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Washington's Taiwan Dilemma, 1949-1950
by David FinkelsteinThe declaration of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 presented American foreign policy officials with two dilemmas: how to deal with the communist government on the mainland and what to do about Chiang Kai-shek's holdout Nationalist regime on Taiwan. By early 1950 these questions were pressing hard upon U.S. civilian and military planners and policy makers, for it appeared that the Red Army was preparing to invade the island. Most observers believed that nothing short of American military intervention would preclude a communist victory on Taiwan. How U.S. officials grappled with the question of what to do about Taiwan is at the heart of this study.Prior to the publication of this book, much of the historical literature on this critical period in U.S. policy toward China concentrated on the question of relations with the new regime in Beijing. A focus on those debates has largely overshadowed the concomitant policy debates that centered around the question of how to deal with the Nationalist regime on Taiwan. As this study shows, the two issues were inextricably linked and developing a Taiwan policy was no less difficult or controversial. Heavily informed by an analysis of declassified U.S. government documents and other primary sources, this history strongly suggests that had North Korea not invaded the south in June 1950 the U.S. would not have intervened to save Chiang Kai-shek and Taiwan from near-certain invasion.Beyond the narrative itself, this volume is also a case study into the complex and sometimes messy processes by which foreign policy is made. It explores the tensions that existed within the Truman administration between the State Department and various newly-created entities such as the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council. Indeed, the history of policymaking for China and Taiwan in 1949-50 is also a case study in the early development of the post-war interagency system. It also underscores the tensions between the Executive and Legislative branches in the development of foreign policy.The study also brings to light little-discussed and often uncomfortable issues in Taiwan history, some of which still have relevance to politics on the island even today. These include the legacies of the Japanese colonial experience, the post-war Nationalist occupation, and the early stirrings of the "Formosan" independence movement, to name just a couple.Today, U.S. policy toward Taiwan remains a highly-charged and fundamentally divisive issue in U.S.-China relations - especially the security dimensions of that policy. And even today U.S. Taiwan policy is still subject to partisan politics in Washington as well as in Taipei. For those who still grapple with this issue, this volume presents the roots of the dilemma and essential background reading.
Washington's War (Blast to the Past #7)
by Stacia Deutsch Rhody Cohon Guy FrancisKeep history on track--that's an order! Abigail and her friends have an important job today: They must convince George Washington to stay in Valley Forge and continue to fight the Revolutionary War. The future of America depends on him! Turns out, General Washington is superstubborn. No matter what the kids say, or where they take him, they can't get him to change his mind. Will Abigail and the boys succeed, or will the father of our country become just a blip in history?
Washington's War: From Independence To Iraq
by General Sir Michael Rose KCB CBE DSO OGMThe story of how George Washington beat the British out of America - and how Iraqi insurgents are now using the same tactics to push the Americans out of IraqIn 1775, George Washington took command of a ragbag army of American insurgents and took on the might of the British Army. Through a brilliant campaign of ambush and indirect attacks, he finally succeeded in defeating the greatest military power in the world, and won America its independence.Today it is the USA that is the world's dominant superpower. When they entered Iraq in 2003 they made the same mistakes that the British made over 200 years ago: they underestimated the popular hostility against them, and believed they could fight a widespread insurgence using troops trained for conventional warfare. They are beginning to learn, as the British did, that sheer military power is not enough.As a former Director of UK Special Forces and Commander of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia, Michael Rose is uniquely experienced in counter-insurgency warfare. In this hard-hitting book he explains the principles of guerrilla warfare as used in the American War of Independence, and shows how those same principles have been adopted by the insurgents in Iraq.
Washington's War: From Independence To Iraq
by Michael RoseThe story of how George Washington beat the British out of America - and how Iraqi insurgents are now using the same tactics to push the Americans out of IraqIn 1775, George Washington took command of a ragbag army of American insurgents and took on the might of the British Army. Through a brilliant campaign of ambush and indirect attacks, he finally succeeded in defeating the greatest military power in the world, and won America its independence.Today it is the USA that is the world's dominant superpower. When they entered Iraq in 2003 they made the same mistakes that the British made over 200 years ago: they underestimated the popular hostility against them, and believed they could fight a widespread insurgence using troops trained for conventional warfare. They are beginning to learn, as the British did, that sheer military power is not enough.As a former Director of UK Special Forces and Commander of the United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia, Michael Rose is uniquely experienced in counter-insurgency warfare. In this hard-hitting book he explains the principles of guerrilla warfare as used in the American War of Independence, and shows how those same principles have been adopted by the insurgents in Iraq.
