Earl Hess returns as speaker to KCWRT

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Earl Hess

Dr. Earl J. Hess will be our speaker at the monthly meeting of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable on Feb. 14 (details on the left of this page).

Dr. Earl Hess

Dr. Hess has been a student of Civil War history since he was a teenager, growing up in rural Missouri. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees in History at Southeast Missouri State University. His Ph.D. in American Studies, with a concentration in History, was awarded by Purdue University in 1986. He has taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Georgia, Texas Tech University, and the University of Arkansas.

Since 1989, he has been at Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate, Tennessee, where he is Associate Professor of History, past director of the History Program, and holds the Stewart McClelland Chair.

Dr. Hess has published more than twenty books, over thirty articles, and more than a hundred book reviews for academic history journals. He has conducted numerous manuscript evaluations for academic presses and article reviews for academic journals and is widely recognized as a leading scholar and author on Civil War history.

Dr. Hess has also published and is working on books on the history of making classic film musicals.

Tactics during the Civil War

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Earl Hess

If you believe that the use of Napoleonic tactics was outmoded at the time of the Civil War, you are not alone. If you believe that the advent of the rifle musket changed the landscape of warfare in a way that was underappreciated if not misunderstood by Civil War combat leaders, again, you are not alone.

Conventional wisdom buttressed by reams of scholarship has long maintained that the horrendous casualty rates incurred by Civil War fighting units were directly attributable to advances in tactics not keeping pace with advances in weaponry. How else can one explain the bloodiness of the whole affair?

Our speaker, Dr. Earl Hess, argues that there is another explanation. After intensively studying the three tactical manuals available to Civil War officers (written by Winfield Scott, William J. Hardee, and Silas Casey) and thoroughly reading the battle reports to be found in the Official Records, Dr. Hess maintains that the linear system in use during the 1860s not only was highly effective but it was the true system to be used with the rifle musket.

He also argues that most regimental commanders North and South quickly learned the drill, taught it to their subordinates, and effectively used these tactics on the battlefield.

Please join us as Dr. Hess shares the conclusions of the research that informed his recent book Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness and marvel as he turns conventional wisdom on its head. Details of the meeting are are the left of this page.