Military History Online

November 16, 2005 8:01 PM

Attention history geeks. The US Army Military History Institute has tons of documents online [almost all following links are .pdf]. There are lots of "staff rides" from the 1980's and 1990's, but some digging will unearth some primary documents, such as Pershing's Report on the Mexican Punitive Expedition (Oct. 1916), Sheridan's Engagements with Hostile Indians, 1868 - 1892. [mi]
posted by marxchivist (5 comments total)

Also Heitman's Historical Register (a complete list of commissioned officers of the U.S. from 1789, to 1903, giving the officers' full names and showing their services as cadets and all services as officers or enlisted men), Dyer's Compendium (brief histories of Union Regiments in the American Civil War). Plus lots of Vietnam War documents, the Cold War, on and on. I love this stuff.
posted by marxchivist at 8:01 PM on November 16, 2005

Nifty site. Here's a neat summarization of Marine Corps activity in Central America around 1928. The man who wrote the report? Captain Matthew Ridgeway. About twenty-five years later, he'd be in charge of American forces in Korea. Also of note, the reason why we were in a small latin American country? To ensure fair elections, to seek out and destroy criminal bandits....hrm.
posted by Atreides at 9:19 PM on November 16, 2005

An excellent, excellent post. Thanks so much. It's going to be a while before I can really dig into this, but the teasers are enough to convince me that this is a great find.
posted by OmieWise at 5:43 AM on November 17, 2005

Thanks!
posted by Smedleyman at 10:10 AM on November 17, 2005

Thanks for this excellent resource; it's too bad the interface is rather clutzy and a lot of the documents aren't online, but there's a ton of good primary-source material here.
posted by nTeleKy at 12:58 PM on November 17, 2005