LibGuides: APUS ePress: Saber and Scroll

Vol. 7, Iss.2 (Summer/Spring 2018)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 7, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2018

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 7, Issue 2 features articles on a variety of historical topics.

Volume 7, Issue 2 (Spring/Summer 2018)

Vol. 7, Iss.1 (Winter 2018)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 7, Issue 1

Winter 2018

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 7, Issue 1 features articles on a variety of historical topics.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 7, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 7, Issue 1 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 7, Issue 1
Includes copyright information and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Michael Majerczyk
An introduction to Volume 7, issue 1 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles on a variety of historical topics. This issue also marks the end of Michael Majerczyk's term as Editor-In-Chief.
New Sweden: Sweden’s Failure to Colonize
Susan Danielsson
Abstract: Before the seventeenth century, Sweden was not an integral part of Europe, much less a great power, but the ascension of Gustav II Adolphus to the throne changed this. Gustav was an intelligent man who established the Swedish Empire through domestic reforms that modernized the country’s economy and its military. Dutch investors persuaded the fledgling empire to invest in a joint colonization effort with Dutch and Swedish stockholders under the new Swedish South Company. New Sweden, established in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, along the lower Delaware River, was the first colony. Sweden’s inexperience with the mercantile system and underdeveloped transport system made it incapable of handling colonial demands. Without proper support and supplies, the administration of the colony had to focus on survival, causing it to ultimately fail. New Sweden’s Swedish and Finnish settlers remained in North America under Dutch, then English, control and contributed new building and carpentry techniques that spread throughout the continent. Liberal policies ensured future generations of Americans could trace their heritage to the New Sweden colony. Much like the Swedish Empire, the New Sweden colony did not last long, but its Swedish and Finnish settlers made lasting contributions to America’s frontier.
The Second Gold Rush: How Wartime Shipbuilding Shaped the San Francisco East Bay
Jeff Ballard
Abstract: During World War II, the American population mobilized on an unprecedented scale for a common purpose—victory over fascism in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Enter industrialist and construction magnate Henry J. Kaiser and his revolutionary prefabricated shipbuilding techniques; with them, Kaiser could build ships in weeks instead of years, as the task had previously taken. By 1945, Kaiser, with partner Todd-California Shipyards, had built 1,490 ships at its California, Oregon, and Washington shipyards from a budget of $4 billion, or $55.4 billion 2018 dollars. Kaiser’s manufacturing innovation coupled with vastly improved antisubmarine warfare techniques meant that in the fall of 1943, the tonnage of new ships built each month exceeded allied losses. World War II was a powerful agent of geographical, economic, and social change in the San Francisco East Bay communities of Richmond and Oakland. As one of the primary shipbuilding regions in the nation, its wartime experience permanently transformed the East Bay.
Letter to the Editor—World War One Will Begin Five Years from Now: How Frederic Harrison Predicted the Onset of the Great War for Civilization
Daniel C. Ross
Abstract: The past five years of modern centenary historiography commemorating WWI features very little of Frederic Harrison’s March 18, 1909 letter to the editor of The Times—a British newspaper covering contemporary national panic arising from the pre-war Anglo-German naval arms race. This letter prophesied the First World War five years before it began—decades before scientific peace-modeling emerged as a formal discipline. This study seeks to help fill this information gap by examining the content and context of this letter, how it predicted the Great War for Civilization, and how these circumstances parallel contemporary geopolitics. There is much that WWI may have to inform modern scientific peace-modeling methods, and Harrison may have possessed much insight on how to forecast war.
The Lighter Side of Khan
Christopher Sheline
Abstract: When reflecting on history’s greatest kings, emperors, philosophers, and military leaders, few have reached the immense prestige and influence of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227). Through his wisdom, charisma, and military ingenuity, Khan built one of the largest empires the world has ever known. However, along the road to immortality, Mongol methodology took on varying forms including psychological and economic warfare. As a result, scholars from as early as the late medieval period into the modern day have depicted Khan as a barbarian, crude and harsh in his ways. Myths and legends arose from these stereotypes, often heavily diminishing or even completely ignoring the many humble and noble characteristics of Genghis Khan. Rather than a bloodthirsty barbarian, he was a cunning warrior, an efficient administrator, and a prudent lawgiver that sought to create a peaceful and unified world.
The Land Ordinance Act of 1784: Defining the Political Geography of a New Nation
Jeff Ballard
Abstract: In 1783, the Confederation Congress of the United States formed a committee to recommend policies for the disposal of lands ceded by Great Britain to the United States at the conclusion of the American War of Independence. After much debate during the spring of 1784, a significantly amended report became the Land Ordinance Act of 1784. The liberal democratic principles expressed by the Act ensured the success of Republicanism, which made individual liberty and unalienable human rights the central ideal of post-war American society. As applied to the political geography of the new nation brought into existence by the Treaty of Paris (1783), these principles manifested themselves in four very distinct ways. First, the concepts of public domain and private land ownership emerged as land became a commodity to be bought and sold. Next, the physical geography of the states created by the subdivision of the Western Territory and their representative form of government fueled the cause of Republicanism. Third, the Act elevated colonial agrarianism and encouraged the capabilities of individual farming, giving Jefferson’s land policy a popular base in the agriculturally dominant west. Finally, the policy proposed a land division scheme, which was more democratic than the incumbent schemes, as it defined equal sized lots that simplified revenue collection.
Book Review: Mike Duncan. The Storm before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2017.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Mike Duncan's The Storm before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.
Book Review: Hugh Gough. The Terror in the French Revolution, 2nd ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Jessica Lathrop
A review of Hugh Gough's The Terror in the French Revolution.
Book Review: Mark Simner. Chitral 1895: An Episode of the Great Game. England: Fonthill Media Limited, 2017.
Chris Schloemer
A review of Mark Simner's Chitral 1895: An Episode of the Great Game.
Book Review: Blood and Steel, The Wehrmacht Archives: Volumes I Normandy 1944; Volumes II Retreat to the Reich: September to December 1944 and Volumes III The Ardennes Offensive: December 1944 to January 1945. Edited by Donald E. Graves.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Blood and Steel, The Wehrmacht Archives: Volumes I Normandy 1944; Volumes II Retreat to the Reich: September to December 1944 and Volumes III The Ardennes Offensive: December 1944 to January 1945.
Letter to the Editor
Sharon Gregory
This letter to the editor discusses the role cemeteries play in historical studies and the importance of maintaining them.

Vol. 6, Iss. 3 (Fall 2017)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 3

Fall 2017

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 6, Issue 3 features articles on World War I, to mark the centennial of America's entry into the war.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 6, Iss. 3
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 6, Issue 3 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 6, Issue 3
Includes copyright information and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Michael Majerczyk
An introduction to volume 6, issue 3 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles on World War I to mark the centennial of America's entry into the war.
Not to Lose the War in an Afternoon: The Battle of Jutland in German Context
Tormod Engvig
Abstract: The Battle of Jutland is probably the most controversial naval battle in history. Frustratingly inconclusive, it satisfied few, and continues to spur debate to this day. Most of the Jutland debate is Anglo-centric. A popular consensus in the English-speaking world is that after Jutland, the German High Seas Fleet ceased to be an instrument of any value, cowering in port until its sailors mutinied at the end of the war. In fact, the Germans followed up their tactical success at Jutland with further efforts to isolate and destroy portions of the British Grand Fleet. While these came to naught, the High Seas Fleet played a supporting role in U-boat operations and amphibious operations in the Baltic. Lastly, the High Seas Fleet had value as a “fleet-in-being,” acting as a strategic counter against a British foray into the Baltic. Until the mutinies of 1918, it remained a significant force.
Back Me or Sack Me
Roger Greezicki
Abstract: The fall of Singapore and the loss of 130,000 men were as shocking to the British as the death of General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum was to an earlier generation. In the years following the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and before the outbreak of World War II, the Fortress of Singapore, known as the “Gibraltar of the East,” stood as a symbol of the power, might, and stability of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the “Gibraltar of the East” was not an impregnable fortress but a castle in the air. Responsibility for failing to mount an effective defense on the Muar River on the Malay Peninsula, which led directly to the siege and surrender of Singapore, belongs to General Archibald Wavell, at the time Supreme Commander of American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces. Wavell’s 9 January 1942 orders for the defense of Johore to Percival then commanding the army in Malaya, ensured the defeat of the troops on the Muar River line and led directly to the fall of Singapore.
Brinkmanship between Great Powers: US and Russia
Erickson Huertas
Abstract: The Cold War (1947-1991) included an air of antagonism and mutual distrust between the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) (1922-1991). Spies betrayed their countries, and millions died in proxy wars. The struggle for dominance prompted massive propaganda campaigns, psychological warfare, nuclear, and technological competitions. This study first examines how the 1980’s nuclear tension between the US and the USSR reached its zenith. It then identifies how the USSR reacted to President Ronald Reagan’s (1981-1989) strategy of preparation for a preemptive attack, and further outlines the international implications of this brinkmanship. Suspicion and mistrust between the US and the successor state of the USSR, the Russian Federation, over their strategic intentions are increasingly threatening Western stability, international order, and the balance of power. It is evident that current tensions between the US and Russia closely parallel the circumstances of the Cold War era during the 1980s.
Museum Review: The Airborne and Special Operations Museum
Jim Werbaneth
Abstract: The Airborne and Special Operations Museum is not one of the largest military museums in the world, nor the most famous. Nor is the Airborne and Special Operations Museum similar to the small, specialized museums that dot United States Army bases, or the small regimental museums found in Britain and Canada. It ranks somewhere in between in terms of size and specialization, and takes perhaps two or three hours to see. This museum concentrates on the US Army’s airborne forces, and special operations.
Book Review: Aidan Dodson. The Kaiser’s Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871–1918. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing, 2016.
Tormod Engvig
A review of Aidan Dodson's The Kaiser’s Battlefleet: German Capital Ships 1871–1918.
Book Review: William March. Company K. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.
Jeff Ballard
A review of William March's Company K.
Book Review: Alex R. Larzelere. The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2003.
Chris Booth
A review of Alex R. Larzelere's The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story.
Book Review: Byron Farwell. The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986.
Bill Hanson
A review of Byron Farwell's The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918.
Book Review: Karl-Heinz Frieser, ed. Germany and the Second World War: Volume VIII: The Eastern Front 1943-1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of editor Karl-Heinz Frieser's Germany and the Second World War: Volume VIII: The Eastern Front 1943-1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts.
Book Review: John Grehan. The Charge of the Light Brigade: History’s Most Famous Cavalry Charge Told Through Eye Witness Accounts, Newspaper Reports, Memoirs and Diaries (Voices from the Past). Yorkshire: Frontline, 2017.
Michael R. Majerczyk
A review of John Grehan's The Charge of the Light Brigade: History’s Most Famous Cavalry Charge Told Through Eye Witness Accounts, Newspaper Reports, Memoirs and Diaries.
Book Review: James Holland. The Allies Strike Back 1941-1943: The War in the West, Volume Two. New York: Grove Press, 2017.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of James Holland's The Allies Strike Back 1941-1943: The War in the West, Volume Two.
Book Review: Brian Best. Reporting the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2015.
Tormod Engvig
A review of Brian Best's Reporting the Second World War.

Vol. 6, Iss. 2 (Spring/Summer 2017)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2017

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 6, Issue 2 includes articles focused on immigration and population movements.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 6, Iss. 2
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 6, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Vol. 6, Iss. 2
Includes copyright information and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Michael Majerczyk
An introduction to volume 6, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles focused on immigration and population movements.
Marie Paradis and the French-Canadian Connection: Quebec’s Impact on the United States
Anne Midgley
Abstract: There are far fewer studies on French-Canadian immigration to the United States than on that of other immigrant populations. Yet a significant influx of French-speakers from Quebec in the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries provided Canada’s southern neighbour with a people already closely tied to the nation—a people who brought their own language and culture to America and provided a substantial boost to Roman Catholicism in the United States. This influx of Canadians to the United States brought a people who had been closely tied to the origin and development of America, and who for over one hundred and fifty years prior to America’s independence from Great Britain, had been considered an archenemy of the English colonists. This paper considers the variety of ways in which the founding of Canada related to that of the United States, and illustrates the establishment and settlement of New France by means of both famed French explorers and settlers and examples from Marie Iantha Paradis’s ancestors.
A Passion for Liberty: German Immigrants in the Creation of the Republican Party and the Election of Lincoln
Molly L. Fischer
Abstract: For most of a century, German-Americans nurtured the myth that they, as an ethnic group, had effected the election of Abraham Lincoln. By sheer numbers, they asserted, their votes had sent Lincoln to the White House. While historians have since disproven this myth, it is undeniable that German-Americans played a key role in the formation and early platform of the Republican Party. Those who arrived in the wake of the volatile German Revolutions of 1848-49, the so-called Forty-Eighters, played a particularly central role in formulating the Republican party’s immigration policy and in courting the votes of their countrymen for the Party’s principle cause, the abolition of slavery. Having been thwarted in their struggle to establish democracy in their homeland, they used their pens, presses, voices, and sabers to promote the cause of freedom in their new home.
Strange Bedfellows: Nativism, Know-Nothings, African-Americans, and School Desegregation In Antebellum Massachusetts
Stan Prager
Abstract: In Massachusetts in the 1850s, rapidly changing economic conditions fueled a bewildering set of dislocations. Among other forces, falling labor values for the working class, exponential increases in foreign born populations, poverty and crime, and changing social and political institutions translated into a rage directed at the elite and their failed institutions. This spawned a populist revolt that manifested itself in racism, hatred, xenophobia, exclusion and a determination to overthrow the old order and start afresh. At the same time, African-Americans—chafing at life at the margins in a state that nevertheless offered the best overall quality of life in the nation—sought equality of education for their children in fully integrated schools. Utilizing boycotts, nonviolent tactics and an alliance with elite whites who objected to inferior “separate but equal” schools, a movement formed driven by a charismatic yet unassuming leader that demanded desegregation. At the nexus of these unlikely arcs, the nativist American Party, known popularly as the “Know-Nothings,” capitalizing on rampant anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment, swept the state, capturing the legislature and the governor’s office. Paradoxically, it was this legislature dominated by Know-Nothings—who rose to power plying the politics of exclusion—that outlawed segregation in schools across the state. The improbable cooperation between nativists and champions of African-American equality, and its highly significant result, is the topic of this paper.
The Impact of Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants and Their Descendants on the United States
Daniel Rosko
Abstract: Among the European immigrants largely unknown to Americans today are the Carpatho-Rusyns, or simply the Rusyns. The height of Rusyn immigration to the United States occurred in the early 1900s. Their peers often misidentified them as Hungarians, Slovaks or Czechoslovaks, Russians, or Ukrainians. Yet, in a manner similar to other European immigrants, the Rusyns played a crucial role in the shaping of their new homeland. The influence of Rusyn immigrants on the United States is substantial and worthy of note.
Conflicting Pre-colonial Relations as Foundations of Frosty Associations between the Aghem and Their Neighbours in Colonial Administrative Units 1921-1937
Protus Mbeum Tem
Abstract: Colonialism played an important role in bringing independent African kingdoms into common political or administrative units. However, such endeavours created conflicting situations and groups hitherto dominated by their neighbours in the pre-colonial period opted out of these associations. Using the example of the Aghem and their neighbors in the present day North West Region of modern Cameroon, (west/central Africa), this paper contends that such a union, particularly the one created by the British in 1921, could not survive as it instead intensified the hatred and bitterness that existed between them in the pre-colonial period. The Aghem, who had once defeated the Weh, resisted a union where the Weh chief was to act as one of the judges, lording over them. They thus rejected membership in the Weh Native Court area while demanding their own court area. Even though the British colonial authorities heeded their demands and created the Wum (Aghem) Native Court area in 1927, they were uncomfortable with the presence of the Bebas, Befang, and Esimbi in the same unit with them. They ill-treated these groups and could not embrace equality with a people who were once tribute payers. In spite of the Aghem’s claim of superiority over them, the Bebas, Befang, and Esimbi persevered in the union until 1933 when they rejected the Aghem highhandedness and started clamouring for their own court area. This demand had a favourable response and, in 1937, colonial authorities created a new court area for them.
Museum Review: The History Galleries of The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Deanna Simmons
Abstract: The idea for a museum dedicated to the contributions made by African Americans was born over a century before the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Finally, in 2003 Congress passed the National Museum of African American History and Culture Act. This placed the museum under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution. From 2003 to the opening of the museum in September of 2016, the project received considerable thought, hard work, and dedication.
Monument Review: The National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia
William F. Lawson
Abstract: The National D-Day Memorial is a privately funded endeavor commemorating the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. The Memorial is the brainchild of Bob Slaughter, a former sergeant in the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, a Virginia National Guard unit. Workers broke ground on 11 November 1997, Veterans Day, and officials dedicated the Memorial on 6 June 2001.
Book Review: Leerhsen, Charles. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Charles Leerhsen's Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty.
Book Review: Cohen, Adam. Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
Dana Dawson
A review of Adam Cohen's Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck.
Book Review: Shaara, Jeff. The Frozen Hours: A Novel of the Korean War. Ballantine Books: New York, 2017.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Jeff Shaara's The Frozen Hours: A Novel of the Korean War.