Washington: The Indispensable Man (The\illustrated Editions Ser.)
by James Thomas FlexnerThis &“perceptive&” and &“satisfying&” biography of George Washington by an award-winning historian &“deserves a place on every American&’s bookshelf&” (The New York Times Book Review). James Thomas Flexner&’s masterful four-volume biography of America&’s first president, which received a special Pulitzer Prize citation and a National Book Award for its concluding installment, is the definitive chronicle of Washington&’s life and a classic work of American history. In this single-volume edition, Flexner brilliantly distills his sweeping study to offer readers &“the most convincing evocation of the man and his deeds written within the compass of one book&” (Los Angeles Times). In graceful and dramatic prose, Flexner peels back the myths surrounding Washington to reveal the true complexity of his character. The only founding father from Virginia to free all his slaves, Washington was a faithful husband who harbored deep romantic feelings for his best friend&’s wife. An amateur soldier, he prepared for his role as commander in chief of the Continental army by sending out to Philadelphia bookshops for treatises on military strategy. As president, he set many democratic precedents—including the two-term limit and the appointment of an advisory cabinet—yet routinely excluded his vice president, John Adams, from important decisions. The George Washington that emerges in these pages is a shrewd statesman, a wise commander, a brave patriot, and above all, &“an ordinary man pushed to greatness by the extraordinary times in which he lived&” (The Christian Science Monitor). In tracing Washington&’s evolution from privileged son of the landed gentry to &“the indispensable man&” without whom the United States as we know it would not exist, Flexner presents a hero worthy of admiration not only for his remarkable strengths, but also for his all-too-human weaknesses.
Washington’s Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775–1777
by Jason Q. BohmWinner, 2024 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book AwardThe fighting prowess of United States Marines is second to none, but few know of the Corps’ humble beginnings and what it achieved during the early years of the American Revolution. That oversight is fully rectified by Jason Bohm’s eye-opening Washington’s Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777. The story begins with the oppressive days that drove America into a conflict for which it was ill-prepared, when thirteen independent colonies commenced a war against the world’s most powerful military with nothing more than local militias, privateers, and other ad hoc units. The Continental Congress rushed to form an army and placed George Washington in command, but soon realized that America needed men who could fight on the sea and on land to win its freedom. Enter the Marines. Bohm artfully tells the story of the creation of the Continental Marines and the men who led them during the parallel paths followed by the Army and Marines in the opening years of the war and through the early successes and failures at Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Canada, Boston, Charleston, and more. As Washington struggled to preserve his command after defeats in New York and New Jersey in 1776, the nascent U.S. Navy and Marines deployed the first American fleet, conducted their first amphibious operation, and waged a war on the rivers and seas to block British reinforcements and capture critically needed supplies. Desperate times forced Congress to detach the Continental Marines from the Navy to join the embattled army as Washington sought an “important stroke” to defeat his adversary. Washington’s Marines joined their fellow soldiers in a protracted land campaign that culminated in turning-point victories at Trenton, Assunpink Creek, and Princeton. This chapter of the Continental Marines ends in Morristown, New Jersey, when Washington granted Henry Knox’s request to leverage the Marines’ expertise with naval guns to fill the depleted ranks of the army’s artillery during the “Forage War.” Washington’s Marines is the first complete study of its kind to weave the men, strategy, performance, and personalities of the Corps’ formative early years into a single compelling account. The sweeping prose relies heavily on primary research and the author’s own extensive military knowledge. Enhanced with original maps and illustrations, Washington’s Marines will take its place as one of the finest studies of its kind.
Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869
by Jerome A. GreeneOn November 27, 1868, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer attacked a Southern Cheyenne village along the Washita River in present-day western Oklahoma. In this remarkably balanced history, Greene describes the event's causes, conduct, and consequences and the multiple controversies surrounding the conflict.
