Information Capabilities and Military Revolutions: The Nineteenth-Century Experience

Abstract

This paper considers the contribution of military publishing to the nineteenth-century military revolution leading to the Great War. The subject is addressed in four contexts. The first is informational, analyzing the role of military publications in making available data and ideas that increased military effectiveness. The second is syncretic, evaluating the effect of military publications on cohesion within increasingly large, complex armies, and between armies and their societies. The third is internal. It discusses the contributions to professional insecurity generated by print, and by its electronic extensions the telegraph and the telephone. Finally, the paper considers the print revolution's influence on actual war-fighting

Notes

Williamson Murray and MacGregor Knox, ‘Thinking about Revolutions in Warfare’, in William Murray and M. Knox (eds.), The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 (New York: CUP 2001) pp.1–14. The authors speak of the seventeenth-century creation of the modern nation-state as an independent phenomenon; the process may also be interpreted as an aspect of the Scientific Revolution.

Cf. inter alia, R.A. Houston, Literacy in Early Modern Europe: Culture and Education (London: Longman 1988); and David Vincent, The Rise of Mass Literacy: Reading and Writing in Modern Europe (Cambridge: CUP 2000).

Daniel R. Headrick, When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850 (New York: OUP 2000).

See John Ashley Mears, ‘Count Raimondo Montecuccoli: Practical Soldier and Military Theoretician’, dissertation, University of Chicago, 1964; John A. Lynn, ‘The Treatment of Military Subjects in Diderot's Encyclopédie’, The Journal of Military History 65/1 (Jan. 2001) pp.131–65; and Patrick Speelman, Henry Lloyd and the Military Enlightenment of Eighteenth-Century Europe (Westport, CT: Greenwood 2002). Cf. also the general discussion in John C. O'Neal, The Authority of Experience: Sensationalist Theory in the French Enlightenment (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP 1996).

Christopher Duffy, The Army of Frederick the Great (Newton Abbott: David and Charles 1974) pp.28 ff.; Theodor Schieder, Frederick the Great, ed. and tr. S. Berkeley and H.M. Scott (London: Longman 2000) pp.48–9. Useful too in this context is Adolf von Crousaz, Geschichte des koeniglich preussischen Kadetten-Korps nach seiner Entstehung, seinem Entwicklungsgang, und seinen Resultaten (Berlin: Schindler 1857).

James L. Morrison, ‘The United States Military Academy, 1833–1866: Years of Progress and Turmoil’, dissertation, Columbia University, 1970.

W.S. Serman, Les origins des officiers francais, 1848–1870 (Paris: Sorbonne 1979).

The quotation is paraphrased from Raoul Girardet, La Société militaire dans la France contemporaine, 1815–1939 (Paris: Plon 1953) p.110.

Dennis Showalter, ‘Hubertusburg to Auerstaedt: The Prussian Army in Decline?’, German History 12/3 (Oct. 1994) pp.314–5; and more generally F.K Tharau, Die geistige Kultur des preussischen Offiziers von 1648 bis 1806 (Mainz: Hase & Kohler 1968), discuss eighteenth-century military intellectuality in a Prussian/German context. Cf. David Bien, ‘The Army and the French Enlightenment: Reform, Reaction and Revolution’, Past & Present 85 (November 1979) pp.68–98.

Useful on the concept in general is Bruno Nieser, Aufklaerung und Bildung: Studien zur Entstehung und gesellschaftlichen Bedeutung von Bildungskonzeption in Frankreich und Deutschland im Jahrhundert der Aufklaerung (Weinheim: Deutscher Studien-Verlag 1992).

Charles Edward White, The Enlightened Soldier. Scharnhorst and the Militaerische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805 (New York: Praeger 1989) pp.28–65 and passim.

David A. Kronick, A History of Scientific & Technical Periodicals: The Origins and Development of the Scientific and Technical Press, 1665-1790, 2nd edn. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press 1976).

Paul Johnson, The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815-1830 (New York: HarperCollins 1991) pp.948 ff. surveys the process.

Max Jaehns, ‘Das Militair-Wochenblatt von 1816 bis 1876’, in Max Jaehns: Militaergeschichtliche Aufsaetze, ed. U. von Gersdorff (Osnabrueck: Biblio 1970) pp.287–304; and more generally Arden Bucholz, Moltke, Schlieffen, and Prussian War Planning (Providence, RI: Berg 1991) pp.24–5.

Eberhard Kessel, ‘Moltke und der Kriegsgeschichte’, Militaerwissenschaftliche Rundschau 2 (1941) pp.96–125.

The above discussion of German military publications is based on Helmut Schnitter, Militaerwesen und Militaerpublizistik: Die militaerische Zeitschriftenpublizistik in der Geschichte des buergerlichen Militaerwesens in Deutschland (East Berlin: Deutsche Militaerverlag 1967).

