Military History 2006-06

E D I T O R I A L

Onlineextras June 2006 You'll find much more about military history on the Web's leadiiog history resource:

Sometimes warrior elites adapt and prevail, and sometimes they don't. THROUGHOUT HISTORY, certain peo-

T h el—listoryNet.com WHERE HISTORY LIVES ON THE WEB

WWW. JheHistoryNetcom Discussion: After the United States seized the Philippines from Spain in 1898, it came into conflict with cultures from two areas—the predominantly Catholic islands in the north and the Islamic Moro-controUed islands in the south. Had the United States left the Filipino repuhlicans under Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy to their own devices, could they have dealt any better with the Moros—or did it take U.S. military forces to make the Philippines what it is today?

Goto www. JheHistoryNet.com/mh/ for these great exclusives: Battle ofPharscdus—On August 9, 48 BC, the civil war between Rome's two foremost generals, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Gaius Julius Caesar, reached its climax. Batth of Sheriffmuir—Incited by religion and politics, Scot battled Scot to a bloody standoff on November 13,1715. The Mow War—In the spring of 1902, the U.S. Army tried to bring the Muslim Filipinos—called Moros by the Spaniards—^under American control. The campaign would drag on until 1917, High Iide at Bastogne—ln stopping the last major German assault against Bastogne, the veteran gunners of the 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion proved their skill to skeptical troops of the 101st Airborne Division,

6 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

ples, armies or individuals have stood out for their martial talents or traditions. This issue of Military History has its share of them, sometimes fighting in their own element and sometimes having to adapt themselves to nontraditional circumstances, with varying results. Among the more established martial reputations were those enjoyed by the armies of imperial Britain and Rome, Scottish Highlanders and the Filipino Muslims known as Moros. In 47 BC, however, it was a case of Roman versus Roman, as the followers of Gaius Julius Caesar and the late Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus carried their ongoing civil war to North African soil. Here, given equal discipline and training in strategy and tactics, the deciding factor lay in the leadership—a challenge to which Caesar was already well accustomed (story, P. 26), In 1719 the Highlanders facing the Hanoverian government forces at Glenshiel found themselves in over their heads in the midst of a Jacobite rebellion gone wrong from the beginning (story, P. 50). While the Moros' ferocity and ingenious hill forts had held the Spanish at bay throughout the latter's colonial occupation of the Philippines, they faced a more determined and formidable foe when the U.S. Army invaded their islands (story, P. 58). The British got an unpleasant surprise of a different sort when they tried to squelch the budding career of a teenage French volunteer in the rebelling American Continental Army named Maj. Gen. Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette, in May 1777 (story, P, 16). Equally sobering were their first skirmishes with a prickly group of Dutch and Huguenot settlers in South Africa who wanted only to be left alone but who, as their earlier Zulu adversaries could already have testified, were formidable fighters when aroused. Although the British eventually prevailed over the Boers in those largely forgotten first encounters in the 1840s (story, P. 42), they proved to be just the prelude to some

bloodier embarrassments to come later in the century. Still later, when faced with an equipment crisis in the wake of the Crimean War, the British swallowed some pride and bought American-designed Sharps Model 1852 carbines for their cavalry, just in time to put them to use in the 1857 Indian Mutiny (story, P. 70). As mentioned in last issue's editorial, the American Indian has had to live with a warrior stereotype that is part flattering and part embarrassing. One outstanding warrior who showed his mettle in modem warfare is this issue's "Personality," Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud Jr., whose actions in the Korean War earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor (story, P. 24). Red Cloud was hardly the first soldier who redefined himself in a different environment. At a time when the Swiss supplied some of the toughest companies of soldiers money could buy, Martin Schwartz found an exotic locale in which tofightwhen he sold his services to a cabcJ of English lords who refused to acknowledge that the Wars of the Roses were over So it was that at Stoke Field on June 17, 1487, Schwartz led a 2,000-man force of Landsknechte—German mercenaries who were normally archrivals of the Swiss— as part of an army challenging King Henry VII's claim to the crown on behalf of a 10-year-old pretender (in more than one sense of the word) (story, P. 10). When a whole new breed of warrior comes into existence, he has to build a new tradition from scratch. Such was the case with Edward Shames and his fellow U.S. Army paratroopers, as they trained hard for their combat debut in World War II. This involved a new dimension of self-sufficiency beyond that of the standard Ught infantryman—of being vulnerable from the time they left their airplane, and of having to seize control of their fate from the instant their boots touched the ground. By the end of the war. Shames' division, the 101st Airborne, had established its place among the military elite (interview, P 34). J.G.

LETTERS

FOLLY OF COMMAND ON TRIANGLE HILL the American rebellion with the Virgin-

"Attack on Triangle Hill" {Military Hisioiy, January/Febnaar\- 2006) omitted some T elevant fects. First, then-Lieutenant Peter R. Johnsons unit was the 3rd Platoon of the 388th Chemical Company. Second, Maj. Gen. Wavne Carleton Smith's command of the 7th Infantiy Division was short-lived because he repeatedly stated, "T don't cai-e if it costs a deuce load of dog tags, they're gonna take that damn hill!" Another of his quirks involved a two-lane road just in front of the main line of resistance, the sole access for tmcks, jeeps and ambulances. Under constant Chinese moitar fire, it was a 1,100-yard dash with pedal to the metal and hope for the best, but Smith ordered militar\' police out to enforce ihe posted speed limit and check trip tickets. This was in a combat area where the fii^st 1,000 men who tried to capture Hill 598 sent 784 back down the hill on stretchers or in body bags. When the casualty figures for his eight battalions he committed to the battle came in, he was relieved of command. The folly of command, unfoitunately, embraces every war. G. Daniel Walker Calipatria, Calif. SCOTS AT MOORE'S CREEK

Thank you lor the outstanding article on the Battle of Mtx^re's Creek Bridge in the January/FebiTjarv 2006 issue. It deals with one of the most interesting incidents in an undeireported theater ol" the Revolutionary' War Author Peter Johnston was most thorough, but perhaps a few sidelights might be added. For one thing, the Highlanders who came to the Cape Fear region, largely from Argyll, had mostly done so from 1730 and were Gaelic speaking. It is tiTie that they lacked an understanding of the basic issues, but they had signed loyalty oaths to the British Crown before being allowed to leave Scotland after the 1745 Battle of Culloden or on arrival in North Carolina, and as tribal Highlanders they felt bound by such oaths. Earlier arrivals were English-speaking and largely sided with the Continental Congress. Another factor in the Highlanders' choice of lovaltv was their association of 8 MILnARY HISTORY JUNE2Q06

ians they saw in the backcountiy Perhaps rougher, more disreputable elements tend to gravitate to boundaries, and ihe Scots didn't like what they saw. The Highlandei^ were also tribal Presbyterians who disliked the feudal, state-sponsored Episcopalian, class-stmctured, predominantly English Virginians. "Peter" (Patrick) Blue was the piper foi^ the MaeDonalds at the battle and would be the one shown in the Gil Cohen painting on P. 31. He was later involved in the famous Torv' Piney Bottom Wagon Raid and was wounded in Patriot reprisal attacks on Loyalist farms. John Blue President, St. Andrew's Society Piano, Texas "The Last Highland Charge" by Peter R, Johnston was an interesting look at an American Revolutionary War event in North Carolina. It was not, however, so strange that the Highlanders chose to support their sovereign after the Jacobite troubles. They were not attacking the institution in 1745, but simply wished to replaee King George II of Hanover with Prince Charles Edwai'd Stewart. Therefore their support for the monarchy a generation later should not be so suipiising. The author suggests that had the Highlanders been in America for a longer period of time, they might have been more open to the Patriot cause. That is speculation al best, and wishful thinkingat woi"st. As Mr. Johnston is writing a histoiy of the Revolution in North Carolina, it is to be hoped thai he will avoid the usual pi^o-Rebel bias and treat the Patriots and their Loyalist fellow Americans objectively. Peter W. Johnson Ontario, Canada FINNISH WINTER TRAINING

I read with givat interest your aiticle on the Russo-Finnish War ("Snow and Slaughter al Suoniussalmi," by John HughesWilson, in the January/February 2006 issue). I can add a postscript to it. In January' and Februarv 1956 as a lieutenanl I attended the Winter Militat>' Mountaineeiing Course at Camp Hale, near Leadville, Colo. Among the instructors

were a number of Finnish officers. It was said that after the Finnish capitulation in March 1940, a eoips commander, chief of staff and a number of his division commanders went to the United States and enlisted as sergeants. In 1956 they were majors and captains. Several went with the 8th InfantTT Division when it rotated to Germany. By 1958, one served as an intantiT battalion executive officer and another was the division intelligence officer. I remember them quite clearly (and painfully) as they drove us without letup through waist-deep snow in an assault foitnation. They taught us field fortifications using "icecrete," and much of our equipment was of Finnish design, This ineluded the akin, a sled pulled hyfiveol us on skis; the mountain stove; and perhaps the arctic tent. They were a remarkable gi'oup—totigh and uncompromising. Also, regarding whether to make a stand or not: Consider the American defense of the Philippines in 1942. Although initially flawed, the tenacious and heroic defense of Bataan and Con-egidor delayed the Japanese thrust to Australia until the United States could move troops and supplies to counter it. I have enj(n'ed your magazine from the beginning. Lt. Col. John H. Wotxiyard U.S. Army (ret.) Loganville, Ga. PREDECEASED

In the "Pei"spectives" stor\' on the Corps of Canadian Voyageuiii during the War of 1812 in the JanuaiyFebruar\' 2006 issue, the author states that Lieutenant Pien'e Rottote, vvb
Regarding the December 2005 WeapContinued on page 20

I N T R I G U E The last battle of the Wars of the Roses centered around a youthful impostor. By Stephen Jarvis

Lovell had crossed the English Channel to Flanders, where he sought help ft om Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, a staunch Yorkist with sufficient wealth and power to back the revolt. Soon they were joined by the Earl of Lincoln, self-styled leader of the rebellion, who had a strong claim to the throne. Not only was he a gr andson of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York (killed at the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460). but he also had been named heir apparent by King Richard III. Together they secured ships from Margaret and a force of some 2,000 German [Mndsknecht mercenaries under the able command of Swiss Captain Martin Schwartz. The rebels decided to land first in Ireland, where Yorkist sentiment remained strong. A further incentive was provided in the hapless figure of Lambert Simnel, the 10-year-old son of an Oxford tradesman. This boy, under the tutelage of Richard Simons—a priest with an eye for an opportunity—was presented as none other than Edward Plantagenet. nephew of Edwani IV, who, Yorkists claimed, had escaped fiom the Tower of London. Two notable Yorkists, Gerald Fitzgerald. Earl of Kildare. and his brother Thomas, who was at that time chancellor of Ireland, eagerly accepted this juvenile impostor as Edward. How fully the Irish were taken in is open to question, but when he was crowned Edward VI in Dublin, all of Ireland except Waterford declared him king. Estimates of local fighting men who joined the cause were put as high as 5,000, but they were little more than a poorly aimed rabble. After the Battle of Stoke Field, 10-year-old royal AS THE REBEL FORCES APPROACHED the

city, they paused at Bootham Bar, cried "King Edward," and then tried to force the gates. In June 1487, less than two years after his dramatic usurpation of the English throne from the late Richard III at Bosworth, King Henry VII faced the first serious challenge to his rule. The rebellion's origins were a volatile mix of disaffection and dynastic ambition among a section of England's nobility and landed gentry. Some had lost land. Some, such as Lord Francis Lovell, were fugitives from the king, while others—notably John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln—had one eye on Henry's ci"own.

pretender Lambert Simnel (right] and his tutor, Richard Simons, stand trial before King Henry VIL 10 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

Such was the makeshift invasion force that landed at Piel

Castle on England's northwest coast, where it was met by Thomas Broughton, a local Yorkist sympathizer. Lincoln was counting on a major uprising there, but aside from Broughtons small contingent and a few Scottish mercenaries, ver\ few Englishmen were willing to throw in their lot behind such a risky venture. Lincoln's heari must have sunk as he marched into Yorkshire. As Lord Bacon observed, "Their snowball did not gather as it went," for patriotic Englishmen would have no desire "to have a king brought in to them upon the shoulders of Irish and Dutch." Some support, however, did materialize, notably from John, Lord Scrope of Bolton, and Thomas, Lord Scrope of Masham. who tried to force the city gates at York. Learning of the invasion while at Kenilworth. King Henry raised local levies and gathered more as he moved north. A combination of sloppy intelligence and poor planning on his part, however, had given the rebelsfivedays in which to consolidate their position. It fell to Henr\' Percy, Earl of Northumberland, to try to check the invaders. He contacted the Council of York to say he would be aniving there on June 10 at the latest, but the rebels had already crossed the Pennines, a stretch of moorland bi.secting the North of England, a move that put York in imminent danger. Luckily for the royalist forces, the citizens of York thwaited rebel attempts to take the city. Northumberland and HeniT, Lord Clifford, who had actually retired south to link up with the king, eventually garrisoned York, remaining there until June 14. After negotiations with city representatives, the rcbels. facing the prospect of a long and costly siege, decided to bypass York. With Northumberland's original plan aborted, he and Clifford again contrived to make the wrong decision. They moved north to deal with the Scropes,

INTRIGUE leaving the rebel forces unencumbered in their drive south. In spite of these initial setbacks. Heniy was still in a healthier position than his opponents. On June 11, he reached Loughborough in Leicestershire, where he was handily placed to swing either northwest or northeast to intercept the enemy. The following day, his anny pressed on, camping under a wood called Bonley Rice. There he was told of a force marching toward him from the southeast, and on June 13 he set out to meet the threat. His destination was Nottingham, but his araiy seemed to lose its bearings. It ended up three miles short of its destination, probably in the village of Ruddington, where it spent the night. The next morning, on a day marking the feast of Corpus Christi, Henrv' heard Mass in the local parish church. His army was becoming restless, and some soldiers were deserting. Promised support had not yet arrived. As he moved on to Nottingham, however, it seemed Henry's prayers were to be answered. According to Polydore Vergil, writing some 50 years after the event, "A great number of armed men.

George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, George Lord Strange, and John Che>Tiey, all outstanding captains, with many others weUversed in militaiT affairs, came to him there.,.," The arrival of Strange's 6,000man force was especially welcome, though it was headed by the son of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, whose allegiance Henry may well have questioned—he had gained his earldom two yeai-s earlier at Bosworth Field, where his duplicity in no small measure cost King Richard the battle, his throne and his life. Those reinforcements airived not a moment too soon, however, for Lincoln's rebels were at Southwell, just 12 miles away, and on the march. They had slowly made their way through Shenvood Forest toward Newark. They were hoping to use that foiTnidable castle as a base for operations, but Henry tracked their movements and maneuvered his army along a parallel route, with the Trent River acting as a buffer between the two forces. On June 15, Henry halted his army at Ratcliffe, some six miles east of Nottingham. EARLY NEXT MORNING, scouts infomied

Henry that the rebels had forded the Trent and were now on its south bank. He

hastily organized his forces with his most experienced commander, John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, taking up the vanguard. Oxfoi"d advanced do\Mi the Fosse Way, the old Roman road, and just before the village of Stoke he saw the rebels foimed up and waiting in a line straddling the road. Martin Schwartz, the only rebel commander with any record of field command, had by now taken tactical control, and he wasted no time in attacking Oxford's isolated vanguard. His total force numbered about 9,000, while the royalist total is estimated at about 15,000. Schwartz's comments at that moment reveal grave doubts about the battle: "Sir [Lincoln], now I see well that ye have deceived yourself and also me, but thai notwithstanding, all such promise as I made unto my lady the duchess, I shall perform, exhorting th' earl to do the same." Schwartz's position ran along a ridgeline, drawn up on a south-facing slope. Because this was not a bad defensive position, his headlong msh at the royalists could be seen as a blunder. He realized, however, that time was not on his side. Also, lacking archers, he was probably eager to prevent the fight from becoming a long-range shooting match.

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ity, he drowned while trying to cross the river. But a secret chamber was said to For the assault he used his own have been discovered at the Minster German contingent, leaving the "beg- during restoration work early in the 18th gardly and naked" Irish as a tactical re- century, and in it, seated at a table, was a serve. What few cavalry he possessed man's skeleton. were placed on the wings. The sight of The Earl of Kildare was sent to the this phalanx of men, charging down the Tower of London but eventually parslope, their great 20-foot pikes raised to doned. He died in 1513. As for Lambert the sky, caused some of Oxford's less ex- Simnel and his mentor Richard Simons, perienced troops to flee, claiming the the latter was sentenced to life imprisonbattle had been lost and spreading panic ment and probably owed his life to the in the rear. Schwartz's Irish reserve fact that he was a man of the cloth. King sensed that victory was at hand and en- Henry no doubt saw Simnel as a gullible thusiastically joined in the fighting. youth, duped by Machiavellian elders. In At that point, however, the tide of battle fact, a rebel victory might well have began to change. Oxford's veterans had sealed the young impostoi''s fate, as Linsteadied the line and were beginning to coln would most likely have conveniently use their slashing bills lo good effect at done away with him and claimed the close quarters against the longer, more throne for himself. Instead, Simnel was unvkieldy German pikes. That renewed sent to labor in the royal kitchen. effort gave Henry enough time to bring By the standards of the time, ihe Battle foi"ward his own "battle" to assist of Stoke Field had been a bloody affair. Oxford's. Derby's force, numerically the Henry's amiy suffered an estimated 3,000 strongest, also started to appear, and the casualties, although as he himself wi^ote, rebel army was being driven back up the "Without death of any noble or gentleridge. The Irish, ill-equipped to fight man on our part." He marched his army against English infantiy, were first to fi'om Stoke directly to Newark, where the break and ran in disorder over the ridge. customary titles were bestowed on his What foDowed that rout was little more subjects, as reward for loyalty and valor than butcher>. As many as 4,000 of the in battle. Within a few days, he anived in Irish were cut down while trying to make Lincoln, where the public execution of their way to the Trent, at a plaee still captured rebels took place—a grisly reknown today as Red Gutter. Schwartz minder to the population of the price of and his mercenaries were eventually treachery. Henry then took his army overwhelmed, choosing a soldier's end notth in a show of strength before reand gallantly dying where they stood. The turning to London. battle had lasted some three hours. The fact that Lincoln's far-fetched scheme came so close to success was in AS FOR THE LEADERS of the rebellion, itself indicative of the fragility of Henry the Earl of Lincoln, Thomas Fitzgerald VII's crown, just two years after it was and Thomas Broughton were all killed in placed on his head at Bosworth Field. battle—they would have known that the Stoke Field, however, gave the king the game was up and to be taken alive would chance to strengthen his position. The only have resulted in humiliation, execu- next few years saw a number of smaller tion and probable mutilation. The spot risings against Henry, but his authority where Lincoln fell, allegedly close to the was never seriously threatened. Fosse Way and in a position suggesting Stoke Field marked in many ways the that he was killed in the act of fleeing, is end of England's medieval era. It brought marked by a spring known as Willow to an end that series of 15th-century conRundle. Its exact location is open to ques- flicts known collectively—at least thanks tion, and some sources suggest that this to William Shakespeare—as the Wars of particular tale is apocrv'phal. Another the Roses. Not until the Glorious Revolegend claims that a common soldier lution of 1688 would rival claimants to vowed if his soul went to heaven the spring the throne again confront each other on would flow for eternity. In fact the spring the field of battle. Although plotting and is still flowing after more than 500 years. political intrigue, notably the Perkin WarLord Lovell's body was never found, beck affair, were vety much characterisgiving birth to a legend that he made tic of Henry VII's reign, he ruled for 23 good his escape by fording the Trent and years before he was succeeded by his only making his way back to his ancestral surviving son, Henrv' VIII. The Tudor dyhome of Minster Lovell. In all probabil- nasty was secured. MH

P E R S P E C T I V E S Barren Hill tested the marquis de Lafayette's mettle as a division commander. By James Smart