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror
by W. Scott PooleHistorian and Bram Stoker Award Nominee W. Scott Poole traces the confluence of military history, technology, and art that gave us modern horror films and literature.From Nosferatu to Frankenstein’s monster, from Fritz Lang to James Whale, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War. Bram Stoker Award nominee W. Scott Poole traces the confluence of military history, technology, and art in the wake of World War I to show how overwhelming carnage gave birth to a wholly new art form: modern horror films and literature."Thoroughly engrossing cultural study . . . Poole persuasively argues that the birth of horror as a genre is rooted in the unprecedented destruction and carnage of WWI." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Watch Me Die: A Novel
by Erica SpindlerIn Spindler's thrilling new psychological drama, one woman's journey to recovery becomes her worst nightmare… Before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, stained-glass restoration artist Mira Gallier had it all: a thriving business doing work she loved and an idyllic marriage to the perfect man. But the devastating storm stole her beloved husband – his body swept away by floodwaters, never to be found.Now, after years of pain and turmoil, it looks as if Mira is finally on the verge of peace and emotional stability. But her life, like the magnificent windows blown to bits by Hurricane Katrina, is about to be shattered once again. And this time, it's not a killer storm she faces, but a psychopath who will stop at nothing until he possesses her, body and soul…First, church windows that she restored are vandalized, and the priest who looked over them brutally murdered. Spray-painted across the glass are the words: He Will Come to Judge the Living and the Dead. Then, New Orleans is rocked by a terrifying chain of murders that all seem to be linked to Mira. The police, led by homicide detective Spencer Malone, are following a string of clues left by the killer on each victim – and beginning to wonder if the murderer isn't Mira Gallier herself.As Mira begins to unravel under pressure from all sides – and fear for her life – it's unclear whom she can trust. And when a man from her past appears out of nowhere, sparking something long forgotten in her heart, he quickly becomes the police's new prime suspect. One by one, the people in Mira's life are targeted, until it's clear that the killer has been saving her for last . . . and that there's nowhere left to run.
Watch Over Me: Code Talker Chronicles (Code Talker Chronicles #2)
by Eileen CharbonneauAt first, war widow Kitty Charente thinks she’s showing one of her boss’s salesman a day out on the town. But Luke Kayenta is undercover: he’s a Navajo code talker, and Nazi Agent Helmut Adler is hunting him in 1942 New York City. Isolationists are searching for Luke too. And his superiors at the the U.S. Office of Strategic Services want to know if he’s cracked under torture in Spain. Kitty and Luke must evade capture from one enemy and death from another as they race from the Lower East Side to the Savoy Ballroom to Coney Island, aided by unlikely allies in the Canadian and French spy networks, a Harlem baker, and even Weegee, New York City’s most famous tabloid photographer.
Watching Darkness Fall: FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler
by David McKeanA gripping and groundbreaking account of how all but one of FDR's ambassadors in Europe misjudged Hitler and his intentionsAs German tanks rolled toward Paris in late May 1940, the U.S. Ambassador to France, William Bullitt, was determined to stay put, holed up in the Chateau St. Firmin in Chantilly, his country residence. Bullitt told the president that he would neither evacuate the embassy nor his chateau, an eighteenth Renaissance manse with a wine cellar of over 18,000 bottles, even though “we have only two revolvers in this entire mission with only forty bullets.”As German forces closed in on the French capital, Bullitt wrote the president, “In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you.” As the fighting raged in France, across the English Channel, Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy wrote to his wife Rose, “The situation is more than critical. It means a terrible finish for the allies.”David McKean's Watching Darkness Fall will recount the rise of the Third Reich in Germany and the road to war from the perspective of four American diplomats in Europe who witnessed it firsthand: Joseph Kennedy, William Dodd, Breckinridge Long, and William Bullitt, who all served in key Western European capitals—London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Moscow—in the years prior to World War II. In many ways they were America’s first line of defense and they often communicated with the president directly, as Roosevelt's eyes and ears on the ground. Unfortunately, most of them underestimated the power and resolve of Adolf Hitler and Germany’s Third Reich.Watching Darkness Fall is a gripping new history of the years leading up to and the beginning of WWII in Europe told through the lives of five well-educated and mostly wealthy men all vying for the attention of the man in the Oval Office.
