Emory Upton
Emory Upton | |
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![]() Major General Emory Upton, c. 1865 | |
Born | near Batavia, New York | August 27, 1839
Died | March 15, 1881 San Francisco, California | (aged 41)
Place of burial | Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn, New York |
Allegiance | United States of America Union |
Service/ | United States Army Union Army |
Years of service | 1861–1881 |
Rank | ![]() ![]() |
Commands held |
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Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Emory Upton (August 27, 1839 – March 15, 1881) was a United States Army general and military strategist, prominent for his role in leading infantry to attack entrenched positions successfully at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during the American Civil War, but he also excelled at artillery and cavalry assignments. His work, The Military Policy of the United States, which analyzed American military policies and practices and presented the first systematic examination of the nation's military history, had a tremendous effect on the U.S. Army when it was published posthumously in 1904.
Early life
Upton was born on a farm near
In 1868, Upton married Emily Norwood Martin, daughter of the philanthropist and social activist Cornelia Williams Martin, and she died of tuburculosis in 1870.[6]
Civil War
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Emory_Upton_121NY.jpg/220px-Emory_Upton_121NY.jpg)
Upton was commissioned a
Upton was appointed
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Spotsylvania_Court_House_May_10.png/400px-Spotsylvania_Court_House_May_10.png)
In the 1864
The VI Corps, of which Upton's brigade was part, was detached from the
After returning from medical leave, Upton finished the war as a cavalry commander, completing his mastery of all three combat arms. Under the command of Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson, he led the 4th Division of the Cavalry Corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi.[8] The division saw action during Wilson's Raid and the Battle of Selma.
On April 16, 1865, the division made a night assault upon the Confederate works in the
Robert Hoffsommer wrote that, by the end of the war, the 25-year-old Upton "had commanded outstandingly in all three branches of the army."[10]
Postbellum career and death
After the war, Upton commanded a cavalry brigade in the Department of the Cumberland from July through September 1865 and served in the District of Colorado until April 1866.[11] He was mustered out of the volunteer service on April 30, 1866. He was assigned to a board at West Point that considered a new system of infantry tactics, which was approved in 1867. In July 1866 he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 25th U.S. Infantry and transferred to the 18th U.S. Infantry in March 1869.[11] From 1870 to 1875 he was the commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy, where he also taught infantry, artillery, and cavalry tactics.[2] Upton was a member of the Society of the Army of the Potomac.
Impressed with the lessons of the
In 1881, Upton, having returned to the rank of colonel in 1880, was in command of 4th U.S. Artillery at the
Army reform
Upton is considered one of the most influential young reformers of the United States Army in the 19th century,[12] and arguably in U.S. history. He has been called the U.S. Army's counterpart to United States Navy reformer and strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan. Although his books on tactics and on Asian and European armies were considered influential, his greatest impact was a work he called The Military Policy of the United States from 1775. He worked for years on the paper, and it was still incomplete at the time of his death in 1881.[14]
Military Policy was a controversial work in which Upton outlined U.S. military history, arguing that the country’s armed forces were imprudent and weak and "that all the defects of the American military system rested upon a fundamental, underlying flaw, excessive civilian control of the military." He denigrated the influence of the Secretary of War and promoted the idea that all military decisions in the field should be made by professional officers, although the president should retain the role of commander-in-chief. He argued for a strong, standing regular army that would be supplemented by volunteers or conscripts in time of war, a general staff system based on the Prussian model, examinations to determine promotions, compulsory retirement of officers who reach a certain age, advanced military education, and combat maneuvering by groups of four three-battalion infantry regiments. Upton's work had a profound influence on discussions of military and civilian strategy for years.[5][12] All of Upton's proposed reforms would be implemented in the 1890s and early 1900s and laid the foundation for the high level of efficiency the U.S. Army demonstrated in World War I.
After Upton's death, Henry A. du Pont, Upton's West Point classmate and a close friend, acquired a copy of the uncompleted manuscript. It circulated widely throughout the Army's officer corps and helped to foment much discussion. After the Spanish–American War, Secretary of War Elihu Root read the manuscript and ordered that the War Department publish it under the title The Military Policy of the United States. Many of the Army's so-called Root Reforms of the early twentieth century were inspired by Upton and his works.[15]
Memorials
In 1895, Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson wrote an introductory article for a book by (Peter Michie), The Life and Letters of Emory Upton. Wilson's tribute to his former subordinate demonstrates the significance of Emory Upton's accomplishments and characteristics:[9]
... Upton was as good an artillery officer as could be found in any country, the equal of any cavalry commander of his day, and, all things considered, was the best commander of a division of infantry in either the Union or the rebel army. ... He was incontestably the best tactician of either army, and this is true whether tested by battle or by the evolutions of the drill field and parade. In view of his success of all arms of the service, it is not too much to add that he could scarcely have failed as a corps or army commander had it been his good fortune to be called to such rank. ... No one can read the story of his brilliant career without concluding that he had a real genius for war, together with all the theoretical and practical knowledge which any one could acquire in regard to it. Up to the time when he was disabled by the disease which caused his death he was, all things considered, the most accomplished soldier in our service. His life was pure and upright, his bearing chivalric and commanding, his conduct modest and unassuming, and his character absolutely without blemish. History cannot furnish a brighter example of unselfish patriotism, or ambition unsullied by an ignoble thought or an unworthy deed. He was a credit to the State and family which gave him birth, to the military academy which educated him, and to the army in which he served. So long as the Union has such soldiers as he to defend it, it will be perpetual.
— Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson, The Life and Letters of Emory Upton
Upton was commemorated at a site in central Suffolk County, New York, presently occupied by Brookhaven National Laboratory. The U.S. Army's Camp Upton was active from 1917 until 1920, and again from 1940 until 1946. During World War II, the camp was rebuilt primarily as an induction center for draftees. The Army later used the site as a convalescent and rehabilitation hospital for returning wounded.
A statue of Upton stands before the Genesee County Courthouse in his native Batavia.[3]
Reflecting a pattern of naming many Washington, D.C., streets in newly developed areas in the capital after Civil War generals, an east-west street in the Northwest quadrant is named Upton Street, NW.
Dates of rank
Insignia | Rank | Component | Date |
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No insignia | Cadet | USMA | 1 July 1856 |
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Second Lieutenant | 4th Artillery | 6 May 1861 |
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First Lieutenant | 5th Artillery | 14 May 1861 |
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Colonel | 121st New York Infantry | 23 October 1862 |
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Brevet Major | Regular Army | 8 November 1863 |
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Brevet Lieutenant Colonel | Regular Army | 10 May 1864 |
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Brigadier General | Volunteers | 12 May 1864 |
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Brevet Major General | Volunteers | 19 October 1864 |
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Captain | 5th Artillery | 22 February 1865 |
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Brevet Major General | Regular Army | 13 March 1865 |
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Lieutenant Colonel | 25th Infantry | 28 July 1866 |
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Colonel | 4th Artillery, Regular Army | 1 July 1880 |
Selected works
- A New System of Infantry Tactics, Double and Single Rank, Adapted to American Topography and Improved Fire-Arms (published in 1867)
- Tactics for Non-Military Bodies (1870)
- The Armies of Asia and Europe. Embracing Official Reports On the Armies of Japan, China, India, Persia, Italy, Russia, Austria, Germany, France, and England. Accompanied by Letters Descriptive of A Journey from Japan to the Caucasus. New York: D. Appleton & Co. (1878)
- Infantry Tactics in Use at the N.Y.S. Reformatory (posthumous, 1889)
- The Military Policy of the United States (posthumous, 1904)[2]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Morris, pp. 2006-08; North Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Eicher, p. 540.
- ^ a b Holland Land Office Museum Archived 2006-11-02 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Ambrose, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d e Morris, pp. 2006-08.
- ^ "Seward Family Digital Archive · UR Projects". urprojects.lib.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
- ^ Ambrose, p. 41.
- ^ Eicher, p. 540. He was formally appointed to the position on December 13, 1864, while on medical leave.
- ^ a b "North". Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2006-09-01.
- ^ Hoffsommer, p. 773
- ^ a b Eicher, p. 540; Morris, p. 2006.
- ^ a b c Cassidy, p. 132.
- ^ Eicher, p. 540; Morris, p. 2007, describes the condition as "chronic catarrh".
- ^ Ambrose, p. 121.
- ^ Ambrose, p. 156.
- ^ U.S. Army Register of Commissioned Officers, 1881. pg. 138.
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-8071-1850-8.
- Cassidy, Robert M. "Prophets or Praetorians? The Uptonian Paradox and the Powell Corollary." Parameters magazine (U.S. Army War College). Autumn 2003.
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Fitzpatrick, David J. Emory Upton: Misunderstood Reformer (U of Oklahoma Press, 2017). xviii, 325 pp.
- Hoffsommer, Robert D. "Emory Upton." In Historical Times Illustrated History of the Civil War, edited by Patricia L. Faust. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. ISBN 978-0-06-273116-6.
- Morris, James M. "Emory Upton." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- North, Safford E., ed. Biographies of Genesee County, New York Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine, Boston History Company, 1899.
- Brookhaven National Laboratory history article on Camp Upton
- Holland Land Office Museum (Batavia, New York) biography
- American History Illustrated, August 1971 " This Monotonous Life" by Stephen Ambrose
Further reading
- Cilella, Salvatore G. Upton's Regulars: The 121st New York State Infantry in the Civil War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7006-1645-9.
- Fitzpatrick, David John. Emory Upton: Misunderstood Reformer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0806157207.
- Fitzpatrick, David John. "Emory Upton: The Misunderstood Reformer." PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1996.
- Fitzpatrick, David John. "Emory Upton and the Army of a Democracy." The Journal of Military History 77 (April 2013): 463-490.
- Fitzpatrick, David John. "Emory Upton and the Citizen Soldier." The Journal of Military History 65 (April 2001): 355-389.
- Michie, Peter S. The Life and Letters of Emory Upton: Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Artillery, and Brevet Major-General, U. S. Army. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1885.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- "Emory Upton". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- Fort Hill Cemetery entry for Upton