Officers Quotes
This was an incredible order not allowing any Russian Army unit to retreat or surrender. However, it worked. The Russians, with American help of arms, held off the mighty German invading Army. However the German invasion cost the Russians a staggering 22 million lives, mostly civillian.
Eggleston was an accomplished writer who had served in the Confederate army of the Civil War. 20 year after the war he wrote a series of articles for the prestigious Northern Atlantic Monthly trying to convey the war from the Southerner’s point of view.
Conway was made a Major General by Congress and appointed as Inspector General of the Revolutionary Army. However, then as now, officers who told the truth about the failings of other senior officers were not well liked by the officer corps. The cover up was the norm even then. Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices.
His plan was that at the end of WWII, the 4 nations would police the world to be sure that the “4 Policemen” would be sure that no other Hitler could ever even start to invade neighboring countries. Ironically, he strongly suspected that the Nationalist Chinese would not be able to do this for the Pacific and assumed that the US would have to carry that area as well, but he didn’t doubt the ability of the Russians to police Eastern Europe but didn’t suspect that it would be Russia herself who militarily and covertly would encroach on other Eastern European countries.
This is not the most common view military view which tends to place the senior officers out of harm’s way as they are “too valuable” to become casualties. Among modern armies, Israel stands out as having the same leadership doctrine as Genghis Khan. Those who attack Israel and lose, never have their commanders at the front of the battle. Israel does.
Armstrong was a Union military chaplain with the troops that had captured Petersburg, Virginia. It is interesting how much he and apparently many of the Union Soldiers saw their part in the war as a crusade to reform the South. Also, note that although the South was fighting to preserve the slavery system that benefitted the rich, the rich often did not fight or join the military. Surprisingly to us today, if a man owned a certain number of slaves, he was then exempt from required military service.
Some southerners had gotten out of the Confederate chain of command and were attacking civilian steamboats killing Southerners as well as “Yankees”. See {633900} . While Sherman had trouble with some of his own men on parts of his March Through Georgia, at this time, it was Southerners who were acting independently and improperly. Legally, the Confederates were responsible for any people committing terror. Sherman tried to persuade the Confederate commanders with letters like this, but was very quick to retaliate for every violation. He also complained to some Union officers that they were not moving quickly enough to retaliate and prevent future behavior--{584048}
Eisenhower was then the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Forces.
Without a Constitution and a body of Federal Law, it was unclear during the American Revolution what a soldier should d if given an order that conflicted with the law. At the WWII Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, “obeying orders” was not a defense if the orders were illegal and against humanity. American law and military regulations require that a member of the armed forces refuse to obey an illegal order.
The leadership of the Ottoman Empire had become corrupt and degenerate
About 2000 Irish were slaughtered while Cromwell only lost 64. In the Irish Rebellion of 1641, many English Protestants—men, women and even children were massacred by Catholic rebels who were out of control of their leadership. See {639336} for an example. Cromwell, when he landed in Ireland with his troops, made no bones about the fact that he was there to avenge the massacres of 1641 {639283} . This was his first “payback”. 150 years later the Irish Protestants memorialize the massacres of the Rebellion of 1641. The Catholics, memorialize, the massacre at Drogheda. Each group uses these and other similar events to justify their positions of antagonism against the other. See {639282} for a moral analysis of Cromwell’s action here.
Rush ran the hospitals for the Revolutionary Army and talked to many officers and enlisted men, and also observed much of the British military practices. This is a fascinating quotation because it discusses a problem of the early American Military which has been a constant throughout history: Generals and Admirals using soldiers and sailors as personal servants and retinue. While there have been Generals like Horatio Gates, Omar Bradley and Dwight D, Eisenhower and others of every era who did not take advantage of their power to obtain this personal aggrandizement, many have and continue to use their position to obtain personal perks.
