Antebellum Military Science and the American Civil War

While faith in the Enlightenment was waning elsewhere by 1860, at the United States Military Academy at West Point and in the minds of academy graduates serving throughout the country Enlightenment thinking persisted, asserting that war was governable by a grand theory accessible through the study of ‘military science.’ Officers of the regular army and instructors at the military academy and their political superiors all believed strongly in the possibility of acquiring a perfect knowledge of war through the proper curriculum.

Dr Ian Hope’s talk will examine how the doctrine of military science evolved from teaching specific Napoleonic applications to embracing subjects that were useful for war in North America. He refutes traditional assertions of a lack of professionalization in the antebellum American army and an overreliance on the teachings of Swiss military theorist Antoine de Jomini. Instead, Dr Hope will show that inculcation in West Point’s American military curriculum came to provide the army with an officer corps that shared a common doctrine and common skill in military problem solving. The proliferation of military science ensured that on the eve of the Civil War there existed a distinctly American, and scientific, way of war. Dr Hope concludes and demonstrates that this doctrine had a profound impact upon the conduct of the American Civil War.

About the Speaker

Dr. Ian Hope MSC, MSM, CD is the Chief Historian for NATO and Historical Adviser to SACEUR. During his 40-year military career, he served with the West Nova Scotia Regiment, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, the Canadian Airborne Regiment and the British Parachute Regiment. His operational experiences include the first Gulf War, multiple tours in the Balkans, Africa, and Afghanistan.

He is a graduate of the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff College, and the United States Army’s Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, and Army War College in Carlisle, as well as being an Ancien of the NATO Defense College. He has a Bachelor of History (Honors) from Acadia University, a Masters of Military Arts and Science, a Masters of Strategic Studies, and a PhD in History from Queen’s University Canada.

He is the author of A Scientific Way of War(2015), Dancing with the Dushman (2008), Unity of Command in Afghanistan: A Forsaken Principle of War (2007), three monographs and a dozen articles and chapters on military history and strategic studies.

Discounted tickets are available to Full Time Students, please contact us for further details.