Modern Warfare

I have seen videos, blogs, and articles discuss when the first modern war began. Some I agree with while others I see their point but disagree with their conclusion. Part of the issue is the definition of modern warfare and has this definition changed? Most have looked at the First World War as the beginning or the definition of what modern warfar is about, but did modern warfare begin earlier?

What is modern warfare? Well, we know that warfare is the activity of fighting a war whether it is small-scale or larg-escale. When we consider modern with respect to war we look at what is used, how war is progressed, and what is affected contrasted with military concepts of the past. One idea of modern warfare is the use of gunpowder, artillery, transportation, air use, communication, machine gun, and the total war idea of sacrificing resources while destroying the opponents resources to achieve victory. No longer are local military victories the key to having an advantage with diplomatic bargaining. I am going to define modern war with this definition which by no means is right or wrong as modern war is ever evolving. My definition will use firepower in terms of not just gun powder use but types of rifles, artillery use, logistical transport, aerial, navial, mobility, targeting means of production, and use of manpower. My definition is the combine use of all of this.

At first glance, I would say the Crimean War could be the first essence of modern warfar. You do have use of artillery and amphibious warfare, and even alliances. The logistics were poor during this war for the British. The American Civil War took artillery even further and artillery would play an important role during the war. Most people familiar with the Battle of Gettysburg will think of Pickett’s Charge but how many would think of the artillery preparation preceding the assault? The Battle of Malvern Hill saw Union artillery, 171 guns, along with naval ships devastate that assaulting Confederate troops. Rifled artillery would become common during the war. Indirect fire was used during the war through the use of observation balloons.

In terms of firepower, the muzzle loaded weapon was common during the war but breech loaded rifles would begin to be seen with rifles like the Sharps rifle, but it is the Spencer rifle with its metallic cartridges that would become common place in the 20th century. The Spencer could hold seven cartridges fire at a rate of 21 rounds per minute if you used the quickloading cartridge box that was developed for the rifle. There is the Gatling Gun, the six barrelled gun that could fire around 200 rounds per minute. Though not adopted by the U.S. Army Ordnance, General Benjamin Butler would purchase twelve and use two during the siege of Petersburg and another eight on gunboats. Thus we have the early form of a machine gun.

Unless I am forgetting something, I believe you have the most complete beginnings to a modern war with the Amercian Civil War. As unprofessional as the the militaries were for the North and South, you had an immediate impact of modernity with the Battle of the First Bull Run with trains transporting troops to the battlefield where Stonewall Jackson and troops would board trains at Piedmont Station and be rushed to Manassas Junction in order to participate in the battle. Trains would become vital component of the war with each side using them for transporting troops and supplies. Trains were used in all types of capacities from doing reconnaisance to deception along with the logistical transporting it was already doing. Heavy artillery pieces would be placed on trains. Crews were utilized to repair destroyed track as the army advanced. The railroad system was heavily used.

An early form of communication that as used during the civil war is the telegraph. The U.S. Military Telegraph Corps would lay thousands of miles of telegraph lines and information from the battlefield would be immediately sent to the War Department where President Lincoln could read the information as it came in. He was even able to direct his generals with speed during the war because of the telegraph. This is real time communication and command and control that was going on, something that had never happened before. Communication between generals was accomplished through the telegraph. This communication allowed for quicker response with supplies and troop movement. With the telegraph, General Henry Halleck could issue orders from St. Louis to General Grant in the field and also was the cause of a rift between the two when Grant ceased responding to Halleck’s commands. Eventually the Union would discover there was a Confederate spy operating the Cairo telegraph.

We have the use of aerial reconnaissance with the use of the balloon by the Union army. Balloons had been used in previous conflicts with the Austrians using balloons in 1849 and even in 1859. There was consideration of having some type of air-war method early in the war. The Union Army Balloon Corps would become a branch of the Union Army and would serve the Union from 1861 to 1863. These balloons were in some respect an early warning system for General McClellan while he was organizing and training the army. The balloons were placed in position to detect any movement by the Confederate army and could send information via the telegraph. The Union Army would create an early version of an air craft carrier called a balloon tender where a ship was equipped with a balloon. The first ship was a coal barge, George Washington Parke Custis and several other barges would be utilized as balloon tenders. Even the Confederate Army got in the act and had their own, the CSS Teaser that was in action from 1861 to 1862 until its being captured. Confederates would routinely target the balloons with artillery while they were ascending and descending from their desired observation altitude. In the end, the Union decided the balloon’s limitation outweighed whatever advantage the possessed and the Balloon Corps was eventually disbanded. Aerial warfare was not yet ready.