Vol. 6, Iss. 1 (Winter 2017)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 1

Winter 2017

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 6, Issue 1 features works that center on tragedy and heroism.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 6, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 6, Issue 1 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 6, Issue 1
Includes copyright information and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Michael Majerczyk
An introduction to volume 6, issue 1 of Saber and Scroll, featuring works that center on tragedy and heroism.
The Hundred Years’ War: A Different Contextual Overview
Dr. Robert G. Smith
Abstract: In the early fourteenth century, Flanders was the industrial heart of Europe, based in large part upon its manufacture of cloth. To meet the demands for its products, the manufacturers of Flanders had to import English fleece. The English Crown in turn became dependent upon this source of foreign revenue. This set poorly with the French, for in the not too distant past the nobility of Flanders had been vassals to the French King. Much like Vladimir Putin’s machinations in the Ukraine, the French worked to undermine the English position, supporting the landed nobility in their efforts to rein in the manufactures—those with no nobility whose economic engine was loosening the feudal ties the landed nobility depended upon for their economic well-being. A civil war caused by two different economic systems, manufacturing versus the feudal land system, soon engulfed Flanders. Here is the center of gravity for understanding the Hundred Years’ War. Although England’s King Henry III relinquished his control of the French territories in 1259, there were still English settlers there. Dealing with them was a source of friction between France and England, giving England an excuse for intervention, much as the Tsar and Soviets used for the pretext of invasions to protect ethnic Russians elsewhere.
The Maiden of France: A Brief Overview of Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans
Cam Rea
Abstract: France, embroiled in a war with England in a struggle over the French throne during the Hundred Years’ War, would find a savior who in turn was a heretic to the English. This sinner and saint was a woman by the name of Joan of Arc. While most people know that the English burned her at the stake at Vieux Marché in Rouen, most have forgotten her military adventures against the English.
Joan of Arc through the Ages: In Art and Imagination
Anne Midgley
Abstract: Since her death at the hands of the English in 1431, Joan of Arc has inspired and puzzled millions. The poor peasant girl who rallied the French to victory at Orléans has fuelled the imagination of artists, authors, poets, and cinematographers. Over the past six centuries, the enigmatic Joan has appealed to not only the people of France, but also to groups as diverse as Philippine and Macedonian revolutionaries, literary societies, American suffragists, and temperance advocates. Yet, according to one Victorian writer, she has also alarmed and troubled many, for according to her assessment, “There is no figure in history more incendiary to the imagination than this Joan of Arc.”
Across the Etowah and into the Hell-Hole: Johnston’s Lost Chance for Victory in the Atlanta Campaign
Greg A. Drummond
Abstract: Despite being one of the more important campaigns of the American Civil War, the Atlanta Campaign has been somewhat underrepresented throughout the literature on the subject. While this oversight has been somewhat rectified in light of the sesquicentennial celebrations, most of these writings have focused on either the major battles that happened from late June 1864 through the fall of Atlanta or on the various commanders of the campaign. Nearly forgotten amongst all of this is the fighting that took place on the country crossroads and in the deep forests near Dallas, Georgia between 25 May and 4 June 1864. It was during this period of fighting that the Atlanta Campaign went from a series of quick flanking maneuvers to a constant daily grind of skirmishes and entrenchment, with little respite from weather-induced misery and the constant fear of death from an enemy one could not see. It was during this time that Confederate commander Joseph Johnston had the best chance to turn back the invasion of Georgia headed by Union general William T. Sherman. Johnston was able to effect a major change in the tempo and character of the campaign in the fighting around Dallas. However, his failure to contest Sherman’s crossing of the Etowah River and his inability to stop the Union general from reconnecting with an unbroken Western & Atlantic Railroad ensured that the Confederates lost their best chance at stopping the invasion of Georgia.
Cape Esperance: The Misunderstood Victory of Admiral Norman Scott
Jeffrey A. Ballard
Abstract: One month after the Battle of Savo Island, the worst defeat in United States Navy history, Rear Admiral Norman Scott defeated a surprised Imperial Navy cruiser-destroyer force off Cape Esperance with the loss of only a single destroyer. There seemed no doubt that this reversal after the August defeat was an unqualified victory for the Navy, but this writer asserts it was not. South Pacific Commanders thought so, however, and dogmatically adopted Scott’s tactics in order to snatch more quick victories on the contentious waters around Guadalcanal. In the long run, however, the legacy of Scott’s “victory” did more harm than good. The month after Cape Esperance, the fortunes of war reversed, and on 12-13 November, the Navy suffered intolerably once again. This night, four destroyers and a light cruiser joined the graveyard of ships below Savo Sound, and 739 lives, including two admirals, would be lost in pursuit of a second Cape Esperance. Unquestioning repetition of Scott’s tactics persisted throughout the Guadalcanal Campaign, into the New Georgia Campaign, and until the third quarter of 1943. As such, the misunderstood lessons of Cape Esperance were a contributing cause to the loss of more than a dozen ships and the deaths of many thousands of sailors, including Scott’s own, in November 1942.
“Died on the Field of Honor, Sir.” Virginia Military Institute in the American Civil War and the Cadets Who Died at the Battle of New Market: May 15, 1864
Lew Taylor
Abstract: The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, known as the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy,” is home to the Virginia Military Institute. Located in Lexington, Virginia, VMI played a significant role in the American Civil War—from the execution of John Brown in 1859 to the disbanding of the Corps of Cadets during the fall of Richmond in 1865. The Corps, consisting of young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, served on active duty with the Confederate Army several times during their years at VMI but no one could have predicted the events of May 11-15, 1864, when the Corps marched from their campus in Lexington into history at the Battle of New Market. During this battle, ten cadets paid the ultimate price. Today, over one hundred fifty years later, new cadets report to New Market to learn about the sacrifices made in 1864, and walk where the cadets of 1864 fought and died. Roll call taken on the anniversary of the Battle of New Market includes the names of those who died. A cadet, designated as their representative, responds to the names of the fallen with, “Died on the Field of Honor, Sir.”
Exhibit Review: The Air Zoo
Michael Majerczyk
Abstract: The Air Zoo is an aviation museum located in Portage, Michigan on the southwest side of the Lower Peninsula. The museum features two campuses, the Main Campus and the East Campus. In all, the Air Zoo has fifty aircraft on display. In the main exhibit hall, one can view perennial favorites such as the SR-71 Blackbird, B-25 Mitchell, P-47 Thunderbolt, and F-14 Tomcat. Though it is not as big as the National Museum of the USAF or the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Air Zoo’s inviting setting surrounding all the exhibits makes for a welcoming visit and makes up for any shortcomings.
Book Review: Paul Andrew Hutton, The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History, 2016.
Stan Prager
A review of Paul Andrew Hutton's The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History.

Vol. 5, Iss. 4 (Fall 2016)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 5, Issue 4

Fall 2016

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 5, Issue 4 features articles on a wide array of historical topics, from the history of Roman farming to battleships during World War II.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 5, Iss. 4
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 5, Issue 4 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 5, Issue 4
Includes copyright information and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Michael Majerczyk
An introduction to volume 5, issue 4 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles on a wide array of historical topics, from the history of Roman farming to battleships during World War II.
Fleet-in-Being: Tirpitz and the Battle for the Arctic Convoys
Tormod B. Engvig
Abstract: The history of the German battle fleet in World War II is largely one of struggle against hopeless odds, punctuated by brief but dramatic clashes as far afield as the South Atlantic and high Arctic. Yet despite its modest size in relation to its main adversary, the Royal Navy, the German battle fleet occupied a central, almost mythical place in the minds of British planners, who for much of the war saw the individual capital ships of the Kriegsmarine as potent threats to their maritime dominance. The most important role Adolf Hitler’s capital ships performed was as a “fleet-in-being,” where by their presence astride the Allies’ vital seaborne trade routes they represented a significant threat. Of all the Kriegsmarine’s capital ships, none had a more palpable effect on British maritime strategy than the battleship Tirpitz. As the second and last unit of the Bismarck class, she was arguably the most powerful warship built in Europe before or since. However, her wartime career as her own fleet-in-being was neither very eventful nor very glamorous—especially when compared to the epic drama of the Bismarck, her famous sister, which has been immortalized in numerous books and a feature-length film. However, Tirpitz was—if more subtly so—by far the more effective ship, although she never fired her guns in anger at an Allied counterpart.
Outside the Sandbox: Camels in Antebellum America
Ryan Lancaster
Abstract: There was a time during the antebellum period in America when the United States military thought to use unconventional means to explore the deserts of the Southwest. The United States Camel Corps had a small, yet crucial collection of advocates who helped advance the project. Influential men, like Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, virtually formed a cabal that surrounded the program. However, it was to be short lived, as the United States Camel Corps was only in service for a few years. The loss of crucial leaders, the oncoming Civil War, and the advent of new transportation technology combined to end the Camel Corps experiment in the United States.
Aethelred and Cnut: Saxon England and the Vikings
Matthew Hudson
Abstract: While many factors played a role in the eventual fall of the Saxons, one of the pivotal pieces in the evolution of Anglo-Saxon England was the conflict between Aethelred II (978-1016), called the Unready, and Cnut (1016-1035), the son of Aethelred’s Viking rival. The failure of Aethelred to repel the Vikings provided an atmosphere in which an emboldened Cnut was able to successfully conquer and consolidate Anglo-Saxon England as well as much of Scandinavia. Cnut strengthened the central authority of the crown and increased the stability of the kingdom while opening a door for the rise of earls to play a larger part in England. In the process of Cnut’s conquest, Anglo-Saxon relations with Normandy grew and planted the seeds of future conquest.
Praecipitia in Ruinam: The Decline of the Small Roman Farmer and the Fall of the Roman Republic
Jack Morato
Abstract: By 133 the Romans found themselves in command of a far-flung empire extending from Spain in the west to Asia Minor in the east, but they were forced to administer it with the government structure of a city-state. Rapid imperial expansion during the middle Republic strained nearly every aspect of the Roman system but none more so than the very foundation of Roman military strength—the small farmer. Spoils of war were channeled into agriculture by the landed elite, resulting in economic polarization and the displacement of independent labor in the countryside. This inquiry traces the socio-economic developments that led to the decline of independent farming in Rome, developments that culminated in political turmoil and civil war during the first century.
The Washington Treaty and the Third Republic: French Naval Development and Rivalry with Italy, 1922-1940
Tormod B. Engvig
Abstract: The 1921-1922 Washington Conference on naval arms limitation had a profound effect on the French Navy. For the Marine Nationale, as in the other signatory fleets—those of Great Britain, the United States, Japan, and Italy—the conference and resultant treaty stymied capital ship construction. However, in its attempt to forestall a battleship arms race of the kind that had helped spark World War I, the treaty led instead to an increased focus on cruiser, aircraft carrier, and submarine development. France was humiliated by the conference’s outcome; despite possessing an overseas empire second in size only to that of Great Britain, she was allocated a minor ratio of capital ship tonnage, and on par only with Italy—a young and aggressive nation with Mediterranean ambitions. Although overshadowed by the emerging U.S.-Japanese naval rivalry in the Pacific, the Washington Treaty presaged a naval arms race between the Third Republic and Fascist Italy for control of the western and central Mediterranean.
Book Review: Alan Taylor. American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750- 1804. NY: W. W. Norton and Company, 2016.
Stan Prager
A review of Alan Taylor's American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750- 1804.
Book Review: Thomas S. Kidd. Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots. New York: Basic Books, 2011.
Anne Midgley
A review of Thomas S. Kidd's Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots.
Book Review: Jonathan Fennell. Combat and Morale in the North African Campaign: The Eighth Army and the Path to El Alamein. Cambridge Military Histories Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Stuart McClung
A review of Jonathan Fennell's Combat and Morale in the North African Campaign: The Eighth Army and the Path to El Alamein.

Vol. 5, Iss. 3 (October 2016)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 5, Issue 3

Special Issue: October 2016

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 5, Issue 3 is a special issue of Saber and Scroll Journal devoted to the Revolutionary War Southern Campaign and the Battle of Cowpens.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 5, Iss. 4
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 5, Issue 3 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 5, Issue 3
Includes copyright information and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to the special issue of the Saber and Scroll Journal devoted to the Revolutionary War Southern Campaign and the Battle of Cowpens. This issue provides a history of the historical site visits sponsored by the Saber and Scroll Historical Society and a tribute to the memory of member Melissa Weger.
General Charles Lord Cornwallis and the British Southern Strategy
Anne Midgley
Abstract: General Charles Lord Cornwallis’s temper snapped—as did the sword blade upon which he was leaning—as he listened to a humbled Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton relate to him the details of his defeat at a backwoods pasture known as Hannah’s Cowpens. The American rebels, led by Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, had trounced the British. Tarleton’s losses were appalling, perhaps as high as eighty percent of the men he had led into battle, which represented nearly twenty-five percent of the army led by Cornwallis. Tarleton left behind over one hundred dead and nearly eight hundred men whom the Americans captured following the brief, but intense, battle. Tarleton’s report left Cornwallis desperate to overtake Morgan and the rebels, wreak his revenge, and retrieve his men. The British loss at Cowpens on 17 January 1781 set in motion a series of events that culminated in a Pyrrhic British victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on 15 March 1781, and eventually led to Cornwallis’s own defeat at Yorktown, a loss which sealed the American victory for the War of Independence.
Nathanael Greene
Elizabeth D. Young
Abstract: The early morning hours of 17 January 1781 were cold and damp as Brigadier General Daniel Morgan’s wing of the southern army prepared to fight. They had reached the Cowpens the day before and were rested and well fed. Coming to meet them was part of the British army under the command of Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Drawn up in a single line of battle, Tarleton’s legion was met first by fire from sharpshooters, then from militiamen, and finally from Continentals. The militiamen were under orders to fire three volleys and fall back to the Continental line. When the British reached the third line their numbers were shrinking but they still had enough to attempt a flanking maneuver. As Morgan’s lines fell back he ordered them to do an about face and fire once more before chasing the enemy with bayonets. By the time the engagement was over “complete victory” belonged to the Americans. Upon receiving word, Nathanael Greene, the Commander of the Southern Armies, drank a toast to Morgan’s army and fired a cannon salute.
Morgan Saw Him Coming: Banastre Tarleton and the Pursuit to Cowpens
William F. Lawson
Abstract: The defeated British commander at the Battle of Cowpens was Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Only 26, he was young for such a post, but had proven himself an able and, at times, gifted commander, especially in the area of mobile operations. Tarleton’s youthful energy served him well in the field, as he pushed himself and the men of his British Legion hard, often surprising his American adversaries. For all his success, however, Tarleton’s lack of seasoning resulted in a downside to his operations. He was often reckless, to the detriment of his force in terms of the state of the men, their mounts, and the security of his logistics and communications.
Daniel Morgan and Cowpens
Francis Hoeflinger
Abstract: After the British defeat and destruction of the Continental Army at the Battle of Camden, Continental Congress assigned General Nathanael Greene as the new commander of the Continental Army Southern Department. One of the assets that General Greene had assigned to his army was a battalion of Light Infantry under the command of Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. Daniel Morgan had participated in a large number of the major operations conducted by the Continental Army, including the siege of Boston, the American attack on Quebec, and the Battle of Saratoga, and always at the command of Light Infantry, or as they were also called, riflemen. His part in the victory at Cowpens marked a turning point in the American Revolution. The results of the fight led directly to Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown. None of that could have been possible without Daniel Morgan’s tactical and technical expertise.
“Give Them an Indian Halloo!”
Anne Midgley
Abstract: On the cold winter morning of 17 January 1781 in a backcountry South Carolina cow pasture, one of the most unexpected—and pivotal—battles of the American War for Independence occurred. In less than an hour of intense fighting, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, in command of the American rebel forces, decisively trounced his opponent, British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Known by military historians as the American Cannae, it was the only case of double envelopment in the war. Morgan, with a personal grudge to bear against the British, led a force of Continental soldiers, cavalry, and militia against one of the most feared commanders in the British Army. Morgan’s success was due in large part to his tactical expertise and personal leadership. As the British advanced, they discharged their cannon and raised three “Huizzas” to intimidate the rebels. Morgan rode through the militia lines, encouraging the men, “They give us the British halloo, boys, give them the Indian halloo, by G—.”
Medical Services Available During the Revolutionary War Including Treatment for Soldiers Wounded in Action
Jessica Lathrop
Abstract: One of the often uncharted avenues of United States Revolutionary War information pertains to the care and treatment of wounded soldiers, from medical services available during the late eighteenth century to the treatment of veterans. This paper seeks to examine, at least briefly, the various methods of medical care for wounded soldiers and their families as well as the options within the colonies for long term and short term veteran treatment.
Daughters of Liberty: The Women Who Fought in the American Revolution
Kimberly Trenner
Abstract: While women may not have had a voice in politics during the American Revolution, they had a voice at home and they expressed their beliefs and fears. Women such as Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Mercy Otis Warren were able to use the time with their husbands and their husband’s friends to aid in setting in motion the split from England. Other women called for boycotts of local merchants who were thought to be price gouging due to the war and limited supplies getting through from England. When open warfare broke out in 1775, many women chose to follow their men to war—sometimes they even took their children along. Some disguised themselves as men to join battle, and others served as spies, couriers, and scouts.
“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”
Anne Midgley
Abstract: In his response to colonial American cries for relief from the taxation and legislative control of Great Britain, Samuel Johnson, the great eighteenth century writer, excoriated the American rebels for the obvious hypocrisy of their claims to liberty. During the mid-eighteenth century, anti-slavery opinions arose in Britain, particularly among the educated classes. Johnson’s sentiment in his resolution to the American Congress reflects the growing British sense of moral outrage at slavery, which led to Britain’s abolition of its slave trade in 1787 and outright abolition of slavery in 1834. Not every black person in America was enslaved and the experience of individual blacks during the war was exceptionally diverse. This paper is intended to highlight some instances of African-Americans’ participation in the war; it is not intended to be a holistic examination of that very complex topic.
Book Review: O’Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson. The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, The American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, The American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire.

