Academy professor. It is titled the army before and afterandr aft after Andrew Jackson. This is about an hour and 50 minutes. Tonights speaker is sam watson, professor of United States and military history at the United States military academy at west point. He has taught for 18 years. He is author of jacksons sword and peace keepers and conquerers on the nations borders and frontiers between the war of 1812 and the war with mexico. It is published by united press of kansas which together won the distinguished book award for the society of military history. Incidentally it is which we are part. He is coed to of the west point history of warfare which won the society for military history he is coed to of the history of the civil war which won the Army Historical foin dags writing award. She also coauthor of the west point history of the american revolution. He teaches on 19th sefcentury warfare and about the american frontier. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, sam watson. [ applause ] thank you. Do they see themselves as medical officers or military officers in it turned out they saw themselves as a bit of both. I have to give the standard disclaimer that i speak for myself not for the military academy at west point, not for the department of defense and not for any other agency of the United States government. With that out of the way i will try to say a few controversial things or a few things you might want to question your debate and give you some information the armys view of politics and the armys role in politics. Second, the balance between the National Standing army, its not really clear. People department really call it the regular amprmy. Youll see it as army lower case or regulars. Well talk about the Standing Army rather than the mass of malitia and volunteers. So the question of the ball lants between them, the National Standing army to what exat the present time id dit rely on are short volunteers. Here we are talking 1820s and 30s. No really large wars that would employee lots of malitia. The third is that of kmacommand. When they deployed troops to force the cherokee indians to move west or along the border with texas, who commanded the troops . Were they volunteer citizen solarsol solarie solariesol soldiers. He was commissioned during the war of 1812. Then the fourth question is kind of like the armys capability assigned to it. 2k did it increase during and after jacksons presidency . And then within those four topi topics command of forces capabilities. We have perception versus reality. People looking back and thinking the United States in the 19th sefr century, its all malitia or all Andrew Jackson. Then on the other hand we have it which one can never see it. We have scott leaving the charge for the regular army. There is also the question of change versus continuity. It was not very active and not very accountable financially. Neither soldiers or officers displayed the sort of discipline to authority we would expect or desire. Jackson repeatedly challenged dysfunctional dynamics that i explore in my book jack softens sword. All kinds of either insubordination or other forps of displip. So jacksons victory at new or leaps department really make a big difference to that army. It made a difference in how americans perceived military force. The hunters of kentucky to whom they contributed. Scholars would say certainly a lot of accurate rifle mep bn bu some of that artillery was manned by pirates. Much of that was manned by artillery men and some u. S. Navy as well. So theres sort of a myth of the battle of new orleans. The regular army, that National Standing army is kind of doing its own thing. And during the 1820s the army changed quite a bit. There were a variety of favorite pipgtured. It is sported by james monroe. In fact that National Standing army and hopefully professional army, meaning a sort of police force to deter opponents to keep the peace along the borders. But also it is technical experts and educators for maintaining expertise chl expertise. It is also at the Artillery School near the Infantry School in st. Louis. Now that ladder to mention to the army was drawn largely from those to whom the president , secretary of war gave monopolies for more than a decade during the 1820s. During the 1820s Army Officers were politically attuned. They supported president ial candidates like jackson orac or calhoun. So this is sort of an elite politics of general men and government officials. They would write a lot of letters to one another privately. Who do you think is going to be better for the army . Remember how calhoun supported us on this . Remember what jackson said about that . It is a lot of behind the sacens polit politicking. Not really anything but in 1829 many of the Senior Officers, many of that small number of Senior Officers reck plepdommen that. Seeing him that would support more funding for the army. That is usually the main thing that army leaders wanted at that time. We dont think we have enough troops if things break out with the british again for the border with mexico, for the coastal fortifications. When the army when army Staff Officers made plans they would say we need three or four for each of those. They perceived they are always under. Usually they sort of break out one place at a time and they can redeploy to meet the different crises. It is fair to say that in 1828 and 29 a lot saw him like that. Fupding remained pretty tight. An army was only about 5,000 soldiers when jackson entered officer. Both of those regiments were mounted regiments. The american officers would often like to think of charges on their horses with sabers. It was on a very small scale and then those were disbanded. At the end of the decade never really built that force. During the war of 1812 there were a couple and a lot of voluntee volunteers. But at the end of the war of 1812 horses kaug money. The army zlpt any value var by cht they would conduct patrols be you you can