Military History Professor | PhD @OhioState | Author, _A Republic in the Ranks: Loyalty and Dissent in the Army of the Potomac_ | Views mine alone
Montclair, VA
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Happy to announce that the paperback edition of my book from @UNC_Press will hit bookshelves this August!
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This is the post I never wanted to have to make.
Earlier today, news arrived that my position as a history professor for US Army CGSC has been eliminated in accordance with DOD cuts. There is no chance of reassignment, and the entire Fort Belvoir campus will be stood down.
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I am devastated. As the sole provider for a family with two little ones, I am now confronting the most dire personal and professional challenge I could ever have imagined.
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My children have been insulated from the emerging chaos of our new world for the past several months. Not so any longer.
I truly don’t know what the future holds.
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I can’t speak to that, unfortunately. I only know about the satellite program, which graduates nearly as many Majors for the Army each year as Leavenworth does.
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Thank you for that, sir. I loved every minute of the job and hope I left my small corner of PME better.
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The plot of this episode: Michael votes Trump before work (was convinced by Todd Packer); realizes by midday he should have voted Harris and recruits Dwight to go recover the ballot.
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One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is how military history courses, with their capacity for drawing interest, are slowly being supplanted by environmental history and history of science courses that draw on STEM student populations seeking to fulfill gen-ed requirements.
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Jim was the Ewing Chair when I taught at USMA. I remember when he generously gave my wife and me his tickets to an Army game so we could have the full West Point experience. A kind man and a great scholar!
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Actual Civil War historian here. Don’t really feel like amending that to “historian of the *First* Civil War.”
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These silhouettes in our kitchen depict Henry Clay and DeWitt Clinton. Today, though, I’m calling them “Pre-Thanksgiving” and “Post-Thanksgiving.”
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Excited to be traveling down to Charlottesville later this week to speak at UVA. The topic: Union soldiers confront the Peace Democrats.
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Fortunate to have spent the afternoon with @USACGSC students from my US Grant Elective admiring the @smithsonian collection pertaining to the general’s life and career. Many thanks to @MilHistCurator!
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Finished the @USACGSC course with a staff ride studying Union success and Confederate failure at @GettysburgNMP. A sweltering day but a superb group!
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I ask what they value for a good history class. Sometimes I get horror stories about previous classes, which can be a good icebreaker.
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Speaking for the Gettysburg-obsessed, I’d say it’s a perfectly reasonable opinion. The First and Eleventh Corps put up one of the most remarkable stands in American military history—at an unfathomable cost.
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Finally picked up a copy of this rare translation of Dead Carl’s opus, and apparently it’s the most accurate one. #Clausewitz
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Another Spotsylvania battlefield staff ride for the US Grant Elective in the books. Part of the @USACGSC Fort Belvoir experience.
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Another staff ride to Spotsylvania battlefield for some of our tremendous students here at @USACGSC Fort Belvoir.
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Half my stress in life comes from knowing that if my Facebook-browsing finger slips *ever* so slightly from the “care” reaction, I will inadvertently give the “laughing” reaction to someone’s horrible life event.
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Learned much from some superb scholars of the Civil War Era yesterday.
Thank you to Carrie Janney and Brian Neumann for hosting us for the UVA Nau Center’s Civil War conference. @mlbever @HilaryGreen77 Zachary Fry, Gary Gallagher, & Elizabeth Leonard.
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From one of my finest @USACGSC history students in the Grant Elective comes this piece on the Overland Campaign and its lessons for large-scale combat operations (LSCO). Well done, MAJ Hickman!
thought2action.org/lsco-less…
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Historian Bruce Catton once said, July 2, 1863 was “a day that needed a lot saving.” One of those who saved the day was Colonel Strong Vincent, a lawyer-turned-soldier from Waterford, Pennsylvania, who took his brigade to Little Round Top at one of those great crisis points (1/2)
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A case could be made for swapping Hooker and McClellan, otherwise I’d agree. Hooker doesn’t get the credit he deserves for truly building the AOP into something new—and far better—in early ‘63.
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Grateful for the opportunity to have presented at another Civil War Institute Summer Conference at Gettysburg College. Some truly great friends in attendance.
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Wonderful time meeting some new folks and catching up with old friends at #SCWH2022. My toddler daughter enjoyed being dragged along for the conference weekend….I think?
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Our orange tabby cat Copernicus is convinced he personally took down the balloon. #ChineseSpyBalloon
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Wonder whether JLC communicated with Sheridan about this. Little Phil was attached to Bismarck’s staff during the FPW.
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A thousand times, this.
Them: We need public-facing scholarship that reaches a broad audience.
Me: Military history continues to be one of the few sub-fields that reaches a broad audience.