Vol. 5, Iss. 2 (Spring/Summer 2016)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 5, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2016

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 5, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll features articles examining warfare from a series of angles.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 5, Iss. 2
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 5, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 5, Issue 2
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
Joseph J. Cook
An introduction to volume 5, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles examining warfare from a series of angles.
The Historiography of Xenophon
Christopher Sheline
Abstract: Historiography is the documented process of written history and, therefore, any change to that process becomes critical to the historiographical timeline, thus sustaining everlasting value. Xenophon (c. 430 BCE-354 BCE), known for his writings on the Persian Wars, Cyrus the Great, and the March of the 10,000, single-handedly produced several changes to historical writing that altered the very essence of historical thought in a way that challenged even the roots of Herodotus and Thucydides. Xenophon stepped away from the influence of Thucydides to demonstrate a more independent, often philosophical, perspective. Through his development of biographies, Xenophon incorporated philosophy into writing often as a means to teach and defend his position. By doing so, Xenophon changed the view of history and political thinking simultaneously. He was not just viewing and/or interpreting history like those before him; he was living it, documenting it, and analyzing it through the lenses of his former philosophical teachings. Therefore, Xenophon was an important historian because he wrote about life, integrated philosophy into historiography, and thus altered historical writing and political thinking.
General John Bell Hood: His Leadership During the 1864 Tennessee Campaign
Christopher N. Schloemer
Abstract: John Bell Hood was one of the Confederacy’s best brigade and division commanders. However, when promoted to army command in 1864, many of the qualities that served him well in his previous position turned out to be a detriment. Hood’s performance was a classic case of an individual promoted into a position beyond his abilities. Hood’s drive to invade Tennessee and proceed through Kentucky to eventually meet up with General Robert E. Lee failed. Setbacks at Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville resulted in the destruction of the Army of Tennessee. Although Hood inherited a difficult situation, considering the state of the Army of Tennessee, his failings as a commander precipitated this disaster. He could not hold Atlanta through the 1864 election and his aggressiveness certainly sped up the loss of that city and created the hopeless situation of the army. All of his bravery and aggressiveness came to naught during the 1864 Tennessee campaign.
The Fall of Fort Duquesne and the Rise of Fort Pitt
Daniel Rosko
Abstract: In 1754, the French constructed the first fort near the confluence of three rivers—the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela—and named it Fort Duquesne in honor of Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Marquis de Duquesne, the Governor General of New France from 1752 until 1755. By 1761, the British completed construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt, Secretary of State for the Southern Department from 1757 until his resignation in 1761. The British and French battled to gain control of this critical site, which resulted in the loss of French control of the area and the rise of a British fortification. French influence in the Ohio Country was closely tied to New France’s alliance with the local Native American tribes. French influence in the Ohio Country and Fort Duquesne were lost because of inadequate forces and supplies, the increasing unreliability of the local native allies of the French, and the abandonment of Fort Duquesne, which led to British control of the region and the construction of Fort Pitt.
Overcoming Fear: Realizing Production at the Willow Run Bomber Plant
Michael R. Majerczyk
Abstract: In 1941, bulldozers began clearing Henry Ford’s farm in Ypsilanti, Michigan, twenty-five miles west of Detroit, to make way for the massive Willow Run Bomber Plant. By May 1942, thirty-thousand workers had produced their first B-24 Liberator. Efficiency continued to improve and by November 1943 Willow Run had produced one-thousand Liberators. A month after D-day Ford Motor Company made good on its promise to build one bomber an hour. At its pinnacle, Willow Run employed 42,331 workers, and when production ceased in June 1945 the plant had produced a total of 8,685 Liberators. The numbers are impressive but impersonal, because they mask the labor relation and housing difficulties both hourly and salaried employees had to overcome. To realize production at the Willow Run Bomber, workers had to overcome the culture of fear that existed at Ford Motor Company and their fear of an unfamiliar diverse workplace.
Ancient Horse-Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes
Kathleen Guler
Abstract: On the vast grassland steppes of Eurasia in the Early Iron Age, a new kind of culture emerged in which everything in life centered on one particular animal: the horse. Evidence suggests that if the incubating grasslands had not existed, these horse-cultures may never have developed. Steppe peoples embraced horsemanship with a skill above that of all other societies. Solid boundaries and enough space and grazing to support herds of horses that swelled into the thousands made this possible. These inhabitants also seeded a wide range of profound advances, skills, and beliefs that impacted peoples of both steppe and non-steppe lands in Europe, the Near East, and far eastern Asia. However, while physical and intangible evidence appear to support the hypothesis that some societies outside the steppes may have adopted enough traits to claim a horse-culture heritage, whether they fully developed into such a culture in a non-steppe environment remains open to conjecture.
“Of The People, By the People, For the People”: The Transformation of Gettysburg Battlefield Park From a Site of Official Culture to a Popular Tourist Attraction
Joseph J. Cook
Abstract: In November 1863, thousands descended upon the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the thousands who had descended upon and fallen upon the field around the town four months earlier. They came for a ceremony of official culture: the dedication of a national cemetery for thousands of citizen-soldiers of the Union. Southerners were excluded from this initial commemoration; little did any of the people present in November 1863 know the tremendous role Southerners would play in adopting this sacred field for popular pilgrimages in the years after the war. Nor could those on the stage know the extent to which the general populace would appropriate the hallowed ground for their own purposes beyond the purview of official culture.
Book Review: Adrien Fontanellaz and Tom Cooper, The Rwandan Patriotic Front 1990-1994 (Africa@War Series) West Midlands, England: Helion & Company Limited, 2015.
Christopher Cyr
A review of Adrien Fontanellaz and Tom Cooper's The Rwandan Patriotic Front 1990-1994.
Book Review: Keppie, Lawrence. The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire. London: B.T. Batsford, 1984.
Christopher Sheline
A review of Lawrence Keppie's The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire.

Vol. 5, Iss. 1 (Winter 2016)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 5, Issue 1

Winter 2016

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 5, Issue 1 features articles on a wide array of historical topics, as well as the introduction of well-researched, well-reasoned opinion pieces.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 5, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 5, Issue 1 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 5, Issue 1
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
Joseph J. Cook
An introduction to volume 5, issue 1 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles on a wide array of historical topics, as well as the introduction of well-researched, well-reasoned opinion pieces.
Plague, Papacy and Power: The Effect of the Black Plague on the Avignon Papacy
Heather Para
Abstract: Beginning in 1346, the plague killed an estimated one-third of the inhabitants of Europe. The Black Death arrived among the invading Mongols of the Golden Horde. It spread along the trade routes to the lower Volga and the Black Sea, and from there it moved quickly across the Mediterranean and into Europe by way of merchants, sailors, and travelers. Avignon, the seat of the papacy at the time, succumbed in 1348. The coming of the plague was part of a series of events that reduced the papacy from the height of its power to its lowest point in centuries. The plague came at a critical moment for the Church, and the papacy at Avignon did not adequately rise to the challenge. Inevitably, the poor response led to intense criticism, general distrust of the Church, heretical movements, and eventually, the Reformation. Perhaps the papacy was headed along that road already, but the Black Death certainly sped it on its way.
A Clash of Empires: The Fight over the Georgia Colony during the War of Jenkins’ Ear
Greg Drummond
Abstract: During the colonial period of the Americas, European powers fought a number of wars over territory and trade rights. The War of Jenkins’ Ear was one such war, which pitted the British Empire against Spain largely because of the new colony of Georgia. In 1739, the British put an end to diplomatic wrangling and declared war, encouraging Brigadier General James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, to seize the opportunity to invade Florida and lay siege to the city of St. Augustine. Tumultuous events plagued British progress, resulting in a failed siege of St. Augustine.After more than a year of careful planning, the Spanish retaliated by invading St. Simons Island. Through the sheer stout bravery of Oglethorpe and his men, accompanied by a bit of luck, the British managed an astounding victory that sent Spain into retreat and established the boundaries and standing of the mighty British Empire. Therefore, while the offensive operations against Spain would fail due to a fractured command structure, the spirited defense of St. Simons Island would not only rout the Spanish forces but would also set the southern boundary of the Georgia colony and tip the balance of power in North America in favor of the British.
Shock and Awe: A Summary Account of Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford’s 1776 Military Campaign against the Cherokee in Western North Carolina and Its Impact on American Westward Expansion
John Chappo
Abstract: While clearly scholars have addressed the interactions of individual states and Native American communities during the revolutionary era and while they have also clearly written about the entire frontier region more generally, few have focused on the impact of Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford’s 1776 autumn campaign against the Cherokee in western North Carolina. Known as the Rutherford Trace, his campaign revealed fully the hard hand of total war. Rutherford’s campaign also concomitantly helped shape America’s collective memory of native peoples as “savages” which, in turn, helped frame America’s Indian policies in the years and decades following the conflict. The purpose of this article is to help fill the historiographical gap relative to the nexus of British, American (Tory and Patriot), and Native American interests and designs along the American Revolutionary frontier. The paper argues that Rutherford’s campaign, combined with associated operations in South Carolina and Virginia, helped fuel American post-Revolutionary policy-making, both domestic and foreign, more than any other region of the war. Results indicate that Rutherford’s expedition was anything but pyrrhic in nature as has been advanced by some recent scholarship.In fact, Rutherford’s actions, in conjunction with armed incursions from the neighboring states of Virginia and South Carolina, were wholly transformative. “Patriot” actions during the American Revolution, such as the Rutherford Trace of this study, aided the continued development of the militia system along the frontier, limited Cherokee abilities to coordinate with or support British or American Tory designs throughout the upcountry, divided the Cherokee between those who supported peace and those who called for armed opposition to American patriots as evidenced by the formation of the Chickamauga Cherokee under Dragging Canoe, and also helped frame and advance a successful blueprint for westward expansion that could be found in concerted, multi-state action—a blueprint that would be used by policy-makers in decades following the Revolution.
Thomas J. Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862: Theoretical Origins and Execution
William F. Lawson
Abstract: Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign is remembered as one of the most brilliant campaigns of the American Civil War and rates favorably among the great campaigns of history. In the spring of 1862, Jackson turned the strategic fortunes of the Confederacy with a relatively small army employed in decisive fashion upon sound principles.
Porter’s 1862 Campaign in Northeast Missouri
Jimmy R. Dick
Abstract: The Union victory at Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 7, 1862 solidified Union control of Missouri for the remainder of the American Civil War, but small guerrilla forces opposed to the Union remained on the loose to plague the people of the state for three more years. The loss at Pea Ridge resulted in orders for the defeated Confederate forces to move east of the Mississippi River for operations in that theater, which deprived General Sterling Price, commander of the Missouri State Guard, of troops for his army. However, the idea that there were thousands of men with loyalties to the South persisted in Price’s imagination. He sent several officers into Missouri to recruit men and bring them back south to join the units under his command. Colonel Joseph Chrisman Porter, a longtime resident of Lewis County in northeast Missouri, was one of these officers. Porter successfully recruited a large group of men and initiated combat operations, which took the Union occupiers by surprise before he was forced to withdraw. In the grand strategic picture of the war, Porter’s campaign in northeast Missouri was fairly inconsequential, but he accomplished his primary missions: recruiting soldiers for the Confederacy and causing massive unrest.
“Ich Bin Adolf Eichmann”: Recalling the Banality of Evil
Joseph J. Cook
Abstract: Adolf Eichmann's name has become synonymous with the Holocaust and the horrifying potential of seemingly regular individuals—the quality which Hannah Arendt referred to as the “banality of evil.” Despite never rising above the rank of Obersturmbannführer2 in the Schutzstaffel (SS), he held “more power at his command than any general in the German Army.” Who was Adolf Eichmann? What was his role in the extermination of the Jews? If he truly was just an ordinary man, what caused him to take part in such a terrible atrocity? Numerous historians and sociologists have attempted to answer this question, particularly since Eichmann’s spectacular trial in the early 1960s. How did Eichmann view his own actions, and how should people in the present and future remember the man?
We Are Not the Romans . . . YET
Tom Leamy
Abstract: For the past decade and beyond, the United States has faced many trials and tribulations that have shaken our great country. Recent events have roused the question of the possibility that the United States may be in the same position as the Roman Empire was near the fall of the Empire in the West during the latter part of the fifth century.
Book Review: Claudia Koonz. The Nazi Conscience. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2003.
Noah Hutto
A review of Claudia Koonz's The Nazi Conscience.
Book Review: Dominic Lieven. The End of Tsarist Russia. New York, New York: Viking, 2015.
Daniel Rosko
A review of Dominic Lieven's The End of Tsarist Russia.
Book Review: Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White. That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-4, 1863. El Dorado Hills: Savas Beatie, 2014.
Joseph J. Cook
A review of Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White's That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-4, 1863.

Vol. 4, Iss.3 (Fall 2015)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 3

Fall 2015

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 4, Issue 3 features papers related to transformations in history.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 4, Iss. 3
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 4, Issue 3 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 4, Issue 3
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
Joseph J. Cook
An introduction to volume 4, issue 3 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles related to transformations in history.
The Making of the Medieval Papacy: The Gregorian Mission to Kent
Jack Morato
Abstract: In the mid-fifth century, the western portion of the Roman Empire had suffered an unrecoverable collapse, and Roman Christianity was supplanted in the provinces with either the pagan animism of the Anglo-Saxons and Franks or the heretical Arianism of the Goths and Vandals. Pope Leo's bold proclamation of papal and Roman Catholic leadership did not coincide with social and political realities; he was writing at a time when the Roman Church held influence in Italy but little elsewhere. Establishing the authority of the Roman See in the Germanic kingdoms that occupied approximately what is now France, Spain, and Britain required the sustained efforts of successive popes and the churchmen who worked under their auspices. A key part of this long-range effort to translate the Petrine Doctrine from abstraction to reality included the late sixth-century mission to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent in Britain that Pope Gregory the Great (r. 590-604) organized. The Gregorian mission resulted in the conversion of the pagan Kentish kingdom and the establishment of the Episcopal Church at Canterbury, the first Latin Church in Britain since Roman times. More importantly, the Gregorian mission planted the seed of Latin Christianity in Britain and culminated in the conversion of the whole island less than a century later under the leadership of the pope in Rome.
Charles Martel Turns South: The Hammer’s Campaigns in Southern France 733-737
Patrick S. Baker
Abstract: After 732 until his death in 741, Charles Martel campaigned, almost exclusively, in Aquitaine, southern Burgundy around Lyon, the Rhone Valley to the Mediterranean Sea, and in Septimania, modern-day Languedoc. Before 732, Charles Martel's primary interest was in establishing himself as the principal leader of the three Frankish kingdoms of Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy. After 732, he shifted his strategic focus southward. Charles Martel's southern strategy was the result of a Moorish-controlled Narbonne. From there they threatened Frankish interests in the Rhone Valley, southern Burgundy, and Aquitaine. To secure his realm, Charles Martel had to eliminate the Moors from what is today southern France.
Benjamin Church, Joseph-François Hertel, and the Origins of Irregular Warfare in the Early Colonial Period
Christopher L. Hilmer
Abstract: To counter threats from both Native Americans and one another, the English and the French colonists increasingly utilized guerilla warfare. Two men in particular, the Puritan Benjamin Church and the French-Canadian Joseph-François Hertel, played important roles in the development of irregular warfare amongst their respective peoples. These two men developed the tactics, advocated their usage, implemented them successfully, provided leadership in battle, and eventually laid down a mantle that was picked up by successive generations of soldiers on both sides of the nascent conflict of empires. While Church is better known today, there is no doubt that Hertel was also feared and respected. Of the two, he was likely the more experienced and proficient in irregular warfare.
The Impact of Cars on Cities
Christopher N. Schloemer
Abstract: By the end of the twentieth century, America had become a “car-crazy country” in which the automobile was indispensable. However, the proliferation of automobiles and the mobility it gave the average American had a great impact on the development of America’s cities. The automobile rose through the conflict of competing for dominance of the city streets, changing the nature of the city street, and in turn changing the landscape of the American city—not always for the better. Increased automobile usage required changes to accommodate parking and impacted the environment. Increased mobility caused urban sprawl, exacerbated by the urban and interstate highway systems that led to the meteoric rise of the suburb, decimating urban population centers and the urban economy. Urban highways and the Interstate Highway System, although developed to help cities, actually hurt them.
The Zulu Identity: Surviving Colonialism, Apartheid, and King Shaka
Jessica R. Orr Flinchum
Abstract: In the 1990s, approximately eight million people living in cities of suburban South Africa (outside the coastal borders of KwaZulu) considered themselves Zulu or members of interrelated ethnic groups. This identity persists in spite of apartheid efforts that lasted until the late twentieth century to eliminate ethnic and linguistic distinctions by grouping all blacks together and attempts to oust them from South Africa en masse. This Zulu identity originated from the heroification of King Shaka kaSenzangakhona (r. 1816 – 1828). It can be examined in two parts: the popular acknowledgment paid to Shaka’s sweeping social, political, and military reforms, including the socio-militaristic regimentalization of all aspects of Zulu life; and the more recent role of dehumanization as employed by European colonialists and later apartheidists, together with the African cultural response.
Huguenots and the French Enlightenment
Allison Ramsey
Abstract: When Louis XIV inherited the throne in 1643, the French Protestants, or Huguenots, found themselves in a difficult situation. The Sun King effectively ended all hope for Protestantism in France with the Edict of Fontainebleau—or the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes—in 1685. Even though Catholics and Protestants alike were weary of fighting within the country, they could not agree upon a peaceable co-existence. This led to a grand migration of Protestants in search of a better life in other areas of the world. Eventually, with the help of popular philosophe opinion, the Huguenots regained many of their individual rights in France, even though these were reluctantly given. While the Enlightenment represented a growth in personal freedom for many, it was a time of fluctuation, instability, and turmoil for the Huguenots.
A Democratic Consideration of Herodotus’s Histories
Mary Jo Davies
Abstract: In the Histories, Herodotus’s admiration of Athenian Democracy is apparent when he compares a strong, democratic Athens in the fifth century BC to monarchies and tyrannies. Compelled to satisfy the needs or decisions of kings and tyrants, Persian soldiers became compulsory participants, which often transmuted into disasters on the battlefield. On the contrary, Athenian democracy’s anti-aristocratic arrangement promoted cooperative decision-making for the interest of the community. This freedom encouraged soldiers to become willing participants in warfare. Although victory was not always in their hands, to Herodotus, fighting for the collective interest of a community rather than for the narcissistic pursuit of one leader fostered an unwavering commitment to the cause. Inspired by Athenian ways of expressing egalitarian values, Herodotus’s intention for writing the Histories was not to give Greece a sense of its historical identity, but to endorse the advantages of democratic rule over tyranny. This paper will prove that Herodotus's purpose for writing the Histories was to promote democracy.
Book Review: Kathryn Warner. Edward II, The Unconventional King. Stroud, UK: Amberley Publishing, 2014.
Kathleen Guler
A review of Kathryn Warner's Edward II, The Unconventional King.
Book Review: Eugene Rogan. The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. Basic Books: New York, 2015.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East.
Book Review: Greg King and Penny Wilson. Lusitania: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age. New York: St. Martins Press, 2015.
Robinlynn Stewart
A review of Greg King and Penny Wilson's Lusitania: Triumph, Tragedy, and the End of the Edwardian Age.
Book Review: Michael Walzer. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. 5th ed. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
Cynthia Nolan
A review of Michael Walzer's Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations.
Book Review: Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1999.
Will Hamblet
A review of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.
Book Review: John France. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Geoffrey Fisher
A review of John France's Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300.
Book Review: Mirjam Pressler. Treasures From the Attic: The Extraordinary Story of Anne Frank’s Family. New York: Doubleday, 2011
Jennifer Thompson
A review of Mirjam Pressler's Treasures From the Attic: The Extraordinary Story of Anne Frank’s Family.
Book Review: William C. Davis. Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged. Da Capo Press: New York, 2015.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of William C. Davis's Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—The War The Fought, The Peace They Forged.