imagine they with respect very speerped and not ability to go chasing aptd camping them. So the army had not had much ability to pursue indians west of the mississippi. If the army wanted to catch them to try to intimidate them or force them to sign a treaty or something. So these would prove crucial to new mexico and california. They spent a lot of time mostly d d d d dismounted. Other changes in the army during the Jackson Administration included more nutritious for the soldiers food which reduced mortality. What we mean sheer ahere is adde vegetables and adding different elements to a diet that had been like your classic salt pork, salt beef, you floknow, a lot o dried food and abolishing the liquor. This was a balt plimore publish. They created a weekly for the army. These became centers about military professionalism, military capability, reform tactics. In 1834 or 1835 and then when the second seminole war began, by that point the military magazine was starting to fade. They became sort of the standard. It is if you want to study the second seminole war, that database has army and navy chronical. You could write a book on the seminole war largely from that. Andrew Jackson Department have anythi didnt have anything to do with this. These are really initiatives within the army or responding to a demapd by our you know, Army Officers wanting to write and being willing to buy. They changed it for a couple of years. There is just not enough interest once the war is over. It goes out of business in 1844. So the changes that occurred to the army that i mentioned so far were still largely charges initiated by Army Officers. You had political leaders whether it had been monroe or now president jackson or secretary of war calhoun who had supported the army doing so. They would be saying that. They would say, yeah, sounds like a good idea. But most of this reform was coming from the inside, the actual ideas for the reform with a support of political climate. These were brought on by resur gents largely in the form of jacksons policy of forcing iin indians to leave their land. The schools had to close reducing opportunities to practice and to train larger units of soldiers. This is because they were deployed from the Artillery School it is sort of this you can see here the image of slaifslaifves rising up and attacking the slave holders. There was rumors of slave unrest in 1831. For several years there governors, mayors, state legislate tos, congressmen from throughout the south, mostly the eastern sea board states but also louisiana, they were constantly sending letters to army commanders. There were rumors of savage unrest in our neighborhood. It is to deter any slave unrest. Now, when they actually get rebellion is army is not involved. It did conduct a lot of patrols and kind of showing force in the weeks and months after that they took them part of the way by train and part of the way by steam boat then they all caught cholera in the courseov of doin that. The artillery had to go back doin down to South Carolina to try to in and so by 1832 it was clear they with respect going to be able to an artillery anymore. So what we today call off te tempo well, the army hadnt really grown, so about 5,000. Ultimately conducting indian remove this is the year before the indian removal act but trying to keep the peace or trying to keep the peace between the ipd yans and most indians and whites invading their land and ultimately the seminole war in the 1830s. This is supposed to be james and his troops. Most were trying to deter them from doing something the u. S. Wants. Not just on the western frontier you would think. We have the image of them chasing indians but most of the indian removal and most of the troop deployments are in alabama and georgia and then florida. So this is a very widely stretched and over extepnded army. It gets worse for the army because Andrew Jackson did not permit his kmacommanders when h had commanded a generation. Instead king andrew i used it to make the point that, you know, a lot of people saw Andrew Jackson as a fairly authoritarian leader. He had a mandate from the majority. So i want you to crack down on cherokee and make it clear that, you know, they have to move west, but i dont really want this getting in the newspapers. So i dont want newspapers saying, you know, u. S. Troops use Excessive Force against the cherokee. I dont want the clherokee to actually rebel. It is not to the point they actually repbel. There were a lot more as that were seminole. So the seminole war is difficult enough and there had been a war with the creek indians in alabama we have a high operational tempo and a president who is very impatient, very short tempered with his kma commanders and quick to criticize them. The commanders had to walk a very fine line. Most of them fell off the tight rope in jacksons eyes. So here we have a couple of examples of that. That is kind of the sercenter o the story i would think. On the left we have john. He was charged with basically intimidating, pressuring, coercing the cherokee into starting the move in 1836. He was unsuccessful. Another kmacommander follows hi. He is the best example. It is a conquerors where the ja se jacksonians are pressuring wool and wool is, you know, trying to explain, well, im trying to do that and it didnt work and trying to do this and it didnt work. So, what if i disown the cherokee . What if i take all the weapons . No, no, that might provoke them. Okay. The cherokee want to hold a counsci council . Cherokee hold a council will actually arrest some of them or troops detain some of the cherokee. Son says, no, no, you werent supposed to detain them. Now the newspapers say were pushing too hard. So, wool, like these other officers, was constantly caught between the demands of Public Relations because, remember, the indian removal act had passed by a single vote. The indians would voluntarily remove that they had the choice to remove. Basically, we would