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The Journal of Military History 68.2 (2004) 666-667



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The United States Army: A Historical Dictionary. By Clayton R. Newell. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8108-4311-0. Photographs. Appendixes. Bibliography. Pp. xxviii, 327. $85.00.

From 11 September 2001 back to the founding of the U.S. Army on 14 June 1775, this is a quick source book for the U.S. Army's history. Clayton Newell is a retired U.S. Army officer and a graduate of both the U.S. Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. Newell's last Army assignment was as chief of historical services at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. This compilation is a useful introductory reference book for public and undergraduate libraries, U.S. Army unit reference collections, and readers with military history collections, looking up facts not always found on a web site.

The most significant information contained in the book is a concise summary of all 174 U.S. Army campaigns that are marked by streamers. The practice of carrying streamers on army flags began in 1920. Brief biographical sketches will be found of commanding generals, chiefs of staff, various secretaries of war, and sergeant majors of the army. A few definitions of military terms and descriptions of events through 2001 will be found in this book.

The text is easy to follow. A few dates, however, were not verified (e.g., p. vii, 1803 not 1802 should be given as the year of the founding of the U.S. Military Academy; and [page 24] the Battle of Saratoga, 1799 should be 1777; and 1960 should be 1860 for Abraham Lincoln's election [p. 21]). Four cavalry regiments, not one (p. 41), were formed during the American Revolutionary War. Cadets at West Point wear traditional gray uniforms because they were was cheaper and more available rather than the perpetuated myth that it was to honor General Winfield Scott's victory at the battle of Chippewa (pp. 56-57). Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the president of [End Page 666] the Confederate States of America at Montgomery, Alabama, rather than Richmond, Virginia (p. 78). General George Smith Patton died from an embolism not related to his automobile accident (p. 165). Aside from these few examples, the bulk of the scholarship is well researched.

The book should be added to all library collections covering the subject of the U.S. Army. However, this concise source does not replace more detailed U.S. Army reference books such as the Army Almanac: The Book of Facts Concerning the United States Army, 2nd ed. (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1959), Jerold E. Brown's edited Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001), and Benjamin F. Schemmer's Almanac of Liberty: A Chronology of American Military Anniversaries from 1775 to the Present (New York: Macmillan, 1974). Although a selected bibliography is part of the appendixes and furnishes some good references, I would suggest that more U.S. Army historical related libraries and museum organizations be identified along with their web site addresses. The expense of this concise army dictionary will deter most individual buyers, but most libraries and U.S. Army organizations will like to have this handy source on an organization that has done so much to support and uphold the United States government.



Alan C. Aimone
U.S. Military Academy Library
West Point, New York


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