Vol. 4, Iss.2 (Spring/Summer 2015)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2015

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 4, Issue 2 features a number of historiographical essays, as well as feature articles that explore the theme of Population Movements and Civilization—the result of the summer 2015 call for papers.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 4, Iss. 2
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 4, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 4, Issue 2
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to volume 4, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, featuring historiographical essays, as well as feature articles that explore the theme of Population Movements and Civilization.
The Franj Invasion of Islamic Lands: Muslim View of the Crusades
Noah Hutto
Abstract: The rise in popularity and nod to “Christian duty” in the Western world still echoes with the exploits of the Crusader knights on their quest from God. Muslim historiography contradicts this line of thought and treats the “Crusades” almost as a footnote within the greater struggles of warring factions in the region—that they were in fact, “tiny and futile attempts to halt the inevitable expansion of Islam.” In the beginning of the conflict, the Muslims did not even consider themselves involved in a religious struggle against Christianity. Western views dominate the historiography of the Crusades, presenting a one sided view of a topic that is far from black and white. A true discussion of this topic, often misrepresented in modern society, must include viewpoints that shed light on the opposite side of that same coin.
From Liddell Hart to Keegan: Examining the Twentieth Century Shift in Military History Embodied by Two British Giants of the Field
Joseph J. Cook
Abstract: Two British historians of the past century could be credited with the label of greatness during their lifetimes, while writing vastly different forms of history. In many ways, Basil Henry Liddell Hart and John Keegan—both knighted for their contributions— symbolized, respectively, the traditional and new approaches to writing military history. Therefore, they form an effective duo to illustrate the shift in historiography the field underwent during the twentieth century.
Fractured Friendship at the Battle of Munda 45 BC: Julius Caesar and Titus Labienus
Michael R. Majerczyk
Abstract: Julius Caesar and Titus Labienus were friends forced to fight one another because they could not deny the influence of dignitas and amecitia, two social values the Roman Republic forced them to recognize. As young men, they campaigned together in Asia. They returned to Rome and fought the optimates in the Senate and later, barbarians in Gaul. Nevertheless, in 45 BC at the Battle of Munda, they fought one another as enemies, and there Labienus fell. Caesar triggered a civil war when he crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC to defend his dignitas. Bound by amecitia, Labienus joined the opposition, Pompey, and the optimates. The study that follows begins with a discussion on related historiography and sources, followed by an outline of the conflict between the optimates and the populares. It then examines the significant cooperation between both men and determines this cooperation was rooted in genuine friendship not mutual benefit. Dignitas and amecitia divided the two friends and an analysis of these two values is given. Last, a survey of the Battle of Munda describes a tragic end to a once flourishing friendship.
The Historiography of the Late Roman Republic
Guy Williams
Abstract: Despite the apparent success of the military, the period from 133 BC until 27 BC marked a critical time in Roman history as the Republic began a perilous slide towards internecine warfare that eventually ended with the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. The problem facing modern historians centers on the causal factors behind the changes of the Roman Republic. Economic and political factors such as the struggle between the patricii (aristocrat class) and the plebes (common people), civil war, and the denigration of Roman law all influenced the transformative process. While each of these causal factors contributed to the evolution of the Roman Republic, they did not encompass the entire scope of the process of change or explain the machinations behind key events and people who contributed to Rome’s emergence as an empire. Amongst the myriad factors that contributed to the demise of the Republic, one rose above the others as the prime enabler to the transformative process. The Roman legions presented the one common denominator that the causal factors shared and became the fulcrum point between key events and historical figures. Modern historiography about the late Roman Republic pays scant attention to the crucial relationship between the military and the civil authorities and their resulting effect upon the transformation process of the Republic.
Origins of the Lost Cause: Pollard to the Present
Rebecca Simmons Graf
Abstract: The variety of interpretations of the American Civil War has aided in creating a tremendous volume of literature. Northerners and Southerners were—and continue to be—prolific in promoting their own versions of the conflict. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, a movement began in which Southerners wrote their version of the conflict and the events leading up to it. Southern historian Edward A. Pollard named this movement the “Lost Cause.” The historiography of the Lost Cause is constantly being added to and it is still a major topic; both proponents and opponents publish often on their interpretations of the Lost Cause. Southern men, such as Edward Pollard, Jubal Early, and Jefferson Davis, were determined that their version of history would be carried into the future. Southern heroes such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson would remain in the forefront of the history of the Civil War. These authors left a legacy of conflicting information for future generations that has led some to continue debating the implications of the war even in the twenty-first century.
Einhard: The Lasting Influence of The Life of Charlemagne and Other Works
Aida Dias
Abstract: The Carolingian period was of significant importance to the development of medieval history writing. Charlemagne (c.742-814) surrounded himself with scholars in an effort to promote learning and the arts, which had been in decline for centuries. Within this Carolingian Renaissance, there was one scholar who established his place in history by writing a concise but remarkable, and mostly accurate, biography of the greatest king and emperor of the early Middle Ages. This scholar was Einhard (c.770-840), who created impressively original works that had both an immediate and lasting influence on the writing of biographies and hagiographies. A closer look at these works reveals a great deal about the man who wrote them and the social and political climate that shaped them. From his classical education and the influence of Charlemagne’s court, Einhard developed a unique style of writing and created works which, in addition to giving him personal power, had social and political significance for the Carolingians.
Polybius on the Roman Republic: Foretelling a Fall
Mary Jo Davies
Abstract: During his sixteen-year detention in Rome, Polybius’s initial admiration for the Romans faded as he came to see them in an increasingly unfavorable light. Political reasons prevented him from overtly expressing his views, but he provided clues for his reversed opinion throughout the Histories. As Rome’s power grew so did its overconfidence and arrogance. This eventually provided the catalyst for the demise of the Republic. Although he died roughly one hundred years prior to the fall of the Republic, the signs of change were evident to him. In his account of the final destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, Polybius described how the Romans razed Carthage to the ground by “stratagem and deceit.” In time, he had come to believe that every form of government was transitory, including that of Rome, but to grasp how he was able to analyze the organic nature of Rome’s mixed constitution, it is crucial to understand how he believed all forms of leadership worked based on his assessment of human behavior.
The Population of Exodus in Question
Cam Rea
Abstract: The Book of Exodus has intrigued churchgoers, academics, and everyday readers. The approach to its content varies. An apologetic approach includes a literal interpretation of the Bible. On the contrary, a minimalist approach suggests the stories in the Bible are not entirely factual. This study embraces the middle ground between the apologetic and minimalist approach from a secular military standpoint. The focus of this article is on the mass Hebrew exodus. The author does not dispute the fact that the Hebrew people left Egypt—the amount that fled is in question. Using an alternate interpretation of eleph, the Hebrew word for “thousand,” combined with the known nutrition and medical practices of the Hebrews, provides an alternative population number than what is recorded in scripture.
From Raiders to Traders: The Viking-Arab Trade Exchange
Susanne Watts
Abstract: The Viking raids across Europe brought them into contact with other cultures, including Muslim Arabs. Although there are no known Viking settlements in the Arab lands, both cultures interacted with each other through their respective exploration of Europe. Contact between Vikings and Arabs occurred mainly in the area of what would become Russia. While there is scarce evidence that Arabs visited the homelands of the Vikings, or as they called them, the “people of the North,” artifacts found across Scandinavia, and especially in Sweden, point to an extensive long-distance trade exchange between the two very different cultures. It was the promise of access to much needed and coveted silver that set off the Viking exploration into Europe, and brought Viking raiders into contact with the Arabs. In their quest for silver, the Vikings discovered and accessed valuable trade routes to Constantinople that led to an extensive trade exchange with the Arab world. Seizing upon the opportunity to enrich themselves, the Vikings came into contact with Arabic wealth and treasures through their raids, and soon realized the potential of a peaceful trade exchange.
The American Northern Plains Indian Wars: A Clash of Cultures
Jona Lunde
Abstract: Just as Jews, Christians, and Muslims have fought for control over the Holy Land for thousands of years, the Lakota and Cheyenne have fought over and revered the Black Hills country. The Lakota have often interpreted the existence of Mount Rushmore, somewhat comparable to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as a symbol of the white man’s arrogant dominance over the Lakota people. In the years 1851 to 1891, a clash of cultures existed between the white man and the Northern Plains Indians based on arrogance, deception, and greed, resulting in the near elimination of an entire culture that could easily have been avoided. This article discusses the Treaty of 1851, Red Cloud's War, the Battle of Washita River, the Treaty of 1868, and Little Bighorn, and their impact on the Northern Plains tribes.
Book Review: Scott Trostel. The Lincoln Funeral Train: The Final Journey and National Funeral for Abraham Lincoln. Ohio: Cam-Tech Publishing, 2012.
Jennifer Thompson
A review of Scott Trostel's The Lincoln Funeral Train: The Final Journey and National Funeral for Abraham Lincoln.
Book Review: Desmond Seward. The Warrior King and the Invasion of France: Henry V, Agincourt, and the Campaign that Shaped Medieval England. New York: Pegasus Books, 2014.
Daniel Rosko
A review of Desmond Seward's The Warrior King and the Invasion of France: Henry V, Agincourt, and the Campaign that Shaped Medieval England.
Book Review: Jeff Shaara. The Fateful Lightning: A Novel of the Civil War. Ballantine Books: New York, June 2015.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Jeff Shaara's The Fateful Lightning: A Novel of the Civil War.
Book Review: Eric H. Cline. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Stan Prager
A review of Eric H. Cline's 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.
Book Review: Bernard Cornwell. Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles. HarperCollins: New York, 2015.
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Bernard Cornwell's Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles.
Book Review: Steven C. Bullock. Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Bill Speer
A review of Steven C. Bullock's Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730-1840.
Book Review: James Madison Page in collaboration with M.J. Halley. The True Story of Andersonville Prison: A Defense of Major Henry Wirz. New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1908. Reprint, Scituate, MA: Digital Scanning, 1999.
Jennifer Thompson
A review of James Madison Page in collaboration with M.J. Halley's The True Story of Andersonville Prison: A Defense of Major Henry Wirz.
Book Review: Margaret Macmillan. Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World. New York: Random House, 2001. xxxi+570pp.
Robinlynn Stewart
A review of Margaret Macmillan's Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World.

Vol. 4, Iss.1 (Winter 2015)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 1

Winter 2015

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 4, Issue 1 features articles on the themes of winter and religion, as well as other articles and book reviews.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 4, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 4, Issue 1 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 4, Issue 1
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to volume 4, issue 1 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles on the themes of winter, religion, and more.
The Night the Angels Sang: Christmas 1914 At Home and On the Front
Dr. Edward Hagerty
Abstract: Early in December 1914, Pope Benedict XV, elected to the Papacy only three months before, fervently sought a temporary silencing of the guns that had shattered Europe since August. Let “them fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang,” he urged the warring powers. Benedict’s plea fell on deaf ears, but informally, the spirit of the season managed to exert its power inexorably upon the already battle weary and homesick combatants. Notwithstanding the official government ruling, it would be up to those who bore the greatest burdens to decide whether a break from the fighting was warranted.
Tribal Capabilities and Warfare: The Case of Ancient Israel
Martin Catino
Abstract: Israel’s military success during the transitional stage (1380-1050 BC) resided not only in leadership, the heroic judges that acted as champion-saviors, but in a complementary force emanating from the population. Leadership in depth, master narratives animating the Israelites to fight, and military culture forged in a potent praxis of religious ideology and military art, all created a “bottom up” force structuring and supporting the judges. This paper analyses these tribal capabilities, and the cultural norms, values, and behaviours that shape a tribe’s ability to conduct war and affect the conditions that determine the outcomes of war.
From Civil Religion to Religious Fatalism: The Will of God and the Downfall of the Confederacy
Robert L. Wheeler Jr.
Abstract: Evangelical Protestantism in the South, brought on by the Second Great Awakening, created airs of religious preeminence and exceptionalism in the southern mind and eventually digressed, after battlefield defeats resulting in astronomical casualties, into the acceptance of a certain religious fatalism. This religious fatalism, shared by rebel soldiers and the southern body politic alike, proved deadly to southern morale and southern will and ultimately led to the downfall of the short-lived Confederacy.
Under the Iron Heel of Western Financial Institutions: The Collapse of Communist Yugoslavia
Nick Ceh
Abstract: The collapse of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s produced many scholarly works investigating the reasons for its failure and the ethnic war that paralleled its demise. These works argue about communist Yugoslavia’s internal economic problems, different ethnic groups’ desire for political independence, and ancient ethnic hatreds. While bits and pieces of these works may or may not carry some validity, a global analysis that explains the collapse of Yugoslavia from an alternative perspective has not previously been explored. This alternative approach links Yugoslavia’s collapse to its peripheral position in a global system. Yugoslavia’s dependence on Western financial institution monetary loans after the Tito-Stalin break in 1948 contributed to both the collapse of communist Yugoslavia and the war that followed.
The Presentation of Native Americans from the Icelandic Sagas to the Present Day: A Historiographical Research Essay
Kevin Edgar
Abstract: The extent of the contributions of Indian peoples has remained a point of contention in U.S. History classrooms. Throughout the years, Native Americans have been presented in textbooks as either bloodthirsty, soulless heathens standing in the way of American Manifest Destiny, or as children of the forest, living in harmony with nature, cruelly oppressed by white conquerors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of historians’ attitudes towards Native Americans. By examining how authors have presented Native Americans, changing attitudes about the first inhabitants of the Western hemisphere can be understood. The author considered a number of textbooks while researching the historiography of Native American studies. Beginning with the earliest accounts, including an American history textbook published in 1827, and concluding with a U.S. history textbook published in 2008, the author examined six textbooks from the primary through the college level, along with other non-textbook sources.
The War of 1812: The "Forgotten War"
Chris Schloemer
Abstract: The War of 1812 impacted the United States in numerous ways, including improving the nation’s national spirit and international reputation, as well as its transportation, manufacturing, and military capabilities. The war also pushed military heroes into the political spotlight and meant doom for many American Indians. The War of 1812 was vital in pushing America towards becoming a powerful, continental country.
Leadership Lessons from the Past: The Ability to Inspire Greatness Transcends Time
Anne Midgley
Abstract: The essential characteristics of a great leader transcend time; the qualities of an exceptional leader that motivates men to achieve seemingly impossible tasks or to triumph over what appear to be insurmountable odds are on display in leaders as diverse as George Washington, Winston Churchill, and Brigadier General Daniel Morgan of the Continental Army. The same characteristics that brought out the best in the men under Morgan’s command at the Battle of Cowpens on 19 January 1781 are still effective in the twenty-first century and include the capability to inspire others through a combination of vision, foresight, drive, and adaptability.
The Dorr Rebellion, States' Rights, and The South
Mike Gottert
Abstract: During the 1841-42 Dorr Rebellion, Southerners spoke out against Thomas Dorr and his supporters, seemingly in opposition to their stated belief in states’ rights. This lack of support indicates that Southerners had little concern for the rights of states unless they were Southern states and were in agreement with them regarding slavery. They did not support the rebellion because many Southerners saw it as a threat to slavery and Southern life in general, and therefore, whatever states’ rights issues were involved became non-important. Opposition to Dorr was less about states’ rights and more about fears that its ideas could be translated to Southern society and lead to black majoritarian rule. Many historians describe the division between Dorr supporters and non-supporters as an example of party politics, with each party claiming that the rebellion supported their party’s platform. This paper argues that the split was less about party politics and more about sectional differences.
Book Review: Watson, Alexander. Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I. New York: Basic Books, 2014
Dr. Robert Smith
A review of Alexander Watson's Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I.
Book Review: Catherine Merridale. Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006
Kathleen Cunningham Guler
A review of Catherine Merridale's Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army.
End Matter: Volume 4, Issue 1
Includes call for papers for the summer 2015 issue and society information.

