James C. Bradford

This book is so much more than just an atlas. It is also a history book with essays by an assortment of distinguished history professors, punctuated by photos, paintings, and battle maps, examining every significant US military campaign and war from Colonial times to the Cold War Era.

Sections include: Colonial Wars 1512-1774, The American Revolutionary War, Foreign Wars of the Early Republic, American Indian Wars 1790-1859, the Growth of the Professional Army (1815-1860), The Texas Revolution and the US-Mexican War, The American Civil War, American Indian Wars 1866-1890, The Spanish-American War, America’s Rise to World Power 1867-1917, Rise of the US as an Asian Power 1899-1922, Intervention in Central America and the Caribbean 1903-1935, WWI, WWII in the Pacific, WWII in Europe, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, and the Cold War.

Although each section is perforce not extensive, it seems to me to cover all the major highlights of the period and includes major battles.

Evaluation: This is an excellent introduction to conflicts in which the United States was involved up to the Cold War years and will provide sufficient background to anyone wishing to delve deeper into the individual topics.… (mehr)

I read John W. Huston's essay, “The US Air Force,” Jennifer L. Speelman's essay, “Military Education and Training,” and David F. Trask's essay, “Military Intelligence.” Huston briefly describes the use of observation balloons during the Civil War. He writes, “Although Northern forces used balloons to observe and direct artillery fare against the Confederates during the American Civil War, little more was done in the air by the United States during the remained of the nineteenth century.” (pg. 444) The military did not observe the Wright Brothers’ flight in 1903 and “four years elapsed until the Aeronautical Division was created in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army charged with responsibility for ‘all matters pertaining to military ballooning, air machines and all kindred subjects.’” (pg. 444) Discussing the educational backgrounds of the US military, Speelman writes, “Founded in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson, the United States Military Academy at West Point attempted to give future officers rudimentary knowledge of mathematics, engineering, and military service.” (pg. 709-710) Her summary of the historiography of military training demonstrates a general consensus among historians that military officials focused on professionalization, mastery of a broad range of subjects, and the development of nationalism. Trask links the use of balloons in the American Civil War to larger patterns of espionage in US warfare. He writes, “Spies on both sides provided important information to military commanders. The Topographical Bureau in the US War Department provided maps to Federal forces.” (pg. 697) He discusses Major General George McClellan’s use of Allan Pinkerton to gather intelligence. Further, “Technological innovations improved collection and dissemination of intelligence. Among them were free balloons, tethered balloons, and wigwag flags. The availability of telegraphy increased the use of codes and ciphers, which protected wired information that was susceptible of interception, but its use led to interception of signals, deception, and then to the employment of rudimentary codes and ciphers.” (pg. 697)… (mehr)