Watching War Films With My Dad
by Al MurrayAl Murray's (AKA The Pub Landlord) musing on his childhood where his fascination with history and all things war began.Have you ever watched a film with someone who, at the most dramatic scene, argues that the plane on screen hasn't been invented yet? Or that the tank rumbling towards the hero at the end of the film is the wrong tank altogether? Al Murray is that someone. Try as he might, he can’t help himself. Growing up in the 1970s, Al, with the help of his dad, became fascinated with the history of World War Two. They didn’t go to football; they went to battlefields. Because like so many of his generation whose childhood was all about Airfix, Action Man and Where Eagles Dare, he grew up in the cultural wake of the Second World War. Part memoir, part life obsession, this is Al Murray musing on what he knows best. And he’s sure to tell you things about history that you were never taught at school.
Water Resources Planning for the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway
by National Research Council of the National AcademiesThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed its feasibility study for the Upper Mississippi River-Ilinois Waterway, which was one of the agency's longest and most complicated studies in its history. The first two reports from this WSTB committee reviewed analytical aspects of the Corps feasibility study. This report considered the broader issue of managing the multiple resources of the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway, especially with regard to several, recently-issued NRC reports on Corps of Engineers planning procedures. The report finds that a key issue regarding planning decisions on these river systems is the ambiguity related to several different pieces of legislation and acts that govern river management, and thus recommends that the administration and Congress clarify the federal intent for managing this river and waterway system. The report recommends an independent, retrospective reivew of the experience with a federal inter-agency Principals Group, which was convened to provide guidance to the Corps study. It is also recommended that the Corps strive to incorporate flexible, adaptive management principles through its entire water planning program, including operations of the lock and dam system.
Waterloo
by Bernard CornwellFrom the New York Times bestselling author comes the definitive, illustrated history of one of the greatest battles ever fought--a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundreth anniversary of Napoleon's last stand.On June 18, 1815, the armies of France, Britain, and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days, the French army had beaten the Prussians at Ligny and fought the British to a standstill at Quatre-Bras. The Allies were in retreat. The little village north of where they turned to fight the French army was called Waterloo. The blood-soaked battle to which the town gave its name would become a landmark in European history.In his first work of nonfiction, Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment--from Napoleon's daring escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath. Through quotes from the letters and diaries of Emperor Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and the ordinary officers and soldiers, Cornwell brings to life how it actually felt to fight those famous battles--as well as the moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the outcome hanging in the balance until the bitter end.Published to coincide with the battle's bicentennial in 2015, Waterloo is a tense and gripping story of heroism and tragedy--and of the final battle that determined the fate of nineteenth-century Europe.
Waterloo
by Bernard CornwellJune 1815: The Duke of Wellington, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon will meet on the battlefield--and decide the fate of EuropeWith the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels--in preparation for a grand society ball. It is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange, the inexperienced commander of Wellington's Dutch troops, to act before it is too late. But Sharpe's warning cannot stop the tide of battle, and the British suffer heavy losses on the road to Waterloo.Wellington has few reserves of men and ammunition; the Prussian army has not arrived; and the French advance wields tremendous firepower and determination. Victory seems impossible.
Waterloo 1815
by Geoff WoottenOsprey's study of the most famous battle of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Waterloo holds a special place among the great battles of history. The climax of more than twenty years of war, it was indeed a close-run affair, matching two of the world's greatest generals - Napoleon and Wellington. This volume covers the entire campaign including the battles of Quatre Bras, Ligny and Wavre, with five full-colour maps and three highly detailed bird's eye views showing decisive moments in the action. An excellent sense of the closeness of the battle is communicated - Wellington himself claimed it was "the nearest thing you ever saw in your life" - and this gripping account shows the full justice of that statement.