Gary Cox, The Halt in the Mud: French Strategic Planning from Waterloo to Sedan (Boulder, CO: Westview 1994).

Geoffrey Wawro, ‘An “Army of Pigs:” The Technical, Social, and Political Bases of Austrian Shock Tactics, 1859–1866’, The Journal of Military History 59/3 (July 1995) pp.407–34.

See Andrew Lambert and Stephen Badsey, The Crimean War (Dover, NH: Sutton 1994); and two excellent case studies, Harry J. Maihafer, The General and the Journalists: Ulysses S. Grant, Horace Greely, and Charles Dana (Washington, DC: Brassey's 1998); and John Marszalek, Sherman's Other War: The General and the Civil War Press (Kent, Ohio: Kent State UP, 1999).

Cf. Edwin C. Fishel, The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin 1996); and Brayton Harris, Blue & Gray in Black and White: Newspapers in the Civil War (Washington, DC: Brassey's 1999).

Dennis Showalter, ‘Prussian Cavalry, 1806–1871: The Search for Roles’, Militaergeschichtliche Mitteilungen 19 (1976) pp.7–22.

Michael Howard, The Franco-Prussian War (London: Macmillan 1961) pp.192–3.

See as a case study Gerd Krumeich's analysis of the Three Years Law, Armaments and Politics in France on the Eve of the First World War, tr. S. Conn (Dover, NH: Berg 1984).

Alex Hall, Scandal, Sensation, and Social Democracy: The SPD Press and Wilhelmine Germany, 1890-1914 (Cambridge: CUP 1977).

John Campbell, ‘Naval Armaments and Armour’, in R. Gardiner (ed.), Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship, 1815-1905 (London: Conway Maritime 1992) pp.158–69, is a survey emphasizing international aspects.

Cf. Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: CUP 1973); and The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: CUP 1983).

This was true even for the roughest and readiest field army on either side. A.R.B. Houghton, Training, Tactics, and Leadership in the Confederate Army of Tennessee (London: Frank Cass 2000). Perry D. Jamieson, ‘The Development of Civil War Tactics’, dissertation, Wayne State University, 1979, remains worth consulting for the relationship of training, tactics and effectiveness

Allan Mitchell, Victors and Vanquished: The German Influence on Army and Church in France after 1870 (Chapel Hills, NC: North Carolina UP 1984), surveys this process of cross-acculturation in general.

Robert H. Scales, ‘Artillery in Small Wars: The Evolution of British Artillery Doctrine, 1860–1914’, dissertation, Duke University, 1966, pp.48–93.

Carol Reardon, Soldiers and Scholars: The U S Army and the Uses of Military History, 1865-1920 (Lawrence, KS: Kansas UP 1990) pp.92–3.

Dudley Knox, ‘The Role of Doctrine in Naval Warfare’, US Naval Institute Proceedings 41 (1915) pp.325–54. See the excellent discussion in Keith B. Bickel, Mars Learning: The Marine Corps' Development of Small War Doctrine, 1915-1940 (Boulder, CO: Westview 2001) pp.1–20.

See Brent Nosworthy, The Anatomy of Victory: Battle Tactics, 1689-1763 (New York: Hippocrene 1990). George Nafziger, Imperial Bayonets: Tactics of the Napoleonic Battery, Battalion, and Brigade as Found in Contemporary Regulations (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books 1996) is an overview that emphasizes mechanics.

Jay Luvaas, Frederick the Great on the Art of War (New York: Free Press 1966) is a collection of the King's best instructions and admonitions.

Michael Leggiere, Napoleon & Berlin: The Franco-Prussian War in North Germany, 1813 (Norman, OK: Oklahoma UP 2002) is an excellent case study supporting the proposition.

See Robert Doughty, The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 (Hamden, CT: Archon 1985).

David French, ‘The Mechanization of the British Cavalry between the Wars’, War In History 10/3 (July 2003) pp.296–320.

David E. Johnson, Fast Tanks and Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the US Army, 1917-1945 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP 1998) pp.75–6.

Quoted in Douglas Porch, The March to the Marne: The French Army, 1871-1914 (Cambridge: CUP 1981) p.221.

Dennis Showalter, ‘Prussia, Technology and War: Artillery from 1815 to 1918’ in R. Haycock and Keith Nelson (eds.) Men, Machines, and War (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier UP 1989) pp.115–51.

Cf. Timothy Lupfer, The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War (Ft. Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute 1981); and Bruce Gudmundsson, Stormtroop Tactics (New York: Praeger 1989).

Dennis Showalter, ‘Intelligence on the Eve of Transformation: Methodology, Organization, and Application’ in J E. Dillard and W T. Hitchcock (eds.) The Intelligence Revolution and Modern Warfare (Chicago, IL: Imprint 1996) pp.13–32.