There were balloon tenders and then there were iron clad ships, the predecessor to the ships we are familiar with today. The ironclad ship, U.S.S. Monitor, was an early version of the ships we would see in the late 19th century and onward. This ship had a rotating turret and utilized a boiler to turn the propeller. There were earlier ironclad ships such as the barges used during the Crimean War but they were towed and not self-propelled and then there was the first true ironclad ship the French Gloire. During the American Civil War, the North utilized many ironclad ships of different classes that sailed rivers, inlets, and along the coast. How can I forget submarine warfare? Yes, I am thinking of only one submarine, the C.S.S. Hunley that was lost after its only use in action where it successfully sank the U.S.S. Housatonic. I would include the C.S.S. David but it was not really a submarine. It was more of a cross between a submarine and torpedo boat?

Amphibious landings, something we think of when we consider the war in the Pacific or D-Day, but amphibious landings happened during the Civil War. This method of warfare was a lesson in errors and one in which the Union would struggle in terms of planning, organizing, and conducting amphibious landings. As the war progressed, the Union would improve as Rear Admiral John A. Dalhgren would show as he learned from mistakes with previouis amphibious landings.

Trench warfare would devleop as the war progressed. The siege of Petersburg was one of trench warfare where over 30 miles of trenches were constructed by the Union. In fact, even before Petersburg, you can see the early implementation of trenches with units fortifying their static positions. The use of mining and detonation of explosives underneath trenches made its first appearance at Petersburg. The Battle fo the Crater began with the detonation of a mine on July 30, 1864 under the Confederate trenches. The failure was Meade’s mistrust in the operation and ordered the black troops, who were well trained for this operation, not to be the lead assault thus the assault fell to units who were not trained for this action.

Total war is what most of us understand as part of modern warfare, and the North practiced this with Sherman’s march to the sea where the Union destroyed the South’s rail lines and the burning of Atlanta. General Sherman left a path of destruction as he marched through the South. The intent was to destroy the rail system, manufacturing, and anything of military value but not private residences, however, that didn’t go as planned as Atlanta would burn. This isn’t to say private residences weren’t targeted as some were.

We can’t ignore Civil War medicine as it, too, evolved. The idea of treating based on a tradition began to switch to one based on evidence as doctors could observe and see what was happening, though it wasn’t enough to save lives that were lost due to infection. The very early use of a medic began to appear in the form of hospital stweards. Plastic surgery appeared as doctors were needed to do facial reconstruction of soldiers who were left with horrible damaged from the war. Field hospitals would be designed and built to house the mounting casualites. The U.S. Ambulance Corps would be created in order to quickly remove wounded soldiers from the field of battle. This would entail the evacuating the wounded to field dressing stations for first aid such as dressing wounds or applying tourniquets were done followed by the transportation to field hospitals where surgeries were done. After all of this, the soldier was then transported to a hospital were long-term care could be done. This system is basically what is used today.

This idea of modern warfare is an ever evolving one as the American Civil War is far less relatable to the war going on between the Ukraine and Russia with drones, rockets, automatic weapons, cameras, but if we look closely doesn’t the drone and balloon do the same thing? Each can provide indirect fire. Trenches are still used. The Gatling gun and Spencer rifle are not so far off from the weapons used today. Rail lines are very important for both sides as we can see NATO equipment being shipped by rail and Russia repairing a rail bridge. The arguments I lay out are not necessarily the first time tactics, weapons, or equpiment were used or even invented, but it is the aggregate implementation that makes this the earliest form of modern warfare. Even if some of the early uses were shortlived, it does not diminish the fact they were used but the technology was not enough for it to continue. Studying the American Civil War, we can spot the embryonic stages of what we would recognize as modern warfare and if we back up enough we can see it was the earliest modern warfare.