America's First Battles, 1775-1965

This book has provided a wealth of knowledge and insight into the battles fought by the US prior to 1965. The book arrived as promised by the retailer.

Each first battle of each war where the US fought is described in terms of training, equipment, doctrine, and political factors. The analysis of the performance of US troops is critical and focused to describe both the successes and failures, especially the failures. The common theme is that US troops faired poorly in the majority of their first battles, but the leaders were able to adapt and learn from the failures, except for Vietnam where the first battle had mixed results that were incorrectly perceived that a war of attrition and casualty ratios would bring success. Another common theme is that by reducing the military to a garrison army relying on conscription to fight wars, resulted in severe losses in those units who fought the first battle, but also it took over one year or more to fully prepare and successfully deploy combat effective units above the regimental level. Learning how to use new military innovations also had an influence on how US forces fared and the amount of casualties suffered, but not preparing and analyzing the destructive power of new weapons (rifled musket in the Civil War, machine guns in World War I), US forces took thousands of casualties until the training doctrine was revised to account for the increased lethality on the battlefield. Overall, am personally very glad to have purchased this book and add it into the collection. Once started reading this book, quickly went though each chapter as they flowed very well. The diagrams/ maps of each battle are also informative and helps the reader understand the battles and locations of the units engaged.

As the title indicates, West Point cadets are required to read this book (or at least they used to be when I was a cadet) to understand the role that first battles have played in American military history. The reason cadets are required to read this book is because the U.S. record during the first battle of most wars has been less than stellar. Citing examples like Task Force Smith in Korea and our first battle in North Africa during WWII, the authors expose flawed strategies, low training, and poor equipment. Many times the military enters a war completely unprepared because the normal cycle of demobilization after a conflict reduces the funding and attention our leaders pay to military preparedness. This is a fantastic book to read if you wish to understand the issues and constraints which military leaders and our country usually have to overcome following our first engagement. Given that our "first battle" in the war on terrorism has already occurred, this book could help leaders think through the issues that will be necessary to change our military readiness, as well as homeland security posture to suppress terrorism to more acceptable levels.A must have for any military library. As a student of military history, I am rereading the book more than ten years later. First Battles is still as relevant today as it was in 1990.

Charles E. Heller and William A. Stofft assembled a distinguished team of American military history experts to examine the first major battles fought in each of the nations wars through the Vietnam conflict. This is militay history at its best, dramatic, insightful and informative, not only for an audience in uniform but also for any American interested in how the military functions in our society. The descriptions of battles ranges from well known actions such as Bull Run in the Civil War to the savage jungle fighting at Buna, New Guinea in World War II. I frequently refer to America's First Battles as I prepare my lectures on American military history. We can only hope that the editors will consider a new edition in the future to take the story through the triumph of Desert Storm, and the confusion of the Clinton administration. A military history classic.