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A Pictorial History of the United States Army In War and Peace, From Colonial Times to Vietnam PDF

840 Pages·1977·218.332 MB·English
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Preview A Pictorial History of the United States Army In War and Peace, From Colonial Times to Vietnam

A HISTORY OF PICTORIAL ARMY THE UNITED STATES WAR AND PEACE, FROM COLONIAL TIMES IN TO VIETNAM GENE GURNEY THE WAR THE author of IN AIR, +s THE PENTAGON, etc. foreword by GEN. HAROLD JOHNSON >c K. Army Chief of Staff, U. S. wars ir ^^8T BATTLES \ it MANEUVERS ^r { GENERALS ft UNIFORMS it MEDALS i? WEAPONS -%».'-*^" it INSIGNIA it SERVICES it and every other aspect of our military history 3000 ILLUSTRATIONS >*• Color and in ^ Black and White V A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY WAR AND PEACE, IN FROM COLONIALTIMES TO VIETNAM by GENE 6URNEY foreword by GENERAL HAROLD JOHNSON K. Army Chief of Staff, U. S. OUUU ILLUSTRATIONS Color and Black and White in This monumental work covers the whole spectrum of U.S. Army activities from the Colonial Citizens' Army against the Indians to the Green Berets against the Vietcong. Every war fought by our Army is cov- ered in detail, with every major battle and strategic maneuver included: the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the current Vietnam action. Even the periods between the wars were fraught with fights against the Indians, border skirmishes, defen- sive and offensive actions, Army reorganizations, — peacetime duties all of which are fully and drama- tically told here. In a concluding section the author reveals how the Army today is looking ahead "where no man has ever trod." Between most of the twenty copious sections of this elaborately illustrated book is a superb photo- vignette that colorfully ties in with the section it follows: early uniforms of the Colonial Army, the establishment of West Point following the American Revolution, the Civil War's Medal of Honor, dis- tinctive insignia of the American Expeditionary Forces in both Worl—d Wars, Army firepower and .mobility in Vietnam to mention but a few. There are large sections in full color featuring such military items as the Army Flag, campaign streamers, in- signia of branches of the Army and of Army divisions, and decorative and campaign medals. No single work ever published on the United States Army has such magnitude and scope of pic- tures: paintings, drawings, and photographs of battle (continued on back flap) A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARMY THE UNITED STATES A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARMY THE UNITED STATES WAR AND PEACE, FROM COLONIAL TIMES IN TO VIETNAM by 6ENE6URNEY foreword by GENERAL HAROLD JOHNSON K. Army Chief of Staff, U.S. CROWN PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK INC. © 1966 by Gene Gurney By the same author DOWN AND GLORY FIVE JOURNEY OF THE GIANTS THE WAR IN THE AIR AMERICANS INTO ORBIT TEST PILOTS THE B-29—THE PLANE THAT WON THE WAR GREAT AIR BATTLES THE PENTAGON THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-26183 Printed in the United States of America INTRODUCTION Telling the complete story of the United States Army in text covered the subject so well that made generous use I photographs, maps, charts, and other illustrations is a task of it. I am deeply indebted to Mr. MacDonald for his sug- that probably should not have been tackled by one man, gestion and for permission to use the material. but I am a firm believer in accepting challenges. When I I have also taken advantage of the vast amount of research was asked if I could and would do a pictorial history of the done by Army historians, and used portions of their three- Army, I jumped at the chance. It wasn't only the challenge. volume photo history of the U.S. Army during World War II Fundamentally it was the recognition of the great need for and the two-volume photo history of the Korean War. a comprehensive yet concise pictorial presentation of the Altogether, over 1,000 individuals and organizations have history of our Army. During my twenty-five years as a com- contributed to this book. Space does not permit my naming missioned officer serving in Army and Air Force assignments, the many people who helped. I am deeply grateful to all of in positions from remote sites to ones in the Pentagon's them; sometimes it was for just one or two photographs Department of Defense and during the last ten years as a mili- ofan elusive subject and sometimes it was for hundreds of tary author and lecturer, have had hundreds of requests photographs covering a whole war. I — for such a book. could refer such inquiries to existing As for organizational and other sources feel compelled I I histories, some with a scattering of illustrations, some with to name at least some of them: the Military History Depart- none. But it was the pictures these people wanted. They ment of the U.S. Army; the Magazine and Book Branch of wanted to see what the uniforms, the generals, the battles, the Department of Defense; the Army Information Digest; and all the rest looked like. They wanted to see the Army as the Institute of Heraldry; the Army Photographic Files; the they read about it. National Archives Audio-Visual Branch; the Library of Con- decided to try to locate a picture of every important gress Prints and Photographs Division; the Smithsonian Insti- I event and person in the long and colorful history of the tution's Military History Division; theAmerican Soldier Series; United States Army, beginning with the colonists who took the National Park Service; the Maryland Historical Society; up arms to defend their homes in the years before the Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper; the Metropolitan Mu- Revolutionary War and concluding with the conflict in seum of Art; Harper's Weekly; the Wisconsin State Historical Vietnam. Photographs were not available for the entire Society; New-York Historical Society; McClure's Magazine; period, of course. For the years beginning with the Civil War Gleason's Pictorial; the New York Public Library; the U.S. for which a photographic record does exist, the very best of Military Academy Archives; Century Magazine; Lossing's Field the available photographs have been chosen. In some cases Book of the Revolution; the Library of Congress' American the quality seems poor when compared with the work of Battle Art, 1755-1918; Henry Loomis Nelson and H. A, Og- today's combat cameramen, but it represents the best done den's Uniforms of the Army of the United States; Steele's on the subject at that time. To cover the events for which American Campaigns; the American Battle Monuments Com- there is no photographic record, have chosen, after studyi—ng mission's American Armies and Battlefields in Europe; Tome's I many thousands of pictures, the best available illustrations Battles of America; and the Fort Ticonderoga Museum. some of them the product of skilled artists who worked Severa—l of the United States Army's museums supplied in their studios, and others the work of men, often soldiers, material the Benton Small Arms Museum, Springfield Ar- who made sketches on the scene. mory, Mass.; the Corps of Engineers Museum, Fort Belvoir, All the machinery was set in motion, and the work began. Va.; the Ordnance Museum, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., In the course of my research met Charles B. MacDonald, the Patton Museum, Fort Knox, Ky.; Signal Corps Museum, I the Army's top civilian historian, who suggested that make Fort Monmouth, N.J.; the Special Warfare Center Museum, I use of a definitive text entitled American Military History, Fort Bragg, N.C.; Missile Park Museum, White Sands, N.M.; 1607-1958 (U.S. Army ROTC Manual 145-20). This was a and the West Point Museum, West Point, N.Y. series of monographs prepared by Army historians to give And I am indebted to Norman Rockwell and the Brown Reserve Officer Training Corps students an understanding and Bigelow Company for permission to use Mr. Rockwell's of the part played by the Army in American history. The painting of American soldiers on the jacket. Cene Curney

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