Trench warfare

[major bill]

By the end of the American Civil War both side had changed from an almost Napoleonic style of warfare to a style of trench warfare. Did the European nations study this style of warfare and properly incorporate it in to their future battle plans?

Were any of the lessons from the American Civil War used during the Franco Prussian War. Certainly trench warfare became the norm during World War One, but I am not sure that the various European armies had properly studied the lessons they could have learned by studying the American Civil War. It appears that most European nations had to learn the lessons of trench warfare the hard way early in the First World War. The invention of the machine gun put the explanation point in to the lesson of trench warfare.

 

[Tom Elmore]

The building of trenches was slow to take root; some leaders thought it diminished an aggressive spirit and opposed their construction. At Gettysburg, Brig. Gen. George S. Greene, a brigade commander in the Union Twelfth Corps, ordered them to be built on Culp's Hill, despite some opposition to the idea. On the evening of July 2, when his brigade was left behind as the sole defenders on the hill, against an opponent with more than twice his numbers, the breastworks proved their worth. In fact, they may have saved the Union army in that battle. Even then, the concept was still not immediately grasped and accepted by some senior leaders. However, for the soldiers who saw their value, including many from other commands who afterwards ventured over to the hill to survey the results, the lesson was clear, and it was absorbed.

 

[Poor Private]

Our reenactment unit sponsors a reenactment at a place called Turkeyville at Battle Creek Michigan. It's held every Fathers day weekend. If you happen to google earth at that location you will see our 300 foot of trench works with a block house at one end , and emplacements for cannon along the line with firing pits in front. This will be the last year we will be using them. they will be bulldozed in and something else will be there next year. This will be the 4th year of their use. We have even loaned them out for use for modern era reenactments (WWII). We don't want our event to become stale so we will have to come up with something for the next few years. Anyone have any Ideas?

 

[Just Jim]

Many just look at the importance of trenches for defensive fighting but Robert E. Lee, among others, understood their importance for the offense as well. With strong fortifications fewer men could hold the line allowing more men to maneuver.

 

[major bill]

I do think that leaders during the Civil War did not fully understand the use of defensive works. They allow you to hold ares with less men. Those men are then concentrated as a strong maneuver force. The commander then uses that maneuver force at a decisive point to achieve victory.

I will use an example. Vicksburg was a well designed defensive work and a smaller force held a large army there for a period of time. the problem was that the Confederacy did not have a strike force to either relive Vicksburg or take advantage of the Union concentrating their forces there and strike elsewhere. Basically I am saying when Grant gave up his mobility and put such a large force at Vicksburg, the Confederacy needed the strike force to make the Union pay for doing so. I have to ask, it was clear what Grant intended to do, so what was the plan to take advantage of Grant digging in around Vicksburg?

 

[E_just_E]

The building of trenches was slow to take root; some leaders thought it diminished an aggressive spirit and opposed their construction. At Gettysburg, Brig. Gen. George S. Greene, a brigade commander in the Union Twelfth Corps, ordered them to be built on Culp's Hill, despite some opposition to the idea.

Worth mentioning that George Sears Greene before the war was a founder of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects and as an engineer he oversaw many railroad projects in the Northeast. He graduated second in his class in the USMA in 1823 (same year as Sidney Johnson to give you an idea about how old he was) , stayed at the Academy as a professor of Mathematics and Engineering (was one of Robert E. Lee's teachers) and then became a civilian engineer for many years before he volunteered during the Civil War at age 51. Lived to be 97 btw.

He was not your garden variety Brigadier General

 

[leftyhunter]

By the end of the American Civil War both side had changed from an almost Napoleonic style of warfare to a style of trench warfare. Did the European nations study this style of warfare and properly incorporate it in to their future battle plans?

Were any of the lessons from the American Civil War used during the Franco Prussian War. Certainly trench warfare became the norm during World War One, but I am not sure that the various European armies had properly studied the lessons they could have learned by studying the American Civil War. It appears that most European nations had to learn the lessons of trench warfare the hard way early in the First World War. The invention of the machine gun put the explanation point in to the lesson of trench warfare.

I don't have a source but a former co worker of mine said after the Civil War the US Army offered a set of books detailing the history of the Civil War to the military academies of Europe. Only Russia accepted.
I am not an expert on World War but it appears that the command generals of World War One in particular France and England where to stupid to absorb the clear historical lessons of World War One the irony being both nations had military observers on both sides and journalists as well. Their is a classic movie that illustrates French military stupidity starring Kirk Douglas in the 1950s but my brain forgot the name..
Leftyhunter

 

[AUG]

As to the Franco-Prussian War, I had some ancestors that fought in that one, though I have yet to read much in detail about it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe most of the fighting was done in the open countryside or in urban environments, with the exception of light field fortifications similar to that used early in the ACW.

Keep in mind that warfare and technology by WWI had come a long way since the ACW. Yes, the later campaigns of the ACW may have resembled the Western Front; however, nothing in the ACW compared in sheer size to the fronts of the First World War that stretched on for miles and miles. Of course the tactics of the ACW were designed to fight a battle 19th century style - one large, concentrated, decisive battle that lasted for a matter of days. WWI saw the first protracted, spread out campaigns with millions of troops stretching over miles of ground. Nothing like that on such a massive scale, combined with the new technology - machine guns, bolt-action rifles, breech-loading artillery, etc - had ever been seen before, maybe with the exception of the Russo-Japanese War only about ten years prior.

I think it would take more than just lessons from the ACW to form the right tactics and strategy to fight the First World War decisively. Sure, some lessons from the ACW would have been helpful, but I think WWI was so different than any thing that had ever been seen before that lessons from previous 19th century wars that could apply to WWI were few.

 

[James N.]

Since it's the centennial of that particular conflict I'm currently embroiled in Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer-Prize winning 1962 The Guns of August (1914). In it she shows how foolish all the major participants were, but I think somehow France was most blinded by the Doctrine of Elan in which spirited head-on assault was supposed to carry everything before it. With such an objective, naturally no thought was given to defense, which was considered defeatist. Needless to say, these ideas quickly died, along with thousands of French soldiers, soon giving way to trench warfare. Since the Germans were on the strategic offensive they gave defense little thought either, except on the Eastern Front, though that soon turned into a spoiling battle of offense too. Ironically, it was the failure of the German offensive in the Battle of the Marne on the Western Front that caused them to begin the extensive entrenchments that eventually stretched for hundreds of miles in order to retain their 1914 gains.

 

[gunny]

The most important tactic that was learned by Europeans from the American Civil War was the use of skirmishers tactics and the end of linear formations.

 

[Dave Wilma]

Trench warfare in 1914 was not planned. The armies of August were trained in maneuver and attack something the Germans proved better at than the Western Allies. As the German advance slowed because of extended supply lines and losses generally, they picked the best defensive positions and started digging until their logistics could catch up. The armies of November and December were different due to losses of the August troops. If the combatants of August had ignored the lessons of trenches in the ACW, the men of November and December figured it out.

What the Germans had ignored about the ACW was the basics of moving an army. In 1914 the factors were much the same, men walking and horses pulling with railroads handling strategic movements of troops. By September the men, many of them reservists were spent as well as the horses for which sufficient fodder had not been provided (French fodder was too green still). There was a certain dismissal by the German General Staff of the American armies as not professional.