\n May 1778, French volunteer Gilbert Motier, marquis de Lafayette, and the training of his Continental Army troops were both put to the test

telligence—his expense account included the item: "To Secret Senices during the Enemy's holdg. of Phila...$6,170." That sum was equal to six months' pay for about 150 privates in his aiTny. Washington's response lo thai intelligence was to send a strong force aci^oss the Schuylkili River to protect Valley Forge and to discourage British raiding parties from carl-ying off supplies from the countryside, such as the 2,000 sheep and cattle they had appropriated in ON A WARM SPRING WEEKEND in May December. The 2,200 men and five can1778, a teenage general interrupted an ex- nons he detached for the mission would travagant party being held by British ol- be commanded by Maj. Gen. Marie ficere, leading to a contest of wits with a Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, superior force. There was not much of a marquis de la Fayette. battle, but the action at Bairen Hill, Lafayette, as the Americans knew the northwest of Philadelphia, was a classic marquis, was a skinny, red-haired 19example of 18th-century European mili- year-old who had already been manied tary maneuvering carried out on Ameri- for three years. He had a 19-month-old can soil. daughter at home in France, and his 17During the winter of 1777, the British year-old wife was expecting another baby. aimy had occupied the capital of the re- For the young Frenchman, fighting the belling colonies, Philadelphia, while Gen- English had been a family tradition for eral George Washington's Continental generations; 300 years before he was Army shivered and starved at Valley bom, a Gilbert Motier had ridden beside Forge. Then, in early May 1778, spies Joan of Arc as a marshal of France, ln from Philadelphia brought him woT-d that 1759, when Lafayette was 2, his father the British were preparing to evacuate had been cut in half by a cannonball at the cit>. Washington could only hope he the Battle of Minden during the Seven was getting his moneys worth for this in- Years' War. In the newly declared and still 16 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

embattled United States of America, Lafayette probably hoped to rtm across William Phillips, the officer who commanded the artillerv' that killed his father. He would eventually come up against Phillips' unit at the Battle of Charlestown in 1781, but Phillips had died of a fever before Lafayette could get a shot at him. Not long after the 13 Colonies declared independence from Britain, Lafayette approached Silas Deane, an American agent in Paris, and offered his services. Lafayette hinted that he could help Americans get military' aid from France, but said that his family would not permit him to join the Continental Army unless he was made a general. Deane took the bait and made an unauthorized piomise. Lafayette then bought a 220-ton ship with two cannons and a crew of 30 to sail to North America. The asking price was 112,000 \\\Tes. He paid 40 livi^es cash and promised to discuss the balance with his financial manager King Louis XVI disapproved of French noblemen helping rebels against a king, and sent a courier to Bordeaux to talk Lafayette out of leaving, but the courier missed the ship. The king also issued an edict forbidding French ollicers from going to the British colonies without his pennission and ordered any officers already headed there to i^etum, "notably M. le Marqui-s de la Fayette." A copy of tbe edict was supposed to be sent by ship to intercept Lafayette, but a bureaucrat in the Maritime Ministry returned it to the Wai" Office because it was not submitted in triplicate, as required. Lafayette's ship stopped briefly in Spain, where a representiitive of his family caught up with him and sent him back to France by caniage. At Bordeaux, however, another Frenchman promised a general's rank by Deane persuaded Lafayette to return to his ship. With agents of both the king and his family looking for him, Lafayette dis-

PERSPECTIVES guised himself as a courier and did duty as a post rider to get back to his ship in Spain. He finally reached Charlestown, S,C., out of money. He insured his ship with an American company, and shortly after the papers were signed, the ship was mysteriously wrecked on a bar near Charlestown. Lafayette collected the insurance and headed for Philadelphia. The number of French officei's applying for commissions was starting to annoy the Continental Congress, and Lafayette got a cold T-eception when he arrived in Philadelphia in July 1777. Congress, however, was also tr\ing to coax the French into supporting the Revolution, and since Lafayette was willing to serve without salar\' and pay his own expenses, it signed him up. Washington took him out to dinner and let him rexdew the army, which was camped at the Falls of Schuylkill. Lafayette kept pleading to command a division, hinting that he would like to attack Canada. Washington began to get irritated, but the young French major general did well in some scouting actions. He was wounded while commanding a fighting retreat at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, and he charmed eveiybody In November Congress voted Lafayette command of a division. At Valley Forge on May 5. 1778, Washington summoned Lafayette, told him that France had declared an official alliance with the United States against Britain, and kissed him on both cheeks. Then came the decision to send a force across the Schuylkill with Lafayette in charge. THE BRmSH HAD SPIES in Philadelphia,

too. They leaiTied that the Americans were on tbe move, and who was leading tbem. There was nothing tbe British generals would bave liked better tban to embarrass the new Franeo-American alliance by capturing tbe famous French soldier. "Tbe boy cannot escape me," wrote Lt. Gen, Lord Cbarles Comwallis. Equally sure of nabbing Lafayette, Lt. Gen. Sir Henr\' Clinton invited the belles of Philadelphia's Loyalist society to a proposed dinner party to meet the glamorous young Frenchman. A fast ship was nimored to be ready to take tbe prisoner to London after the party. Unaware tbat he was considered prime prey, Lafayette forded the Schuylkill at Swedes Ford at Norristown on Friday, May 18, and led his troops south to 18 MILITARY mSTORY JUNE2D06

Banen Hill, a site selected because it could be seen fi'om tbe higbest point in Valley Forge. There, he posted Brig. Gen. Enocb Poor's New Hampsbire brigade and tbe artillery on bigh gi ound just west of St. Peter's Lutberan Cburcb, facing soutb. Tbe divisions left flank was set at some stone houses on Ridge Road, near Bairen Hill Road. The rigbt flank abutted steep bluffs along the Scbuylkill. Brigadier General James Potter's 600-man Pennsylvania Militia was sent north to guard the road from Whitemai-sh. Captain Allan McLane's company from Delaware was assigned to watcb tbe Ridge Road to the soutb. Witb McLane were 50 Oneida Indians acting as scouts. That nigbl ibe Oneidas beld bow-and-anow target practice on a swann of bats in tbe empty 17-year-old stone churcb building.

before dawn, he and some of bis 150 men, supported by a company of dragoons, left Barren Hill and galloped past tbe British emplacements spaced along Wissabickon Creek nortbwest of Philadelphia and—on a line across tbe north of tbe city—simulated an attack by dropping exploding iron pots of gunpowder and scrap metal. British sentries responded witb muskets and cannons. Loyalist Philadelphia civilians at tbe lavisb party less than two miles to tbe south were frightened by the distant explosions. British officers assured the worried guests tbat the noise was pail of tbe entertainment, wbile quietly dispatcbing frantic orders and causing pointless military confusion. The carousing finally broke up at 4:30 a.m. The British senior officers must not have had mucb rest on Saturday as tbey planned for the move against Washington's boy gen'The boy cannot escape eral. At 10:30 p.m. on May 19, Britisb me/ declared Lt. Gen. Lord Maj. Gen, James Grant left PhiladelCharles Cornwallis. phia with 5,500 Redcoats and German mercenaries, and 15 cannons. Grant disdained the American In Philadelphia, Clinton bad just been army and had once announced in Parliaappointed to succeed Geneml Sir William ment that he could "marcb from one end Howe as commander in chief of British of the continent to the otber with 5.000 forces in America. Howe was preparing men." For now. however, all be had to do to leave for England, and 22 of his officers was bead north of tbe city, swing around chipped in 140 pounds eaeh to put to- to Whitemarsb, come down to tbe crossgetberan extravagant farewell party Tbey roads settlement of Plymouth Meeting— called tbe event the Mesehianza, which named for a 1703 Quaker meetingtbey claimed meant a mixture or medley, bouse—and cut off tbe American retreat and held it at the late Joseph Wharton's route. His battle-wise veterans made the mansion just soutb of the city, witb lawns 20-mile mareb by sunrise. sweeping 1,000 yards down to tbe Elsewhere, Maj. Gen, Cbai"les "No Flint" Delaware River, At 3:30 p.m. on May 18, Grey was leading 2.000 British gienadiei^ the guests gathered on Knights Wharf, up and a small contingent of dragoons up tbe river from tbe northern city limits. A GeiTnantown Road to bit Lafayette's left (lotilla of baizes, decorated with flags and flank at the ridge; cun'es of Germantown bunting, earned tbe revelers past the city Road and Ridge Road are less than a mile waterfront, wbile cannons saluted, apart at St. Peter's Cburcb. Grey was bated crowds cheered and bands on ships by tbe Americans because of his devasplayed "God Save tbe King." Tbe women tating surprise attack on sleeping Contiwore specially designed medieval cos- nentals at Paoli the previous autumn. He tumes, and men and horses dressed King had earned bis nickname by collecting Aitbur-style jousted on the lawn. There tbe flints from bis men's muskets to was a huge buffet, dancing in a mirrored ensure that they couldn't fire during tbat ball, 20 different fireworks displays start- attack, leaving it for tbem to slaughter the ing at 10 p.m., a midnight supper witb Americans witb their bayonets. 430 places set witb 1,200 disbes—all in Another 2,000 Redcoats were earall, the most ostentatious part>' thrown in marked to march up Ridge Road to conPbiladelphia up to tbat time, and possi- front the Americans at Barren Hill and bly since. trap them against the river That body Captain McLane, an independent colo- was led by Clinton and Howe. nial cuss wbo was wealthy enough to It was foggy and unseasonably warm equip and pay bis soldiei's fi om bis own at dawn on May 20 as columns of British pocket, decided to bave some fun. Just soldiers trudged up Ridge Road. Their

mounted advance guard, trotting ahead, then came upon the 50 war-painted Oneidas. The Oneidas, who had never before fought against mounted soldiers, whooped, the British horses reared and each group wisely turned around and rapidly went the other way. The commotion alerted McLane's troopers, however. They captured two British grenadiers in the advance party, and questioned them about the enemy's plans. Potter's outnumbered militia detected Grants approach and pulled back, but neglected to inform Lafayette that the enemy was on the way. He got a warning from Whitemai^h when a Captain Stone (some sources call him Stoy) of the militia was awakened in his home by the footsteps of passing British regulars. The excited captain leaped out of bed naked, jumped out a back window and ran lor Barren Hill. He collapsed from exhaustion near Plymouth Meeting, but gasped his message to a citizen, variously known as either Rudolph Bartle or Richard Bartleson, who ran the rest of the way to alert Lafayette. Intelligence also came from McLane, who raced back to Barren Hill after leaving a company of riflemen to make contact with Clintons force on the

ridge and fight a delaying action. The British now had about 10,000 men maneuvering to catch the 2,200 Continental troops in a pincer envelopment, with the river at their backs. Lafayette knew that he didn't have the numbere or the position to take on an army that outnumbered him 5-to-l. He also knew, however, that another road led down past Spring Mill to Matson's Ford, a river crossing at the present-day town of Conshohocken. The road passed along rocky, wooded ground that was low and out of sight of the enemy. THE AMERICAN SOLDIERS had been

drilling at Valley Forge since March under the direction of Prussian Maj. Gen. Baron Friedrich von Steuben. Among other things, they had learned to retreat swiftly in compact, orderly platoon columns, European style. Lafayette would now put their newfound discipline to the test. He calmly established a small rear guard around the church, sent out flag-bearing heads of columns to simtJate the start of an attack against Grant, and pulled the bulk of his force back across the Schuylkili at Matson's Ford. When Clinton and Grant moved their forces for-

ward to close the trap, they were dismayed to bump into each other. The Americans had slipped out of the pincers. The British caught up with the last American units at therivercrossing. A brief skirmish ensued in which nine Americans were killed or captured, while the British counted two dead and seven wounded. Lafayette quickly formed his men and cannons along the west bank of the Schuylkili. Judging that it would be suicidal to try an assault across theriver,the British turned and marched back to Philadelphia, hot and exhausted. In extricating his little division from a trap in the face of 5-to-l odds, the teenage French general had outwitted and humiliated some of Britain's best generals. Historians have since questioned the wisdom of Washington's decision to send such a large contingent on the risky mission to Barren Hill. To military men, however, Lafayette's smcxjth withdrawal was a clue that a new, professional Continental Army had emerged from Valley Forge, one that had a chance to take on the mighty British army and win independence for the American colonies. It wottld get a greater opportunity to prove its mettle a month later at Monmouth Court House. HIM

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As a longtime subscriber to your excellent publication, I'd like to comment on the "Intrigue" article about 14 Intelligence Company, which appeared in your January/ February 2006 issue. Michael Westaway McCue's statement that members of that unit were chosen any more for their cafiacity to withstand physiological pressure than members of the Special Air Service is not correct. All of the qualifications listed for inclusion in 14 Company are standard requirements for the SAS; 14 Company differed only in its specialized surveillance training. Paul Oram was not an officer but a sergeant, and I got to know him during the Irish Republican Army operations. Proof of his rank is the fact that he was awarded the Military Medal. Had he been an officer, he would have received the Military Cross. That ridiculous system, which existed for centuries in the British armed forces, was eliminated in recent years, and now the same decorations and awards are given to all, regardless of their rank. A backup car, containing two members of the SAS, was immediately behind Sergeant Oram's vehicle at the time of the attack on May 28,1981, and accounted for the death of the IRA terrorists involved, George McBrearty and Charles Maguire. Oram was killed on February 21, 1984, while on a reconnaissance patrol at Dunloy. near Ballymoney, County Antrim. Usuaily the British authorities keep quiet about intelligence matters and never reveal details of 14 Company personnel or members of the SAS, but on occasion

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LETTERS it is to the British advantage to let a little information out. Such occasions are rai'e, however, and unlike with the CIA, leaks are not a problem in British intelligence, nor do they encourage ex-membei^ of the armed services to write memoire. Colonel John Saxon, SAS (ret.) Palm Springs, Fla. Concerning the January/Februarv 2006 "Intrigue" on British militar\' intelligence counterinsurgency strategy in Northern Ireland, the only thing they have to be proud of is their ability to manipulate their true role in the conflict over the past 30 years. Fourteen Company operatives Captain Tony Ball and his seeond-in-command, then-Lieutenant Robert Nairac, have been linked to the worst single day of the "Troubles," the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974, which claimed 34 innocent lives. See Yorkshire Television's First Tuesday program of July 6, 1993, which states that both were part of the conspiracy in the preparation of the bombs. Ex-British intelligence officers appeared on the program, stating that at that time in Northern Ireland British intelligence ran the Loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force death squad, and that the UVF did not have the capability to manufacture the sophisticated timing de\ices used to trigger the bombs. Many reputable authors and historians, sueh as Mark Urban, Tim Pat Coogan, Fred Holroyd et al., have conclusively linked British intelligence agencies to the training, arming and manipulation of the Loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland. Sean Ryan Auburn, N.Y.

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P E R S O N A L I T Y After a World War II stint in the Marines, Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. became an Army hero in Korea. By Dana Benner

FOLLOWING THE JAPANESE surrender

ending World War II on September 2, 1945, the U.S, Army was reduced to just 10 divisions, with four of them, the 7th, 24th and 25th Tnfantiy di\isions and the 1st Cavaliy Division, stationed in Japan on oecupation duty. With the war over, Americans generally thought there was no real need to keep more troops on active duty—that is, until 0400 houi's on June 25, 1950, when Communist troops of the North Korean People's Army (NKPA) surged over the 38th parallel to invade South Korea. The 24th Tnfantiy Division, stationed on the Japanese island of Kyushu, was already on alert on June 30, when President Hany S. Tmman ordered it lo South Korea, Among Its soldiers was an American Indian World War II Marine veteran, Pfc Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. Bom on July 2, 1924, in Hatfield, Wis., Mitchell was a member of the Ho-Chunk {Winnebago) Nation and the eldest of three sons bom to Mitchell Red Cloud Sr. and Lillian Winneshiek. "During his younger years he liked to hunt, fish and all the other things young boys liked to do," recalled his nephew. Merlin Red Cloud. "Friends and relatives tell that he was easygoing and fun loving, and no one could recall him showing any anger." At age 16, Mitchell Jr dropped out of high school and. with his father's permission, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on August 11,1941. His Ho-Chunk lifestyle, his hunting skills and his great physical shape helped him excel as a Marine, When the Japanese attacked Peail Harbor on December 7, Red Cloud was stationed at Camp Elliott in San Diego in the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 2nd Marine Dimion. His skills eventually gave him easy entry into Lt. Col. Evans Carlson's 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, also known as Carlson's Raidere. On September 6, 1942, the entire 2nd 24 MIUTARV HISTORY JUNE 2006

Marine Raider Battalion was on its way to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides gioup. On November 4, 1942, the Raiders arrived at Guadalcanal, their mission to silence aitilleiy that was firing on Henderson Field. After a month-long trek through ihe jungles, the Raiders found and eliminated the enemy aitiilery. They also killed nearly 500 Japanese soldiers, destroyed enemy supplies and severed the enemy's lines of communication. The battalion lost 19 men killed and 122 wounded in the course of the mission. Like many of his comrades, Pfc Red Cloud brought back a veiy bad case of malaria, jaundice and a host of other tropical diseases. He lost 75 pounds, and on Januaiy 14, 1943, he was ordered home for evaluation. In February he was offered a medical discharge, which he de-

Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. was a Marine Raider sergeant in World War II before serving in the U.S. Army and fighting in Korea.

clinal. As soon as he was able, he retumed to active duty, this time as a member of A Company, 29th Marines, 6th Marine Division. Al Okinawa, on May 17, 1945, the war ended for Red Cloud with a Puiple Heart when he took a bullet in his left shoulder. "After receiving his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, Red Cloud roamed Wisconsin, visiting relatives for about two years," said Mer"lin Red Cloud. In 1948, Mitchell enlisted in the U.S, Army, and was sent to Japan. On July 3, 1950, he left for Korea and his second shooting war with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantiy Regiment, 24th Infantiy Di\ision. Coiporal Red Cloud, now 25, was older than many ol ihe men alongside whom he served. He was also a decorated veteran. Officers and enlisted men alike looked up to him. "From stories that our veterans who sen'cd with Mitchell in Korea [told], Mitchell was a leader who was always good-hcarled and kind towards the Korean people whom he was attempting to help," said Merlin Red Cloud. "He traded his rations with his comrades for their candy, whicb he would give lo the Korean children." By the end of September 1950. the breakout al Pusan and the U.N. landings at Inchon had thrown the NKPA into full retreat, and ihe United Nations forces in Korea, under General Douglas MacArthur, were approaching the Yalu River, North Korea's border with Chinese Manchuria. In late October, however, Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) intervened in massive force on behalf of the faltering North Koreans. By November, plans were being made for the withdrawal of all U.N. troops in North Korea to below the Chongchon River; The bridgehead across the river was to be prTHected in case tbe U.N. troops were ordered to resume ofContinued on page 78

CAESAR'S African Campaign To deal with allies of his late rival Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus in North Africa, Gaius Julius Caesar came, he adapted and he conquered. BY JONAS GOLDSTEIN

T

HE CAUSE OF THE ROMAN Civil War, which spilled over the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa, lay in the deterioration of social order in the later years of the Roman Republic. The class struggle between the Populares (party of the people) and the Optimates {the senatorial aristocracy) resulted in internal revolution and rioting in ihe streets, which led to the Senate appointing dictators to keep the peace. The political rivalries between such strong men as Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla culminated in a powei- struggle and outright war prior to the birth of Gaius Julius Caesar in 102 BC. Caesar demonstrated political acumen at a very young age. He seemed to sense opportunity in the dismptive environment of lst-centurv BC Roman politics. Although he could boast of a noble heredity, his early political life was tied to the Populares. Starting with a series of minor offices, he consistently rose within the political establishment. He continued to develop his populist image, and he was finally elected poi!///ex maximtis, the head of the state religion, in 63 BC. He also saw a chance to increase his power by supporting bills granting the military leader Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, or Pompey the Great, his important assignments. In 61 BC Caesar got his fij'st overseas command: proconsul in the province of Further Spain, where he carried out a victorious campaign against the Lusitanians. When he returned from Spain early in

60 BC, the staunch Republican Marcus Porcius Cato Minor (Cato the Younger) led the Senate in blocking his request to be allowed to stand for the consulship in absentia, and further acted to discourage his rise, Caesar retaliated by seeking the support of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus, who were also troubled by senatorial power. With their backing, he was elected consul for 59 BC, and the trio's ensuing partnership was known as the "Firet Triumvirate." Having seized as a consul, a leader genei^ally assumed control of a province. Caesar, after some political maneuvering, was granted Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years, with command of three legions and the right to appoint his own officers and establish colonies. When the governor-elect of Transalpine Gaul suddenly died, Caesar added that province to his command. Caesar's aggressive performance of his duties in Gaul established his militaiy reputation and raised his stature to a level commensurate with that of Pompey. Jealous of Caesar's and Pompeys military successes, the rich businessman-tumed-general Crassus sought glor\' to the east by attacking the Parthian kingdom in Persia—only to meet ignominious defeat and death at Cairhae in 53 BC.

A slate bust of Gaius Julius Caesar, whose quest for primacy in Rome did not end with his great victory over his rival Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus at Pharsalus in 48 BC. There remained much unfinished business dealing with Pompey's followers (Bildarchiv Preussrscher Kulturbesitz/Ait Resource, NY).