Michel de Lombares, ‘Le ‘75”, Revue Historique des Armees 31/1–2 (1975) pp.80–111; Ian V. Hogg, Allied Artillery of World War I (Ramsbury: Crowood Press 1998) pp.35–8.

Douglas Porch, The French Secret Services: From the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1995) pp.46 ff.

David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing (New York: Macmillan 1967) pp.230 ff, remains standard on pre-1914 cryptography.

Stig Foerster, ‘Der deutsche Generalstab und die Illusion des kurzen Krieges, 1871–1914. Metakritik eines Mythos’, Militaergeschichtliche Mitteilungen 54 (1995) pp.61–93.

Jon makes the point with his usual brilliance in ‘A Matter of Timing: The Royal Navy and the Tactics of Decisive Battle, 1912–1916’, The Journal of Military History 67/1 (Jan. 2003) pp.86–136.

The following general discussion of the telegraph's military context is based on Martin van Creveld, Command in War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 1985) pp.104 passim; and Dennis E. Showalter, ‘Soldiers into Postmasters? The Electric Telegraph as an Instrument of Command in the Prussian Army’, Military Affairs 37/2 (1973) pp.49–52. For the diplomatic side cf. David Paul Nickles, Under the Wire. How the Telegraph Changed Diplomacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 2003).

Roger Pickenpaugh, Rescue by Rail: Troop Transfer and the Civil War in the West, 1863 (Lincoln, NB: Nebraska UP 1998) surveys the operation from a Union perspective.

John Sweetman, War and Administration: The Significance of the Crimean War for the British Army (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press 1984). Sir James Outram, The Conquest of Scinde: A Commentary, 2 vols. in 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood 1846) demonstrates matters were no less complex when dealt with on the spot.

For the German experience cf. Bradley J. Meyer, ‘Operational Art and the German Command System in World War I’, dissertation, Ohio State University, 1988; and Dennis E. Showalter, Tannenberg: Clash of Empires (Hamden, CT: Archon 1991). T.E.H. Travers offers an Allied counterpoint on the treachery of the telephone in Gallipoli 1915 (Charleston, SC: Tempus 2001), and is the source of ‘HQitis’ (p.132).

‘The Point of View’, in The Green Curve and Other Stories, by ‘Ole-Luk-Oie’ (New York: Doubleday 1911) pp.251–76.

Martin van Creveld, Technology and War (New York: Free Press 1989) p.152.

Cf. in particular James Beninger, The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 1986); and Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 1983).

Bucholz (note 14) pp.109 passim, is the best overview.

Arden Bucholz, Hans Delbrueck and the German Military Establishment: War Images in Conflict (Iowa City, IA: Iowa UP 1985).

Holger Herwig, ‘Imperial Germany’ in E.R. May (ed.), Knowing One's Enemies: Intelligence Assessments before the Two World Wars (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP 1984) pp.62–97.

Dieter Storz, Kriegsbild und Ruestung vor 1914. Europaeische Landstreitkraefte vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg (Herford: Mittler 1992).

Thomas Adriance, ‘To the Last Gaiter Button’: A Study of the Mobilization and Concentration of the French Army in the War of 1870 (Westport, CT: Greenwood 1987).

Porch, March to the Marne (note 38) pp.184–5, 236 passim.

Ibid., pp.191 passim.

William C. Fuller, Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600-1914 (New York: Free Press 1992) pp.423–33.

Bernhard Berger, ‘“Krieg in der Retorte”: Kriegsspiele des oesterreichisch-ungarischen Generalstabs vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg’, dissertation, Salzburg, 1999.

Foerster, ‘Metakritik’ (note 45) passim. Cf. as well Christian Mueller, ‘Anmerkungen zur Entwicklung von Kriegsbild und operativ-strategischem Szenario im preussisch-deutschen Heer vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg’, Militaergeschichtliche Mitteilungen 57 (1998) pp.371–83.

Cf. David Herrmann, The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP 1996); and David Stevenson, Armaments and the Coming of War. Europe, 1904-1914 (Oxford: OUP 1996).

Germany in particular had moved a long way in that direction. Cf. Geoff Eley, ‘Army, State and Civil Society: Revisiting the Problem of German Militarism’, in From Unification to Nazism: Reinterpreting the German Past (Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin 1986) pp.110–53; and Dennis E. Showalter. ‘Army and Society in Imperial Germany: The Pains of Modernization’, Journal of Contemporary History 18/4 (Oct. 1983) pp.583–618.

Leigh Edmonds, ‘Hardware, Software and Wetware: Seeing the Royal Australian Air Force during the War in the Pacific as a Cybernetic System’, Journal of the Australian War Memorial 24 (1994) p.15.