Category: Army

American Revolution history book – “Valley Forge” (Simon & Schuster, 2018) – Tom Clavin interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Tom Clavin is a prolific history writer who’s been on the New York Times Bestsllers list. We talk about his latest book co-authored with Bob Drury, Valley Forge.

0:41 – Tom talks about how he got into co-authoring a book on Valley Forge during the American Revolution.

3:05 – Tom talks about how the book is laid out and describes each of the three parts.

7:51 – Tom talks about the ways Washington was able to keep his troops at Valley Forge.

10:44 – Tom talks about Lafayette and Von Steuben.

14:14 – Tom talks about Washington’s feelings of fatherliness to the men in his army and to the country.

17:02 – Tom talks about the British plans and the effects of winter on campaigning.

19:58 – Tom talks about Washington’s plans for the time at Valley Forge and after. He also describes Von Steuben and what he did for the army.

24:19 – Tom talks about how Washignton managed an army made up of people from all over the country and also of other nationalities. There were also hundreds of black troops in the army.

29:00 – Tom talks about what they used to research the book.

31:55 – Tom talks about visiting the site of Valley Forge.

34:55 – Tom tells the sad story of John Lawrence, one of Washington’s favorites.

38:15 – The Americans deployed an attack submarine during Valley Forge. As wild as that sounds, Tom explains.

39:40 – Tom talks about the effort to usurp Washington.

43:54 – Tom talks about how camp followers were taken care of.

45:29 – Tom talks about the huge population of people at Valley Forge at the time.

47:04 – Tom talks about Washington’s experience in managing this large number of people.

53:45 – He has a website tomclavin.com

Links of interest

http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Valley-Forge/Bob-Drury/9781501152719

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Tom Clavin

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book. George Washington, Lafayette, Von Steuben, Alexander Hamilton, Howe, British, Continental Army, Continental Congress, Franklin, American Revolution

Apache Wars history book – “The Black Legend: George Bascom, Cochise, and the Start of the Apache Wars” (TwoDot, 2018) – Doug Hocking interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Doug Hocking has lived in the American Southwest for much of his life. He’s written lots of western historical fiction and non-fiction. We discussed his latest book on Cochise and the Apache War of 1861.

0:50 – Doug talks about how he got into studying the Apache Wars. He grew up on the Jicarilla Apache reservation. He got into studying the Bascom and Cochise affair and found many discrepancies in the accepted story.

6:32 – Doug talks about how he starts the story in 1856. He then gets into how the Apache War started.

13:57 – Doug talks about the differences between US Army and Native American tactics.

He talks about terrain and weapons. He also talks about rations and food for each side.

19:00 – Doug talks about why he considers Cochise the best Apache leader in history.

22:32 – Doug talks about the relationships between the area tribes. He also talks about how the Apache Indians learned how to raid for spoils.

25:16 – Doug talks about how various groups in the area were armed.

29:08 – Doug talks about Apache clothing and how it was affected by combat. He also talks about clothing worn by US soldiers.

37:01 – Doug talks about the US Army were supplied in the area.

39:28 – Doug talks about who had to serve out in this area.

44:04 – Doug talks about what the forts were like in the area.

47:37 – Doug talks about the newspapers and other resources he used. He also mentions some Mexican records hat are useful to this research.

54:40 – Doug came to dislike Rueben Bernard.

58:07 – He’s on DougHocking.com and his books are there as well as on Amazon.

Links of interest

http://doughocking.com/

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Doug Hocking

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, California, Texas, US Civil War, Bascome, Cochise, Apaches, dragoons, Utes, Embudo mountains, Fort Union, Fort Buchanan, Santa fe, General Buell, West Point, Fort Massachusetts, Fort Defiance, Fort Cummings, Army posts, adobe, jachal, Tucson

WWI military history book – “Pershing’s Tankers” (The University Press of Kentucky, 2018) – Lawrence Kaplan interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Lawrence Kaplan is a military historian who has worked for the US Army and has written numerous books on the subject. Today we spoke about his latest book on the American tank corps during WWI.

1:51 – Larry Kaplan talks about how he got into studying the American tank corps in WWI. He found a number of reports associated with the tank corps that hadn’t been discovered before or had been forgotten. Patton was one of the officers involved with the tank corps.

6:30 – Larry talks about the early development of the US Army tank corps. The French and the British helped the US in this effort. But not a lot was written about this history. Tanks were used for only 7 weeks at the end of the war.

11:20 – George Patton became the commander of the two tank battalions that were to be used in the war.

14:00 – Many of the records of these early tank battalions ended up missing. Larry found them among US Army Field Artillery records.

21:00 – Larry also collected newspaper accounts that were basically the letters home that some tank officers had sent home. He also made some extensive Congressional testimony on the WWI tank corps in WWI readable in a narrative form.

29:30 – Larry talks about what happened to the tank corps after WWI.

31:50 – Larry talks about a scandalous event that occurred during Patton’s time in WWI.

38:48 – The presence of American tanks helped US Army morale and hurt German morale.

39:39 – Larry summarizes how the end of the war went.

53:39 – Larry talks about how the tanks were moved around the theater of war. He also addresses problems with tank maintenance during combat. He gets into how an American officer named Brain was trying to develop requirements for an American-built tank.

58:30 – Larry will be publishing a translated and edited version of a Russian female soldier’s novel about serving in WWI.

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar

Guests: Lawrence Kaplan

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, world war one, WWI, tank corps, armored warfare, George Patton, French, british, Germans