As the stability of Rome further deteriorated, prominent politicians asked Pompey to assume command of all forces in Italy and save the Republic. When he accepted, Caesar knew that his position was severely threatened. After unsuccessfully attempting to reach a compromise, Caesar crossed the Rubicon River to face Pompey in open civil war. In the summer of 49 BC, Caesar destroyed the Pompeian JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 27

COVER STORY

A mosaic from a Roman villa circa the 4th centuiy AD includes an allegorical reference to Africa, which in Roman terms primarily meant North Africa, from Egypt to Tunisia.

legions in Spain. He then followed his enemy across the Adriatic Sea into Greece. There, on August 9, 48 BC, he cut Pompey's anriy to pieces on the plain of Pharsaliis. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered by his Ptolemaic hosts. In Egypt Caesar also met Queen Cleopatra VII. Caesar has been criticized for lingering along the Nile when he was needed either in Rome or to deal with Pompey's sumving followers in North Africa. By then, however, his 10-year record of martial success, capped by outgeneraling Pompey at Pharsalus, had made him believe he was invincible. Why not linger in the arms of Cleopatra? After a short campaign in Asia Minor, Caesar did return to Rome, restored ordei' and quelled a mutiny among his troops. He was then ready to deal with the remaining Republican forces in North Afiica. This region had long been a problem for Caesar. In 49 BC one of his generals, the former tribune Gaius Curio, had been defeated while trying to placate it.s inhabitants. In the spring of 48, he sent orders to Quintus Cassius, his general in Spain, to invade Africa. Part of that army mutinied, however, and the campaign was canceled. The main problem in North Ahica lay wilh the Numidian King Juba and his ally Masinissa, who Riled over the part of Numidia that lay between Juba's kingdom and Mauretania to the west. In contrast, the two kings of Mauretania, Bogud and Bocchus, were Roman allies. Another of Caesar's friends was an ex-Catilinarian knight from

Campania named Publius Sittius, who had iled his Italian creditore and ended up in Mauretania. There, he had recruited armed bands of adventurers, which, to his great profit, he hired out as mercenaiies to native princes. Now he put this contingent at Caesars disposal and joined the Mauretanians in harassing Juba's teiritories. The Roman province of Africa was commanded bv Publius Attius Varus, a

Pompeian partisan, and both he and Juba built up their defenses. After their defeat at Pharsalus, remnants of Pompey's forces migrated to Noiih Afiica, further complicating the situation for Caesar. Among their leaders were Cato the Younger with 15 cohorts (h^om 300 to 600 men each); Titus Atius Labienus with Gaelic and Geiman cavali^; Pompey's son-in-law, Lueius Cornelius Sulla Faustus; and his sons, Sextus Pompeius and Gnaeus Pompeius. Metellus Scipio finally look overall command of the Republican forces opposing Caesar.

B

y far Caesar's leading adversarv in Africa was Cato. An eminent statesman dedicated to the Republic, he had been an opponent of the Triiim\irate, opposed Caesar for the consulship in 60 BC and tried unsuccessfully to defend Sicily against Caesar's forces during the civil war. The relationship between the Pompeians and King Juba was of primaiy importance. The choice of a commander proved to be an extremely delicate matter. Juba, Scipio and Vams all hungered for the post, while the army favored Cato. Cato, however, wisely defended leaderehip to Scipio, who had greater military credentials, and convinced Juba that the Romans were his protectors, not subordinates. Cato confined his elfoits to the city of Utica, where he prevented Scipio and Juba fi"om exterminating the proCaesarean population. The combined forces poised against Caesar were formidable. Juba's Numidian horse and infantrv' numbered about 30,000 men; he also commanded a corps of Gaelic and Spanish cavalry and more than 60 elephants. Masinissa too possessed a considerable force. By the end of 47 BC, the Pompeians themselves had assembled 10 legions (approximately 35,000 men), light-armed troops, archers, javelin

men and slingers. Their 15,000 cavahymen outnumbered any mounted troops with which Caesar could oppose them in Africa. It was not until November 47 BC that Caesar restored order and placated his aimy. On December 17, he arrived at his port of embarkation, Lilybaeum in Sicily. Although only one legion of recruits and less than 600 cax'aliy were there, Caesar was as usual hoi to engage his enemy with what he had, and was deterred only by unfavorable weather. As it was, he kept his ships at the ready for a favorable change in conditions. Again Caesar would rely on his charmed destiny. With his small force, he would embark for any location offering the opportunity for positive action— this was nol to he a bridgehead for troops that would follow, hut an offensive operation. Soon after his airiva! in Sicily, six legions and some 2,000 cavalrv' reached Lilybaeum, and most embarked immediately. With Caesar in command, the fleet then assembled at the island of Aponiana, 10 miles south of Lilyhaeum, and on December 25 they sailed for the coast of Afiica. Stoims prevented the enemy's forces from obstructing their passage, hut ihe storms scattered Caesars fleet, and he had only 3,000 infantiy and 150 horsemen when he reached Hadrumentum on the 28th. Caesar's subsequent African War consisted of three operations, centered around Ruspina, Uzita and Thapsus. Initially Caesar took possession of the seaports of Ruspina and Little Leptis, and kept his troops in entrenchments, ready to reembark if attacked by a superior force. Additional ships soon arrived, however, and on the following day he led three legions into the interior to procure supplies. There, he was attacked by Labienus, who had only light troops but nevertheless soon surrounded Caesar's legions. Other enemy forces under Marcus Petreius and Gnaeus Calpumius Piso soon joined the battle. In addition, Seipio came from the north, Juba from the west. TJie African War, written by one of Caesars lieutenants, gives a detailed account of the entire campaign. The writer states that "when Caesar had advanced ahout three miles from the camp, scouts and advance patrols of horsemen brought word that they had seen the enemy's forces not far away," and he ordered his small gi'oup of cavalr>' together with a few archers to follow him slowly in regular order His total force was 30 cohorts, 400 cavalrv' and 150 archers. Labienus foimed a long, closely packed line of regular cavalrv; Numidian light cavalry and archers. Caesar deployed a single line with archers in front and cavaliy to cover both wings. In this engagement, he was exposed to a new type of enemy taetics. As Tfie African War points out: "[Caesar's] infanti-y, in pursuing the enemy cavalry too far from the standards exposed their flanks and received javelin wounds fiT)m the Numidians nearest them, while the speed of the [enemy] cavalry enabled them easily to

FAR LEFT: A lifelong political enemy of Caesar's, Marcus Porcius Cato Minor (Cato the Younger) wisely defeiTed overall command of Pompeian forces to Metellus Scipio (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY). LEFT: Taken captive by Caesar at age 5, King Juba's son was raised in Rome and later crowned King Juba II of Numidia in 25 BC (Roger Wood/ CORBIS).

JUNEZ006 MILITARY HISTORY 29

COVERSTORY

By investing the Pompeian port of Tliapsus and drawing Scipio's anmy to open terrain with a limited front, Caesar succeeded In forcing a pitched battle under the most favorable possihie terms for his own army.

but finally the second segment of his expedition arrived, bringing two forces. Legions XIJI and XIV, 800 cavalry and 1,000 archers and slingers. Mow with eight legions, Caesar could hope for victory in a pitched battle before Juba returned. The terrain around Ruspina did not lend itself to such a batde and was not easy to supply. Caesar's horses had already begun to suffer from lack of fresh fodder. Therefore, on the night of November 7, he moved his forces to a gioup of low hills six or seven miles to the south. This helped in gaining provisions, but it did not provoke the confrontation he desired. Scipio encamped so as to be able to use the town of Uzita to strengthen his position, and he could not be induced to fight except in the unlikely event that he possessed the advantage. Caesar, now further reinforced by the arrival of Legions IX and X, extended his lines so as to threaten Uzita, but again he was foiled by his opponents' skillful use of the teirain. In addition, even here he was having difficulty supplying his troops with com and other provisions, so he decided to move on to another, more fertile area. Ten weeks after leaving Ruspina, Caesar set fire to his camp near Uzita and marched about 20 miles southeast to Aggar Some minor clashes followed. But later, when an additional 4,000 legionaries and 1,000 archers and slingers arrived from Sicily, Caesar decided the time had come to strike a decisive blow. evade the soldiers' pikes. He therefore sent the order In order to overcome the superior numbers of the along the ranks that no soldier was to advance more enemy and to neutralize the effect of their cavalry in a pitched battle, he required equal ground with a than four feet ahead of the standards." When his troops were again surrounded, Caesar limited front. Only Caesar's genius and daring could executed a brilliant maneuver, as outlined in The have provided the solutions to this problem. Fifteen African War. "Ordering his line to be extended as far miles to his north lay the city of Thapsus on the sea, as possible; then commanding alternate cohorts to approached by necks (isthmuses) of land on either face about, so that one was drawn up behind the side of a wide lagoon. It was held by a strong Pomstandards, the next in front. By this ploy, he split the peian garrison. After a night march, Caesar orgaenemy formation in two on the right and left wings. nized lines of defense and advanced on the city. He then cut one-half off from the other by means of Scipio then tried to cross the same isthmus. his cavalry and proceeded to launch an attack from Caesar had anticipated this. On the previous day he inside with his infantry, who hurled volleys of mis- had built a fort there and installed a garrison of three siles and put the enemy to flight." After his adver- cohorts, while he and the rest of his forces invested saries had been repulsed with heavy casualties, Thapsus with a line of siege works. Einding the isthCaesar fell back within his own defenses. Enemy re- mus barred to him, Scipio proceeded to the western inforcements arrived, however, and he again had to side of the lake and built a camp, Wben Caesar rally his forces before retiring at day's end, Ha\'ing learned that, he abandoned his siege works and narrowly escaped annihilation, he realized he would moved against Scipio on Eebruan' 6, 46 BC. This was have to exercise more caution in future operations the moment for which he had yearned: His enemy and wait for reinforcements to arrive. lay with the sea on one flank and the lagoon on the other; retreat to safety would be very difficult. ollowing this encounter, there was a threeAs described in The African War. "When Caesai' arweek hiatus. Caesar further strengthened his rived and saw that Scipio had his line dravwi up in lines on the plateau of Ruspina and trained his front of the rampart, with elephants stationed on recruits, while ships from his first convoy continu- both wings...he himself drew up a three-fold line ously arrived with reinforcements. Juba had been and posted his Legions X and II on the right wing, compelled to return to Numidia by the timely inter- the VIII and IX on the left, and five cohorts from vention of Bocchus of Mauretania and Publius Sit- Legion V on each wing as a fourth line, opposite the tius, but he left some cavalry and 30 elephants with elephants. On both wings he had archers, slingers Scipio. Even without Juba's help, the Pompeians and cavalry interspersed with light infantrv-" Seeing were too strong for Caesar to launch an offensive, frenzied activity among the enemy, Caesar's officers

F

30 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

COVER STORY

The Death of Cato of Utica, by Baron Pierre-Narcisse Guerin. According to Plutarch, Caesar, upset at Cato's suicide, remarited, "Cato, I must grudge you your death, as you grudged me the honor of saving your life."

and veterans ui^ed him to attack immediately, hut he prefeired to organize his forces professionally before advancing. Suddenly a trumpeter on his light wing, yielding to pressnre from the troops and without Caesar's orders, began to sound the charge. This was taken up by all the cohorts, and t.hey began to advance even as the centurions tried to restrain them. Caesar realized that it was impossible to resist his troops' impetuosity and set his horse at a gallop against the Pompeian front line. The slingers and archers on his right wing hurled missile volleys at the dense mass of enemy elephants, which became teirified and caused havoc. Then the front ranks on the same wing, consisting of Moorish cavalry, fled. Caesars legions charged around the elephants and seized the enemy's ramp-nrt. causing a frenzied retreat. Scipio's forces were routed over the entire field, with Caesars lpgions in hot pursuit. Finally the Pompeians halted on a hill and laid down their aims; the victors, however, could not be restrained. Ten thousand Pompeians were slaughtered and a good many put to flight. The soldiers then turned savagely against Roman senators and knights and even against their own officers, whom they accused of softness toward the enemy. Caesar retumed to camp with the loss of 50 of his own men and a few wounded. The city of Thapsus itself was taken without resistance. Some rebel Republican leadei^, incluHing Pompey's two sons, fled to Spain, where a revolt a2?incT Cap^jai's deputies had already broken out, but manv <>! them perished on the way. Scipio, when cornered bv Publius Sittius at sea, stabbed

32 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

himself. Juba also died by his own hand, and Caesar annexed Numidia as a province after exacting large fines from the individuals and communities that had supported his enemies. According to The Cambridge Ancie}il History. "The strategy by which Caesar had brought off the battle of Thapsus was his crowning masteipiece." But in his work Death of a ReI'lihlic. John Dickinson writes lliat "The dramatic climax of ihe war for Africa was not Caesar's victoiT at Thapsus but the death of Marcus Porcius Cato. He was not present at the battle, for he had been leit in command of Utica, the republican headquarters.... In the end, the Roman residents of Utica told Cato that they wished to submit to Caesar, and he did not oppose them." As the Republicans were leaving Utica. Cato invited some prominent Roman residents to supper, where he discussed Stoic philosophy. After the gathering broke up, Cato withdrew to his room and later called for his sword and calmly committed suicide. Cato's demise was symbolic of Caesars victoiy over the Republicans. Although the civil war continued in Spain, his dominance was assured. Upon his return to Rome, Caesar celebrated his victoiy at Thapsus. As Plutarch points out; "He did not omit to pronounce before the people a magnificent account of his victon, telling them that he had subdued a countiy which would supply the public ever\' year with two hundred thousand attic bushels of com and three million pounds' weight of oil. He then led three triumphs for Eg\'pt, Pontus, and Africa....After the triumphs, he distributed rewards to his soldiers, and treated the people with feasting and shows." The critical victories at Pharsalus and Thapsus ended the joint mle of Pompey and Caesar, and while conspii"acies, revolutions and temporary restorations might follow, the Roman Republic, which had spanned 500 years, was temiinated. For all intents and puiposes. Julius Caesar was thefii^temperor in all but name—at least until the fateful Ides of March in44BC. MH Forfuiiher reading, Newhall, Calif-based writer Jonas Goldstein suggests: The Civil War, Together With the Alexandrian War, the African War and the Spanish Wi*r by Other Hands, by Gains Julius Caesar; and Julius Caesar: Man, Soldier, and Tyrant, by J.F.C. Fuller.

NTERVIEW

ONE TOUGH n December 16.1944, Geitnan Fieid Marshal Gerd von Rundstedts foires launched a .surprise counteroffensive in the Ardennes Forest oi Belgium. On Adolf Hitler's orders, the Germans punched through outposts where U.S. Aimy troops, believing that World War II in Europe was just about over, had been resting. The ferocious assault sent Americans scurrying to mount a desperate defense, and additional U.S. troops racing to the front. One of the latter was then-2nd Lt. Edward Shames, who had already racked up experience In Normandy and Holland, serving in I Company, 506th Parachute In!antr>' Regiment (PTR), 101st Airborne Division. When Shames joined Easy Company of the 506th—the famous "Band of Brothers"—in Bastogne, his new comrades in aims leaiTied why he had a reputation as a disciplinarian who sternly enforced procedure. Like some leaders in todays war on ten or, Shames insisted on using ground-level intelligence against the enemy, and he was a fastidious planner. Haxdng grown up in Norfolk, Va., Shames enlisted in the 506th in September 1942 at age 19. He has been active in the regiments affairs ever since, and he helped set up a reunion in Norfolk in October 2004. In a recent interview with Michael Washbum, he cast light on his fascinating—and controversial—record. Military History: Where did you join the Army? Shames: Right here in Petersburg, Va.—at what's called Foil Lee now. It was Camp Lee then. MH: Did you e.xpect to become an officer? Shames: I always wanted to be an officer. Of course, I enlisted as a buck private. The call for recruits came out fi^om Army headquarters at Fort Monroe, Va., where the 506th Parachute Infantiy Regiment was conceived. They put the word out that they wanted volunteers, but volunteers with special chat^acteristics. The countrv, at thai time, needed a shock force, something to get us out of the doldrums, because we had taken such a beating at Pearl Harbor and Corregidor. They decided they would recruit the verv best, physically and mentally, form an elite unit and show the public what they had. MH: Did nothing of the sort exist, in peoples' minds? Shames: Before World War II, many military people were regarded as the lowest of the low. It was the Depression, many 34 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

Edward Shames parachuted into Normandy and the Netherlands, joining the 'Band of Brothers' in Bastogne. BY MICHAEL WASHBURN

BELOW: On Januaiy 16,1945, Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor meets with members of the 101st Airborne Division in front of a newly captured town ball, in James Dietz's Strategy at Noville [James Dietz). LEFT: By tbat time, 2nd LL Edward Sbames had transferred from I to E Company of tbe 506th Paracbute Infantiy Regiment (Edward Shames).

were in the Army because they couldn't get a job; some couldn't even read and write. Hei'e In Norfolk, a "good" girl wouldn't be seen with a sailor or a soldier. A guy enlisted in the AiTny as a private, and he might stay ihere 20 years and retire as a private first class, or at most a corporal. The Army picked the best they could find from the existing units to form our cadres, teaching us how to salute, how to wear our uniforms, etc. MH: What was your training like? Shames: We went right from Fort Lee to training down in

Toccoa, Ga. 1 believe, and people in the know have told me, that the reason they chose Toccoa was not because it had good training grounds and so forth—it had nothing! The site was an old Civilian Conseivalion Corps camp that had gone unused for a while, and at that time it was named Camp Toombs, after the segregationist senator from Georgia, Robert Toombs. It was in this remote area that no one had heard of, beyond the fact that Toccoa was the "coffin capital" of the world. We were there because if this experiment, this effort to craft a unit of "supermen," JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 35

INTERVIEW 'Every morning we had to run VA miles up Currahee Mountain and then back down. That weeded a whole lot of us out.' camp, then back, until it was nothing to us, just routine. They took any excuse to kick people out. If your ritlc wasn't clean, if you couldn't do 100 push-ups, if you were a mediocre marksman, out! And at the end, they still had too many. MH: Did the hardships intensify? Shames: We had to march down to Fort Benning, about 200 miles away. Another morning, toward the end of our training, they called us out with full field packs on and said we were going to a ride range— not the one here in Toccoa, but another one. It was at Clemson College [now Clemson University], in Clemson, S.C., 49 miles away, and we had full equipment, weapons, eveiything—and they forgot to tell us there was a mountain between our destination and us. Some got lost on the way, and they were out. MH: Did they expel those young men from the Army? Shames: From the 506th, but not fi'om the service. Those who didn't make the cut went to other branches. In fact, some of the people who didn't make it at Toccoa came back to us later as replacements, after the ordeals of Normandy and Holland and Baslogne. The first cadre of paratroopers goes through parachute training in Hightstown, N J., on MH: Did you train on the machine gun August 11,1940. Once these paratroopers completed the course, they went on to train at Toccoa? the volunteers for the 82nd and 101 st Airborne divisions. Shames: They had ranges for eveiything— rifles, machine guns, pistols, M1 cai^bines, gi'enades, land mines, you name it. didn't work out, they could just abandon it right there, and at MH: What was the next phase like. Jumping from aiiplanes? least avoid some of the emban assment. Shames: When we got to Fort Benning for jump training, we MH; What kinds of rigors did you face? were in top shape. The Fort Benning people, at the jump school, Shames: The training in Toccoa aimed at being the most severe were supposed to be the elite of the Army, and boy, were they undergone by any unit in the history of our armed forces. They waiting for us! They had a nickname for our unit^the "Big had 7,000 recruits, and they had to cut that number down to regi- Talky, No Jumpy." One of the first things they did was have us ment size, 2,500 to 2,700. They said, "WeVe got so many people, run around with our full field equipment. They had us go for by God, we have a chance to get the veiT cream of the crop." The thi'ee hours, then we said, "Oh no, we don't want to stop, let's first thing we faced was Currahee Mountain, outside of Toccoa. continue!" Soon they were begging us to stop. Then they deEvery morning we had to run !>% miles up and then back down. vised the shock harness and all kinds of foolish things—to scare That weeded a whole lot of us out. There, they had the toughest the hell out of us—but we sunived, obstacle course ever devised. When we lefl Toccoa after 16 weeks, MH: What was the toughest pait of jump training? the medics had it closed down, because so many people got huil Shames: They had jump towers at Fort Benning about 200 feet on that mountain. And we had to walk 10 or 15 miles out from high, like a 20-stoi"y building. They pulled you up and released 36 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

Survivors of the first 101 st Airborne contingent to land in Normandy on June 6,1944, make their way tbrougb a French village. After landing several miles from his objective. Shames picked up 18 fellow paratroops on his way to Brevands.

your pai-achute, and you fioated down. We used to fight to get ahead in line. It was like going to Disney World; it really was fun. But then they had this shock harness, which was a steel beam, 10 feet long, with a rope on each end going to a center rope that they pulled fi^om atop the tower. We were strapped underneath the beam, and they pulled us up. You got up about 150 feet, then the microphone told you to count one, two, three and pull the ripcord, and you dropped a sheer 50 or 60 feet before rubber bands—^what we now call bungees—grabbed you. MH: What about the actual jump? Shames: Ninety-eight percent of all these guys had never landed in an aiiplane. Ninety-eight percent had never been in an airplane. Some of them refused to jump. Now, there was a deal about jumping. If you refused thefiretjump when you got on a plane, they just booted you out of the unit. Naturally— you can't be a paratrooper if you can't jump out of airplanes. Now, if you made the fii'st jump, but then got on a plane and refused the second jump, you got six months in the guardhouse because you wasted government money. They thought, first jump, you don't know what's going to happen to you, so you jump. Second jump, you do know what's going to happen to you, so you refuse to jump. It didn't work that way in practice. Most of us made two jumps the first day and three jumps the second day. That was qualifying,fivejumps. You got your wings.

