Edward M. Coffman, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898. New York, Oxford University Press, 1986
“The Old Army is the army that existed before the last war”
Biography: Edward M. Coffman is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served as a research assistant for Forrest Pogue as he wrote his biography on George C. Marshall. He earned his PhD from the University of Kentucky and taught at Memphis State, Kansas State, USMA, USAFA, the Army War College and CGSC. He also served on the DA History Committee, including four years as its chair. He is the recipient of many awards including the SMHs Samuel Eliot Morison Award for his overall contribution to the field. His primary interests have been WWI era including a biography on Peyton C. March and one of the seminal texts on that war- The War to End All Wars.
Overview: A comprehensive look at life in the “peacetime” U.S. Army between 1784 and 1898, this work is a product of the earliest era of ‘new’ military history. Clearly showing the impact of the social and cultural turns on military historiography, the book addresses not only the Army officer corps and regular enlisted ranks, but also the women and children who comprised the ranks of camp followers and Army families.
Central Thesis: While some problems, customs, and attitudes remained the same in the nineteenth-century army, the advance of the frontier, the rapid evolution of technology, and the pattern of a larger army after each war emphasized change to those who experienced it.
Scope of Book:
Three distinct periods: 1784-1812, 1815-1860, and 1865-1898. He spends the first chapter on the first period and then devotes three chapters to each of the others, one each for officers, women and children, and enlisted. Takes the reader from the days of the 700-man army of 1784 to the advent of war with Spain. He emphasizes the turn to professionalization over the course of the century, especially the latter half. This book is full of anecdotes and tidbits.
He describes the experience of those in and around the army throughout the entire 19th Century while placing them in context of greater U.S. society. Coffman illustrates the evolution of the “peacetime” force (though accurately asserts that ‘peacetime’ was often comprised of anything but ‘peace’) through the early decades of operations chiefly as “frontier constabulary” to the post-Civil War era of gradual professionalization. Through engagement with a wide array of primary sources, Coffman is able to recreate nearly every conceivable detail of life in the Regular Army during the period. While also painstakingly outlining the myriad of constabulary forts this army existed in before consolidating and professionalizing.
Coffman emphasizes the ridicule Regulars received from the American public, who largely associated the Army with “white-trash” and immigrants, down on their luck, who could obtain no other gainful employment due ostensibly to ignorance, vice, or sloth. This public impression was very different from that associated with the citizen-soldier volunteers who comprised the bulk of America’s armies during “wartime.” While officers fared slightly better, American disdain for standing professional militaries ensured a continuously contemptuous relationship between the public and the officer corps. Most of this is, as Coffman points out, a direct result of traditional American revulsion to standing armies. His findings on black soldiers stands out- he finds they had better records on desertion and alcoholism than white troops.
Problems:
His treatment of women and children seems a bit haphazard, and perhaps even a cop-out attempt to appeal to more than traditional military historiography, but those two chapters focusing on these oft-forgotten demographic groups goes far to illustrate how “the Army” was an experience as much as it was an occupation and an institution.
His analysis confirms some of the public’s stereotyped ridicule. The enlisted ranks were predominately drawn from those down on their luck throughout the era. Northern free labor states consistently provided vastly disproportionate amounts of native-born enlisted recruits to the peacetime Regular Army, while German and Irish immigrants (also predominately from Northern states) made up most of the rest.
Commentary: A clear response to Richard Kohn’s call for social history of the American soldier- this is a social history of the entire Army over the course of a decade. The book is a very enjoyable read. Its scope and detail make it perfect for any reader who wants a comprehensive history of the army in the 19th Century in peacetime.