show, the u. S. Government would show them wonderful land out in the west and promptly want to move out there and when they didnt, right, according to the legislation pased by congress, well, they could stay and enjoy alabama or florida, but that certainly wasnt jacksons intention and these officers are caught in the middle. So, here on the right we have a rather younger version of duncan clinch who was commanding in florida in 1835. Clinch is constantly sending messages, hey, the seminoles are unhappy. Theyre not going to leave. They do not intend to move west. I dont care if some of their leaders signed a treaty. Most of them arent going to leave. Theres going to be a war. Maybe if you send me troops i can intimidate them and we can keep the lid on here. That falls on deaf ears back in washington. Or, you know, another way to put it it would be the army was busy doing a lot of Different Things because all of jacksons policies so clinch at the end of the year when the war starts clinch complains and gets in a newspaper war with the governor of florida and retires soon after. And clinch then becomes a wig, in other words, an antijacksonian. Here we have Winfield Scott in what i think is probably his best portrait. This is from the army art series of portraits of commanding generals of the army. He wasnt the commanding general of the army at this point, but, still, i think, you have to get good sideburns here. And, you know, scott was also deployed down to florida. Right. They were trying pretty much every Senior Commander in the army at that point in 1836. Heres scotts rival edmund gains, a younger picture of gaines. Probably a lithograph or an engraving from the war of 1812 and gaines, gaines actually rushed to florida himself. Like frontier emergency, i must go there and command the troops. Which caused all kinds of confusion. Jackson scott quickly got into a newspaper battle of sorts with people in florida and the south. Scott was diplomatic enough to sort of get himself out of it, but jackson was unhappy that scott had to crush the seminoles and in that summer 1836, scott is sent to try to cross the creeks. Hes not able to do that. Jacksons really unhappy with him. Gaines, after hes not able to cross the seminole. Hes sent off to the texas border in 1836 and here, again, jackson is saying, well, well its not really clear, we shouldnt say. I shouldnt say that. Its not clear exactly what jackson wanted, but we can infer that jackson wanted to put pressure on mexico. Historians debate this and any number of conspiracy theories. Gaines cept u. S. Troops into northeast, northeast texas like nack doesh he was trying to intimidate mexico. Most of the battles in the war between the texans, the whites in texas and mexico, most of those were in southern texas. Gaines became the esubject. Why are you sending troops into texas . And gaines pretty much wrote back, well, i thought you wanted me to make an impression. Thats not the impression we wanted you to make. Thats getting in the newspapers. We dont want that. So, and gaines was definitely an impetuous guy. So, theres probably some fault on gaines side. But, but in all these cases, jackson had put his generals in difficult situations either denying them of troops or denying them the authority or denying them the autonomy. First saying, okay, heres the mission and then try to micromanage them in performing it. And then he would condemn the media for not being aggressive enough like clinch and scott or for being too aggressive like wool and gaines. Actually, wool got criticized for being too aggressive, not aggressive enough and jackson and his, i think we have to say his henchmen were criticized wool for virtually anything and everything. Although wool repeatedly sought lets go back to wool. Wool here repeatedly sought reassignment, jackson came him on through 1836. And jacksons secretary of war and especially politicians in georgia blamed wool for the cherokees refusal to move west. These had consequences. Wool had been a democrat and gaines who was facing similar mixed criticism from the president and jackson commanded the army in florida 20 years before. Scott was probably already a wig because of his views on society and the economy. And duncan clinch or Zachary Taylor and their views on the society or became, clinch, clinch probably, definitely became a week later served as a congressmen in part of the reaction to the criticism that he had received from jackson and the jacksonian newspapers. Remember this was a period when newspapers were partisan. Newspapers were jacksonian or antijacksonian. When i say jackson criticized or the secretary of war criticized, you know, those criticisms were being echoed and sometimes were being published. The letters were being leaked into newspapers and then you have, you know, what i called a newspaper war. This is thomas sydney jessup. By the time he left office in early 1837, jessup was the only senior officer in the army that remained a democratic partisan. Remember earlier i said in 1828, 1829, many of the armies, didnt have many generals, but senior colonels and a couple generals, they thought jackson would be good for the army. By the time jackson left office, most of the armys commanders felt that jackson had, you know, had pushed too hard and had not given them the professional oug oughtonomy the best way to perform their missions. Very capable officer, but hes not really so much part of my story here. He was the Quarter Master general for 42 years. From 1818 to 1860. And made them much more efficient and effective. He also saw himself as a combat leader. His hand was crippled in 1814 and his right hand was crippled and he used to use his left hand and Quarter Master general without typewriters. Hes constantly writing. He has some officers he can dictate to, but he probably wrote more correspondents than anybody in the army. He learned to use his left hand to write and here during the second war he is leading troops in battle