MH: Where did you go after Fort Benning? Shames: Advanced infantry training in Camp Mackall, N.C. MH: What came after that training? Shames: We shipped out to England in early September 1943. MH: What was it like waiting for the Allies to launch the invasion of occupied France? Shames: Never a dull moment. We had practice jumps, navigation, field operations, weapons training, everything. I had become the operations officer for the battalion, and I made the sand tables for our jump into Normandy. The tables showed exactly where we were supposed to jump and where we would get together on the ground. I had to brief every platoon, even' squad and every company. It went on like this from the end of September to June 5, 1944, the night before D-Day. MH: After all the preparation, did things go as planned? Shames: It didn't work out that way. The guy in front of me on the Douglas C-47 fell down at the door, and I had to help him get up and get out the door. They scattered us all over the place. I jumped seven miles fiom where 1 was supposed to land, and I ended up in the bam of the Carnation milk factory; with the cows. I didn't know where I was, and I was supposed to know everything! Fortunately, we had a tracer plane going over us every few minutes, north and south, sending signals to tell us where to go. So I picked up 18 men on the way to our objecJUNE2006 MILITARY HISTORY 37

INTERVIEW

Paratroopers take their seats inside a Douglas C-47 at the start of Operation Market-Garden on September 17,1944. Shames called the campaign a fiasco, but added, "at least the 506th did what we were supposed to do: opened up the corridors and kept them open."

live, which was two bridges at Brevands, a few miles fi"om Carentan, leading inland from the beaches. We had to hold onto those bridges so that the Germans could not bring reinforcements against the men landing on the beaches. MH: Did you come under GeiTnan fire on those bridges? Shames: Not just German fire! The Germans were intent on getting us out of there, and I got shot across the bridge of the nose. There were many firefights. But the American air forces didn't know we were there, and because of the snafu, they sent planes out to bomb the bridges. They didn't hit them, and we blew the bridges oui-selves. We accomplished our mission with only a handHiI of peopie. MH: How did you get your commission as a second lieutenant? Shames: We were in an area outside of Carentan, and I was operations sergeant. Many of the officers had been killed in the jump, and actually I was doing the job of a high-ranking officer. Our commanders decided we needed to find out what was around us, and I got ihe order to take my men and radio and look around. Did we have another American unit to our right? We had lost a lot of people, cleaning up this hedgerow area. The artillery was going all around us—it was reallyfierce—untilfinally there came a lull in the sheDing. MH: And then? 38 MILITARY HISTORV JUNE 2006

Shames: I looked over to my left, and there were people on my left, I think it was H Company. I scanned the area to myright,and there was a road over there. You couldn't sit around and tiy to scan the area on the far side of the road, because of the hedgerows—you had to go all the way over there. I flew across that road—it was blazing hoi, the sun was high—and looked for the other company that was supposed lo be thei^e. I saw that there was no one, that we had an exposedfiank.This was on my birthday, and all I could see were the words, "Bom Juno 13—Died June 13." Ifiewback over and got on ihe radio and called the battalion headquarters. I said, "Put an officer on!" I spoke to [regimental commander] Colonel Robert Sink. "Sir, this is Sergeant Shames, there's nobody on ourrightflank,"T .said. Sink w:is a lough cookie who didn't mince words. He said, "Shames, do you know what the hell you're talking ahout?" So I got on my bicycle, and 1 double-timed it back [to headquarters], I showed him [on a map]. He had me go back to the hedgerow area with Colonel Charlie Chase, and we crossed the road again. You could see the machine gun bullets kicking up dust infi'ontof us on that hot road. We got over the road, and I said, "Here's where I was before." He was suiprised because he thought F Company was there. MH: So what was the upshot? Shames: Colonel Sink pulled a company out of the reserves and

'I asked Rod Strohl if the shapes still looked like haystacks to him, and he said no—they were tanks!'

Shames: 1 think of the first mission that I went out on, with Earl McClung and Rod Strohl. When we first got into Bastogne, Colonel Sink came up to me and said, "Shames, you go up the road and make contact and find out where the enemy is." Strohl and McClung and I went down this road, and we saw vague shapes way off in the distance that looked kind of like haystacks, and we also heard this noise far off, and I told Strohl that it sent it right up there. That night, T got a call to come to Colonel sounded like lanks to me, and that's what it sounded like to him, Sinks headquarters right away So I ran over there, and they said, too. We stayed there and waited until the fog lifted a little, and I "Colonel Sink wants to see you," I wenl to him and said, "Colonel then asked Strohl if the shapes still looked like haystacks to him, Sink, Sergeant Shames reporting as ordered, sir." He told me, and he said no—they were tanks! We counted 19 tanks that the "Shames, you are now a lieutenant." I thought I was hearing fog had camouflaged. We went back to repoit what we had seen. things. He said, "Goddamn it. Shames, can't you hear?" "Yes, sir!" MH: What do you remember of the battle for Bastogne? I replied. Sink said, "You are now a lieutenant. I've already cleared Shames: I was out on an observ ation patrol one night with this it with the 101st headquarters." He added, "Now, we can't for- guy, Edward Stein. We were standing near this field, and I was miserably cold. It was the coldest day mally commission you; we have to go through all the I ever remember in my life. 1 was so papcru ork^t's a formality that has to wait until we cold, I was thinking of taking one of get back to England. When we get back to England, our moiphine svrettes and sticking it everv'one is going to know you are now a lieutenant." in my leg, to kill the pain. Then a tree MH: How did your day-to-day role change? burst came fi'om out of nowhere. It Shames: I went from a staff sergeant to a second must have been a mortar. We got lieutenant, and I didn't know what the hell I was supdown on the ground and huddled posed to do. So I reported back to my people and under a blanket, and I asked Stein if spoke to Lieutenant John Martin. He said, "I don't he was hit. He said no, but then I know^ if you know it. but I've been named company looked and saw blood coming from commander." I said, "Yes, sir, I heard about that." He Stein's leg. It was so cold that he didn't said: "T need some help. T know nothing about being even feel it—a piece of shrapnel from a company commander. You're pretty shaip, you the tree buT^t had sliced through one know what's going on, and I need a first sergeant." I of the \'eins in his leg. asked if he knew about my commission. He said, MH: Did you run into problems with "You're not formally a lieutenant until you get all the morale? paperwork done." He had spoken to Colonels Sink and Chase, and they were in agreement. So I was a Shames: Not in my outfit. I think of first sergeant for a week or so, until we got back to one soldier. Private Joseph LesniewBand ofBrothefS author Stephen England, and I got my formal commission. I was a ski—the biggest job I had was to keep Ambrose immortalized the 506th buck private, private first class, sergeant, staff serhim quiet! He talked his head off Easy Company, but Sbames geant, first sergeant, and then I became a second about eveiything, even when he went disputes some of bis account lieutenant, out on patrol. But he was a hell of a good soldier. MH: Your next major operation was MarketGarden, the jump into the Netherlands on September 17, 1944, MH: During Operation Greif, the Germans dropped men Shames: Yes, and it was a fiasco. That fiasco in Holland was behind your lines in captured American uniforms, to commit due to the vei^ setup of the operation. We captured all the sabotage. When did youfii^itleam of this? bridges, we opened up the roads, but then the British didn't Shames: I think we first heard about it on the radio the night come through them! They misread the intelligence, and when before we left Mourmelon, It was a topic of conversation on the they got to Amhem, they ran into Gennan forces that were not way to Bastogne, So we knew about it. supposed to be there—at least according to the British, but not MH: Did some of the "American" ti'oops look suspicious? according to the Dutch people, who had tried to warn them. It's Shames: When we infilti-ated the Germans' areas while on oba matter of record now. But at least the 506th did what we were sen'ation patrols, we saw guys in American uniforms walking supposed to do: opened up the cortidoi^s and kept them open. around with a bunch of Kj'auts—it didn't take a rocket scienMH: What else did you do in the Netherlands? tist to figure out what was going on. So we decided to wait and Shames: Did you know that I took part in the rescue mission see where those "Americans" went, and then we nailed four of on October 22-23, 1944? them in the woods outside of Foy. We made them reveal the loMH: Stephen Ambrose did not give you much credit in Band cation of other infiltrator to us. of Brothers. But he at least mentioned your name in connection MH: It's clear that observation and accurate intelligence were with the rescue mission in which you and British troops crossed things you insisted on as an officer. the Rhine to save 125 trapped British tix)ops, along with a hand- Shames: When yoit went out on a patrol, you had to watch for ful of Dutch resistance fightere and Americans. obsei"vation posts and check for any wires on the ground, so you Shames: It was one of the more important actions in Holland. would know if others had been that way and if they were lookMH: After Amhem, you were rushed to Bastogne to join up ing out for you. Its simple, yet it takes time to leam how to do with Easy Company in response to the German counterattack. these things. You have to be fairly intelligent to become a leader. JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 39

VIEW 'Of course I yelled at them! I meant business. That is why I brought more men home than most of the officers in the 506th.'

the men and the other officers. Of course I yelled at them! I meant business. This is why I brought more men home than most of the officers in the 506th, I was the only second lieutenant in the regiment who was a platoon leader, and in contrast to the olher officei^ in the 506th, they didn't even relieve me once. I must have been doing something right. Troopers of the 101 st Airborne Division march toward Houffalize, east of Bastogne, to MH: You're refcmng to a scene that engage their German besiegers on December 19,1944. made it into the miniseries, where they don't pick you to lead the company because you yell at the men for inteniipting briefings. and if you are, you can impait this intelligence to others. MH: The writer and veteran Paul Fussell, in his book Wartime, Shames: Well, in the fii^st place, I was a brand new officer in Easy says that replacements were like "unread books on a shelf— Company They wouldn't have considered me as a company comthey got killed off so fast, you never got to know them as people. mander; I wouldn't have expected them to. So that's a lot of Shames: When you got into combat, it was a bit too late to get garbage. And then they portrayed Lewis Nixon as a hero. His on the learning curve! Everyone who went into my unit, hom father was the owner of Nixon Industries in New Jersey, so no one the ground up, ] made damn sure that he was well-versed, he could touch him. In any event, I'm sure that the men didn't love knew what was going on beforehand. We had meetings con- me. I didn't want them to love me; I wanted them to respect me. stantly, we had map orientations constantly, we had layouts con- MH: What was your impression of Lieutenant Norman Dike, stantly, we had overlays constantly—we knew what we were whom some see as a weak and indecisive commander, and who is scathingly portrayed in the miniseries? supposed to do, when we were supposed to do it, MH: Ambrose and the writers of the Band of Brothers television Shames: I can't say I really knew him. He didn't strike me one miniseries portrayed you as an overly severe commander with way or another. a veiy short fuse. Do you agree with that portrayal? MH: Which of your men really stood out? Shiunes: I had a serious argument with the author of Band of Shames: T had four damn fine soldiers: Paul Rogers, Earl McBrothers, and that's why he almost cut me out completely. When Clung, Shifty Powers and Roderick Strohl. They distinguished I got the pilot book [a set of advance galleys], I went straight themselves constantly. I never said to my men, "You, you and through the roof! When I called him and raised factual points, you, go out on a patrol," I said, "All of you come with me on he told me, "Look—I'm here to sell books." He added things, he patrol." left things out. Take Rod Strohl. who is hardly mentioned. Paul MH: You were tough at times, but did some of your men unRogers—how could you write a book about these people and derstand where you were coming from? hardly have Rogers in there? Shames: At the Easy Company reunion in Phoenix in 2002, one MH: In some editions of the book, there's a passage where Dar- of the four men I've named came up to me. He said, "Shames, rell Powers seems to break down under the demands you put you are the meanest, roughest son of a bitch I've ever had to on him, and he doesn't want to go on a mission. deal with. But you brought us home." Shames: That's not tine at all. Once when Ambrose called me, MH: You understood the need for discipline. one of thefiretthings he asked had to do with this. I said that Dai'- Shames: Not just discipline. Perfection. MH rell "Shifty" Powei"s was a guy who would go on any patrol, anywhere, anytime. So don't print that, because it's not so. Ambrose Michael Washbum is a New York-based writer and editor specialreplied, "Oh, no, I won't dare print that." When I got that pilot izing iu historical and literary subjects. For fuiiher reading, he recbook, it was in there. When I called him, he said, "Oh. I'm going ommends: Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second to take it out, it's just a pilot book." But when the book came out, World War, by Paul Fussell; and Intelligence in War: Knowledge it was in there. They also started this thing about me yelling at of the Enemy From Napoleon to Al-Ouaeda, by John Keegan. 40 MILITARV HISTORY JUNE 2006

FIRST BLOOD

As EARLY AS 1842, LONG BEFORE THE WARS OF 1880 AND 1899-I902, BRITISH AND AFRIKANER SETTLERS CLASHED IN SOUTH AFRICA.

42 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

I

"n October 1899, nearly a century of rivaliT in South Afiica between the British empire and the white Dutch-speaking settlers known as Afrikaners came to a head with the start .of what is now generally refeircd to as the Second AngloBoer War The Firet Anglo-Boer War had occuixed in 1880-81, when the Transvaal Boers successfully challenged British overlordship. Both conllicts, however, were misnamed. There were in fact at least two earlier confrontations. The first conflict between the English and Boers actually took place in and around Port Nalal, today known as Durban, in 1842, and the second six years later in the Orange River Sover-

WTHE

After a Boer attempt to ambush Cape Governor Sir Harry Smrtb failed, the British 45th Regiment and 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade advance firing during the Battle of Boomptaats on August 29, 1848 (National Army Museum, London).

BY DAVID SAKS

eignty, later to become the independent Boer republic of the Orange Free State. Fn between, there was a brief insuiTection, also in the Transorangia region, in 1845, In all three episodes the Brilisb emerged victorious, but the numerically inferior Boei"s gave them enough problems to suggest that they could pose a significant challenge to British hegemony in the future. The 1842 conflict centered on Pott Natal and the Boer republic of Natalia. Established in 1838 during the Afrikaner migration known as the Great Trek, Natalia bad not been recognized by ihe British government, and its subjects, the so-called Voortrekkers (literally "forward travelers"), continued to be re-

garded as subjects, albeit reluctant ones, of the British crown. In March 1842, Sir George Napier, governor of the Cape Colony, decided to send a small force to occupy Port Natal, most of whose residents were English. On April 1, a column under the command of Captain Thomas Charlton Smith of the 27th Regiment (after 1881, the 1st Battalion Inniskilling Fusiliers), having set out fi^om Grahamstown a few days before, crossed the Mzimvubu River into Natalia. The column consisted of 323 fighting men and nearly 300 women camp followei"s, scouts and drivers. Two companies of the 27th formed the backbone of the force. The balance was made up by a detachment of Cape JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 43

Seeking to distance themselves from the British in South Africa's Cape Colony, Boers participate in the Great Trek to Natal in 1835. The new Republic of Natalia that the Voortrekkers established in 1838 was neverrecognizedby British authorities in the Cape.

Mounted Rifles, or CMR. a mixed-race, locally raised regiment with white officers, along with a handful of sappei"s and minei^s, and artillei^Tnen with two 6-pounderfieldguns and a 24-pound howitzer. After a difficult 300-kilometer overland journey involving the crossing of dozens of rivers and streams. Captain Smith arrived in Port Natal on May 3. He set up camp on the northwestern side of Durban Bay, choosing as his site a diy, sandy flat surrounded on three sides by marshes. Earthworks were erected to make a small triangular fort. The Natalia Volksraad (Parliament) had naturally viewed the intmsion of British troops with alarm. That alarm increased when one of Smith's first moves was to spike the Boer guns and replace the republican flag with the Union Jack, The Boers delivered a written protest to the captain, and when it was ignored they authorized Commandant Andries Pretorius to raise a force of armed men, or commando.

T

he first of a long line of great Afrikaner military leadei^s, Pretorius had led the Voortrekkers to victory over the Zulus at the Blood River in 1838, He set up his laagei" at Congella, some fi\r kilometei's south of the British camp, and by mid-May, he had 364 volunteers under his command, many of whom had fought under him against the Zulus. The British clearly had no intention of leaving, and Pretorius. concerned that his citizen militia might break up due to prolonged inaction, decided to provoke a confrontation. On May 23, several Boei-s were allegedly fired upon during a dispute over cattle and horses that had become intenningled with those from Smith's camp, Pretorius responded by ordering the seizure of 600 oxen belonging to the British, and later that day he sent a strongly 44 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

worded ultimatum to Smith, demanding he withdraw. Smith, as anticipated, resolved to teach the insolent Dutchmen a lesson that same night. At 11 p.m., 137 officers and men, supported by the two 6pounders, set out for Congella. The 27th Regiment supplied 109 of the troops, with the balance made up by 18 artillei-ymen, eight sappers and miners, and two Cape Mounted Riflemen who served as Smith's escort. Smith had decided to take a circuitous route along the beach that would bypass the dense undergrowth which separated the two camps (and which, incidentally, covered what is now the city of Durban's central business district). Smith also gave orders for a longboat, bearing the 24-pound howitzer, to take up a position directly opposite Congella and provide suppoiting fire hom there once the attack was underway While Pretorius had been expecting an attack that night, the beach march took him by surprise. Most of his men were stationed in the bush when he learned that they had been bypassed, Nevertheless, he still had a rear guard of some two dozen men that he deployed in a mangrove thicket lining the beach, while posting a picket of older marksmen behind some sand dunes on the beach itself. The women and children in his camp were evacuated to safety deeper in the bush. At about 1 a.m., Smith ordered his men to halt and signaled for the longboat to begin shelling the Boer camp. There was no response, since the longboat had mn aground on a sandbank. Apparently Smith had forgotten that it could only make headway at high tide, whereas a march along the beach was only possible at low tide. Greatly annoyed. Smith oi dered his column to resume its advance—until the boom of an elephant gun announced the presence of the Boer beach picket. A few more

shots rang out, followed by the sustained roar of a score of muskets fired practically in unison from less than 100 meters. Smiths shaken men completely wasted their retum volleys, their balls whistling harmlessly overhead or ripping through the treetops. Bntish casualties mounted rapidly. Though very much outnumbered, the Boers were well hidden, whereas the British were completely exposed against the moonlit sands. The 6pounders briefly came into action but were quickly rendered Linsen'iceable when a third of their crew members were shot down and the captured oxen began to rampage. The unequal contest went on for only a few minutes before Smith, as he tactfully phrased it in his report, considered it "expedient to retire." He himself galloped back to the camp to aiTangc a last-minute defense. The remainder of the column, abandoning the guns, retreated in reasonably good oixler at first, but things soon dissolved into a rout as the Boers, steadily reinforced, pressed home their advantage, charging and firing in an extended line. Some of the soldiers were diiven into the sea, and at least two drowned. By 3:30 a.m., the camp itself was under attack from three sides. Smith lost 18 men dead and 33 wounded—nearly 40 percent of his force. Only five Boers had been killed. Two days after their victor\; the Boers captured Fort Victoria on the Point, killing two of the garrison and capturing the other 17, as well as an 18-pounder gun, stores and ammunition. Within three days. Smith had lost a quarter of his original column and was holed up within the makeshift walls of his fort and subjected to constant bombardment. On May 26, Poit Natal resident Richard King slipped out of the town, accompanied by his Zulu servant Ndongeni, and set off on a lO-day ride to Grahamstown to fetch aid. Ndongeni, who was riding without a saddle, was eventually forced to give up, but King reached his destination and raised the alaiTn. Before long, the sloop Conch and warship Southampton had been dispatched with substantial reinforcements. Following the fall of Fort Victoria, the two sides settled down for a dreary four-week siege. While they never actually planned to storm the camp, the'Boers managed to make life fairly uncomfortable for its demoralized little garrison. Using the captured guns—the two 6-pounders and the 18-pounder—and the fieldpieces they had first used against the Zulus, the Boers peppered the defenses with more than 600 rounds of shot, resulting in few casualties but pirining down the British and riddling their tents. Pretorius did not have things all his own way, however. Smith's keeneyed marksmen killed several Boers who foolishly exposed themselves. The British made the only sortie of note, a bayonet charge that temporarily dislodged a Boer entrenching party from its forward positions at a cost of four more dead.

