War, Railroads, and the West: The Lost Story of J.R. Scupham

The Scupham family currently spread across Indiana and Illinois is fairly well established and confident in its past. From the earliest familial records – dating only to the Civil War – a lone figure emerged: William C. Scupham, private in the Union Army, 1st Illinois Light Artillery. However, in looking through the regimental roll for the 1st Illinois, one finds, somewhat shockingly, another soldier with the same last name: John R. or J.R. Scupham. William’s story is well known – his stay at Andersonville prison is well documented – but who was this shadowy J.R.? Even more compelling is that his name was scrawled across the entire country. From Chicago to Missouri and Vicksburg to California, J.R. flashes out from military rolls, court cases, land holdings, and newspaper clippings. The rediscovery of John R. Scupham tells a story that could have only have happened in the exciting, tumultuous decades of the late 19th-century. It is a story of immigration, war, railroads, mining, and the American West; a truly American story that helps one to understand how individual men and women were able to shape this country by their own remarkable actions

An Army for the Revolution, a Revolution for the Army: The French Revolutionary Army, 1792-1797

There is a common myth about the average French soldier at the time of the French Revolution that presents him as a reckless, heroic citizen-soldier, swept to victory by the power of revolutionary fervor. This myth obscures some important realities of French military life. The French military was often characterized not by fantastic victories, but rather by an early incompetence. Indeed, this inability threatened to destroy France on many occasions. This essay attempts to reconcile the myth and reality by exploring what motivated common Frenchmen to fight and win wars. Demographic, political, tactical, and organizational analysis of the French Revolutionary Army reveals how the military was a transitional organization caught between the monarchic model and the nascent democratic ideology. The military saw a growth in its wider “Frenchness” as men from all of France volunteered. Many of the operations of the army were carried out with the French conception of democracy and national identity in mind. At the same time, the older influences anchored the army, enabling the revolutionary spirit to survive. One finds an army struggling to reconcile its old monarchical roots in organization, equipment, manpower, and even battlefield tactics with the new revolutionary French identity

Godly Brutality: The Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland 1649-1650

Few men are as resoundingly condemned in Irish culture than Oliver Cromwell. Indeed, Irish nationalist historians resoundingly paint him as a genocidal madman, much to the detriment of Anglo-Irish relations. However, when one dares to reevaluate Cromwell\u27s 1649 invasion of Ireland, the event that damned him to the Irish for all time, one begins to question one\u27s long-held prejudices toward God\u27s Executioner. The military, political, and social situation in seventeenth-century Ireland was a complex one that precludes any sort of monolithic understanding of either the causes or methods of Cromwell\u27s invasion. Analysis of the events preceding the invasion, such as the nature of Ireland\u27s Confederate government, help to explain not only why Cromwell could claim victory in nine months, but also why Cromwell\u27s cause was not one of genocide, but of military necessity. Analysis of the campaign and the infamous sieges and massacres at Drogheda and Wexford that defined it show that the myth of Cromwellian war crimes ignores the seventeenth century\u27s rules of war and, indeed, demonstrates that presentism and politicization have seeped into Cromwellian scholarship. Examining the whole of Cromwell\u27s campaign in this light, one finds a man struggling to pursue an expedient, lawful, and godly method to victory: a pragmatic method in an increasingly bloody conflict. Cromwell\u27s personal character both as a military and civilian leader is similarly nuanced: his campaign was characterized by religious zeal, brutality, and anti-Irish rhetoric, but showed little legitimate personal hatred towards the Irish and, indeed, shocking human warmth towards them in the aftermath of the invasion. One must recognize the limits of Cromwell\u27s historical agency and his historical context, eliminating the term genocide from one\u27s historical understanding of Oliver Cromwell and his actions in Ireland