Waterloo 1815
by Gerry Embleton John FranklinTo coincide with the 2015 bicentennial of the Battle of Waterloo, Osprey publishes Waterloo 1815, a definitive three volume history of the historic battle. Based on new research drawn from unpublished first-hand accounts and illustrations, Waterloo 1815 provides a detailed resource for all aspects of the famous battle.This first volume of the trilogy, Quatre Bras, focuses on the lead-up to Waterloo itself. Two days before the main battle, an initial 8,000 Allied troops faced the 48,000 men of the French Armée du Nord under Marshal Ney at the strategically vital crossroads of Quatre Bras. Having been tricked by Napolean who was trying to drive a wedge between the Prussians and the Anglo-allied army, Wellington concentrated his troops at Quatre Bras, hoping to link up with the Prussians. There Wellington just managed to hold off Ney's attacks. The battle ended in a tactical stalemate but, because he was unable to join with Blücher's Prussians, Wellington retreated back along the road to Brussels to new positions at a small Belgian village called Waterloo, and thus set the stage for one of the greatest battles of all time.With detailed maps, illustrations and battlefield dispositions, Quatre Bras will lay the groundwork for any student of the Battle of Waterloo.
Waterloo 1815
by Gregory Fremont-BarnesThe Battle of Waterloo is one of the most important moments in military history. The might of the French Empire under the leadership of the Emperor Napoleon faced the Coalition army under Duke of Wellington and Gerhard von Blucher for one last time at Waterloo. The battle saw the culmination of a long campaign to destroy Napoleon’s forces and halt the growth of the French Empire. Both sides fought bitterly, and Wellington later remarked that “it was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.” Both armies lost over 20,000 men on the battlefield that day, but it was the coalition that emerged victorious in the end. Wellington’s army counter-attacked and threw the French troops into disarray as the fled from the field. The coalition forces entered France and restored Louis XVIII to the throne. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he later died. Waterloo was a resounding victory for the British Army and changed the course of European history. This Battle Story tells you everything you need to know about this critical battle.
Waterloo 1815: Battle Story
by Gregory Fremont-BarnesOne of the most decisive battles in military history, Waterloo saw the culmination of a generation of war to bring a definitive end to French hegemony and imperial ambitions in Europe. Both sides fought bitterly and Wellington later remarked that ‘it was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life’.In this bloody engagement, more than 20,000 men were lost on the battlefield that day by each side, but it was the Anglo-Allies who emerged victorious. Their forces entered France and restored Louis XVIII to the throne, while Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he later died.Waterloo was a resounding victory for the British Army and Allied forces, and it changed the course of European history. In this concise yet detailed account, historian Gregory Fremont-Barnes tells you everything you need to know about this critical battle.
Waterloo 1815: Captain Mercers Journal (Military History from Primary Sources)
by Bob CarruthersMore has probably been written about the Waterloo campaign than almost any other in history. It was the climax of the Napoleonic Wars and forms a watershed in both European and world history. However, the lethal combination of national bias, wilful distortion and simple error has unfortunately led to the constantly regurgitated traditional 'accepted' version being significantly wrong regarding many episodes in the campaign. Oft-repeated claims have morphed into established fact and, with the bicentenary of this famous battle soon to be commemorated, it is high time that these are challenged and finally dismissed.Gareth Glover has spent a decade uncovering hundreds of previously unpublished eyewitness accounts of the battle and campaign, which have highlighted many of these myths and errors. In this ground-breaking history, based on extensive primary research of all the nations involved, he provides a very readable and beautifully balanced account of the entire campaign while challenging these distorted claims and myths, and he provides clear evidence to back his version of events. His thoughtful reassessment of this decisive episode in world history will be stimulating reading for those already familiar with the Napoleonic period and it will form a fascinating introduction for readers who are discovering this extraordinary event for the first time.
Waterloo 1815: History's Most Famous Battle Told Through Newspaper Reports, Official Documents and the Accounts of Those Who Were There (Voices from the Past)
by John GrehanFor more than twenty years Europe had been torn apart by war. Dynasties had crumbled, new states had been created and a generation had lost its young men. When it seemed that peace might at last settle across Europe, terrible news was received Napoleon had escaped from exile and was marching upon Paris. Europe braced itself once again for war. The allied nations agreed to combine against Napoleon and in May 1815 they began to mass on France's frontiers. The scene was set for the greatest battle the world had yet seen.Composed of more than 300 eyewitness accounts, official documents, parliamentary debates and newspaper reports, Voices from the Past tells the story of Napoleon's last battles as they were experienced and reported by the men and women involved. Heroic cavalry charges, devastating artillery bombardments, terrible injuries, heart-breaking encounters, and amusing anecdotes, written by aristocratic officers and humble privates alike, fill the pages of this ambitious publication. Many of these reports have not been reproduced for almost 200 years.