WHILE THEY NEVER ACTUALLY PLANNED TO STORM THE CAMP, THE BOERS MADE LIFE UNCOMFORTABLE FOR ITS DEMORALIZED LITTLE GARRISON. the vanguard of the relieving force. The next day, Southampton sailed into view, bearing 800 men of the 25th Regiment. Pretorius obviously knew that the game was up, but resolved to make a fight of it anyway. Leaving a skeleton force in front of the British camp, he deployed his few hundred men in an extended line from the Durban Bay Bluff to the mouth of the Umgeni River, 10 kilometer faiiher north. His guns, virtually useless by now through laek of ammunition and in any case outranged by Southampton's batteries, were positioned on the bluff and the point guarding the entrance to the bay. The battle of Durban Bay began at 2 p.m. on June 26, with a bombardment from Southampton'^ guns covering Concfis advance as it crossed the bai" into the bay with four boats, crammed with sailors and infantnmen, in tow; The Boers kept up a steady fire, but most of their shots splashed harmlessly into the water or thudded harmlessly against the yellow-wood planks heightening Concfis bulwarks. The troops disembarked without difficulty, and the Boers quickly melted into the bush. That afteiTioon Smith was relieved of duty, and the little war was over Though of shoit duration, it had been packed with enough drama and incident to make il an enduring part of Natal folklore. Three weeks after Smith's relief, the Volksraad formally tendered its submission to the Crown. Most of the Voortrekkers, embittered at the way their hard-won republic had been so cavalierly snatched fi'om them, packed up and migrated farther inland, settling in the Transvaal and Transorangia regions. It was in the latter territory' that the next round of Anglo-Afrikaner clashes was destined to be fought. The annexation of Natalia was probably inevitable, since the British had long regarded the area as within their sphere of influence. The same could not be said of Transorangia, the vast territor\' between the Orange and Vaal rivers, which many in the Colonial Office considered more trouble than it was worih. Transorangia in the 1840s was a veritable minefield of conflict-

A view of Durban Bay and Port Natal seen from Congella in 1840. The port would later be renamed Durt)an.

Smith must have wondered how much longer he eould hold out. Fortunately for him. Conch arrived on June 24 with JUNEZ006 MILHARY HISTORY 45

WAR ing claims, competing factions, raiding, vendettas and intertribal bickering. Much of the fighting took place between the Boers and the Griqua, a mixed-race, Dutch-speaking people who had preceded them in the area by roughly a decade. The British recognized the authority of the Griqua chief, Adam Kok, in the southern Transorangia area and pledged to uphold it if necessaiT. Such intervention became necessarv in 1845 when the local Boers, who were particularly resentful at having to submit lo the overlordship of a man of color, rose in revolt. The uprising led to several weeks of dcsultoiy skirmishing in which the Griqua—wbo also had horses and firearms—held their own but were unable to bring the rebels to heel. Eventually a mixed force of British regular, including three squadrons of tbe 7th Dragoon Guards and two companies of the 9th Regiment, was dispatched to the area under the command of Lt. Col. Robert Richardson. After a failed attempt to persuade the Boers to disband, Richardson, with Griqua assistance, surprised their camp at Zwartkopjes, and after a brisk engagement on April 30, drove them from the field. Despite that victon; therivalrv'between Boers and Griquas, together with the competing claims of black tribes such as the Sotho and Rolong, continued to make Ti^ansorangia a hornet's nest.

G

iven the problems in Transorangia, the British Colonial Office could not have been pleased to hear in early 1848 that the new governor of the Cape, Sir Hany Smith, had annexed not only the southern portion of the region but also the independent Boer republic of Winburg in the northern half. The mercurial Smith had previously won I'enown during the Peninsular campaign ol Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, later sui^iving the debacle at New Orleans on Januaiy 8, 1815, and adding to his laurels a{ Waterloo on June 18, 1815. Between 1829 and 1840, he ser\'ed in South Africa, during which time he was second-in-command of the Cape forces that defeated the Xhosa in the Sixth Frontier War on the Cape's eastern border (1834-35). Smith was promoted to colonel in 1837, and in 1846 he was awarded the Victoria Cross for valor during (he vdctoiT over the Sikhs at Aliwal. In contrast to his militaiT exploits, however. Smiths political career proved to be less successful. His ill-considered annexations of large tracts of territoi-y embroiled the Cape Colony in a series of ruinous wars—for which an increasingly reluctant Colonial Office had to pay The most damaging of ihose was the Eighth Frontier War (185052), for which he was abruptly recalled to Britain six months before its conclusion. The first of HariT Smith's wai-s was provoked by bis annexation of Winburg, carried out in the face of a previous undertaking he had made without first con46 MILITARY HISTOIO' JUNE 2006

suiting its white inhabitants. The Winburg Boers rose in revolt, persuading Andiies Pretorius to retuiTi from his self-imposed exile across the Vaal to lead them. The insun^ection was initially conceived as no more than a show of force in order to demonstrate the unpopularity of the annexation. On July 17, Pretorius arrived in Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange River Sovereignty, as it was now called, at the head of 1,000 armed burghers and ordered the British resident. Major H.D. Warden, to leave. Smith's reaction was to organize an expedition to quash the rebellion. On August 9, he arrived in Colesburg near the Orange River, where a regular force about 800 strong awaited him. The force included two companies of the Reser-ve Battalions 45th and 91st regiments, the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, four companies of the Cape Mounted Rifles and an aitilleiy detachment manning three 6-pounder guns. There were also a few dozen Boer loyalists whose homes had been destroyed by the rebels and who now offered their services as scouts. Soon after crossing the Orange River, the column was joined by 250 Griquas under Adam Kok and Andries Waterboer. While his opponents' numbers swelled, Pretorius' commando steadily shrank. Many of its members had never actually in-

ANDRIES PRETORIUS BELIEVED, NOT UNREALISTICALLY, THAT IF H A R R Y S M I T H COULD BE INDUCED TO WALK INTO AN AMBUSH, VICTORY WAS STILL POSSIBLE.

tended to fight, and they were also unsettled by an unfounded rumor that a second British force was approaching from Natal, By the end of August, the commando had been reduced to roughly half its original number. Pretorius, mindful of his worsening position, decided to make a stand at Boomplaats, an abandoned faiTnstead straddling the road between Phillipolis and Bloemfontein. Although by now outnumbered at least 2-to-l, he believed, not unrealistically, that if Hairv Smith could be induced to walk into an ambush—as T.C. Smith had done at Congella six years earlier—^victory was still possible. On the evening of August 28, leaving 200 men behind to guard his wagons, Pretorius moved south to Boomplaats and the following day deployed his remaining 300 burghers along a chain of low, bushy hillocks bisecting at right angles the road to Bloemfontein. Smith learned of the Boers' whereabouts the same day He hoped to persuade uring a skirmish with the the commando to disband peacefully, since an Boers at Zwartkopjes on April armed confrontation would give the lie to his pre30,1845, troops of the 7th vious assurances to London that the majority of Dragoon Guards cover the Transorangia's inhabitants favoi'ed British iTile. advance of a sister troop on its To ensure that his men did not firefii-st,he went left, supported hy Griqua levies so far as to instruct the Cape Mounted Rifles, who in the right foreground. formed the advance guard, to remove the caps from their carbines. Smith's delusions of grandeur, which were to be his undoing throughout his term of offlce, had also evidently persuaded him that an untrained citizen militia like the Boers would never dare toflrefii^ton trained regulars personally led by his august self. It was a miscalculation that nearly cost him his life, Pretorius' main hope was to lure the British within close range before opening lire. His right wing under Commandant Jan Kock, concealed behind the westernmost hillock, would then launch a flank attack. Unforiunately for him, a combination of bad luck and impulsiveness on the part of some of Commandant Adriaan Stander's men on his left flank stymied his plans. First, several dozen Boers moving to their new position disturbed a herd of deer, thereby disclosing their presence to some of the CMR, Next, as Smith rode up behind the CMR intending to parley with the first Boers he met, some of Stander's detachment lost their nerve and fired wildly dowTi at the horsemen. That led to a fusillade from the Boers on the eastern knolls, and their comrades on the heights in the center also opened up, even though the main body of the British force was still well out of range. Had Smith been killed or incapacitated in those opening volleys, the squandering of the element of surprise might have been nullified. Instead, the general's luck held, and he was JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 47

INWARDLY SEETHING, SMITH WAS NEVERTHELESS A SEASONED ENOUGH PROFESSIONAL NOT TO LET IT AFFECT HIS JUDGMENT. ridges, subjecting the Boers in the center to a galling enfilading fire. The CMR and 91st now combined with the 45th to attack and overrun the Boer center

I

A , |y| and firearm owned by a Boer at the time of the Great Trek and the first conflicts with the British.

merely grazed on the shin. Most of the CMR also survived the bairage and together with their commander galloped back out of range. Pretorius had lost the initiative from the VCIT outset, and fi-om then on his more powerful opponent would dictate the coui-se of ihe hattle. Inwardly seelhing. Smith was nevertheless a seasoned enough professional not to let it affect his judgment. His first task was to secure his wagons, which he had withdrawn and laagered some way in the rear with the Boer loyalists and Griqua as escort. The CMR moved out to the left, and the guns, escorted by the 91st, opened up on the center of the Boer position to support the advance of the 45th. At the same time, the Rifle Brigade, led by Captain Arthur Stormont Muiray, moved out in skiimishing ordei- to clear the hillocks on the Boer left. Things continued to go wrong for the Boers. The attempt by Kock's detachment to turn the British left and seize tlie transport was easily beaten off by the CMR and artillery; and this section of Pretorius' already depleted force—forced into a circuitous retreat behind the chain of hillocks in order to regroup—was effectively removed from the battle until its closing stages. Nor was the single Boer gun able to do much before a well-aimed shell knocked a piece out of its muzzle and silenced it. The Rifles, scorning cover as they charged forward under heavy fire, swiftly dislodged the Boers on the left, although Mun^ay was mortally wounded in the process. Smith then personally took charge of bringing up two of the 6-poundei-s onto the captured 48 MILrrARV HISTORY JUNE 2006

t had taken no more than 20 minutes to turn Pretorius out of his initial lines of defense, but the fight was still a long way from over. The Boere rallied in a streambed below the drift and proceeded to mount a stubborn resistance from the farm buildings, the derelict stone walls of the caltle kraals and an oval hillock overlooking the farmstead. Only when the British guns wei e brought back into the action did they break once more, remounting their ponies and retreating toward a nek (pass) between two steep hills in the rear. They were pursued by the CMR and Griqua, which stung them into mounting one last rear-guard action, by now reinforced by Kock's men. The colored troops were kept at bay until about 2 p.m., some three hours after the initial shots were fired, when Smiths infantry came marching into view once more and the guns were brought up and unlimbered. At that point the Boere really did give up the fight, setting fire to the grass and retreating in considerable confusion across the plain on the other side of the nek. They were helped on their way by the artillery, which now sprayed their line of retreat wilh gmpe and shrapnel, keeping them in range for as long as possible by limbering up and advancing to the front before unlimbcring and firing again. Many horses were taken and a large number of ajTns throuTi away Boomplaats brought the Winburg rebellion, the real Second Angio-Boer War, to a swift and conclusive end. It had cost Smith 22 men killed and 38 wounded, with 17 of the casualties among the Rifle Brigade. The Boers, having fought most of the battle under cover, lost nine men killed and five wounded. The whole affair was pointless in the end, because in 1854, with Harrv Smith long gone, the British abandoned the Orange River Sovereignt>', which became the independent Boer republic of the Orange Free State. li would remain a sovereign Afi-ikaner state until the fall of Bloemfontein to Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts in May 1900. The wars of 1842 and 1848 foreshadowed the greater showdowns of 1880-81 and 1899-1902. They had been hard-fought affairs and should have forewarned the British that the Boers were a fomiidable foe. The British failed to recognize that their victories in the two early encounters were due not to superiority but mainly to a significant advantage in both numbers and artilierv. That failure had much to do with the disasters of the 1880-81 war, in which numerically equal Boer forces were able to repeatedly outclass their adversaries and eventually humiliate them altogether at Majuba Hill. MH David Saks has wrilten widely on military topics. For further read-

ing, he recommends: The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Ham' Smith, edited hy C.C. Moore Smith, and 50 Years of the History- of the Republic in South Africa, by J.C. Voigt.

GLENSHIEL

THE LITTLE

REBELLION

T

he 25-ton barque was hopelessly off eoui^e. Since its departure from the Seine River in France, its crew had set sail for the Isle of Lewis off tbe west coast of Scotland, \'ia the Orkney Islands, Now, after being bloun by a steady easterly wind thir)ugh St. George's Channel, the small boat was bobbing in the waters off Ireland as a darkened British man-of-war bore down on it. The oc-

50 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

cupants of the smaller vessel held their breath; the warship was earning troops fi^om Ireland to tbe British mainland in anticipation of a new Jacobite invasion, little knowing that the thi eat had already been snuffed out by one of the "Protestant storm.s" that have meteorologically protected the British coastline throughout history. Now the onlv invasion was from a small diver-

An ill-fated attempt to restore the Stuarts to the thrones of England and Scotland in 1719 led to a blind alley at the Battle of Glenshiel. BY DAVID SHARP

sionary force to be led by the clan chiefs cowering aboard the small boat, including James Keith, the 22-year-old younger brother of George Keith, the 10th Earl of Marischal, Ranald MacDonald of Clanranald and John Cameron of Locheil, chief of the Camerons. DeteTmined to restore a Stuart king to the British throne, they had expected considerable support from Spain, which was to invade England

while they rebelled in Scotland. There had been two attempts before, leading to wars named after the years in which they began. Because of poor planning and bad leadership, however, this latest effort seemed doomed to fizzle out. The impetus behind the conflict ihat would be known as the Little Rebellion began in 1688, when James II was deposed by Dutch-bom Duke Willem of Orange—crowned King William Til—in (he Glorious Revolution of 1688. Supporters of the exiled Stuart king, taking their name h"om Jacobus, the Latin form of James, believed in Ihe principle of hereditaiy succession and the divine right of kings. The Stuart dynasty had become unpopular because of its poor leadership and adherence to the Catholic faith—and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1689 ended in bloody failure. When James II died in exile in 1701, his son, James Francis Edward Stuart, was recognized as James III by the French and Spanish courts. An abortive invasion was attempted in 1708, but the first serious rebellion occuired after the death of Oueen Anne in 1714 and the accession of the unpopular Hanoverian Protestant King George I. Although James, known as the "Old Pretender," was brave and honorable, the rebellion of 1715 was ineffectual largely because of the incompetent leadership of John Erskine. the sixth Earl of Mar, whose bad luck earned him the nickname "Old Mr. Misfoi'tune." James returned to exile in France, but Philippe II, due d'Orlcans, acting as regent for the infant King Louis XV, wished, in part for personal reasons, to reverse previous French policy and foster ties with England. A Jacobite court on French soil hindered the development of that policy, so James was forced to move his court to the papal territory in Avignon. While the Jacobite court functioned in obscurity and some of its strongest supporters languished in the Tower of London, the English government sent an ultimatum to Pope Clement IX, alluding to the

Major General Joseph Wightman is prohably the figure on the rearing dark horse, in The Battle of Glenshiel, by Peter Tlltemans, which views the 1719 engagement from the Hanoverian government perspective CNatronal Galleries of Scotland).

JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 51

GLENSHIEL The Spanish offer came just as the Jacobites were mnning out of funds and ideas. On November 5, 1718, James Butler, Duke of Omiondc, the last of the Jacobite leaders in French territory, set off to cross the Pyrenees disguised as a valet. Ormonde met up with Cardinal Alberoni, who promised that Spain would provide "five thousand men, of which four thousand are to be foot, a thousand troopers, of which thi-ee hundred with their horses, the rest with their aiTns and accoutrements, and two months pay for them, ten field pieces, and a thousand bairels of powder and fifteen thousand arms for foot, with everything necessary to convey them." The main force was to be commanded by the Earl of Marischal in an invasion of southwest England, but Ormonde insisted on the need to create a diversionary attack in Scotland, Meanwhile the Old Pretender was to travel from Italy to Spain and either join the expedition or follow it at a later date.

This portrait of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, also known as the "Old Pretender" for the two attempts to place him on the English throne, was painted hy David Antonio while Stuart was in exile in Italy.

possible bombardment of Civitaveccia if the Jacobites did not move farther away from Britain. In February- 1717, James uprooted his court and journeyed over the Alps via Mont Cenis Pass and his mothers home in Modena lo Urbino. There, Pope Clement pi ovided him with an old palace where Jacobite intrigues could continue. Although France had been removed as a possible ally, James still had strong support from King Charles XII of Sweden. Charles was a wairior-king who would have been James' brother-in-law had James' sister, Princess Louise, not died suddenly. Charles had stroug motives for revenge against the Hanoverian George f following a temtortal dispute over the bishoprics of Bremen and Westphalia. A plot was hatched through the Gennan-born Swedish chief minister, Georg Heinrich, Freiheir von Schiltz Gortz, to finance an invasion of Britain, with Charles leading an army of 12,000 men. Although the plot petered out in the wake of Charles' death in 1718, it had included the promise of a subsidy from Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, the chief minister of King Philip V of Spain. Cardinal Alberoni was the most powerful man in Spain and was detennined to thwart the gi'owih of British power, especially after the capture of Palemio and Messina in Sicily by Sir George Byng, and the defeat of the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro on August 11, 1718.

52 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

Tames departed Rome under a cloak of secrecy on I Februai>- 8, 1719. A decoy was airested in northem Italy while James slipped aboard a small Genoese vessel. He landed in Spain on March 8 and headed for Madrid, where he was afforded a royal welcome. On the same day James airived in Spain, two frigates canning arms and 307 Spanish soldiers left San Sebastian. Commanded by Maiischal, the force was to stage the diversionaiT attack in Scotland requested by Oimonde. On March 9, an aTinada of 29 Spanish ships, 5,000 troops and 30,000 muskets left Cadiz, intending to rendezvous with Ormonde in Coioinna, then invade England. On March 29, a fierce storm scattered the main body of Oimonde's fleet, and the invasion was officially canceled. Marischal, however, had sailed too early for that news to catch up with him as he proceeded on his mission toward Stomoway on the Isle of Lewis. Meanwhile, Marischals brother, James Keith, prepared to take a small boat with Jacobite leadere from the Seine River on March 19. Blown off course and narrowly avoiding capture by the British man-of-war, Keith's party eventually arrived on Lewis on April 4. After waiting several days until the two remaining frigates amved in Stornoway, Keith infonned his brother of the disaster that had befallen the Spanish fleet, and also of the factionalism and intrigue that had developed to deprive him of his role as commander of the Scottish invasion. The Jacobites held a council of war and discussed two possible plans of action. They could either wait in the islands for any remnants of Ormonde's dispersed invasion fleet to arrive, or they could follow Marischal s suggestion: Proceed to the mainland and capture Inverness, which was garrisoned by only 300 troops. Although Marischal's plan was agreed upon, the next day William Muiray, the Earl of Tullibardine, showed his hand by announcing his commission as lieutenant general of the invasion force and suggested remaining inactive on Lewis. Upholding a

promise he had made to accept the authority of anyone who held a superior commission to his own, Marischal resigned his commission over the soldiei^s, but retained command of the ships. Tullibardine fell in with Marischal's plan, and eventually the force battled through storms and crossed to the mainland at Loch Alsh on April 13. There, they were promised support from disappointingly few local clan chiefs. Most of the chiefs were piTidently awaiting news of the landing of Ormonde's main invasion force in England before they committed iheir men to the struggle. The small Scottish invasion force established a base at Eilean Donan Castle, an ancient stronghold of the Mackenzies situated at the point where Loch Alsh branches, foiming Loch Long and Loch Duich, Instead of marching on Inverness, the Jacobites wasted time arguing in war councils until the news confirming the disaster to Ormonde's fleet arrived. The in\'aders' already low morale was dented by this news, and Tullibardine considered returning to Spain, Maiischal, however, had sent the two ships he controlled out to sea to prevent them from being blocked in or destroyed by enemy men-of-war The acrimonious relationship between Tullibardine and Marischal continued, with the two protagonists establishing separate camps some two miles apaii. Meanwhile Ormonde reported the invasions cancellation and exhorted the leaders to raise the clans in rebellion while he set about supplying aims. The Jacobites struck camp and marched inland to an advance base at Crow of Kintail. They left behind 48 Spanish troops, under the command of a captain and lieutenant, at Eilean Donan to guard their ammunition and provisions.