Vol. 3, Iss. 4 (Fall 2014)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 3, Issue 4

Fall 2014 (Edited and Revised May 2015)

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 3, Issue 4 features articles reflecting the broad range of historical interests across the scholarly community. This issue was initially published in fall 2014, and was fully revised and updated in May 2015.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 3, Iss. 4
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 3, Issue 4 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 3, Issue 4
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to the fully revised and edited volume 3, issue 4 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles reflecting the broad range of historical interests across the scholarly community.
German Unification through the Blueprint of Prussian Greatness: A Study of Similarities between the Prussians, Frederick the Great, and Otto von Bismarck
Noah S. Hutto
Abstract: Any modern day discussion concerning the Father of Germany automatically invokes the name of Otto von Bismarck and, by virtue of his accomplishments, any list of other accomplished German leaders would also include Frederick II, or Frederick the Great. Ironically, because both men were actually Prussian, they both sought (at least initially in the case of Bismarck) the expansion of Prussia, not necessarily the creation of a unified German nation. Despite a full century separating the two men, they both came to power in Prussia, inheriting a nation of unique challenges, both domestically and internationally. While there were differences in some of their actions and the paths chosen, there remain eerie similarities. Whether planned or completely subconsciously, Bismarck used Frederick the Great’s successful expansion of Prussia as a foundation for his own actions.
The Future of Civil War Soldier Studies: The Failure of Courage
Joseph Cook
Abstract: Gradually, the common soldier became more prominent in the histories of the American Civil War and these soldier studies hold a future potential for original Civil War historical research. The Civil War is uniquely qualified for examination of the common soldier’s experience. As Aaron Sheehan-Dean wrote, “Historians of the Civil War face [a] problem. They have not too few sources from common people but too many.” Despite this plethora of source material, Civil War soldier studies have not come close to reaching their potential – as soldiers are too often seen as being cleanly divided between analogous groups rather than being complex individuals.
Piety over Piracy: The Shaolin Monks’ Victory against Wokou
Ryan Lancaster
Abstract: The Shaolin monks of China periodically forsook the scroll to demonstrate their expertise at martial arts. In one instance, Chinese officials, in a desperate last resort, mobilized these warrior monks to take on roving Japanese pirates, or wokou, who were pillaging China’s coast. Because of crumbling law enforcement, a decadent and enticing society, and a weakened grasp on the coastal territories, Ming Dynasty China was a tempting target. This left Shaolin monks as the last line of defense against pirates.
Who Influenced Whom? A New Perspective on the Relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan
Robert Kane
Abstract: US Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’s and Theodore Roosevelt’s close relationship and regular correspondence after 1890 and Roosevelt’s growing support for an ocean-going Navy as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and President led some naval historians and Roosevelt biographers to believe that Mahan heavily influenced Roosevelt in the development of his ideas about sea power and an ocean-going navy. However, Mahan’s influence on Roosevelt was not as extensive as these authors have claimed as Roosevelt, by the early 1890s, already had well-formed ideas about the importance of seapower, the need for the United States to have a great navy, and its use on the world’s oceans.
The Limits of Brilliance: The Role of Supply Problems in Hannibal’s Failed Italian Campaign
Jack Morato
Abstract: Hannibal Barca, that incomparable commander who nearly brought Rome to its knees, was Carthaginian hatred personified. He tested the political will of the Roman ruling elite and the legendary perseverance of the Roman people. His campaign in Italy, known to history as the Hannibalic War of 218-201, set in motion the social, economic, and political currents which eventually resulted in the demise of the Roman Republic. Rome’s legions and the commanders who led them proved to be outclassed on the battlefields of Italy. To survive the onslaught – indeed, the wholesale massacre—the Romans learned through bitter experience to employ a strategy of attrition, containment, and isolation. They also learned to capitalize on their substantial advantage in manpower and logistics. Mighty as Hannibal was in the field, he did not have the staying power or the resources needed to bring about a favorable settlement with Rome. Hannibal’s undoing was the result of the deliberate Roman policy of harassment and deprivation, his inability to win a critical mass of political support from the Italian communities, and his failure to find a long-term solution to his considerable supply needs.
Walter Prescott Webb: Pioneering the Great Plains and Beyond
Chris Hilmer
Abstract: Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963) was a twentieth century historian whose writings, particularly The Great Plains (1931), revolutionized views of the American West by demonstrating how man had adapted technology and institutions to a new environment and by describing the West, not simply as an idea or a process, but as a distinct geographic region. In 1952, the Mississippi Valley Historical Association chose The Great Plains as “the most important book in the first half of the twentieth century by a living American historian.” A later work, The Great Frontier (1951), applied Webb’s conception of the frontier to the entire Western Hemisphere and sought to identify the effects of this “world frontier” upon European and global history. In addition to his important contributions to the history of the American West and to the study of the frontier in world history, Webb did seminal work in a number of other historical fields, including environmental history and the study of comparative frontiers.
The Forgotten Battle of Attu
Mike Van Orden
Abstract: On 20 August 2012, United States Senator Lisa Murkowski and Coast Guard Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo dedicated a memorial commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the invasion of Attu. This westernmost and largest island in the Aleutian chain is closer to Japan than mainland Alaska. Attu is a small windswept island that is less than three hundred miles from the International Date Line. Today, it is home to a few Coast Guard personnel but in 1943 it was the site of a bloody battle that claimed over five hundred American and more than two thousand four hundred Japanese lives. It was the first invasion of the United States since the War of 1812 and the only invasion of North America in the Second World War; however, this battle is virtually unknown outside the State of Alaska and is often left out of the history books.
Prelude to Fall Blau: The Second Battle of Kharkov
Tormod B. Engvig
Abstract: The Second Battle of Kharkov represented the Wehrmacht at its highest watermark, and the Red Army at its lowest ebb. Despite its incapability for large-scale offensive action in the spring of 1942, the Red Army attempted to recapture the city of Kharkov in a pincer movement from bridgeheads east of the city. Troops of the South-Western Front, commanded by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, initially made good ground against Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock’s thinly stretched Army Group South, only to be defeated by superior tactical and operational expertise in a smashing German counterattack.
Book Review: Thomas A. Bogar. Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford’s Theatre. Washington, D.C.: Regnery History, 2013.
Jennifer Thompson
A review of Thomas A. Bogar's Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: The Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford’s Theatre.
Book Review: Charles Freeman. Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.
Aida Dias
A review of Charles Freeman's Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe.
Book Review: Robert Parker. Athenian Religion: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
DeAnna Stevens
A review of Robert Parker's Athenian Religion: A History.

Vol. 3, Iss. 2 (Spring/Summer 2014)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 3, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2014

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 3, Issue 2 is a combined spring-summer issue containing feature articles and book reviews reflecting the broad range of history interests across the scholarly community.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 3, Iss. 2
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 3, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 3, Issue 2
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction volume 3, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles and book reviews reflecting the broad range of history interests across the scholarly community.
Henry Clay is Dead: The End of Compromise in Antebellum America
Joseph Cook
Abstract: As a member of the Congress’s Great Triumvirate, which also included Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay established a reputation as “The Great Compromiser” for his repeated success at mediating between competing interests and maintaining national union throughout his five troublesome decades of public service. His final great act on the national stage was the Compromise of 1850, aimed at sorting out the sectional troubles that resulted from the Mexican War—a war that Clay had vigorously opposed. Clay died in 1852, and the following several years only accelerated the nation’s course toward disunion and civil war. In historical retrospection, this could spark curiosity concerning the effect that an immortal Henry Clay may have had on the great national emergency. Such speculation may be academically meaningless, but it is useful to examine several issues related to his exit from the national stage: the conditions of the nation at the time of Clay’s death, the level of success he found in his final years in terms of orchestrating compromises, the nation’s reaction to his death, and the ways in which he was remembered at the time of the secession crisis of 1860.
Τύχη: Fortune, Fate and Chance in Herodotus and Thucydides
Benjamin Sorensen
Abstract: Man has always wished to be able to explain incomprehensible phenomena and has turned to supernatural entities to elucidate the workings of the world. Many natural phenomena were so powerful that certain gods were attributed to these powers, and emotions that often misguided people’s activities were also given divine entities which not only ruled these emotions but also explained the vagaries caused by them. However, there were often situations that were outside the realms of certain gods that could not be explained by natural phenomena or by the wills or power of men. These most inexplicable of occurrences, these moments that seemingly arbitrarily decided the fortunes of man, were given to the goddess Tyche (Τύχη). Her ability to change the course of history and the fate of man was often cited, and these changes were seemingly on a whim. She lives on today when a person speaks of a change in “fortune” (from the Latin Fortuna), for better or worse, as well as in the sociological theory of indeterminism of Charles Pierce (which he called tychism). The word “τύχη” as “fortune” rather than a cognomen for a pure deity also found its way into common usage in Ancient Greece History Τύχη: Fortune, Fate and Chance in Herodotus and Thucydides and is used extensively in the works of Herodotus and Thucydides.
The Conscience of a Nation: The Social Work of Jane Addams in Chicago’s Immigrant Communities
Susanne Watts
Abstract: The plight of working-class immigrants at the end of the nineteenth century caught the attention of middle-class social reformers. Social visionaries like Jane Addams sought to use social reform to improve the lives of poor working-class immigrants. Jane Addams believed in an individual’s obligation to help the community. Through her visionary pioneer work, she provided invaluable social services to the immigrant poor, and brought their plight onto the public stage. Her work at Hull House was influential in advocating social reform and extending social services at the local and state level, and would eventually influence federal legislation. Hull House also facilitated an exchange not only between the social classes but also between different ethnicities. The services Hull House provided helped immigrants assimilate into American culture and society.
Conquerors and Conquered: Early Perspectives of the Battle of Hastings
Matthew Hudson
Abstract: On 14 October 1066, the balance of power on the British Isles shifted when William the Bastard defeated Harold II, the last Saxon king of England, on the field of battle at Hastings. The outcome of a battle or the succession of one ruler from another is easy to define and catalog. However, when the reason for and interpretation of the event become the focus, then the voice of the historian may define the next generation's understanding and perception of the world created by the outcome. The historiography of the Battle of Hastings provides a glimpse into the mind of those writing the history. The ethics, economics, and social norms of the historians are presented to the reader as their work interprets the past. The generation that fought at Hastings and the generations which followed provided future generations with the root system which supported a tree of knowledge. The world in which Hastings occurred can be heard within these voices of conquerors and conquered.
The Ranger Raid on St. Francis
Francis M. Hoeflinger
Abstract: Was the raid on St. Francis a proper mission for a Ranger force and did it have a strategic impact on the French and Indian War? The Ranger raid executed against the Abenaki Indians village of St. Francis on 4 October 1759 was conducted against the backdrop of the French and Indian War’s Mohawk Valley theater of operations. However, addressing the question of the Ranger utility in conducting the raid also raises several additional questions: Was the raid effective? Did Rogers comply with his orders? Was the raid more of a propaganda victory than a tactical or strategic one? This paper will answer these questions as well as the veracity of the reporting on both sides.
U.S. Air Force Medals of Honor
Justin Brian McDonald
Abstract: The United States Air Force is the newest branch of the United States military. Since its inception in 1947, the Air Force has had eighteen Medal of Honor recipients. These recipients differ from those in the Army, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard in the scope of their mission and objectives but not in their courage, bravery, and commitment to honor and discipline in fighting. To understand the significance of the Air Force Medal of Honor recipients, it is essential to understand the importance of the Air Force as a whole and where its specific mission originated.
Students of War: Books and the Education of the American Continental Army
Anne Midgley
Abstract: General George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the American Continental Army, may not have had an advanced education according to the customs of his day but he placed great value on the benefits that Continental Army officers could gain from a broad-based study of military texts. In a large degree due to his influence and exhortations, military books supplemented the hard lessons learned on the battlefield and shaped the development of many Continental Army officers. Studying classical military history and many other categories of military texts was not a unique practice of the American Patriots, but had been adopted from the example of British Army officers who had long relied on military treatises to prepare officers for their roles in the army and continue their education.
A Paratrooper’s Foresight: General James Gavin and the Health of the United States
Timothy T. Tutka
Abstract: Due to the development of the atomic bomb, warfare in the twentieth century changed greatly, a fact that required the rethinking of strategy and tactics. Time has forgotten a lone voice during the Cold War, General James Maurice Gavin, well known for his airborne exploits with the 82nd Airborne Division in the Second World War, but little has been written on his post-war writings. The health of the United States was at the center of Gen. James Gavin’s thinking. His writings in the post-war years exemplify his passion to lead America into the future on and off the battlefield. Military thought was not to be caught up in fighting the past war but instead on looking forward to how the next would be fought. Gen. Gavin continually expounded upon these facts, arguing that tomorrow’s fight would be different than yesterday’s victories or defeats.
Book Reviews: Volume 3, Issue 2
Includes the following book reviews:
-John Jordan's Warships After Washington: The Development of the Five Major Fleets 1922-1930, reviewed by Tormod Engvig
-Robin Binckes' The Great Trek Uncut-Escape from British Rule: The Boer Exodus from the Cape Colony, 1836, reviewed by Norman Harvey
-Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson's The Drive on Moscow 1941: Operation Taifun and Germany’s First Great Crisis in World War II, reviewed by Dr. Robert Smith
End Matter: Volume 3, Issue 2
Includes Saber and Scroll Historical Society information and club officers.

Vol. 3, Iss.1 (Winter 2014)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 1

Winter 2014

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 4, Issue 1 contains works analyzing an eclectic mix of historical genres and time periods.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 3, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 3, Issue 1 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 3, Issue 1
Includes copyright information, table of contents, and editorial board.
Letter from the Editor
William Potter
An introduction volume 3, issue 1 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles reflecting an eclectic mix of historical genres and time periods.
Early Dynastic or Hegemonic? An Argument for Re-Periodization in Mesopotamian Studies
Brandon L. James Bowden
Abstract: This article will argue that the period currently known in Mesopotamian research as the Early Dynastic should be altered to that of the Hegemonic Period or Rival City-State Period, following Hans J. Nissen and his periodization. Modifying this nomenclature would more accurately delineate this period of Mesopotamian history and the nature of power possessed by four primary city-states. Far from a stable, unitary succession of dynasties or dynastic houses as was present in Egypt (3200-2686) the so-called “Early Dynastic” period for Mesopotamia was distinctively characterized by conflict and city-states which imposed hegemonic rule over large areas of Mesopotamia in the period between 2900-2350 B.C. The evidence for such hegemonic domination, rather than unitary rule, means alteration of this nomenclature is almost necessary beyond question.
Unfinished Work: Oval Office Occupants and Aspirants Come to Gettysburg
Joseph Cook
Abstract: In November 1863, thousands descended upon the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to commemorate the thousands who had descended upon and fallen upon the fields around the town four months earlier. They came for a ceremony of official culture: the dedication of a national cemetery for thousands of citizen-soldiers of the Union. Those on this stage could not know the extent to which the hallowed ground of the battlefield—and the memory of the Civil War as a whole—would play a critical part in the struggles of twentieth century America. Lincoln’s renowned speech included the statement: “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” It is true that twentieth century Americans never forgot what their ancestors did during the Civil War—but the debate over why they did it and how to memorialize it created enduring conflict that echoed the deep-set disagreements of the nation’s population, and resulted in continued battles waged on the old battlefield of Gettysburg—with the fate of the nation at stake. Several prominent events, persons, and issues can be used to examine the issue of Civil War memory as a reflection of twentieth century politics and culture.
Pox Mongolica: The Impact of Imperial Peace and Plague
Matthew C. Hudson
Abstract: From the thirteenth to the early fifteenth century, the Mongols influenced, either directly or indirectly, one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. It included the valuable Silk Road where traders could bring exotic goods from the Far East to markets in the Arab world, Africa, and Europe. The increased security of the Silk Road due to the stability of the Mongol Empire allowed for more than the trade of goods and ideas; disease also moved along its routes. The Mongols rapidly swept through Asia and Eastern Europe conquering all in their path, regardless of religion, culture, or race. Among the diseases that initiated in the steppes of Central Asia, the Black Death of 1313 – 1353 spread through the trade routes killing millions in its wake. The four decades of that iteration of the plague altered art, religion, and trade at a global scale in no small part due to the speed by which distant lands were connected via the Pax Mongolica and Silk Road. The Black Death caused by the bubonic plague devastated the eastern hemisphere. Mongolian imperial peace and the stability it provided to the ancient Silk Road served as a conduit for cultures to trade and transmit knowledge, goods, wealth and infectious disease.
The Black Death and Persecution of the Jews
Catherine M. Porter
Abstract: The Middle Ages were a time of great change for Europe. Countries were developing and growing rapidly. Due to the development and growth of the European countries, trade was becoming a worldwide industry. Expanded trade routes brought many good things to Europe, however; the advent of international trade brought to Europe a new scourge it was unprepared to face in the form of the bubonic plague. The plague, in turn, resulted in another wave of Jewish persecution. The European Jewry were no strangers to persecution preceding the advent of the Black Death. The Black Death of 1348 led to more widespread persecution as the European Jewry became the scapegoats for the cause of the plague.
The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
Christopher N. Schloemer
Abstract: The Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre was horrific and had far-reaching consequences for France. Thousands of citizens in Paris suffered brutal deaths. What caused this massacre? What were the causes that touched off such a bloody event and what was the result for France? This massacre changed the Reformation and the political and religious climate of France itself. One contributing factor was the spread of Protestantism. The spread of Protestants into France was inevitable, but French Catholics fiercely resisted it.
Augustus and the Visionary Leadership of Pax Romana
Guy Williams
Abstract: The assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) on 15 March 44 BC propelled the Roman Republic into the final throes of internecine warfare as the Roman Senate struggled to fill the vacuum left by Caesar. The period between 44-30 BC remained one of constant turmoil and warfare. The situation became so dire that at one point the Roman Republic resembled an assortment of independent states under the control of military dictators. In the end, neither legislation by the Roman Senate nor effective governance restored order. Rather, the application of overwhelming military force by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus “Augustus” (63 BC-14 AD) brought peace to Rome. Although events thrust Augustus into the center of Roman affairs unexpectedly rather than by design, he quickly developed into a superior political leader and competent military commander to rescue Rome from the fires of civil war. The visionary leadership of Augustus enabled Rome to end a lengthy period of civil war and completed the transformation from a republic into a principate (as derived from the root word princeps meaning “leading man” from Christopher Mackay’s definition). The emergence of Octavian as Augustus began the era of Pax Romana (Roman Peace) and brought stability to the citizens of Rome.
From Hero to Traitor: The Motivations of Benedict Arnold
Elizabeth D. Young
Abstract: Benedict Arnold. The name has become synonymous with the word traitor, an epithet used against anyone who appears to or actually betrays their loyalties. But what would cause an American hero to reverse his course and offer his services to a sworn enemy? There are some seemingly obvious reasons, such as money, anger, or ambition, all of which played a part in Arnold’s case. However, his motivations run much deeper and attest to the character of the man. A character molded by the roller coaster of success and failure that Arnold rode throughout his life, beginning with an initial, disastrous plunge in his early teens. That plunge caused psychological wounds that festered internally over the years, erupting under the pressure of war and ultimately bringing him down.
The Battle of Chaeronea: The Culmination of Philip II of Macedon’s Grand Strategy
Kathleen Guler
Abstract: In August 338 BC, Philip II of Macedon (c. 382-336 BC) won a major battle near the central Greek city of Chaeronea against a coalition of city-states. The Latin historian Justin wrote, “This day put an end to the glorious sovereignty and ancient liberty of all Greece.” Though he became master of the region, Philip did not annex it directly into the Macedonian kingdom after spending many years in conflict, especially with Athens, in what logically looked like a grab for the whole of Greece. Instead, Philip simply imposed hegemony. By the spring of 337 he revealed why: the quest to conquer Persia. Evidence suggests, therefore, that Greece’s cooperation and resources were essentially tools he had intended to use all along to accomplish this vastly larger goal. When he won the day at Chaeronea, Philip completed one of the most important steps in a grand strategy that was more than twenty years in the making.
Book Review: Woody Holton. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.
Mike Gottert
A review of Woody Holton's Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution.
End Matter: Volume 3, Issue 1
Includes Saber and Scroll Historical Society information and club officers.