Waterloo 1815: Quatre Bras
by Peter HofschröerThe Battle of Waterloo marked the climax of four extraordinary months. Napoleon returned from exile, ousted the unpopular King Louis XVIII, and then turned to launch a pre-emptive strike against the Allied armies assembling in the United Netherlands. Here Napoleon met Wellington who had cobbled together an army with contingents from the British, the United Netherlands and the Prussians, firstly at Quatre Bras and then finally at Waterloo.This is the second book in the series to cover the battle following on from Hougoumont.
Waterloo 1815: The British Army's Day of Destiny
by Gregory Fremont-BarnesWriting to his mother the day after the fighting, Captain Thomas Wildman of the 7th Hussars described ‘a victory so splendid & important that you may search the annals of history in vain for its parallel’. Little wonder, for Waterloo was widely recognised – even in its immediate wake – as one of the most decisive battles in history: after more than twenty years of uninterrupted conflict, this single day’s encounter finally put paid to French aspirations for European hegemony. The culminating point of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo also witnessed levels of determination and bravery by both sides which far exceeded anything experienced by the veterans of Wellington’s recent campaigns in Spain and Portugal. Indeed, it was that unconquerable spirit which left over 50,000 men dead on the field of battle and tens of thousands of others wounded.This thoroughly researched and highly detailed account of one of history’s greatest human dramas looks first at the wider strategic picture before focusing on the tactical roles played by individual British units – all meticulously examined with the benefit of an extensive array of hitherto unexploited primary sources which reveal the battlefield experience of officers and soldiers as never before.Refusing simply to repeat the same unchallenged accounts and to commit the same errors of previous historians, this work relies exclusively on hundreds of first-hand accounts, by men of all ranks and from practically every British regiment and corps present on that fateful day, to provide a fresh and revised perspective on one of the most pivotal events of modern times.
Waterloo 1815: Wavre, Plancenoit And The Race To Paris
by Peter HofschröerThe acclaimed historian sheds new light on the Battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon with a focus on the Prussian Army&’s critical contribution. Histories of the Waterloo campaign that brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars generally concentrate on the battle between the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington, giving Field Marshal Blücher's Prussian forces only passing attention. But in this fascinating historical analysis of the conflict, Peter Hofschröer provides a full account of the Prussians and their critical but often neglected side of the battle. Hofschröer vividly recounts the grueling Prussian advance towards the battlefield and the ferocious and decisive fight that broke out when they arrived. At every stage, he allows the reader to follow in the footsteps of the Prussian soldiers as they struggled across the Belgian countryside on that fateful day in 1815.
Waterloo And Gettysburg: A Campaign Comparison
by Lieutenant-Colonel George E. TeagueIn June of 1815 Napoleon led French forces on an offensive campaign into Belgium against the Allied Anglo-Dutch and Prussian armies under Wellington and Blucher. During this campaign Napoleon and several of his marshals made serious errors that led to missed opportunities for victory and ultimately to defeat at Waterloo. Less than 50 years later Robert E. Lee led Confederate forces on an offensive campaign into Maryland and Pennsylvania against the Union Army under Hooker initially, then Meade. A meeting engagement near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania led to three days of fighting during which Lee and several of his generals made critical errors that allowed opportunities for victory to pass and ultimately led to decisive defeat.These campaigns were remarkably alike in a number of ways. This paper reviews the campaigns and discusses similarities in the strategic settings, campaign objectives, size and disposition of forces, battlefield terrain, tactics employed, and leadership of each army. In particular, the paper compares the performances of selected French and Confederate leaders and how they contributed to the defeat of their respective armies. These comparisons provide valuable lessons learned for the conduct of future military operations.