B

y then, the Hanoverian forces were reacting to the invasion, reinforcing the gairison at Inverness and dispatching a number of vessels to trap the Jacobites, Three English frigates, Worcester, Enterprise and Flamborough, commanded by Captain Charles Boyle, anchored at the mouth of Loch Alsh, Although they arrived too late to catch the main invading force, on May 10 they set about retaking Eilean Donan. After a short bombardment by Worcester's 48 guns and Enterprise's 44 guns, the Spanish garrison surrendered, and the 343 barrels of gunpowder and 52 bairels of musket balls that remained in the keep were detonated. Most of the buildings in the castle, as well as a second magazine at the head of the loch, were destroyed. The Spanish captives were loaded aboard Flamborough and sent for detention in Leith, the port of Edinburgh. Meanwhile, the Jacobite force was marching toward Glenshiel in two contingents via Loch Duich and Loch Long. Some Highland clans began to rally to the cause. Locheil appeared on June 5, having managed to raise only LSO of his Camerons from Lochaber to Kintail. William McKenzie, fifth Earl of Seaforth, brought a more substantial force of 400 to

500 men. They joined a small band of Perthshire men brought by Lord George Muiray, the younger brother of Tullibardine. Smaller bands of clansmen probably totaled 1,000 broadswords, including Mackinnons and Mackenzies who were joined by a small contingent of MacGregors, fi^om Stirlingshire and Ai-gyle, led by the legendars' Rob Roy MacGregor MacGregor had also "been out" during the "Fifteen" rebellion, taking his clansmen from thefieldof Sheriflmuir to spare them at a time when the outcome of the battle could have gone either way (in fact it ended in a draw). His clan had since been ex-

LEFT: George Keith, 10th Eari of Marischal, was to lead an attack in Scotland while a Spanish army invaded England to install James Stuart on the throne. BELOW: Marischal and his small force established their base of operations at Eilean Donan Castle in Ross Shire.

JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 53

coehorn mortars. Now faeing the prospect of heing surrounded on both land and sea, the Jacohites held another council of wai- and decided to stand at Glenshiel. By the time the Highlanders began to take up their positifjns on June 9, Lord Mun'ay's outposts could detect the government troops four or five miles distant.

T:

he position the Jacobites chose made the most of the available teirain. The valley had a drover's road that crossed the Shiel River by a stone bridge. At that point the shoulder of a hill jutted into the valley, causing it to narrow into a gorge, the steep sides of which were covered by heather, bracken and birches. The road entered the valley from the flat area above the pass on a shelf on the north side between the liver and the hill. The Jacobites sought to strengthen the center of their proposed line by throwing up a series of entrenchments on the contours of the hill to the north of the Shiel. They also erected a banier across the drovers road that ran the length of the glen between the river and the entrenched hill. They held a strong position protected on the light by a livulet and on the left by a ravine. The land in front of the entrenchments was steep and rugged.

TOP: Rob Roy MacGregor, shown settling a personal difference with broadswords, led a small contingent of his clan at Glenshiel. ABOVE: With botb Jacobite flanks endangered, MacGregor rushed to support the left, but arrived too late.

On high gi'ound south of the river the right flank of the Jacobite position was held by L(]rd Muiray, tasting his first experience in command at age 14. On his left, entrenched on the north bank of the river, were some 250 of the remaining Spaniards, h^om Reginiento numero 3 La Corona, a marine unit commanded by 0 Don Nicolas Bolano. His troops wore a 1 French-style coat in white without lapels I and with blue collar, cuffs and lining, blue i waistcoats with white breeches and long white linen gaitci-s. On their heads they eluded h om the general pardon granted to the rebels wore tricomes edged with white tape and sporting a under the Acl of Grace of 1717. He therefore had red cockade. They positioned themselves in among little to lose h^om standing once again in open re- the assorted clans in the desolate glen under their bellion against the government. His son joined him colors, consisting of a white flag with two golden anin Glenshiel on June 8 with 80 recruits. chors crossed on a pale blue shield. When a party of Chisholms appeared, they On the left oiLa Corona stood Locheil's men, then brought news that a government force commanded the outlawed Rob Roy MacGregor and his reivers. by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wightman had already left In- Then came the Mackenzies under Sir John Mackenvemess on June 5 and passed Fort Augustus. He zie of Coul, the Campbells of Oimdale and GlenDaml, could be expected at the hetid of Loch Cluanie by the the Mackintoshes and, on a steep incline on the ex9th and in Glenshiel by the following day Wightman, treme left of the line, the Earl of Seafoith and his men. also a veteran of Shei^ilTmuir, brought with him a Tullihardine therefore commanded a sizable force force of aboul 850 infantry, including a Dutch con- totaling 1,600 men in a strong position, making good tingent: 120 dragoons, 200 grenadiei-s and 130 clans- use of hills and entrenchments that suited the Highmen from loyal Whig clans, supported by six bronze landers' tactics. His rival, Marischal, who now had

54 MILITARY HISTORV JUNE 2006

nothing to command save for the two departed frigates, stood with Seaforth on the left of the line. The rebel positions were spread out across the valley floor, with steep inclines on either flank. The barricaded road and the river cut through the right of the line between the Spaniards and Murray, with the river crossing via the stone bridge located behind the Spanish lines. Wightman's 1,100 troops struck camp at Loch Cluanie on the morning of June !0, and came within sight of the Jacobite entrenchments by 2 p.m. On his extreme right, opposite the Seaforths, he positioned his Highland contingent consisting of MacKays from Sutherland. The main body of Hanoverian troops was split into two wings. The stronger right wing, on the norih side of the river and facing the bulk of the rebel forces, was commanded by Lt. Col. Jasper Clavton. It consisted of John, second Duke of Montagu's Grenadier Regiment, standing downhill from

posed Jacobite right flank. Four platoons of Clayton's regiment, aided by some of Munro's Highlanders, advanced up the hill, but were beaten back by Murray Munro received a severe wound that disabled him for a time. As the enemy continued to fire on him, he commanded his servant, who had waited for him to retire, to inform his friends and family that he had died honorably. The servant burst into tears and asked how he was supposed to leave his chief in that condition. He spread himself over Muru'o to protect him from the enemy musket balls, receiving several wounds intended for his master. Both were eventually rescued by a sergeant of Culcaim's company who had sworn an oath on his dirk that he would do so. The Hanoverians regrouped and were sufficiently reinforced to compel Muiray to retire to the safety of the high-sided banks of the burn protecting his flank. Murray was now perched to sweep down on the left wing of the government troops if he received Highlanders conduct a fighting retreat into the hills as the Jacohite line crumbles. Most of the government's 21 dead and 121 wounded were suffered by the grenadiers of John, Duke of Montagu, during their assauh on the contingent of William McKenzie, Earl of Seaforth.

the MacKays, then the 11th and 15th battalions of foot and the regiment of Dutch troops. The flank of the right wing, resting against the road and the river, was held by 150 dismounted dragoons. Across the river, on (he south side, was situated the weaker left wing comprised of Cla\ions regiment, augmented by 80 of Captain George Munro of Culcaim's clansmen and the mortars on the far left flank. A s the government troops were moving into po-/Vsition, hostilities began with the popping of carbines and the driving in of the Jacobite pickets. The battle did not begin in earnest until between 5 and 6 in the afternoon. The six mortars situated on the road began to lob shells toward Murray's men on the ex-

adequate support. None was forthcoming, however, and Murray retired from his exposed position— opening the Jacobite right flank. Wightman now turned his attention to the left, as Montagu's regiment carried out a vigorous assault in an attempt to outflank the rebels. Shaken by the brisk fii-efight, Seaforth requested reinforcements to drive back the government troops. Rob Roy MacGregor and his men hurried to the flank, but its defense had already .started to disintegrate, and Seaforth was being removed with a ball in his arm. MacGregor and his men prudently retreated, followed by some of the other clansmen. With both rebel flanks in disarray, Wightman could now concentrate on the center of the Jacobite line. JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 55

GLENSHIEL Marischal's brother, James Keith, escaped the Glenshiel debacle to become a field marshal in the service of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, until his death at the Battle of Hochkirchin 1758.

gage. After a short spell in Invemess, they were moved to Edinburgh. Their plight attracted much sympathy, as the government refused to subsidize them. The Spanish prisoners were in no position to pay for their own food and travel, and the government demanded that they sign an IOU for their repatriation. After a period of wrangling, they eventually retumed to Spain in October 1719. Their memorial today is Bealach-na-Spainnteach (the Pass of the Spaniards) overlooking Glensbiel. Rob Roy MaeGregor went int(5 hiding in Glen Shira before eventually returning home to Balquidder. Like MacGiegor, the rebel leaders also hid out in the Highlands before they sought asylum on the Continent. Meanwhile an attempt to relaunch the invasion of England fizzled out. Cardinal Alberoni, his reputation dented by the abortive expedition, fell from power in December 1719 and retired to Italy. His co-conspirator, the Duke of OiTnonde, was able to remain in Spain under King Philips protection.

He trained his mortars on the Spanish marines, who held their ground while the diy heather around them caught fire. Realizing the mortal's' noise belied the danger they posed at such long range, Don Nicolas Bolano gallantly offered to order his men to attack, but by then it was not a practicable sti ateg\'. The battle was now entering its last confusing moments. Tullibardine later claimed that he suggested the remaining Highlanders form up with the Spaniai'ds and march through the highlands to await OiTnonde and his reinforcements. In any ease Marischal quit the field, and the Spaniards declared that they were in no position to endure a march through the highlands. Tullibardine advised the Spanish to capitulate the best they could, and then he retreated up the moitntains through the high pass round the base of Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe, eventually followed by the abandoned Spaniards. The English ceased the fight as darkness approached and the route of pursuit up ihe hillsides became steeper After about three houi-s, the engagement ended with relatively light casualties on both sides. Most of the government's losses of 21 men killed and 121 wounded were suffered by Montagu's regiment during its assault on Seaforih. Jacobite losses were more difficult to ascertain, since many of the Highlanders melted away into the safety of the hills as the tide of battle turned against them. Mun-ay and Seaforth were both wounded and may have lost 20 men each, with the same number wounded. By morning the Highlanders, low in ammunition and provisions because the English ships had destroyed their bases at Loch Duich, dispersed into the wilderness ralher than engage the Hanoverian forces situated below them. Bolano, although keen to renew the attack, was persuaded to sunender his 274 Spanish troops, on condition that they retain their bag56 MILITARY'HISTORY JUNE 2006

T

he men who had provided leadei^ship in Glenshiel had mked fortunes. Afterfightingin the last Jacobite rebellion of 1745, Tullibardine was executed in the Tower of London. The Earl of Seaforth was pai'doned in 1726 and did not ti"ouble the government again. Both Marischai and his brother, James Keith, served Erederick the Great of Paissia lo gtx)d effect— the earl became a Prussian ambassador, and Keith attained the rank of marshal, dying in 1758 at the Battle of Hochkirch. Lord George Murray seiA'ed for several years in the King of Sardinia's army before his brother intervened with the Hanoverian court to gi-ant him a pardon in 1726. Although he had misgivings over the 1745 rebellion, he was appointed lieutenant general of the Jacobite army. He became the outstanding Jacobite commander in that rebellion, winning victories at Prestonpans and Falkirk and tactfully managing the retreat from Derby He opposed the strategy leading to the ill-fated Battle of Culloden, where he commanded the light wing and retired in good order following that defeat. The Battle of Glenshiel had taken place on June 10, the birthday of James Stuart, on whose behalf the invasion and rebellion had been instigated. The Old Pretender was in Madrid when he learned of the invasion. He retumed to Italy, and on September I, 1719, married Clementina Sobieska. The following year she presented him with a son, Charles Edward Louis Philip Sylvester Casimir Maria. In 1745 this "Young Pretender" journeyed to Scotland by boat and led the clans in a final Jacobite uprising, giving birth to the enduring legend of Bonnie Prince Charlie. MH Originally from Aberdeen, Scotland, DavidSharp now writes from Cedan>ille, Ofiio. For additional reading, fie

recommends: Scottish Battles: From Mons Graupius to Culloden, by John Sadler; Inglorious Rebellion, by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson; and Nothing But My Sword, b\ Sam Coull

MOROS

At the battles of Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak, the U.S. Army pitted its latest weaponry against the fortified hill forts and Islamic ferocity of the Filipino Moros.

T

he Philippine-American War—or "Insurrection," as the Americans called it—officially ended in 1902, However, 15 more years were lo pass before it could be truly said that warfare in America's Pacific empire was over After the defeat of the Tagalog-speaking, predominantly Spanish Catholic Filipinos who had first bitterly opposed the American takeover of their islands, Moros—believers in the Islamic faith—formed a new opposition to American rule in the Philippines. With the conclusion in 1902 ol Filipino-American hostilities in the northern provinces of Luzon, U.S. forces moved to exercise control over the whole of the Philippines. Before long, they came to the big island of Mindanao and to the Sulu Archipelago, a string of 150 smaller islands jutting out some 80 miles in a southwesterly direction into the Sulu Sea, near present-day Malaysia. Arriving at Zamboanga on Mindanao, the Americans found that the city, its environs and nearby islands were in the hands of the Moros. The Moros had occupied Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago for 500 years. For well over three centuries, they had battled the Spanish crown's rule over their homeland. After the Americans ousted the Spanish from the Philippines in 1898, the Moros believed that the United States—a country they barely knew existed—would leave the SuJu territory completely in their hands. Consequently, the Moros did not involve themselves in the subsequent insun-ection—nor were they present at the Treaty of Paris, which formally placed the Philippines under the dominion of the United States. After a series of intense negotiations at Zamboanga between U.S. Army Brig. Gen. J.C. Bales, Sultan Amir, titular head of the Moros of the Sulu Archipelago, and \9datiis (chiefs), an agreement was worked out by which the Moros recognized American sovereignty, chiefly in foreign affairs and law enforcement. As in the days under Spanish suzerainty, salaries were paid to the sultan and the datus, who controlled almost all other internal mattei-s. That treaty, however, only concerned the Moros of the Sulu Islands. When negotiations with the sultanate of Mindanao failed, the stage was set for the first of many battles between its Moro population and the Americans. The first engagement occuiTcd at Bayang, during which the 27th U.S. Infantry Regiment and 25th Mountain Ballery experienced the full-tilt charges of 1,200 kris-wielding Moros for the first time. The kris (pronounced "creese") is a sharp doubleedged, wavy-shaped steel blade about a foot long, the favorite weapon of the juramentado, Spanish for a Moro sworn by oath 58 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

to wage war to the death against the Christian infidels. Prior to battle, ihe jiirameutado perfoiTned an elaborate ritual that included careful cleansing of the body, cutting the nails and hair and shaving the eyebrows. Additionally, he donned a white robe called a/M^iia and a white turban. A cloth band was wound tightly around the waist to keep the back ramrod straight, and the genitals were wrapped with heavy leather cords to protect them. He also wore a charm to ward off enemy blows. The juramentado then polished his weapon of choice (usually the kris, but sometimes a barong, a longer single-edged sword, or a campilan, a tremendous two-handed sword) and, infused with

death. The juramentado believed that upon death he would enter Paradise mounted on a white horse, accompanied by the infidels he had killed, who would be his slaves. His conception of heaven was based on the Koran: "On couches with linings of brocade shall they recline and the fruit of two gardens shall be within easy reach. Therein shall be the damsels with retiring glances who no man hath touched before." religious fervor, went into battle. Aside from the rewards for martyrdom in a holy war, the His strategy was to get as dose as possible to a lat^e group of Christians; then, shouting "La ilaha il-hi-lahu" {'There is no Moro was fighting for his way of life and for his homeland. God but Allah"), he made straight for the center of the group, When General Bates described the wonders, riches and advanhoping to kill as many as he couid before finding a martyrs tages of the United States in order to impress the sultan of Min-

Soldiers of the U ^ . Stti Infantry and tfie Philippine Scouts use Kiag-Jorgensen rifles and Coh .45 pistols to repulse a charge hy Moros atop Btid Bagsak on Jolo Island, in Philippines Battle, 1913, hy H. Charles McBarron (The Granger Collection, NY).

JUNE2006 MILITARY HISTORV 59

MOROS An example off the razorshafp kris that was the Moro wanior's weapon of choice for dose combat Moros alsoffoughtwith longer barongs or twohanded campilans (Dominique Butdn).

danao, the latter is reported to have replied, "Ifthisbetrue, why do you come here to take my little islands?" Pound for pound, the small, slender Moro was the fiercest— and most foolhardy—opponent the American soldier had ever faced. Extreme courage in the face of certain death was the Moro norm, and his deadly skill with his ancient blades, the kris, barong and campilan, forced the U.S. Army to abandon its .38-caliber revolver in favor of the semiautomatic .45-caliber Colt pistol—the only weapon that could stop a Moro in the close-range combat that he favored. Among the participants in the Battle of Bayang was John J. Pershing, who would later pursue Pancho Villa into Mexico in 1916 and command the American Expeditionary Force in WoHd War I. On April S, 1903, Pershing was a captain and just beginning to learn what it took to defeat the Moros. But he was to be somewhat more successful than his predecessors, and he was soon promoted to the rank of general, ahead of other more senior officers. The Americans won at Bayang, and Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood became the first governor of the Sulu province, with the unenviable task of enforcing the hated Cedula Act. Essentially that law required all inhabitants of the Philippines to purchase an annual registration card called a cedula. The Moros interpreted that as a tribute for the privilege of living in their own land, and many of them moved deep into the jungles to avoid it. In many places they constructed cottas (forts) to fight off the tax collectors, who through necessity came with Filipino constables, and

frequently with American troops. I y early November 1903, the daiu Panglim Hassan had larrived in the outskirts of Jolo, capital city of the island of the same name, with a force of 4,000 men, to challenge the cedula and the American garrison there. Since the garrison did not have sufficient forces to deal with Hassan, a message was sent to General Wood in Zamboanga to come to Jolo. On arrival. Wood demanded Hassan's surrender. His reply in effect was, "If the Americans want me, they can come out and get me." Wood took Hassan up on his challenge, and a fierce battle was fought near Lake Seit. Over the following two weeks. Wood chased Hassan from cotta to cotta as the Moros fought a rear-guard action over 50 miles of jungle trails. Eventually, Hassan was cornered in a swamp and captured on November 15. In approximately 10 days of combat, more than 500 Moros and a score of Americans were killed. Major Hugh L. Scott, who commanded the Jolo garrison, personally participated in Hassans capture and was part of the armed escort that brought him in chains back to Jolo. As the Americans reentered the city's gates, however, a body of Moros sprang Irom concealment in a nearby house and with swinging krises cut a swath to their leader. The thud of American bullets slamming into Moro bodies mixed with the swishing sound of krises slicing American flesh, and within moments Hassan was freed. Major Scott was so badly cut that it was later necessary to amputate two fingers on his left hand. In March 1904, Scott, who would later become governor of the Sulu province, took part in the campaign to recapture Panglim Hassan, cornering him in the Moro fortress of Pang-Pang. There, with 40 men at his side, Hassan stood his ground until holes were punched in the cotta walls with artillery. The shrapnel killed most of the Moros inside. Again, the wily Hassan escaped and with two of his men fled to make what was to be his last stand in the heights of an extinct volcano, ln that fight, two of his followers were killed by sniper fire, and Hassan, badly wounded, rose up and chained in a last attempt to engage the Americans at close quarters; he was riddled with bullets and pitched forward down the slope, dead at last.

Captain John J. Pershing scans the tenain ahead as his boops advance on Fort Bacolod on April 8,1903. Three days eariier, he had had his first fight with the Moros at Bayang. 60 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

That was not the end of the Moro resistance. New leaders emerged, including Pala, who encountered Wood at the Tambang Pass in 1905. Pala, who was wanted for murder by British authorities in north Borneo, resisted ti'oopers \^'ho tried to an^est him. In the resulting gunfire, Pala, several of his cohoris and a U,S, soldier were killed. Pala's death only raised tensions and led to what came to be called either a battle or massacre, depending on one's viewpoint, at Bud Dajo on the island of Jolo in 1906. Atrocities by both sides had, in fact, gone on long enough to become an acceptable consequence of guenilla warfare in the Philippines, And in truth, mass murder and mayhem had been going on since time immemorial, as men of all coloi-s, races and beliefs fought to conquer and control the islands. The Moros had a well-deserved cutthroat reputation stemming from their piratical traditions and the practice known as amuk, in which generalized anger and individual giievances vvere relieved by the wanton slaughter of anyone in a deranged Moro's path. Neveriheless, the massacre that took place inside the crater of Bud Dajo, an extinct 2,100-foot volcano on Jolo Tsland some 600 miles due south of Manila, would be shocking by any standards. There, a small band of Moros built a cotla as a base from which to launch attacks on the Americans and Filipinos who enforced the hated cedilla tax. When rumors spread that an American force was coming, they called on the general Moro population to help defend them. That aimor, which proved to be true, sparked a desperate 36hour battle that began on the afternoon of Maixh 6, 1906, and ended on the afternoon of March 8, At its conclusion, 900 Moros, 15 U.S. soldiers and three members of the native constabulaiy lay dead. The magnitude of the battle and the circumstances suiTounding the massacre of the Moro band, which included men, women and children, shocked America.