Vol. 2, Iss.4 (Fall 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 4

Fall 2013

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 2, Issue 4 is the “Revolutionary” issue – dedicated to “Revolutions that changed the world.”

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 2, Iss. 4
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 2, Issue 4 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 2, Issue 4
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to volume 2, issue 4 of Saber and Scroll, the "Revolutionary Issue"--dedicated to revolutions that changed the world.
The Impact of Technology on a Virtual Campus
Jennifer Souza
Abstract: The advent of virtual campuses has changed the look and feel of collegiate life. For better or for worse, the advantage, and the disadvantage, of the virtual world is that our physical identity, and therefore, our difference, is hidden. This mask allows greater participation from some who might otherwise be held back by the multitude of physical world boundaries.
Railroads and their Effect on American Society, 1840-1890
Greg Balliet
Abstract: From their earliest beginnings, railroads have played an extremely significant role in shaping America; its society, its culture, and its destiny. Taking their lead from the first railroads of Britain, which arrived with the first locomotive built in 1803 in England, American entrepreneurs soon channeled the vast majority of their efforts into promoting the development of railways in the United States. With its truly immense territory, growing population, and trailblazing spirit, America soon embraced railroads as an avenue to fulfillment of Manifest Destiny—the idea that American settlers were pre-destined to expand across the North American continent, regardless of what obstacles they may encounter.
The Consumers’ League of New Jersey: Major Campaigns and Activism of the Twentieth Century
Patricia Chappine
Abstract: The reform organizations of the progressive era led to better working conditions and equality for women. While much attention has been paid to the National Consumers’ League (NCL), the unique strategies and crucibles of the state branches have been largely ignored. With this in mind, this research will focus primarily on the archives concerning the activities of the Consumers’ League of New Jersey, hereafter referred to as the CLNJ, during the twentieth century. This paper will show the legislative campaigns, prominent leaders, and strategies of the CLNJ. How did the CLNJ use the ideology of the NCL and still function as a separate and distinct entity? What was the impact of the CLNJ on legislation in New Jersey?
A Beloved Headache: Lafayette and His Reputation
Joseph J. Cook
Abstract: Strangely, the Marquis de Lafayette, an international hero, has become more universally praised and honored in New York and Washington than in Paris and Marseilles. This is true not only in modern scholarship and remembrance, but also—and more substantially—during Lafayette’s own lifetime. While a young Lafayette found an adoptive father in George Washington and a family in the Founding Brothers of the United States, his contemporaries in the leadership of France came to scorn and despise him during their own revolution. This study will examine the personal and professional relationships which General Lafayette established and maintained throughout his revolutionary career on two continents.
Samuel Adams: The Grand Incendiary of the Province
Rebecca Simmons Graf
Abstract: Samuel Adams’ writings are best known for the part they played in convincing people to join the cause of the American Revolution. He successfully argued for the rights that he believed the people already possessed. Samuel Adams used his pen to ignite the people; he wrote persuasive essays aimed at forming a unified group to begin and sustain the colonial rebellion against oppressive British taxes and legislation. Many of his letters have been lost, but his published essays have been saved and republished many times in an effort to understand what drove him. While it may seem to some that Samuel Adams was simply following in his father’s political footsteps or was just attempting to advance his personal interests, Adams had his own knack for politics. Eventually, he chose to return to local politics when the new nation was fully formed.
Mercy Otis Warren, The Historiographical Motivation of an Unlikely Patriot
Michelle Wheeler
Abstract: The American Revolution provided the impetus for women to envision broader roles for themselves in civic affairs. Writing about history and politics allowed women to express themselves in a way that would contribute to the overall well-being of the nation. The American Revolution provided one woman, Mercy Otis Warren, the perfect opportunity to become one of America’s greatest political thinkers and historians in the gender exclusive realm of republican ideology. Historians and historiographers have often trivialized Warren’s writings of the late eighteenth century and have neglected her poetry, plays and History of the American Revolution as important contributions to America’s past. However, as a result of the ‘new left’ and ‘feminist’ movements of the 1960s, Warren’s political writings, history and poetry have been reexamined. She is no longer seen as a peripheral contributor to the Revolution, based on her relationships to certain male political figures of the time, but rather as a revolutionary steeped in republican ideology who sought to unite America based on the principles fought for during the Revolution.
Napoleon: Apex of the Military Revolution
Patrick S. Baker
Abstract: Some have suggested that while he was great field commander, Napoleon was no great innovator in military affairs, neither tactically, strategically nor technically. Rather, he was the mere beneficiary of the innovations of others.This article will discuss “The Military Revolution” in Western Europe and will analyze how Napoleon became the apotheosis of this “Revolution” by creating, managing and organizing the most devastating and successful army to that point in history. Napoleon and Le Grande Armee became the models for all other generals and armies for the next two hundred years and capped the Military Revolution.
Operation AJAX: Roots of a Tree Grown in Distrust
Carter Matherly
Abstract: In 1947, President Truman sought congressional approval to increase aid to Greece and Turkey, two countries whose economies were on the brink of failure. The collective fear was that their governments would turn to communism as an economic fix for continued survival. Truman’s speech quickly formed the basis of U.S. policy towards communism and political entities that threatened democracy. Even though this laid the groundwork of the U.S.’s public international policy, a far different and ironic action emerged. Just a few short years later President Eisenhower authorized the CIA, in conjunction with Britain’s MI6, to carry out Operation AJAX. At the heart of the operation’s targets sat an elected Iranian prime minister, new-found Iranian national pride, a power-hungry shah, and a plot to overthrow a fledgling democracy. Overall, the operation was considered a success with regard to its objectives, but when compared to U.S. policy and interests, it was a horrible failure and arguably the focal point of almost a half-century of soured Iranian-U.S. relations.
First Empire Unraveled: Why the British Lost the War of American Independence
Anne Midgley
Abstract: In each stage of the American War for Independence, Britain’s ministers, men, and martial might were challenged beyond the capabilities of eighteenth century warfare to gain a military victory. Her admirals and generals faced nearly impossible odds as they struggled to end what started as a colonial revolt but became a global affair. Maintaining nearly sixty thousand troops across the Atlantic and supplying them and their animal-powered transportation in hostile country across the vast ocean was an almost unthinkable feat. However, lack of strategic coherence and unity of command, personality conflicts, and lack of appreciation for the political, social and cultural differences that had developed between the colonies and Britain frustrated attempts to mend the breach between Britain and her mainland American colonists.
Book Reviews: Volume 2, Issue 4
Includes the following book reviews:
-Stephen McFarland and Wesley Newton's To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority over Germany, 1942-1944, reviewed by Chris Booth
-Alex Von Tunzelmann's Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean, reviewed by E. Michael Davis II
-David McCullough's 1776, reviewed by Jordan Griffith
-Christopher A. Snyder's The Britons, reviewed by Kathleen Guler
-James Axtell's Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America, reviewed by Kay O’Pry-Reynolds
-Carla Gardina Pestana's Protestant Empire: Religion and the Making of the British Atlantic World, reviewed by Ken Oziah
-Max Boot's Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, reviewed by Dr. Robert Smith
-Anna Geifman's Death Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia, reviewed by George W. Thorndyke, Jr.
-Catherine Clinton's Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars, reviewed by Melanie Thornton
End Matter: Volume 2, Issue 4
Includes Saber and Scroll Historical Society information and club officers.

Vol. 2, Iss.3 (Summer 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 3

Summer 2013

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 2, Issue 3 features articles on an eclectic mix of historical topics.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 2, Iss. 3
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 2, Issue 3 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 2, Issue 3
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editorial Team
An introduction to volume 2, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, which features an eclectic mix of articles on a wide variety of historical topics.
The Council House Fight Sounded the Death Knell to the Comancheria
Lisa Bjorneby
Abstract: The Council House Fight was one of the lesser battles between the settlers and the Comanche, but it was significant in its long term impact. The new American settlers and the Comanche came together at the Council House in San Antonio, Texas, on March 19, 1840, to negotiate a peace treaty and settle the boundaries of the Comancheria. However, the meeting went horribly wrong, and neither the Indians nor the settlers were without culpability. Neither was willing to give up land for peace; the settlers wanted the land for farming, and the Comanche wanted their traditional hunting grounds. Expecting a celebration, the Comanche brought their wives and children. The settlers brought the Republic of Texas army because they did not. In the end, the Comanche could not fight the combined efforts of the Texas Rangers, the United States Army, and the diseases that the Europeans and settlers from the east brought with them. The dream of the Comancheria died.
Mining Picks and Baseball Bats: The Unique Sports Culture of Butte, MT
Kevin Edgar
Abstract: Butte, Montana, is an example of a city that understands the benefit of athletic competition to a society. The history of the mining camp that became one of the most influential cities during the electrical industrial revolution is rich with stories of athletic competition. These athletic competitions and the subsequent rallying of fans behind competing teams helped to create a unique culture in the city.
American Women in the 1950s: The Years Between the War and Liberation
Corinne Fox
Abstract: In 1945, American women were finally able to refocus their efforts and continue their pursuit of the American Dream that their parents had craved during the previous decades. The ingrained desire to create the idealistic family with a male breadwinner, female homemaker, and several children with a piece of land to call their own sprouted during the post World War I economic boom of the 1920s and came to fruition following the Allied victory of World War II.
Sisterhood of Courage: African American Women and Their Efforts to Aid Union Forces in the Civil War
Lynn Gilland
Abstract: While the military efforts of African American men, both slave and free, have received moderate attention, those of African American women during the Civil War remain relatively unexplored. Being both black and female provided them unique opportunities to aid Union forces – some bold and glorious, others meek and humble, all of them worthy of recognition and gratitude. Their lives, their contributions, and their trials, tribulations, and triumphs are an important component of the war years. Without their stories being added to the anthology of Civil War research, the annals are incomplete.
Manipulating Images of the North: Union Public Diplomacy in Europe
Thomas Rynard
Abstract: As Union agents moved in European circles during the Civil War, they understood that shaping the opinion of the foreign public could aid diplomacy and further the Union cause. They pursued campaigns to influence that opinion by engaging in forms of public diplomacy directed at keeping Europe from recognizing the Confederacy. It was rudimentary by today’s public diplomacy standards but it met all the essential elements of public diplomacy. It presented, in the words of public diplomacy, “a manipulated image of the state,” and thereby influenced European policies on the war from within by shaping the impressions, desires and values of the British and French public and establishing a mutuality of goals.It is difficult to measure the impact of public diplomacy, more so in the Civil War era than today. Public diplomacy is seldom decisive in foreign relations. This is the case with the public diplomacy exercised by the Union in the Civil War. Great Britain and France never recognized the Confederate States of America--a feat in part because of the Union’s public diplomacy efforts.
The Early Years of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and the Impact on His Life
Beth White
Abstract: Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, who would become a feared but beloved military officer, loving husband and father, church deacon and stern professor came from a family that was made up of alcoholics, gamblers and thieves. Just in the first seven years of Jackson’s life, there were more challenges and obstacles that had to be overcome than most people experience in an entire lifetime. What made Jackson a unique individual was not that there were severe obstacles, but instead how the young boy handled each circumstance when handed major challenges.
The United States Army’s Use of Military Working Dogs (MWD) in Vietnam
Frank Hoeflinger
Abstract: The United States Army’s use of Military Working Dogs (MWD) in Vietnam provided the Infantry units on the ground with a mobile, accurate and cost-effective detection system (the MWD team) capable of detecting enemy soldiers (both Viet Cong (VC) guerrillas and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars), mines and booby-traps safely. In this regard, the U.S. Army followed in the footsteps of ancient armies, including those of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, who benefited from the advantages provided by dogs during war. From the distant past to the present day, military dogs have provided invaluable service to the soldiers they served with and protected.
Historiography of Falkirk (1298) as the Predecessor to Infantry Dominance
Scott Manning
Abstract: For more than a century, historians have identified the Battle of Falkirk (1298) as a turning point in infantry tactics, not only for the Scots but also for warfare in the Western World. In his seminal work on military history, Hans Delbrück (1848-1929) wrote that Falkirk was unique, concluding “nowhere else in the Middle Ages do we find such great masses of foot soldiers who do not immediately break ranks when attacked by knights.” Delbrück was referring to the spearmen organized by Scottish Guardian William Wallace (d. 1305) in a battle that he lost against English King Edward I (r. 1272-1307). Delbrück is not alone in his assertion that Falkirk initiated, or at least preceded some revolutionary method for using foot soldiers, as the claim persists in numerous modern works. Remarkably, there was nothing new about the Scots’ tactics, but Falkirk remains popular in modern memory, predominately due to high profile participants such as Wallace and Edward, the former a national hero, as well as a dense library of contemporary and modern histories. In an attempt to neatly categorize transitions and trends in warfare, historians have erroneously identified Falkirk as the beginning of an era where infantry alone won battles, or at least stood up to cavalry, but in reality such infantry-centric achievements were occurring more than a century prior in the Western World.
Mithridates I: History’s Forgotten Conqueror
Cam Rea
Abstract: King Mithridates I of Parthia (r. 171-138 BCE) undoubtedly inherited a kingdom that was solid and sound in both its economic and military apparatus. Mithridates took the foundation established by Arsaces nearly a hundred years previously and turned it into an empire. He marched east gobbling up lands and kingdoms such as Bactria to the east until Parthia’s border touched India. He then marched west into Mesopotamia. His achievements consolidated the future of Parthia’s power for centuries to come.
Even if the World Had Paid Attention, Nothing Would Have Changed: If the Armenian Genocide Had Not Been Forgotten
Jack Sigman
Abstract: The Armenian Genocide is referred to as both “The Forgotten Genocide,” and “The Forgotten Holocaust” in part due to the almost overwhelming attention paid to the Jewish Holocaust (hereafter referred to as the Holocaust) and what appears to be overwhelming ignorance of the Armenian Genocide. It has been postulated that had proper attention been paid, the same as has been paid to the Holocaust for almost seventy years, the lessons learned from the Armenian Genocide would have prevented the occurrence of the Holocaust. However, there are several reasons why the Holocaust would have occurred no matter how well and how heavily the Armenian Genocide was publicized and politicized.
Book Reviews: Volume 2, Issue 3
Includes the following book reviews:
-Colin G. Calloway's The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of America, reviewed by Lew Taylor
-Wyman H. Herendeen's William Camden: A Life in Context, reviewed by Kathleen Guler
-Jennifer D. Keen's Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America, reviewed by Anne Midgley
-Pauline Maier's Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, reviewed by Jim Dick
End Matter: Volume 2, Issue 3
Includes the Fall 2013 Call for Papers, Saber and Scroll Historical Society information, and club officers.

