The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898

by Edward M. Coffman

One of the most important works of military history published in the last decade, The Old Army is the only comprehensive study of the people who made up the "garrison world" in the peacetime intervals between the War for Independence and the Spanish-American War. Drawing on diaries, letters, and other primary documents, Edward M. Coffman vividly recreates the harsh, often lonely life of men, collected mostly from the streets of Northern cities, for whom enlistment was "a leap in the dark...a choice of evils." He pays special attention to the roles of women and children, as well as black Americans, and to the development of military professionalism. From the testimony of those who lived it, Coffman traces the evolution of the American Army from "the days of small things"--of limited resources and downright hardship--to the modern military age that began at the turn of the century.

Genres: Military History, American History, Military Fiction, History

560 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 1986

About the author

Edward Coffman was professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A specialist in military history, he earned his BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Kentucky.

Reviews

[Eric Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A veritable encyclopedia of 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.

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. Because of this, especially when combined with regular forays into quantitative analysis, the work stands as an excellent entry way into potential future detailed studies. Though 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, the 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.

Throughout, 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.

Moreover, Coffman's 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.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Examining the army during peacetime is an unusual subject for a military history, as they tend to focus exclusively on times of war. And this book has some very interesting facts about the American army in it's first century plus; unfortunately, it's exceedingly dry. There are a few basic points made about the army in each chapter, and then the author uses first hand accounts to illustrate those points. Some of the first hand accounts are interesting, but there are a lot of them, and the prose around those accounts is very workmanlike. There's great information here, but it's a little bit of a slog to get through it.

[William DuFour · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engrossing picture of the US Army from the Revolution until the Civil war. A great companion book to Mr. Kipling's Army.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

By definition, “the Old Army” is the Regular Army establishment that existed before the last war. The Regulars were always a small body, a result of American distrust of a standing army since the very beginning of our national history. The Regulars became the backbone of the greatly expanded military as civilians volunteered or were conscripted during an emergency, and they were those who were left after the emergency was over and the militia or the draftees went home again. This volume is the first of two in which Coffman, a highly regarded professor of military history, responded to a suggestion by Paul Prucha that he expand his previous study of the social history of the American military. The second volume (The Regulars) depended heavily on surveys and correspondence with surviving 20th century soldiers, but this first one, naturally, is taken entirely from published histories and memoirs and from official sources. Nor does Coffman consider the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, or the Indian Wars; this is strictly a study of the Regular Army in its continuing role as part of the background of American society. After a shaky beginning, in which the distinct possibility existed that the army of the Revolutionary era might even be entirely disbanded, career military men, both officers and enlisted, found their mission in the nation’s accelerating westward expansion, from the Ohio country to the Canadian border, to the Southwest and the Plains. From Hancock Barracks in Maine to Ft. Pickens in the Florida panhandle, from Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, to Ft. Davis, Texas, and on to the Presidio in San Francisco and Ft. Vancouver on the Columbia River, the army was always stretched thin, under-supplied and under-appreciated, with promotions coming slower than the glaciers. American society generally had a low opinion of professional soldiers, seeing them as last-chancers who had failed at everything else. Drunkenness, gambling, and desertion were serious problems throughout the 19th century, along with disease and boredom in isolated posts. The author does a terrific job, paying attention to the underlying premises and psychological themes of the career soldier, and to the life of the military family, to the roles of religion and sports and education, and to the strange, not always hostile relationship between the Army and the Indians. His style is that of a storyteller which makes what he has to say especially easy to comprehend. I highly recommend this volume (and its sequel) to anyone with an interest in U.S. military history or in American social history generally.