Major General Leonard Wood (facing camera] joins troops of the 6th U.S. Infantry beside a wooden harricade on the trail to Bud Dajo. After Moros sallied from hehind one such barricade, fighting became hand to hand despite a fusillade of American rifle fire. i

Gunners of the 28th Artillery hombard the Moro cotta, or fort, on Bud Dajo, in March 1906. Once the Americans reached the 2,100-foot summit of the extinct volcano, their firepower was overwhelming, but the Moros regarded surrender as unthinkable.

MOROS In overall command of the force was General Wood, a foiiner Army surgeon and White House physician. Wood preferred the rigors of combat to those of an Army doctor and had received the Medal of Honor for his courage during the Indian wars. He gained additional honors in the Cuban campaign of the Spanish-American War, ser\-ing as the colonel in command of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavaln; better known as the Rough Riders. His second-in-command, Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, acted as though he were in charge, but that did not seem to bother Wood. He and TR were men of action, kindred souls, and they got along famously. After assuming the presidency following

field ration, in haste. Regular orders will reach you later. Yours truly, Leonard Wood." Shortly thereafter, Duncan assembled K and M companies of the 6th Infantry- and departed fi^om Zamboanga aboard the transport Wright. At Jolo he met with the governor of the Sulu province, Major Scott, who told him that negotiations with the Moro leaders to sun-ender and have their followers and families return to their homes had failed. Scott—acting with Woods concurrence and that of Wood's deputy. Brig. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss—then ordered Duncan to assault and take Bud Dajo. In addition to Companies M and K, which had a total of 272 men, Duncan was given 211 men of the 4th Cavalry, 68 men of the 28th Artillery, 110 When the sun rose, the Moros found men of the 19th Infantiy 51 men of the Sulu Constabulary and six seamen from the gunthemselves literally ringed with artillery boat Pampanga. Those enlisted men were and infantry. commanded by 31 noncommissioned officers and eight officers, for a total of 790 in William McKinleys assassination, Roosevelt eventually ap- the assault force. Early on the moming of March 5, 1906, artillen' was brought up near the base of the volcano, and 40 pointed Wood governor general of the Philippines. When he took that post, one of Wood's first tasks was to see rounds of shrapnel were lobbed into the crater. According to to it that the Moros of Jolo, who were most resistant to the later reports, the sheUing was done to induce the Moros to let cedula and had been stining up trouble on the island, were brought under control. On March 2, 1906, Colonel J.W. Duncan, in charge of the Zamboanga military district, received the fol- Americans survey a trench hill of Moro dead at Bud Dajo. lowing message: "Dear Colonel: I wish you would get two of Taking the position cost the lives of 15 Americans and three your companies logetber and go to Jolo at once. Nothing but Filipino constables, as well as 900 Moros, including women blanket rolls, field mess outfit, 200 rounds per man, seven days and children (National Archives].

their women and children leave the crater, but it produced no such result. At daylight the following moiiiing, American forces formed at the approaches to Bud Dajo and began moving up the slopes to the crest along steep, nairow trails located on thi'ee sides of the mountain. It was slow going for the men under Major Omar Bundy and Captains T\Tee R. Rivers and K.P. Lawton as each of the columns began their ascent. At 7 a.m. Major Bundy of the 6th Infantr\' found the trail blocked by a palisade constructed of heavy timber at a point some 500 feet below the rim of the crater. While trying to negotiate that obstacle, Bundy and his men came under attack by Moros, who sallied from behind the baiTicade armed with krises and spears. As they did, Bundy's men opened fire with their Kj^ag-Jorgensen rifles and grenades, and when that failed to stop the Moro charge, hand-to-hand combat followed. Two hundred Moros fell dead in that engagement, while the men of the 6th suffered only a few casualties, mostly in the tast rush of the Moros. Captain John R. White was severely wounded leading the chaise that cleared the wall of its Moro defenders. Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain, Captain Rivers was facing a similar banicade, and it took several hours of hard fighting to take it and reach the other side. Captain Lawton's men faced no such obstacle, but their advance was slowed down considerably by the Moros, who at regular intervals rushed his forces and harassed them by hurling huge stones down on his men. By late afternoon, the Americans had literally clawed their way up to positions just 50 feet below the rim of the volcano. Most of the way up, they had climbed up a 2,100-foot, 60-degree slope in debilitating tropical heat and humidity—and if that was not enough to kill a man, they had to do it while fighting the Moros all the way. They were ready to make the last assault of the day. To do that, the Americans had to clamber up the last 50 feet to the summit, which was at an almost perpendicular angle, on their hands and knees, and assault the trenches that the Moros had dug on the rim. By sunset, however, the Americans were in firm command of the summit. Now in the dai'kness, the troops faced another equally daunting challenge—that of keeping the Moros, who had taken cover

Fully equipped for battle, a Moro displays body armor, a Spanishinfluenced helmet, a decorated wooden shield and a campilan.

in the heavily wooded crater bottom, from counterattacking. In anticipation of that expected nighttime assault, they had to haul their artilleiT up to the volcano's rim with block and tackle, and move it around the top so as to command the crater from all sides. When the sun rose, the Moros looked up to find themselves literally ringed by artillery and infantry. Anyone else would have surrendered on the spot, but for the Moros such an act was spiritually impossible. As followers of Mohammed, they adhered to the teachings of the Koran and particularly to its admonition concerning the conduct of warfare: "O ve who believe, when ve meet the mai^haled hosts of

A sketch by Captain J.W. Lewis of the U.S. 8th Infantiy shows Bud Bagsak as viewed from the newly overrun coUa at Langunsan to the north. With two of the five Moro cottas taken, it took another two days for the Americans to fight their way up Bud Bagsak. JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 63

MOROS ihe infidel, lum not youf back lo ihem. Who .so shall turn his back to them on that day, unless to turn aside to fight, or to rally some other ti"oop, shall incur wrath h^om Allah. Hell shall be his abode and the wretched journey thither." Consequently, when the Americans asked them once again to give up, the Moros refused. When morning came. Colonel Duncan gave the signal to commence firing, and artilleiT and liile fiic poured into the crater. It was like shooting fish in a banel, but the Moros stubbornly hunkered down in their positions, and when the Americans iTished down into the crater, the sumving Moros took kris in hand and charged the U.S. troops, while others threw hand grenades fashioned from seashells and black powder. It was all to no avail—those Moi os who had sunived the shell and the bullet met theii" death with the bayonet. When it was al! over that afternoon, not a single Moro—man, woman or child—was left alive in that deadly cauldron. The floor of the crater was strewn wilh bodies and body parts. In the trenches where the Moros had sought cover, the corpses were piled five deep. An examination of the cadavei-s showed that many of the

the public furxjr soon faded as the appixiaching presidential election of 1908 swept it off the front pages. To the many who were later to criticize him. General Wood could say with some justification that the Moros had only themselves to blame, since they ignored repeated entreaties to sui"render. Even given the fact that the Moros were not oriented towar^d compr-omise, however, it is not clear why Wood, having succeeded in completely surrounding the Moros in the bowl of the cr-ater and in total command of the high gr'ound, chose to fiiT down upon them and then oi'der'ed his tr-oop.s into the pit to kill cveiy last one. Per'haps there was no choice. Wood was known as a soldiei' who took prisoner. He won fame as the man who hunted do\Mi Geronimo. and he was the one who r-eally led the Roirgh Rider-s on the charge up Cuba's San Juan Hill. After the action on Bud Dajo, Roosevelt sent him the following cable on March 9: "I congratulate you, and the officers and men of your command upon the bi'ave feat of arms wher^ein you and they so well upheld the honor of the ilag." This rout and annihilation notwithstanding, the war between those armed with Kr'ags and those wielding the kris continued in Mindanao, Bailen and other" islands of the Sulu ArchWhen it was all over that afternoon, not a ipelago. December 1911 saw another single Moro—man, woman or child—was confrontation with 500 Moros at the crater of Bud Dajo, but this lime, reason left alive in that deadly cauldron. pr-evailed. Using diplomacy. Colonel "Black Jack" Pershing was able to persuade most of the Moros to evacuate. Moros had as many as 50 wounds. Initial reports said that 600 Still, a few Moros stood their giTJund, and the second Battle of Moros were slain, but later accounts raised the death toll to 900. Bud Dajo lasted five days. The total killed on the U.S. side, including members of the The last major battle in Jolo took place at Bud Bagsak in June native constabulary, was 18, and 52 others were wounded. It 1913. The crest of the mountain was fonnidably defended by a was not a pi^oud moment for the Americans, though. True, they system of five subsidiary collas—Pujacabao, Bimga, Manhad scaled a precipitous, well-de fended peak under arduous tunkup, Langunsan and Pujagan—^which in turn protected tbe conditions. They had faced a savage enemy that did not know main fortress, Bagsak. A simultaneous assault on all of them the meaning of surrender. By sheer detennination, the Ameri- was necessary to attack the main cotla. cans had lifted their aitiliety pieces to ihe top of the mountain To counter that defense Pershing, who by then was a in total darkness. In the end, however; their military advantage br-igadier general, divided his forces into thr-ee wings. The right was so great in terms of weapons, equipment, manpower and wing, irnder- Major" George C. Sha\\' and comprising trx^ops from the terrain they held that their victory could rightly be called a the 40th Company, Philippine Scouts and Company M, 8th U.S. massacre. Moreover; the fact that many of the Mor'os wer^e Infantry, was to attack Langunsan and Mantunkup. The left women and children detracted considerably from Bud Dajo's wing, under Captain Taylor L. NichoIIs, comprised three combeing considered an oilhodox, evenly matched battle. panies of the Philippine Scouts, and was assigned to take Pujacabao, Bunga and Pujagan. The third wing was assigned lo the hen news oi the massacr-efir'stbecame known in the south face of Bud Bagsak to prevent a Moro retr'eat from that United States, a stomi of protest followed. The De- side. Once all units were in place, on June 11, Pei^shing's mounmocr-ats, the Anti-Imperialist League and some of tain guns bombarded the mountain, then the left and right President Roosevelt's Republican enemies sever^ely castigated wings each attacked their assigned objectives. him and General Wood. Mar'k Twain's scathing "Comments on The Mantunkup culta fell by noon of the first day, but only the Moro Massacre," and "The Chaise of the Wood Brigade," a after Captain NichoIIs' men had scaled a sheer 100-foot cliff, .sarcastic poem by Rep. John Shaip Williams of Mississippi in pulling themselves up by vines growing from the mountainihe style of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Char^ge of the Light side—all in the face of Mor'o gunfke. Eight Americans died in Brigade," were read into the Congressional Record and widely that assault. NichoIIs then led his force to ovenian Pujacabao disseminated. colta after hand-to-hand combat with the Moros who had surA ser mon by the Rev. Charles Parkhurst of the Fifth Avenue vived the preliminary- shelling. Prvsbyteiian Churxh in New York City as well as r"allics orgaThe Langunsan cotla was easily captur^ed with the loss of only nized by the Anti-Imperialist League also galvanized public one man, but the Americans suffer^ed eight more casualties in opinion. There was a flurry of pr otest activity for many months an unsuccessful Moro counter-attack. With two of their five after. A congi'essional hearing was held on the Jolo matter, but collas held by the Americans, the Mor os retreated to Bagsak,

W

64 MILITARY HtSTORY JUNE 2006

Pujagan and Bunga, and the first day of the battle came to a close. The battle resumed on June 12, with American forces pouring continuous rifle and artillery fire on the remaining cottas. Skirmishing broke out when the Moros, led by Datu Amil, his son and Datu Jami, staged a series of rushes in 20-man groups. During one of those efforts, they killed Captain Nicholls.

All day long the Americans at Langunsan were subjected to Moro gunfire from Bunga. Despite their superior numbers and firepower, the Americans were unable to make any progress. On the third day, a concerted effort was made to take Bunga. Captain Patrick Moylan finally took the cotta in a five-hour attack that included furious hand-to-hand fighting. When it was over, his men commanded the rim of the crater, and they spent the rest of the day hauling their mountain guns up into positions that would enable them to fire directly on the Bagsak cotta. By the next moming, June 14, the Americans were well dug in about 600 yards from Bagsak. They subsequently raked the Moro fort with rifle and machine gun fire. At 7 the next moming, June 15, a two-hour artillery barrage drove the Moros out of their trenches, after which they were picked off by sharpshooters. Meanwhile, the main body of American troops, supported by machine gun fire, moved up to a point just short of the Bagsak co/m. The last 75 yards of that advance were the most difficult of all, and it would take the Americans eight full hours to reach their objective. Around 4:45 p.m., with the Americans just 25 feet from the fort, the Moros made a last headlong assault. Standing up and shouting praises to Allah, they flung their campilans at their foes and then, holding their krises and barongs aloft, surged forward into a wall of lead—and, according to their beliefs, into Paradise. At 5 p.m. General Pershing, who had been present on the firing line throughout the assault, personally gave the order to cease fire. The Battle of Bud Bagsak was over. More than 500 Moros lay dead, along with 18 Americans. Pershing would later say of the fighting at Bagsak to a New York Times reporter that "there was probably nofiercerbattle since the occupation of the Phihppines." Lowlevel Moro resistance continued to bedevil U.S. forces in Mindanao and elsewhere, however, and it was not until 1917 that it could truly be said that the Krag had vanquished the kris. MH MiguelJ. Hernandez writes from Ossining, N.Y. For further reading, see Mosque and Moro: A Study of Muslims in the Philippines, by Peter G. Gowing. JUNE 2006 MILITARY HISTORY 65

R EV I E Leonard Wood embodied early U.S. imperialism as much as his friend Theodore Roosevelt. By Mike Oppenheim

WHO COMMANDED the Rough Riders in LEONARD 1898? Not Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt; he was second to Colonel Leonard Wood. Leonard Wood: Rough Rider, Surgeon, Architect of American Imperialism, by Jack McCallum (NYU Press, New York, 2005, $34.95), is this forgotten nationalfigure'sfir-stbiography in 75 years, and it turns out to be an entertaining read. After leaving Harvard Medical School, Wood joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Sent to Arizona Territory, he spent two years chasing Geronimos small but elusive Chiricahua Apache band, a grueling campaign that wore down so many officers Wood ended up commanding troops. He loved it—and earned the Medal of Honor for his efforts in 1886. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Roosevelt with uncharacteristic modesty insisted that an experienced officer command his Rough Riders. Roosevelt remained in the lime- only suggested that it was spread by moslight, so few complained that his choice quitoes; Wood went further But even in was a captain in the Medical Corps. that era of relaxed medical ethics, the exWood had a good war, and as military periments were widely denounced begovemor of Cuba after Spain's surrender, cause they required infecting humans. he cleaned up the cities, rebuilt the infra- When results confirmed Reeds theories, structure, reformed corrupt courts and Wood's antimosquito campaign procivil government, and began constixict- duced one of history's greatest public ing schools and charitable facilities. He health triumphs. also set up a goveriimental electoral !n 1902 Roosevelt, now pr'esident, sent system that fell apart four years after Wood to the Philippines, where he dealt American troops withdrew in 1902. with the warlike Islamic Moros, still a As govemor; Wood fought for a defini- thorn in the side of the Philippine govtive study of yellow fever and provided ernment today. Drawing on his experithe necessary money. Walter Reed gener- ence against the Apaches, Wood directed ally gets credit for conquering the deadly a brutal campaign that resulted in several disease, but his experiments at the time atrocities which made headlines in the United States (see story, P. 58). During that pericxl, his health deteriorated, the To see these reviews and hundreds more result of the brain tumor that killed him by leading authorities, go to our new 20 years later. Although McCallum is a book review section at skilled historian, his profession is neurowww.thehistorynet.com/reviews surgery, so readers will learn perhaps more than they want to know about Theit-jistoryNet.com Wood's health.

WOOD

66 MILITARV HISTORY JUNE 2006

As Army chief of staff from 1910 to 1914, Wood tried to bring the tiny professional army into the 20th century. Like most peacetime military reforms that cost money, it failed. When World War I broke out. Wood spoke around the country about preparedness and made no secret of his contempt for President Woodrow Wilson's disinterest in rearmament. This infuriated Wilson, so when the United States entered the war in April 1917, Wood spent it training tr(X)ps in Kansas. Roosevelt's sudden death in 1919 left Wood the most popular" Republican in the country, but he ran an amateurish presidential campaign from which fourthplace Wanen G. Harding emerged as the nominee. Soon after- the election, Harding appointed Wood govemor general of the Philippines. Within a few years. Wood's seizures and weakness worsened dramatically, and he died during a final operation on August 7, 1927. Barely known today. Wood was either a friend or enemy of every important figure in American government for 30 years. In Leonard Wood. McCallum has done his homework to produce an in.sightful portrait of pre-WWl military and presidential politics written in lively, lucid prose. Gunpowder—Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World, by Jack Kelly, Basic Books, New Yorit, 2005, $14.95. Gunpowder—Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyro-

technics approaches the titular subject in a manner that is broader and more encompassing than any other in recent memory. You won't be far into Gunpowder before you begin to appreciate the explosive effect this technology has had in the course of military history, as well as also in the realms of politics, science, art, religion and economics.