Vol. 2, Iss.2 (Spring 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 2

Spring 2013

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 2, Issue 2 contains articles primarily concentrated on medieval history, including those with a focus on military history, women’s history, social and cultural history, as well as two articles on Ancient Greece.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 2, Iss. 2
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 2, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 2, Issue 2
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editorial Team
An introduction to volume 2, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles primarily focused on Medieval History, including those with a focus on military history, women’s history, social and cultural history, as well as two articles on Ancient Greece.
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Not Your Average Medieval Woman
Laura Goodman
Abstract: Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of the most well-known English queens of the Middle Ages. She has been portrayed as a character in movies and there are many books about her life. She was both a queen of France and of England where she was much more involved than were other medieval queens. Eleanor ruled her own lands without her husband and ruled in her son’s place while he was on Crusade. She was not a typical medieval woman, even when compared to other medieval noblewomen and queens.
The Impact of the Ancient Greek Slave Trade on Art in the Balkans
Kathleen Guler
Abstract: While ancient Greece’s far-flung overseas slave trade deeply impacted neighboring cultures and displaced thousands of foreign people, it also acted as an unexpected catalyst that shifted the development of the art of southeastern Europe. Evidence suggests that the trade opened new societal elements that had not previously existed in either the Scythian culture of the Eurasian steppes or the Thracian tribes of the Balkans. As a result, the slave trade contributed to a significant change in the Scythians’ way of life that in turn introduced eastern artistic designs and techniques, a process known as “orientalizing,” that spread into the Balkans. Further, craftsmen of other cultures, such as the Celts who had moved into southeastern Europe from the west, quickly adopted and adapted the new designs. Beginning with the inception of Greek colonization in the seventh century BC, this dynamic, interwoven progression of artistic transmission was driven to a peak in the fourth century and subsequently carried beyond, both in time and distance.
Defenders of the Empire: The Byzantine State Intelligence Communications, Agent, and Intelligence Management Apparatus
Scott D. Hibbard
Abstract: The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire endured almost a thousand years longer than its Western Roman counterpart. Central to the longevity of the Byzantine Empire was its state intelligence gathering capabilities; but what were those capabilities and how were they organized? Answering these questions will require discussion of the challenges conducting Byzantine studies using secondary sources, literature review of English-language intelligence sources and qualitative analysis to summarize the structure and function of the Byzantine state intelligence apparatus. The Empire endured as long as it did due to a decentralized intelligence apparatus that could nevertheless be undermined by corruption and treason.
Men and Women as Represented in Medieval Literature and Society
Anita Kay O’Pry-Reynolds
Abstract: Men and women in medieval epic literature are portrayed in a way that is contrary to the modern day ideals of male/female stereotypes. There are few examples of gender equality in medieval literature, or for that fact in medieval historical records. In the traditional epic, the ‘classical’ hero is masculine, violent, and aggressive; men exuded heroic knightly personalities while the classical females are portrayed as vessels of chastity, purity, and goodness. During the period of the Middle Ages and in its literature there are highly idealized views on manners, society, and morality. The works examined are fictional epics in which women do not play main characters but are predominately given supporting roles. These roles are important to the story and in some instances provide a catalyst for the plots within the story. The characters also serve as a guide or example of the proper behavior that is expected in Medieval society.
William Wallace: The Man Behind the Legend
DeAnna Stevens
Abstract: Though usually inaccurate and based on myth, every so often a legend is born out of historical events and based on real people. This is the case with the Scottish hero William Wallace. Wallace was a flesh and blood man who had no idea that he would one day become a national hero of Scotland and an international legend; however, in the right time and in the right circumstances, normal becomes exceptional and exceptional becomes legendary.
The Frankish War-Machine of Charles Martel
Patrick S. Baker
Abstract: The Franks had a war-machine that was a highly effective and mobile under the leadership of Charles Martel. It fought from the North Sea in the north to the Mediterranean Sea in the south and from Aquitaine in the west to Bavaria in the east. The Franks also fought and won against enemies as diverse as the pagan seafaring Frisians to the heavy cavalry of the Muslim Moors of Al-Andalus.
The Rise of Heavy Infantry and the Demise of Heavy Cavalry at the End of the Medieval Period
Guy Williams
Abstract: While philosophers of the Medieval era examined the works of ancient writers to understand history and human nature, military leaders of the period also looked to the past for answers to the challenge of heavy cavalry. One group in particular, the Swiss, emerged with a unique answer to the power of heavy cavalry. The Swiss reinvented the heavy infantry formations used by the ancient Greek and Roman armies to great effect against their opponents. The unique topography and circumstances of the Swiss allowed them to implement a system of heavy infantry-centric warfare that profoundly influenced the European battlefield for several centuries from the Late Middle Ages into the Renaissance period. This Swiss method of war during the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance demonstrated the effectiveness of heavy infantry against heavy cavalry formations and relegated the once dominant armored knights to a lesser role.
The Legacy of J. B. Bury, ‘Progressive’ Historian of Ancient Greece
Benjamin Sorensen
Abstract: J. B. Bury was an amazing personality among Greek historians. He held many prestigious positions, and was the Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge when the book The Ancient Greek Historians was compiled from his Lane Lectures at Harvard. H. D. F Kitto referred to him as “a determined rationalist,” and the Lane Lectures on ancient Greek historiography proves this point well. Very few historians have such a grasp on the nuances of Greek, or are so well-read. Very few English writers, historians or otherwise, have such a grasp of the English language as to write as captivatingly as Bury. Because of this, The Ancient Greek Historians proves itself to be a wonderful, insightful, and lucrative read for any person, academic or amateur, interested in the progress of Greek historiography.
Book Reviews: Volume 2, Issue 2
Includes the following book reviews:
-Roy E. Appleman's East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950, reviewed by Anne Midgley
-Andrew J. Bacevich's The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, reviewed by Greg Balliet
-Kelly DeVries's Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics, and Technology, reviewed by Francis M. Hoeflinger
-Joseph J. Ellis's Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, reviewed by Kevin Edgar
-Chris Kyle's American Sniper, reviewed by Jennifer Thompson
-Cokie Roberts's Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, reviewed by Anita Kay O’Pry
-Matthew H. Spring's With Zeal and Bayonets Only: The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783, reviewed by Jimmy Dick
End Matter: Volume 2, Issue 2
Includes Saber and Scroll Historical Society information and club officers.

Vol. 2, Iss.1 (Winter 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 1

Winter 2013 (Edited and Revised May 2015)

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 2, Issue 1 features articles reflecting the broad range of historical interests across the scholarly community. This issue was initially published in winter 2013, and was fully revised and updated in May 2015.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 2, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 2, Issue 1 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 2, Issue 1
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to the fully revised and edited volume 2, issue 1 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles on a variety of different historical topics.
Defenders of the Faith: Augustine, Aquinas, and the Evolution of Medieval Just War Theory
Robert Busek
Abstract: The attempt to reconcile Christ’s injunctions against violence with the unfortunate necessity of war resulted in the development of what philosophers now call the “just war theory,” the conditions under which war can be waged without sin. It is fitting that the first great philosopher to write about the just war, Augustine of Hippo, lived during the death throes of the Roman Empire, in a world plagued by the strife of nations. Over eight hundred years later, the man who would further develop this theory, Thomas Aquinas, lived in a world where warfare had assumed a truly spiritual function through the concept of the crusade and the blending of monastic and knightly traditions. Faced with this new idea of positive warfare, Aquinas reinterpreted Augustine’s theology to fit this context.
The Delian League: A Prelude to Empire and War
Ken Oziah
Abstract: During the classical period of Greece, the rise of the Delian League was a major factor that led to the Peloponnesian War. What changed over time that transformed the league into an empire? In order to repel a possible third invasion by Persia, Greek city-states met on the island of Delos to form a confederation, or league. In their quest to repel invasion, Athens, which was the foremost city-state in the league, grew in prominence and power, eventually turning the Delian League into the Athenian Empire. Thus, the formation of the Delian League was a prelude to empire and war.
Futuo: Fifty Shades of the Roman Empire
Kathleen Mitchell Reitmayer
Abstract: There was little by way of modern standards outside the realm of acceptance for sexual acts in Rome with an exception to the ideas of social class. Rome openly practiced sexual acts that are considered taboo in modern times including orgies, homosexuality, incest, prostitution, and bestiality. In the modern era, the idea of some of the sexual practices of ancient Roman culture is beyond acceptance. What were the rules for these sexual practices and why did the acceptance of the sexual practices of ancient Rome change so dramatically?
Ninety Six: Strategic Backcountry Outpost and Microcosm of the American Revolutionary War
Anne Midgley
Abstract: Though scarcely known today, in the mid-eighteenth century, Ninety Six, South Carolina was a thriving community, built close to the convergence of the Cherokee Path, a key route from the Cherokee lands to Charleston, and the Island Ford Road, which led to the Saluda River and points further southeast. The strategic location of Ninety Six made it a crucial stopover for traders and travelers—it was a location known widely throughout the South during the late colonial period. Today, only a National Park Service Visitor Center and outbuildings occupy the site, and yet, had it developed apace with Charlotte, North Carolina, a site of similar size and situation in the 1760s, Ninety Six, too, could have become a power-house of the New South. The critical strategic nature of Ninety Six led to its destruction by the British in early July 1781, though Loyalist troops had successfully defended the town against the longest field siege of the Revolutionary War less than a month beforehand. This paper establishes the strategic significance of Ninety Six to the British effort to retake the Carolina backcountry, traces its rise to become both a trading center and a center of justice for the backwoods settlers, and examines why Ninety Six and its surrounding area was a Loyalist stronghold. It also studies both the strengths and shortcomings of General Nathanael Greene and his military engineer, Count Thaddeus Kosciuszko’s approach to the Patriot siege of Ninety Figure. It analyzes why the commander of Ninety Six, British Provincial Army Lieutenant Colonel John Harris Cruger, was much more successful than either Continental Army Major General Benjamin Lincoln at Charleston or Cornwallis at Yorktown in defeating the siege tactics thrown against him.
A Change in Tactics: Hard War in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the Valley Campaign of 1864
Lewis A. Taylor II
Abstract: General Ulysses S. Grant and his lieutenants, Phil Sheridan and David Hunter, would bring “hard war” to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia—the breadbasket of the Confederacy—in an effort to deprive the Confederate army of needed supplies but to also convince the citizens of the Shenandoah Valley that the Union forces would no longer tolerate their support of the Confederate army. With support from President Lincoln, who had changed his attitude on how to fight the war, Grant initiated a campaign within a campaign in the spring and summer of 1864. Grant determined first to destroy the Confederate army of General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley and then to bring the war to the residents of the Valley by destroying their ability to supply the Confederate forces elsewhere in Virginia and to convince them that continuing the conflict was an exercise in futility. In 1864, Sheridan finally brought the Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley, and along with it, the Valley civilians, to its knees.
General William T. Sherman: Total Warrior
Chris Booth
Abstract: Few generals were more groundbreaking than William Tecumseh Sherman was, as he proceeded to utilize the practice of total warfare during his signature “March to the Sea” campaign. No general had previously used total warfare during the Civil War, and Sherman’s employment of the technique brought both a resounding victory for the Union and lasting hatred from Southerners for the man who authorized its usage. Nevertheless, despite criticisms against his methods, Sherman most certainly epitomized the characteristics of a brilliant tactician, and because of his implementation of total warfare, the Civil War ended much sooner than it would have had Sherman decided to stay with conventional military techniques in his “March to the Sea” operation.
Mercenaries and the Congo Crisis
Patrick S. Baker
Abstract: n the mid-twentieth century, the best market for mercenaries was the newly independent Republic of the Congo. Indeed, within Africa the 1960s were a “golden age” of mercenarism. This paper will examine the specific circumstances during the Congo Crisis of 1960-67 that precipitated this new heyday of the mercenary, the responses to this new mercenarism, and mercenarism as a military, political, and economic phenomenon in post-colonial Congo. By focusing on the Congo Crisis, this paper will illustrate the circumstances that encourage the wide-scale use of mercenary soldiers and will examine counter-mercenary operations. Further, it will explore mercenarism as a driver for United Nations interventionism and Cold War conflict in the post-imperial Third World. Lastly, it will analyze the economics of mercenarism.
Book Review: David Hackett Fischer. Washington’s Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Anne Midgley
A review of David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing.
Book Review: Wilson, Harold C. Gosnold’s Hope: The Story of Bartholomew Gosnold. Greensboro, NC: Tudor Publishing, 2000.
Lewis A. Taylor II
A review of Harold C. Wilson's Gosnold’s Hope: The Story of Bartholomew Gosnold.

Vol. 1, Iss. 3 (Fall 2012)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 1, Issue 3

Fall 2012 (Edited and Revised April 2015)

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 1, Issue 3 features several articles focusing on the theme of Politics and War. This issue was initially published in fall 2012, and was fully revised and updated in April 2015.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 1, Iss. 3
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 1, Issue 3 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 1, Issue 3
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to the fully revised and edited volume 1, issue 3 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles focusing on the theme of Politics and War.
Armis Exposcere Pacem (They Demanded Peace by Force of Arms): An Examination of the Relationship between Politics and War
Guy Williams
Abstract: What of the relationship between the diplomatic and political efforts to achieve national goals and the decision to use force to impose the will of one nation state upon the other in order to achieve strategic or national goals? Are the two concepts mutually exclusive or is Carl von Clausewitz correct with his statement, “War is not a mere act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means. . . . The political objective is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose.” Effective politics cannot occur without the specter of war to back political efforts. This essay will examine the relationship between politics and war by comparing historical precedents to the recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States.
Symbiosis of Military and Diplomatic Success in the Revolutionary War
Andre Nolte
Abstract: The Founding Fathers knew that to defeat Britain they needed the help of another foreign power to provide money, arms, provisions, troops, naval power, and, most importantly, international recognition as an independent nation. To achieve the goal of a diplomatic, commercial, and military foreign alliance, Congress courted several nations of Europe whose interests in supporting America were known. The problem for Congress was that foreign recognition and allegiance against Britain was not automatic. France in particular needed proof of American commitment and military capability before it committed itself to support the new republic. Diplomatic treaty negotiations during the Revolutionary War held an intrinsically symbiotic bond with that of military achievement on the battlefield, and vice versa. While diplomatic and military policy were often subservient to the ministries of government, those policies frequently determined the fate of the respective ministry enforcing them, as the British ministry found out in early 1783.
Lincoln and the Constitution
Elizabeth D. Young
Abstract: Following the events at Fort Sumter in April 1861 which began the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln began to circumvent the Constitution, basing his actions on what he considered necessity and on his views concerning judicial review. Many of his decisions, however, stretched the Constitution further than the Founders would have envisioned and some violated central tenets of the document. Lincoln stretched the limits of constitutional provisions by raising troops and spending treasury money without congressional approval, through censoring the press, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, again without congressional approval, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, and in other ways, such as partitioning Virginia and suspending free elections. Many of the actions Lincoln took still affect the United States today.
Secession and the Confederate Interpretation of its Legality
Jim Dick
Abstract: When several states in the southern portion of the United States declared their secession in 1861, it was the first and only time in American history that any state actually attempted to do so. The resulting conflict wrought devastation throughout the South and engendered significant change to all levels of American society. Despite the failure of the Confederacy to secede from the Union, the question remains—why did the South think it had the legal right to secede? In exploring that question, this paper will examine the issue of secession in America and three pivotal documents in history, which when compared to each other will provide significant clues as to why the South interpreted secession as a legal right.
The Iraqi Mandate: An Examination of the Relationship between Britain and Iraq in the Aftermath of the First World War
Victoria Whitecotton
Abstract: After the first World War, while the European allies, victorious against Germany, Austro-Hungary and the ill-fated Ottomans, all turned their colonial attentions on the Middle East, it was the actions of the British government that ultimately laid the foundations of many issues still unresolved in Iraq and the Middle East. The British establishment of the Iraq Mandate and British occupation of the three Ottoman provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra following the cessation of war formed the precursor to the creation of the state of Iraq. While the establishment of Iraq as an independent state did not result in the same level of chaos that the creation of the state of Israel incurred, both are examples of the mismanagement of British policy in the region.
Security, Sovietization, and Stalinism: Stalin’s ‘Plan’ for Post-War Eastern Europe
Gary S. Blank
Abstract: Traditionally, scholarly discussion of Josef Stalin’s plans for post-war Eastern Europe has revolved around a sharp dichotomy: Stalin was either an ideologically motivated Marxist-Leninist bent on Communist revolution (the orthodox interpretation), or he was a security-starved pragmatist motivated by Realpolitik rather than revolutionary fervor (the revisionist claim). The “new Cold War historiography” has in many ways revived these sterile terms of debate. An examination of the Stalinist worldview, however, reveals that there is no necessary conflict between the imperatives of Stalin’s “ideology” and “national security.” The two antimonies actually merged in the dictum of “socialism in one country,” which enabled the Soviet dictator to equate the narrow interests of the Soviet state with that of the Communist movement as a whole. An ideologically motivated Stalin, therefore, was not necessarily a revolutionary Stalin. Indeed, Soviet wartime planning documents, the National Front strategy, and the actual course of sovietization demonstrate that Stalin placed the demands of Soviet security interests and the maintenance of cordial relations with the West ahead of any penchant for Communist revolution. In the mid-1940s, Stalin did not plan for Communist takeovers in Eastern Europe; such takeovers were instead the product of significant changes in the post-war security landscape.
Book Review: Abrahamson, James L. The Men of Secession and Civil War 1859-1861. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 2000.
Corinne Fox
Abstract: A review of James L. Abrahamson's The Men of Secession and Civil War 1859-1861.
Book Review: Martin, Joseph Plumb. A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier: Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin. 1830. Reprint, New York: Signet Classic, 2001.
Anne Midgley
Abstract: A review of Joseph Plumb Martin's A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier: Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin.

