book. Together they provide a compelling narrative enhanced by the context of history. For those who want to know what actual combat is like, those who need inspiration to meet life's challenges, and for those who want to know more about the "boys who saved democracy," this is essential reading.

Forgotten

Forgotten
Author: Linda Hervieux
Publisher:
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2019-02-15
Genre: African American soldiers
ISBN: 9781445686615

The tale of an all-black battalion whose crucial contributions at D-Day have gone unrecognised to this day.

Pumpkinflowers

Pumpkinflowers
Author: Matti Friedman
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 161620608X

“A book about young men transformed by war, written by a veteran whose dazzling literary gifts gripped my attention from the first page to the last.” —The Wall Street Journal “Friedman’s sober and striking new memoir . . . [is] on a par with Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried -- its Israeli analog.” —The New York Times Book Review It was just one small hilltop in a small, unnamed war in the late 1990s, but it would send out ripples that are still felt worldwide today. The hill, in Lebanon, was called the Pumpkin; flowers was the military code word for “casualties.” Award-winning writer Matti Friedman re-creates the harrowing experience of a band of young Israeli soldiers charged with holding this remote outpost, a task that would change them forever, wound the country in ways large and small, and foreshadow the unwinnable conflicts the United States would soon confront in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Pumpkinflowers is a reckoning by one of those young soldiers now grown into a remarkable writer. Part memoir, part reportage, part history, Friedman’s powerful narrative captures the birth of today’s chaotic Middle East and the rise of a twenty-first-century type of war in which there is never a clear victor and media images can be as important as the battle itself. Raw and beautifully rendered, Pumpkinflowers will take its place among classic war narratives by George Orwell, Philip Caputo, and Tim O’Brien. It is an unflinching look at the way we conduct war today.

Citizen 865

Citizen 865
Author: Debbie Cenziper
Publisher: Hachette Books
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0316449660

The gripping story of a team of Nazi hunters at the U.S. Department of Justice as they raced against time to expose members of a brutal SS killing force who disappeared in America after World War Two. In 1990, in a drafty basement archive in Prague, two American historians made a startling discovery: a Nazi roster from 1945 that no Western investigator had ever seen. The long-forgotten document, containing more than 700 names, helped unravel the details behind the most lethal killing operation in World War Two. In the tiny Polish village of Trawniki, the SS set up a school for mass murder and then recruited a roving army of foot soldiers, 5,000 men strong, to help annihilate the Jewish population of occupied Poland. After the war, some of these men vanished, making their way to the U.S. and blending into communities across America. Though they participated in some of the most unspeakable crimes of the Holocaust, "Trawniki Men" spent years hiding in plain sight, their terrible secrets intact. In a story spanning seven decades, Citizen 865 chronicles the harrowing wartime journeys of two Jewish orphans from occupied Poland who outran the men of Trawniki and settled in the United States, only to learn that some of their one-time captors had followed. A tenacious team of prosecutors and historians pursued these men and, up against the forces of time and political opposition, battled to the present day to remove them from U.S. soil. Through insider accounts and research in four countries, this urgent and powerful narrative provides a front row seat to the dramatic turn of events that allowed a small group of American Nazi hunters to hold murderous men accountable for their crimes decades after the war's end.

Forgotten Summers

Forgotten Summers
Author: Donald M. Kington
Publisher: Two Decades Publishing
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1995
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

At about 45 one-month-long camps (CMTC) run each summer by the Army, young volunteers experienced the challenges & satisfactions of soldiering. Reserve Colonel Harry Truman was once a CMTC commander; Ronald Reagan was commissioned through CMTC; Generals Pershing, MacArthur, & Marshall were active in the program; & while training, it inspired 17-year-old Robert Penn Warren's first poem. "This first (account) of the CMTC is a resounding success. ...Kington presents institutional history in human terms, with fascinating results,"--Bernard Nalty, author & retired Air Force historian; "Kington's history of CMTC vividly recreates an almost forgotten chapter in the history of the U.S. Army...,"--J. Garry Clifford, author of THE CITIZEN SOLDIERS; "(This) very readable book...makes good use of lively memories of almost 100 veterans to remind us of the place of CMTC in our history,"--Edward Coffman, THE OLD ARMY; "(Finally) we have a definitive account of one of America's most significant, yet least known, social programs for young men....(The book) is an invaluable contribution to the current debate on national youth service...,"--Charles Moskos, A CALL TO CIVIC SERVICE. To order send $18.75, plus $2 postage/handling to: Two Decades Publishing, Box A-169, 3739 Balboa St., San Francisco, CA 94121, Phone: (415) 752-9511.

Killing for the Republic

Killing for the Republic
Author: Steele Brand
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421429861

A sweeping political and cultural history, Killing for the Republic closes with a compelling argument in favor of resurrecting the citizen-soldier ideal in modern America.