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The chronicle begins in 10th-century China, where this unique compound of sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter was developed by Oriental alchemists in the course of their seaix:h tor an elixir to bestow immortality upon their emperor—an irony of historic proportions. From those ancient beginnings, Jack Kelly launches into a worldwide examination of mankinds ongoing fascination with "artificial fire." Kelly's prose is smooth and gripping. Gunpowder is sprinkled with quotes from towering figures of histoiy such as Genghis Khan, Francis Bacon, Galileo, William Shakespeare, Robert F, Stockton and Alfred Nobel, giving this eompelling read a truly epic perspective. Scott A. Farrell The Aivful Etui of Prince William the Silent, by Lisa Jardin, HarperCoUins Publishers, New York, 2005, $21.95. Published as part of a series on historic events by Amanda Foreman and Lisa Jardin, The Awful End of Prince William the Silent describes the death of William ol Nassau, Prince of Orange, stadtftolder of the Low Countries and leader of the Netherlands' war for independence from Spain. Prince William was killed at the hands of Balthasar Gerard, a Frenchbom fundamentalist Catholic, carrying out the wishes of Spanish King Philip H, who had put a 25,000-ducat bounty on William's head. The death of William on July 10, 1584, did little to arrest the progress of Dutch independence, but Gerard's use of a wheel-lock pistol made it thefiT"stassassination by means of a handgun. Jardin describes the war in the Low Countries and the development of the pistol in light cavalry use, and investigates the policy of the intelligence services during the eonflict. In that context, William's death spread terror among his English supporters, leading Queen Elizabeth I and her ministere to legislate against public firearm possession. Thus Jardin connects that period with the current fears of attack by fundamentalist terrorists. Ultimately, however, military victories are more often seen as historic turning points than assassinations. By the time Spain recognized Dutch independence when the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the Netherlands was not only a nation but also a naval and colonial power Thomas Zacharis

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W E A P O N R Y The Sharps carbine became a Yankee breechloader in Redcoat dress. By Wayne R. Auslerman

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tain pass in a series of blind switchhacks that made the use of flankers and advance scouts impossible as the cavalry patrol edged cautiously forward. Suddenly a score of Jezail muskets crackled from the cover of earthworks sited well upslope. Men and horses fell, while other troopers dismounted and formed a loose skirmish line to return fire. A hussar, mouthing prayers in a Donegal brogue as he worked the lever of his Sharps carbine to slide another linen-cased cartridge home in its smoking breech, dropped an elder warrior. At that point the Afghan hillmen, puzzled at the speed with which the Europeans reloaded their weapons, retreated over the next ridgeline. Peace was being upheld again on the Raj's Northwest Frontier by a handful of troopers armed with blades forged in SheiBeld and carbines crafted in Connecticut. After decades of complacency, the Crimean War of 1854 spurred the British

Nocks and, fora fortunate few, rifled Baker carbines. By 1854, the standard cavalry long arm was the Pattern 1842 Victoria carbine, a percussion muzzleloader bored to take a .733-caliber ball that was potent but woefully inaccurate past 50 yards. In July 1855, the British placed an order with the Sharps Ritle Manufacturing Co. for 1,000 carbines of the improved 1852 pattern, followed in August by an order for another 5,000. Except for a minor .06-inch increase in bore diameter, no significant modifications were required—until late September, when the British purchasing agent specified that all of Christian Sharps' carbines had to be fitted with the Maynard patent tape-priming device. Lacking the production capacity to manufacture 6,000 such weapons on short notice. Sharps signed a contract with Robbins & Lawi ence of Hartford, Conn., on November 9, 1855, to fabricate "500 carbines of 32 bore, with 6 grooves; and 6,000 to be 'bored to the model sent

In 1855 the British army ordered 6,000 slightly modified versions of the Sharps improved pattern 1852 carbines. Most were manufactured under contract by Robbins & Lawrence.

army to reform its command structure and modernize its weapons. An early example came in 1853, when the new pattern of Enfield rifled musket was adopted for generalfieldservice. British cavalry regiments had used a variety of carbines since the Napoleonic wars, such as smoothbore Pagets and 70 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

from England' with 3 grooves." Of the latter, 3,000 were to have 21-inch barrels and 3,000 were to have 18-inch barrels. Although the contractor eventually incurred some penalties for late deliveries, 6,000 carbines were in British hands before autumn 1856—too late to see service in the Crimea. The 7th Queens Own

Hussars received 500 of the new weapons on July 10, 1857. Deliveries followed to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, the 1st King's Dragoon Guards, the 2nd Queen's Bays Dragoon Guards and the 3rd Prince of Wales' Dragoon Guards at their home depots. MEANWHILE, IN INDIA, anti-British sen-

timents came to a head when Hindu and Muslim soldiers serving in the army of the East India Company, incited by rumors—eventually proved false—that the paper-cased small-arms cartridges issued to them were greased with tallow from both pigs and cattle, mutinied. The native troops, called sepoys, left Bengal and the Punjab in flames. The 36.000 British troops on the scene were hardpressed to survive, much less keep the uprising from spreading. By the late summer of 1857, however, the tide was slowly turning against the mutineers. Reinforcements were mustered in England, including all of the Sharps-armed mounted regiments. Two of them were fated to miss most of the action—the 1st Dragoon Guards were crippled by a dearth of suitable mounts, while the 3rd Dragoon Guard was employed mainly in courier and escort duties. The 2nd Dragoon Guards and the 7th Hussars landed in India on November 27. The 8th Hussars took ship in Cork with the 17th Lancers early in October and reached Bombay in mid-December A squadron of the 7th Hussars was detached at newly recaptured Cawnpore and sent to reinforce the 4,000-man garrison holding Alambagh, an outpost near Lucknow, which had been under repeated attacks since mid-November The squadron's Sharps carbines doubtless boosted the defenders' firepower until the last assault was repulsed in late February 1858. Meanwhile. Field Marshal Sir Colin Campbell had massed 31,000 troops to

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WEAPONRY retake Lucknow in March, after a 19-day siege of the rebel citadel. His 3,500 cavali^men were grouped in a division of two brigades commanded by Maj. Gen. Sir James Hope Grant. Brigadier William Campbell of the 2nd Dragoon Guards led one brigade that included his own regiment and the 7th Hussars, as well as the Lst Punjab Cavalry, Hodson's Horse and Barrow's Volunteer Cavalry. On March 6, 1858, a large party of mutineers sortied fiom the fieldworks surrounding Lucknow and clashed with Campbell's cavalry. Two squadrons of the Bays led by Major Percy Smith pursued the rebels three miles to within musket range of their lines, killing more than 100 before they were slowed by broken ground and their own casualties. Smith and two troopers died, while six other Dragoon Guardsmen were wounded. The final assault on Lucknow succeeded, but mishandling of the cavalry division by senior commandei-s permitted thousands of the rebels to escape through a gap in the British lines. The onset of hot weather plagued Campbells methodical advance, intended to clear north-central India of the mutineers and their allies, while a resurgence in enemy activity sparked a sharp engagement at Nawabganj, northeast of Lucknow. In the searing heat of mid-June. Grant made a swift night march with 3,500 troops to surprise 15,000 rebels. After nearly three hours of fighting, a large body of Ghazi tribesmen and a section of rebel artillery moved to attack the British right, but Grant saw the danger in time and sent the 7th Hussars in with a battery in support, dri\'ing off the enemy with the loss of nine guns and 600 dead. At the end of the battle, the British tallied 67 combat casualties and nearly 300 men killed or prostrated by sunstroke.

even in the British ranks. In mid-June, Rose confronted both Tantia Topi and the rani near the fortress of Gwalior. The 8th Hussars were brigaded with the lancers of the lst Bombay Cavalry and the 2nd Troop, Bombay Horse Artillery, commanded by Brigadier Michael W. Smith, who led one of several converging columns to rendezvous with Roses main force. Rose resumed the advance on the morning of June 17. The infantiy and ariillery forced a large rebel contingent to retreat through Morar, over a range of hills and then through a nan-ow pass that could have served as a strong defensive position had the enemy chosen to make a stand. The 8th Hussars led the advance through the defile and found the rest of the rebel force drawn up in battle formation on the plains fronting Gwalior's walls. Smith knew his cavalrymen were vastly outnumbered, but he was loath to let the rebels regain the initiative. The brigadier deployed a light squadron of 98 troopei^s from the 8th and ordered a chaise as his infantiy and artillerv' provided covering fire.

For the second time in less than four years, the 8th Hussare charged an entire army. Showing the same resolve as at Balaclava, Captain Clement Heneage and the many other veterans of that ghastly action cut their way into an already buckling rebel line and thundered on. With the rebel infantry in full flight, the troopers sheathed their sabers and brought their carbines to the ready as a tangle of Pathan horsemen sought to blunt their charge where a batteiy of guns still commanded the roadway. Heneage's troopers swept on, and in seconds they were leaping the barricade and w^ea\ing among the limbers as rebel ariillerymen died or fled before them. The Pathan hoi-semen rallied as a slim figure dressed as a man held her mount's reins in her teeth and crossed steel with Heneage's lead troopers. A Sharps cracked, and the impact of a .577 round AS SIR COLIN CAMPBELL'S forces con- lifted the Rani of Jhan.si kom the saddle tinued their rcconquest of northern India, and left her dying in the roiling dust amid Maj. Gen. Sii- Hugh Rose led the 4,500- the riot of hooves. man Central India Field Force in a fiveOne officer of the 8th died of sunstroke, month, 1,000-mile campaign against the seven men were killed and another seven rebels to the south, fighting 16 actions and wounded in the melee, but the rebels had capturing 100 guns, two fortresses, two lost all heart for battle, and the hussars cities and 20 forts. By the late spring of hauled the captured guns to British lines. 1858, Rose had scored repeated victories, Another battle followed on June 18, but but strong rebel forces remained at large the Bombay lancers charged over the under the leadership of such figures as same ground crossed by Heneage's men Tantia Topi and Lakshmibai, the charis- the day before and led Rose's infantry into matic Rani of Jhansi, whose beauty, cour- the streets of Gwalior, as Tantia Topi and age and fighting skill won her admirers his army fled. Heneage and three troop-

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WEAPONRY ers of the 8th were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. The Gwalior victory marked the end of any major offensive threat fi-om the mutineers, but many smaller actions remained to be fought, as fugitive bands were hunted down. The 8th Hussars remained in the thick of things between December 1857 and May 1859, during which the Shaips repeatedly proved its worth. A typical engagement took place on the banks of the Bunas River on August 15, 1858, when Captain George Clowe's troop of the 8th and a detachment of the 1 st Bombay's lancers drove a band of rebels into a thicket of brush so tangled and dense that neither saber nor lance could come into play. "We spread out in skirmishing order, got out the carbines (the new Sharpe's [sic] breechloading ones) and shot every man of them we could see," boasted the regimental history of that action. Six months later the hussars fought a large rebel band mounted on camels, whose height kept their riders beyond a saber's reach until the Englishmen's pistols and carbines carried the day, killing about 200 mutineers. SOON AFTER THE suppression of the Sepoy Mutiny, the Sharps carbines were cracking on the skirmish lines again. In Januarv 1860, a squadron of the 1 st Dragoon Guards joined the n,OOO-man "China Expeditionary Force" as it departed India and sailed eastward to a confrontation with Imperial China. When not clashing with Tartar cavalry, the guardsmen performed patrol, escort and scouting duties, as well as the dangerous task of carrying daily dispatches for 75 miles between Tientsin and Beijing. Back in India, a series of uprisings broke out along the Northwest Frontier in the fall of 1863. On January 2, 1864. a force of 5,000 Mohmand tribesmen massed to attack Fort Shabqadr The isolated post was held by 1,700 troops, including 145 troopers of the 7th Hussars and 332 mounted sepoys of the 2nd and 6th Bengal cavalrv. The British elected to meet the Mohmands on an expanse of level, cleared ground near the foil. The tiibesmen ihrcw their right wing foi"ward and down from the high gi-ound, giving the Europeans a chance to mount a charge. The 7th charged the Mohmands three times before the ganison commander sent forward his infantry in skirmishing order. The tribes-

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men, lashed by Sharps fire on their flank and Enfield rounds from their front, retreated across the border. The Sharps remained in the hussars' and guardsmen's hands for another four years as they kept the peace and punished transgressors along the border On November 10,1868, the 7th Hussars received 337 new Snider Enfield breechloading, metallic-cartridge carbines from the Ferozepore Ai"senal and gave up its Sharps. UTTLE IN THE WAY of official comment survives of the British evaluation of the Sharps as a service weapon, although one veteran ordnance officer criticized it for leaking gas at the breech and a tendency for caked powder fouling to make it difficult to open the breechblock after prolongedfiring.These faults, however, were common to virtually all breechloading weapons of the time. The ordnance mavens decided against adopting the Sharps as an army-wide standard cavalry arm, and by February 1864 only 2,400 of the otiginal 6,000 weapons purchased remained in British hands. The bulk of the carbines had been declared surplus and sold to the U.S. government, which was then combing Europe for arms with which to equip the Union cavalry during the Civil War. If the British had experienced mixed feelings about their American breechloaders, their enemies found much to admire, for several native-made copies of the Sharps, originating in India, are known to exist today. Afghan tribal artisans on the Northwest Frontier were adept at fashioning copies of virtually every British service arm they captured in more than a century of conflict, and it is entirely possible that ersatz Model 1855 Sharps carbines appeared on the frontier before the end of the 1850s. In America the Sharps carbine was dubbed "Beecher's Bible" after the Northern abolitionist clei^man who shipped crates of the weapons to Kansas for use by the Free State militia in that divided territory on the eve of the Civil War. On the disputed Northwest Frontier of India, the Sharps carbines bearing the Victorian cipher on their krckplates might well have been dubbed "Khyber Korans" or "Heneage's Hymnals' in recognition of the role they played in the thrust and pany of life as experienced by both those who guarded and those who challenged the outposts of an empire. MH

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78 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

fensive action. BY NOVEMBER 2, the north bank of the Chongchon River was held by the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade and the 19th Infantr>' Regiment of the 24th Division. The two units were separated by a five-mile gap, supposedly patrolled constantly. On November 5, the Chinese began probing the U.N. forces' defensive line, evading patrols and mo\ing freely through the gap. Warnings of the Chinese habit of attacking at night fell on deaf ears in many of the U.N. units. On the night of November 5, the Chinese followed field telephone lines that led to C Company of the 19th Infantiy Many of the Americans were caught and killed in their sleeping bags. Nearby, entrenched on Hill 123, E Company of the I9th was tr\ing to hold its section of the Chongchon River line. Fortunately for that company, Coiporal Red Cloud had heeded the warnings and stayed awake. Quietly, about 1,000 infantrymen of the Chinese 355th Regiment infiltrated between the 2nd Battalion and the 27th Commonwealth Brigade. Red Cloud was positioned in a forward observation post at a point immediately in front of the E Company command post. From there, he was able to detect the Chinese when they launched their assault at about 3:20 a.m., under a nearly full moon. As the enemy charged h^om a brush-covered ai"ea, less than 100 feet from him. Red Cloud gave the alarm to his fellow soldiers. Then, grabbing his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and springing up from his place of concealment, Red Cloud emptied magazine after magazine into the charging Chinese troops at point-blank range. "His accurate and intense fire checked this assault and gained time for the company to consolidate its defense," his citation read, also noting that even after he was shot twice in the chest and his assistant BAR man was killed, "With utter fearlessness he maintained his firing position until severely wounded by enemy fire." Perry Woodley, the 2nd Platoon medic, rushed to Red Clouds foxhole and applied field dressings to his wounds. As Woodley went off to treat others on the hill, he could hear the bark of a BAR resume behind him. Red Cloud was hit again and called for aid. Woodley found

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PERSONALITY him badly wounded and Iricd lo gel him off the hill, but Red Cloud refused fuiiher medical help and told Woodley to concentrate on getting the other wounded men to safety. "Corporal Red Cloud pulled himself to his feet," the citation continued, "and wrapping hi.s ami around a tree, continued his deadly Hre again, until he was fatally wounded." Under his covering fire, the rest of E Company began a fighting retreat from the hilltop lo loi'tilied positions 1,000 yards south of HiU 123. Red Cloud was reportedly struck by as many as eight bullets before dying. When his comrades went Lo retrieve his body ihe next day, they found "a string of dead Chinese soldiers" in fixint of him.

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Mugs, Hat Tacs, Decals Red Clouds selfless and heroic act stopped the Chinese from ovenunning E Patches, Lighters, Bumper Company's position and gained valuable Stickers, Key Chains time for reorganization and the evacuaPOW-MIA Bracelets tion ot the wounded. In April 1951, at a Watches, Dogtags ceremony at the Pentagon, in WashingSend S3.25 for Color Catalog to: ion, D.C, Coiporal Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. H-R PRODUCTS was posthumously awai^ded the Medal of Dept. M H J - 1 0 7 Trent Rd. Honor, which was presented to his Turnersville, NJ 08012 mother by General Omar N. Bradley. In NO FOREIGN ORDERS. 1955, Red Cloud's remains were returned from the U.N. eemeter>' in Korea for burial, in accordance with the ancestral WELCOME TO IMA... A UNIQUE LOOK AT MILITARY HISTORY custom of hi.s people, in Wiscon.sin. Our company has been in tbe Mail Order business since 1981. Most On November 5, 2000, the 50th anof our materials are supplied diniversai-y of Red Clotid's death, the U.S. rectly to us from Europe which is why so rnuch of the merchandise we Department of Defense, Korean War offer is unavailable elsewhere. Whether the casual hobbyist ar reenactor. Commemoration Committee, paid a visit we have that special item to comto Black River Ealls in the Ho-Chunk plete your collection. We ore strictly moil order and do not operate a reNation. There it pre.sented the Republic tail store in the United States. Please of Korea War Seivice Medal to his daugh'is/I our all new web site to view our full product selection, compiete ter, Annita Red Cloud. . with color photos of many items. • or call to receive a copy of our Perhaps the most notable recognition print catalog, FREE, featuring our ' unique cartoon illustrations given lo Red Cloud for his deed besides the 1000 VALLEY ROAD • GILLETTE, NJ 07933 medal itself took place on AugusL 7, 1999, 908^903 1200 • FAX 908 903^106 www.ima-usa.com or www.atlantacutlery.coni when members of the Ho-Chunk Nation, along with dignitaries from the U.S. AMERICAN COLLEGE AiTny and Naw, stood on a dock in San ""'HERALDRY Diego, Calif., for the launching of USNS Red Cloud, the fourth of seven Strategic WewillasaistiBtlie Sealift Ships built since 1993 and named don Ol 1JOU after Medal of Honor recipients. Among the attendees for the launching was VlSrr OUR WEBSITE Annita Red Cloud and Tris Yellowcloud, his granddaughter. Also present was Kenneth Kei\shaw, a member of E Company, MILITARY BOOKS - NEW AND USED 19th Infantiy, who was on Hill 123 that BOOK SEARCHES FOR HARD moming. Kershaw expressed the simple 1O I'lND n^:^\s. ; essence of why he was there lo honor his comrade: "If it were not for the alarm ^v^vw.hawkbooks.com 1 sounded by Mitchell Red Cloud, 1 would 951-526-2323 4 not be here today." MH

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A new name but no good ending for Orton Williams, once a suitor to Robert E. Lee's daughter Agnes. By C. Brian Kelly

EARLY IN THE Civil War, Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, then still the generalin-chief of all the Northern armies, was in the habit of writing short daily bulletins for President Abraham Lincoln. "These were copied by a young officer, a relative of the Lee family, in whom the general took an extraordinary interest, and whom he supposed he had warmly attached to himself by many signal favors," wrote the then-assistant adjutant general of the Army, Edward D. Townsend, after the war Scott, himself Virginia-bom, was keenly disappointed when his beloved Robert E. Lee refused the offer to command a Northern army and instead opted to resign from the U.S. Army altogether and side with newly seceded Virginia, which was his native state also. But Scott later would draw the line at giving that young officer who was related to Mrs. Lee, one WiUiam Orton Williams by name, full access to every bulletin going to Lincoln. Not when the bulletin one day concerned the pending Federal seizure of the grand Arlington estate across the Potomac River from Washington that was the ancestral home of Mrs. Lee and her prominent famUy. "For prudential reasons this bulletin was copied by another person," said Townsend, "and it was not intended that the young aide should know anything about it." But apparently he did...and thereby hangs a stiU-mysterious and convoluted tale of the American Civil War. In the first place, and by Townsends account. General Scott left the bulletin on a table, "and the young man read it." And further, "He doubtless made it known to Mrs. Lee." Most historical accounts agree that it was her cousin Orton Williams, a suitor of one of the Lee daughters, who warned Mrs. Lee that the Federals were about to seize Arlington. As a result, she hurriedly packed a few valuables and left. 82 MILITARY HISTORY JUNE 2006

thus taking up a semimigrant life with no permanent home to call her own for the duration. Lee himself cJready had departed for Richmond for duty, first as a Virginia general and then as the most renowned of all Confederate generals. As is well known, Arlington became a Union hospital and cemetery, the core of today s vast and storied Arlington National Cemetery, its white-columned manor house still overlooking the nations capital. Mrs. Lee many years after the war once revisited their former home. By then she was burdened with many sad memories. And one of them certainly would have been of her cousin Orton, who joined the ranks of the Confederacy and then, after months of silence, returned one Christmas to the family bosom strangely and darkly changed. By this time, Christmas 1862, he apparently had shot one of his own soldiers at Shiloh for being slow to obey an order, and, oddly, he had changed his name to Lawrence Orton. In addition, wrote Mary P. Coulling in her book The Lee Girls, "His finely chiseled features seemed to have coarsened, as if he had been drinking heavily." Unhappily, too, one day, after a private talk with Agnes, he abruptly left, not to be heard of again until June 1863, when the family was shocked by a story appearing in the newspapers of the day. Orton, it seems, and another young man, also a cousin, both in Yankee uniforms, had been stopped by Union troops near Franklin, Tenn., tried during the night by a drumhead court-martial and hanged the next day as spies. Orton had claimed to be a U.S. Army colonel named Lawrence Orton, but a search of his person revealed he was carrying $1,000, while his saber and hatband both gave his real name and rank in the Confederate Army. His companion was his cousin, Walter Gibson Peter. The order to try the pair overnight and

execute them if they were found to be spies allegedly came from a headquarters staff in Murfreesboro, Tenn., that included Brig. Gen. James A. Garfield, a future president of the United States. The order later, after the fact, was publicly approved by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The Lees—^and Southerners in general— were both shocked and outraged, but other, more crucial events intervened. Lee's cavalry officer son Rooney was wounded at Brandy Station, Va., the very day of Orton's execution. In the meantime, Robert E. Lee was leading his Army of Northern Virginia toward a then little-noted town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg. Daughter Agnes, whose sister Anne had died of typhoid less than a year earlier, was staggered by the news of Orton's death. A brother-in-law said she never recovered from the shock. On her own early deathbed in 1873, Agnes asked to have her Bible given to Orton's sister Markie. "You know," she said, "Orton gave it to me." These were almost the last words she ever uttered. As for Orton's own final thoughts, he wrote Markie a farewell note just before his death. Having admitted to his captors that he was a Confederate officer, he now wrote to his sister, oddly enough, with a vehement denial. "Do not believe that I am a spy," he declared. "With my dying breath I deny the charge." Mysterious to the bitter end, Orton never revealed what mission would have prompted his appearance in Union-held territory, in Union military garb, with the $ 1,000 found on his person. Ironically, too, Mrs. Robert E. Lee, back in 1861, had suspected that old friend Winfield Scott deliberately sent warning word of the Federal plans to seize Arlington by way of the same William Orton Williams. And who knows, perhaps he did. MH