Vol. 1, Iss. 2 (Summer 2012)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 1, Issue 2

Summer 2012 (Edited and Revised April 2015)

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 1, Issue 2 features several articles on the roles women and gender have played in United States and world history. This issue was initially published in summer 2012, and was fully revised and updated in April 2015.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 1, Iss. 2
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 1, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 1, Issue 2
Includes logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to the fully revised and edited volume 1, issue 2 of Saber and Scroll, featuring articles discussing women and gender issues.
Social and Political Roles of Women in Athens and Sparta
Kay O’Pry
Abstract: Women in the ancient world had few rights. Those they had differed from country to country, or in the case of the women of Athens and Sparta, from citystate to city-state. There were profound differences in the roles that the women of Athens and Sparta experienced in their family, civic, and political lives. With respect to levels of power and the rights of women, Sparta was a leader in its time. At the same time, Spartan and Athenian women’s rights as citizens were similar. Their thoughts, deeds, and opinions were rarely recorded, or if they were, it was the male historians or philosophers of the time who recorded them. What were the roles of women in ancient Athens and Sparta? Were they citizens, did they have personal freedoms? Or, were they, at the time of democracy’s birth, less than a second-class citizen? The misogyny and patriarchal societies of the ancient and classical periods were only beginning to change in the Hellenistic era.
Finding Truth in the Myth of Lady Godiva: Femininity, Sex, and Power in Twelfth Century England
Allison Archer
Abstract: Although it is now widely accepted that Lady Godiva never mounted her horse “bareback,” the infamous Domesday Book documented she was indeed a landowner in Coventry. In isolation, this tale is a pleasurable story of risk-taking. However, when viewed beneath the broader lens of gender roles and sexual mores of the Middle Ages, it leads to questions regarding English women of the twelfth century. Although fantastical, this myth hints at undercurrents of power, femininity, and sexual boundaries that defined the lives of women in this time and place. Additionally, the expectations of women were quite duplicitous with images of the chaste virgin at church and folktales such as this in the homes of both the wealthy and the peasantry. The myth of Lady Godiva provides insight into the perceptions of femininity, sex, and power in twelfth century England from a variety of perspectives.
Enlightened Women: A Discussion on Education, Marriage and the Domestic Sphere in Eighteenth Century Society
Emily Herff
Abstract: Women’s roles and expectations in traditional society consisted of finding a suitable marriage arrangement, raising children, and managing a household. Before the eighteenth century, these tasks did not require a formal education or training; mothers provided what instruction their daughters needed. With the dawning of the Enlightenment and its emphasis on education, humanism, science, and scholarly discussion, the expectations of women’s learning changed and with it, their roles within the household. Within British society, women now had to run the household, manage the accounts, educate their children, entertain their husband’s guests, carry on conversations and correspondence, and show accomplishment in the arts, sewing, music, and dance.
Call to Arms: Military Musicians in Colonial and Revolutionary America
Anne Midgley
Abstract: Revolutionary War military musicians have not been the sole focus of a great deal of historical research and as such, historians tend to reference the work of several experts to describe the role that these soldiers played in the American Revolution. Historians of the Revolutionary War often quote the research and writings of Raoul F. Camus, professor of music at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York, particularly his work Military Music of the American Revolution. Baron Friedrich von Steuben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States is also frequently cited, as he provided specific directions for the actions and duties of all military personnel, including the musicians. American and British military leaders’ letters, as well as the memoirs and pension applications of the officers and soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War, frequently illuminate the past with small, telling details, some of which describe the actions of steadfast drummers, fifers, trumpeters, and buglers. Through these and other records, pictures of the past unfold to help interested historians reconstruct the contributions of early American military musicians.
Belle Boyd: Confederate Patriot or Pseudo-celebrity?
Christopher Cox
Abstract: Belle Boyd's legacy is torn between her love of the Confederacy and her fanciful accounts of her own adventures. The question remains, was Boyd an ardent Southern patriot, bravely doing everything she could for the cause? Or was she an attention seeker enamored with her own fame, a forerunner to the modern pseudo-celebrity who is famous mostly for being famous? The answer is that Belle Boyd was a complex blend of both.
“Let Us Never Stop Trying To Learn”: Gender Roles of Antebellum Slave Education
Allyson Perry
Abstract: In 1870, about seventy percent of blacks in the South were illiterate.1 Despite the major setbacks, African Americans strived to develop their own autonomy in a hegemonic society that endowed whites with political, economic, and social power. Blacks developed their independence in a major way: learning how to read and write. Even while enslaved, African Americans yearned for an education, as seen in several slave narratives, but slave owners shuddered at the idea of teaching blacks to read and write. White masters feared that slaves, upon learning to read and write, would become aware of their condition, then organize, and rebel against the slave system. White oppression of blacks did not end with the restriction of education, however. Rather, the intersections of race, education, and gender display slaves’ desire for and endeavors in education. Women and men shared in the effects of oppression and desire for education to fulfill their self-ownership, but each gender went about resisting slavery, learning to read and write, and passing that education along in highly different ways.
A Nazi Childhood: Hitler’s Germany, 1939-1945
Linda Shay
Abstract: For the children of the generation most deeply marked by the Third Reich, the Nazi values and slogans were literally engrained amongst lessons of cleanliness, respect, and responsibility. Indoctrinated to believe in the value of service and self-sacrifice, many of these children grew into serving adults, unable to shed that Nazi characteristic. Though this kind of behavior is difficult to understand, the actual recounting by the children, who grew up during the Nazi Regime, can help clarify it. This analysis will focus on the children, that generation whose formative years their Führer so deeply influenced and the war he brought to their backyards.
Left Out: Women’s Role in Historiography and the Contribution of Mary Ritter Beard
Alice Alvarado
Abstract: The goal of this essay is to examine a very small portion of women’s contributions not only to history, but historiography as well. It would easily take volumes to cover women’s vast contributions to history, so a select portion will be surveyed. It will offer a background on the achievements of Mary R. Beard, her thoughts on women not only in her time, but in “long history,” and attempt to explain why many contemporary historians continue to write in the tradition of Beard. It will also offer suggestions by both male and female historians on the methods that can be employed to improve the writing, teaching, and way of thinking about the subdiscipline of women’s history.
Book Review: Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Ben Sorensen
A review of Edward Hagerman's The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command.
Book Review: Charles B. Dew. Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001.
Jim Dick
A review of Charles B. Dew's Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War.
Book Review: Desjardin, Thomas A. Through A Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold’s March to Quebec, 1775. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Lewis A. Taylor II
A review of Thomas A. Desjardin's Through A Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold’s March to Quebec, 1775.
Book Review: Linklater, Andro. An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Life of General James Wilkinson. New York: Walker & Company, 2009.
Mike Gottert
A review of Andro Linklater's An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Life of General James Wilkinson.
Book Review: Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Cambridge: DaCapo Press, 1995.
DeAnna Stevens
A review of Frances Hill's A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials.

Vol. 1, Iss. 1 (Spring 2012)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 1, Issue 1

Spring 2012 (Edited and Revised April 2015)

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. The inaugural issue of Saber and Scroll journal features articles on a wide variety of historical topics. This issue was initially published in spring 2012, and was fully revised and updated in April 2015.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Print Version: Saber and Scroll, Vol. 1, Iss. 1
Purchase your own print copy of Volume 1, Issue 2 of Saber and Scroll from Lulu.com.

Front Matter: Volume 1, Issue 1
Includes society logo, copyright information, and table of contents.
Letter from the Editor
Anne Midgley
An introduction to the fully revised and edited inaugural issue of Saber and Scroll, featuring the initial 2012 issue's letter from the editor as well.
Saratoga: The Turning Point of the American Revolution
Jim Dick
Abstract: The American Revolution was more than just a civil war between the rebels in Great Britain’s North American colonies along the Atlantic seaboard and Great Britain. The conflict eventually escalated into a vast worldwide war between Great Britain and her traditional adversaries, France, Spain, and the Netherlands who allied with the American rebels. While no country aided the American rebel colonists at first, their victory in the Saratoga campaign resulted in a shift to recognition by Britain’s continental foes who saw an opportunity to capture territory of their own and humble the arrogance of Great Britain. The loss of a British army in the Saratoga campaign was the decisive factor which caused France to enter the American Revolution, thus transforming the conflict from a civil war to an international war, which was the only way the colonies were able to gain their independence.
Who Got Stuck with the Bill?
Leigh-Anne Yacovelli
Abstract: The Federalists’ plan to reduce the new nation’s debt resulted in several crises, one of which was the Whiskey Rebellion. The events that unfolded in western Pennsylvania could have happened along any of the frontier areas. Virginia and Tennessee both felt the effects of the whiskey tax, but Pennsylvania, with its system of government that was the closest to true democracy, seemed to draw the most attention from government leaders. The residents of western Pennsylvania fought for the acknowledgement of their needs by the leaders in the eastern part of the state. Specifically, the “Whiskey Boys,” some of the men from Pennsylvania’s western half, fought for the repeal of a law that mostly affected the people along the frontier border. These same men became the focus of the federal government’s attention as it implemented its plan to unburden the new nation from its national debt. This move by the government caused the division between Republicans and Federalists to widen, and established the executive branch’s right to use the military to quell domestic upheaval.
The Monroe Doctrine: Repealing European Control in the Americas
Ken Oziah
Abstract: The Monroe Doctrine represented a position adopted by President James Monroe during his seventh annual address to Congress on 2 December 1823, which stated that the United States would oppose overtures by European powers against former and now independent colonies of Spain and Portugal in the Western Hemisphere. British Foreign Minister George Canning had proposed that Britain and the United States act together to prevent the resurgence of Bourbon power in the region; however, Monroe, abiding by the counsel of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, chose to act unilaterally. As the policy served Great Britain’s interests and the US was militarily weak relative to European powers, the Royal Navy served as the primary enforcer of the policy.
The French Intervention in Mexico
Lawrence Graves
Abstract: Although obscured by high-profile world wars, regional wars, and perhaps other incidents, it was America’s response to a direct threat of its Monroe Doctrine, that in the form of the French intervention in Mexico, which marks America’s first significant entry into the global power community. Its effect on the Second French Empire would ripple throughout the world wherever France established her interests and ultimately alter the forthcoming regime change in France. America’s action also had a hand in reversing a new wave of colonization that was beginning in Mexico; this too had an effect on global relations that could have grown between Mexico and other nations around the world.
Baptism of Fire: In Defense of Colonel Fribley and the 8th USCT
Jennifer Thompson
Abstract: The 8th United States Colored Troop (USCT) suffered the heaviest regimental loss in the battle of Olustee in the Civil War, yet this regiment and its colonel Charles Wesley Fribley showed great courage under fire. According to Carlton McCarthy, a private in the Richmond Howitzers, a soldier must be brave in battle: “His courage must never fail. He must be manly and independent.” Black troops fought for more than manliness and independence; they fought for freedom.
The Effect of Nazi Propaganda on Ordinary Germans
Judy Monhollen
Abstract: Germany during the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler contained many incredibly unique aspects, which lend to the author’s desire to gain a better understanding of the actions of both the regime and ordinary Germans in the 1930s and 1940s. One of these aspects was the implementation of Hitler’s racial ideology through propaganda, resulting in a number of different programs, including a hotly protested euthanasia program, sterilization programs, and, most famously, the Holocaust. Hitler highly valued propaganda as a means to reach the masses, and he did so with aplomb, founding the Reich’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in 1933, and placing Joseph Goebbels in charge of the Ministry. Due to the extreme emphasis placed on propaganda by Hitler and Goebbels, the Nazi regime presented masterful doctrine that permeated the psyche of the German people. Nazi proselytization, including blaming the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I, assisted in convincing the German population that the extermination of specific groups was the correct course of action to ensure the preservation of the German race.
Traditionalist, Centrist, and Revisionist Schools: The Controversy and Debate over the “Great Nanking Massacre”
Alice L. (Parker) Alvarado
Abstract: n December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China and began committing acts of aggression upon the lay citizens that many would deem “atrocities.” Eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, and photographs captured unthinkable crimes against countless men, women, and children. In the 1970s, a debate began over the actual destruction inflicted upon the citizens of Nanking and other cities. The event received many labels from “The Rape of Nanking” and “The Great Nanking Massacre,” to the “Nanking Incident” and the “Nanking Campaign,” all of which would be important to certain schools of thought that would emerge on the subject. This essay will seek to explore and explain differing schools of thought, as the “Rape of Nanking” is not a cut and dry issue even some seventy years later. Journalists, historians, scholars, and regular citizens will all disagree on the matter to some extent. Some of the major factions that emerged, and which the author will examine, are the Traditionalists, the Centrists, and the Revisionists. The author will also mention some minor factions as they pertain to the major factions and will investigate other issues such as the timeline argument, and the numbers argument.
Emerging Technology and the Fourth Amendment
Kathleen Mitchell Reitmayer
Abstract: While the technology available for use by law enforcement advances, it is important to look at the legal and ethical aspects of the use of these new technologies. By reviewing key Supreme Court cases of the past that regarded, what was then, new, and emerging technology, and analyzing the USA Patriot Act of 2001, the legal and ethical realities of new and emerging technology will become apparent. It will then come into question whether the use of these technologies can constitute a violation of the rights of American citizens and if criminal investigations should allow the use of the technology.
Cultural History and the World of Johan Huizinga
Anne Midgley
Abstract: Heir to the cultural history historiography tradition of Herodotus, Johan Huizinga is an ideal representative of one of the two forms of cultural history that developed in northern Europe during the latter part of the nineteenth century. According to Bentley’s classification of nineteenth century cultural history in “Culture and Kultur,” Huizinga belongs to the camp that sought to comprehend the past “from the history of art and literature as keys to understanding social perception and the limits of a period’s sense of itself.” Huizinga follows in the footsteps of the great Swiss historian, Jacob Burckhardt, whose work The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy provides “cross-sections dealing with aspects of the Renaissance environment . . . in a new literature concerned with ‘the daily course of human life.’” Huizinga’s own landmark work of cultural history, Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen: Studie over levens- en gedachtenvormen der veertiende en vifftiende eeuw in Frankrijk en de Nederlanden, originally written in Dutch, has since been published in sixteen languages. This research paper will attempt to trace the historiographical influences that shaped Huizinga’s work, to place his writing in the broader tradition of cultural history, and to link Huizinga’s work to the New Cultural History movement of the late twentieth century.
Book Review: John Ferling, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011.
Jim Dick
A review of John Ferling's Independence: The Struggle to set America Free.
Book Review: Stephen Saunders Webb, 1676: The End of American Independence, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
Shawn Ryan
A review of Stephen Saunders Webb's 1676: The End of American Independence.
Book Review: Johan Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Translated by Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Anne Midgley
A review of Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch's translation of Johan Huizinga's The Autumn of the Middle Ages.
Exhibit Review: Anglo-Saxon Hoard: Gold from England’s Dark Ages, National Geographic Museum, Washington, D.C.
Candace McGovern
A review of the exhibit "Anglo-Saxon Hoard: Gold from England’s Dark Ages" at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. This exhibit ran from October 29, 2011 to March 4, 2012.

APUS ePress: Saber and Scroll

Saber and Scroll

Saber and Scroll is the online journal of the Saber and Scroll Historical Society, a student organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Visit the society's homepage and view the latest journals and Call for Papers here.

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Saber and Scroll Issues

Vol. 7, Iss.2 (Summer/Spring 2018)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 7, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2018

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 7, Issue 2 features articles on a variety of historical topics.

Vol. 7, Iss.1 (Winter 2018)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 7, Issue 1

Winter 2018

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 7, Issue 1 features articles on a variety of historical topics.

A print copy of this issue of Saber and Scroll can be purchased at the first link below.

Vol. 6, Iss. 3 (Fall 2017)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 3

Fall 2017

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Vol. 6, Iss. 2 (Spring/Summer 2017)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2017

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Vol. 6, Iss. 1 (Winter 2017)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 6, Issue 1

Winter 2017

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 6, Issue 1 features works that center on tragedy and heroism.

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Vol. 5, Iss. 4 (Fall 2016)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 5, Issue 4

Fall 2016

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Special Issue: October 2016

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Vol. 5, Iss. 2 (Spring/Summer 2016)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 5, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2016

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Winter 2016

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Vol. 4, Iss.3 (Fall 2015)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 3

Fall 2015

Saber and Scroll is the student journal of American Public University System's Saber and Scroll Historical Society, an organization focused on the promotion of historical studies through the encouragement of academic research. Volume 4, Issue 3 features papers related to transformations in history.

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Vol. 4, Iss.2 (Spring/Summer 2015)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2015

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Winter 2015

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Vol. 3, Iss. 4 (Fall 2014)

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Fall 2014 (Edited and Revised May 2015)

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Saber and Scroll, Volume 3, Issue 2

Spring/Summer 2014

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Vol. 3, Iss.1 (Winter 2014)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 4, Issue 1

Winter 2014

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Vol. 2, Iss.4 (Fall 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 4

Fall 2013

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Vol. 2, Iss.3 (Summer 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 3

Summer 2013

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Vol. 2, Iss.2 (Spring 2013)

Saber and Scroll, Volume 2, Issue 2

Spring 2013

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