My undergraduate history advisor: "I outgrew military history at age 10."
Them: Yes, only bros like that.
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Narrow window, indeed. Let’s hope it isn’t closed already. Ukraine deserves a better future than a merely expanded military stalemate.
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It was a national embarrassment that we went so long without a WWI memorial, especially while the AEF generation was still alive. Glad to see this corrected.
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One hundred sixty years ago this evening, Col. Robert Gould Shaw gave his life and Sgt. William Carney saved the national colors of the war’s most inspiring regiment.
18 JULY 1863 – SECOND BATTLE OF FORT WAGNER - 54TH MASSACHUSETTS
The 54th Massachusetts Inf Regiment, the second all-Black U.S. Army regiment formed during the Civil War, attacked Ft. Wagner on 18 JUL 1863; the events of the engagement were immortalized in the 1989 film Glory.
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What a superb thread.
A thread of threads. 20 misconceptions about the Revolutionary War (or American War of Independence). Americans (proud to be one) are often quite ill-informed about the military struggle which led to our independence from Great Britain.
This isn't your father's rev war. 1/25
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Back in 2018, I snapped a screenshot of this Freudian-slip headline. Five years later and some things never change. #CollegeFootballPlayoff
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Union accounts from the campaign are replete with comments about Miles supposedly being a traitor.
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I’m moonlighting as a Napoleonicist here, but I always emphasize the significance of Aspern-Essling when I teach.
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of the combat at Gettysburg. He gave his life there helping to crush the rebellion. His widow, Elizabeth Vincent, was seven months pregnant with a daughter, Blanche Strong Vincent. (2/2)
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The director of the best CW film offers his thoughts on its cast and production.
1. "GLORY"🧵
opened on this weekend, 35 years ago. Box office was fair. Reviews were good or mixed. Nominated for five Oscars, won two. Of all my films, hits or flops, it has proven the most durable. When all is said and done, there is only one measure that counts: Time.
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I find this sort of letter all the time when doing archival research, and I still consider it nothing short of a crime against humanity.
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Coming soon to the Army and Navy Club “History vs. Hollywood” series, Thursday, September 15 at 6:30pm! #gettysburg @DMH_at_CGSC
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June 18 is Waterloo Day!
"On the field of battle his cat is worth fifty thousand men; but he is not a gentleman." #Catpoleon
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A brutal contest, but you need a solid chief of staff. That’s Berthier, not Soult.
You are launching a campaign and you can only bring 3 marshals. Which combo are you picking? #napoleon #marshals #frenchempire #xpoll #campaigns #generalsandnapoleon
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Sixty of my @USACGSC students enjoyed the @USArmyMuseum today. A must for anyone in the area, and certainly for all our captains and majors fortunate enough to study here at @Fort_Belvoir for several months.
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The standard libertarian talking point on the Civil War. Especially rich considering the vast assumption/centralization of federal power compensation would’ve entailed.
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My main concern is ensuring that STEM-focused history courses, at least as gen-ed requirements, are still presenting meaningful insights into human nature, conflict, etc.
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Oh joy, I can repost this from last year verbatim.
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We’re witnessing one of the most remarkable days in modern military history. #Ukraine #counterattack #UkraineWillWin
Here are today's control-of-terrain maps of #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine from @TheStudyofWar and @criticalthreats.
Click here to see our interactive map: arcg.is/09O0OS
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When someone asks you how this war is going to end…
#Clausewitz #UkraineRussianWar #Ukraine️ #militaryhistory
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“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” —Lincoln’s Cooper Union Speech, 1860
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The key here is that we *need* a Sickles movie or miniseries, and it’s really remarkable that no one has ever thought to produce one.
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How did Union soldiers go from adoring General George McClellan to voting against him for president in 1864?
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Love this sort of data presentation. I introduce my Eastern Front lesson with a similar graph tracking mentions of the Wehrmacht in professional journals.
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This was enjoyable. Only looked at the ACW library in the basement, not the more general military history books in my work office.
1. Gary Gallagher (22 books)
2. James McPherson (13 books)
3. Earl Hess (12 books)
4. Steven Woodworth (8 books)
5. Mark Neely (7 books)
Omitting collected works sets, what’re the top 5 authors in your library by number of books on your shelves?:
1. U.S. Department of Defense
2. U.S. Army
3. NATO
4. @nkjemisin
5. @jeffvandermeer
This is what you get from an eco + sci-fi nerd who owns 216 military dictionaries.
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But you know what would solve this debate? A CAC-sponsored staff ride to the Czech Republic and Lorraine. I’m in.
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@MilHistCurator is a national treasure. Glad to see him (and William) get the appreciation.
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