The Spanish American War, Lessons Learned the Hard Way, Lessons Ignored and Lessons Forgotten.
Feb 14, 2023 16:26:01 GMT
Post by miletus12 on Feb 14, 2023 16:26:01 GMT
When did the Americans invent embedded military lawyers and military police?
Well the lawyers came with George Washington and the Continental Congress of 1776-178, when the Continental Line was established as the Regular Army. The Americans began with a modified system of British Army practice, where the unit officers administered justice upon the officers and enlisted under the prevailing British "articles of war".
The articles more or less had a board of officers who reviewed an action judged a "criminal offense" under the rules that governed military discipline and recommended a punishment or non-action. The British used an adversarial type presentation of the case against the one accused. it was not so much a military adaptation of civilian trial by jury as an administrative means to maintain discipline when the offense could not be covered by simple unit punishment meted out by a superior.
Washington quickly fopund that his "volunteers" objected to this system of "alleged justice" and so professional lawyers joined the American army. Whether this practice came from the FRENCH, who did so much else to restructure the American army into a professional military establishment, I cannot say, but the lawyers were definitely an American idea. William Marony, the first Americsn provost marshall, was a self taught lawyer.
Those are instructions to a military police commandant.
===============================================================================
So what went wrong in the Philippine Islands? Elsewhere, in Cuba and Puerto Rico and Hawaii, the Americans formed provosts out of regular line units and administered a rough justice that was a bit harsh, but still "fair" especially compared to the far harsher British and continental standards among civilian populations their military misruled. Why was the Philippine Islands different? Especially in Cuba, where the banditos still had their own civil war in progress and the American (Sugar Interests) backed provisional government had to call on the American army to put them down, why were there no wholesale mass murders, massive arsons and thefts of anything not nailed down? Why was the American caused mayhem and chaos an order of magnitude less? Cuba was terrible from 1898-1902, but it was Cubans amongst themselves and where the Americans put down the insurrectos, the situation actually calmed down. In the Philippine Islands, you read the American soldiers' diaries and they, themselves, paint a picture of Americans soldiers run amok, stealing, looting, burning, murdering, as if they were a bunch of locusts set loose upon the Filipino people.
WHY?
This war criminal.
There was no competent provost established under Elwell Stephen Otis. He had one on paper named Robert Patterson Hughes, but that arsonist authorized his own assigned troops to burn the city of Manila between the Intramuros and as far north as the Tullajan to flush out (the Filipino nationalists)^1 as he called them.
As for the rest of the "volunteer infantry", I suggest you read my Filipino-American War thread to find out why as soon as Teddy Roosevelt took over after McKinley was shot, and after he read Dewey's reports on how BAD things were in the Philippine Islands, there was a massive shakeup in the American high command. It was not as if McKinley had done nothing either. After he fired Russell Alger for the Beef Scandal and the Philippine War as soon as the latter half of 1899, his new Secretary of War, Elihu Roost, was sending FEDERAL troops to replace the "volunteer" brigands and out of control amok yahoos who formed 8th Corps at the time, but it took time to raise, train and equip the replacement regulars.
And it took time to build a proper provost corps to bring order to the chaos, that the lack of a decent competent provost marshall with assigned disciplined FEDERAL troops had caused.
Several factors led to this disaster:
a. the American refusal to recognize that a legitimate national liberation movement had established a functional civil administration; and the further refusal to cooperate with that administration, state to state, as was the case in Cuba.
b. the reliance on "Indian Fighters" as civil administrators.
c. the lack of a civilian oversight ON THE SPOT to make sure the military was properly administered and subordinate to the Washington governmwent.
d. using yahoos and "volunteers" (National Guard is still in the future and has to await Elihu Root's reforms. M.) as the line infantry.
===============================================================================
The lessons from this disaster would take until the further disaster of the American army amok in WWI France to straighten out.
Foe you see, the military police corps in the American army did not get organized until 1941, when George Marshall, who had seen the chaos that another brain dead "Indian Fighter" (John Pershing) had allowed to happen to military discipline inside the American army in WWI France, was determined to not allow in America's fourth go at a major overseas war turn into another international how not to make friends and influence people.
It still was a rough go, even with the military police there to arrests over 55,000 burglars, 30,000 rapists and an estimated 3,000 murderers out of some 8,000,000 Americans shipped overseas.
===============================================================================
And we are still 5trying to get it right.
We have a LONG way to go.
===============================================================================
^1 Hughes referred to the citizens of a country with electricity, steam propelled ships, a civil service bureucracy that was two times older than the United States as a nation, as expletive deleteds and "savages" and used the word that Unreconstructed Confederates and other American racists used to describe African Americans as a "label". Another favorite term he used was "Indians" as in Native Americans in its full perjorative meaning as understood at the time.
Well the lawyers came with George Washington and the Continental Congress of 1776-178, when the Continental Line was established as the Regular Army. The Americans began with a modified system of British Army practice, where the unit officers administered justice upon the officers and enlisted under the prevailing British "articles of war".
The articles more or less had a board of officers who reviewed an action judged a "criminal offense" under the rules that governed military discipline and recommended a punishment or non-action. The British used an adversarial type presentation of the case against the one accused. it was not so much a military adaptation of civilian trial by jury as an administrative means to maintain discipline when the offense could not be covered by simple unit punishment meted out by a superior.
Washington quickly fopund that his "volunteers" objected to this system of "alleged justice" and so professional lawyers joined the American army. Whether this practice came from the FRENCH, who did so much else to restructure the American army into a professional military establishment, I cannot say, but the lawyers were definitely an American idea. William Marony, the first Americsn provost marshall, was a self taught lawyer.
Instructions to William Marony, 12 January 1776
Instructions to William Marony
[Cambridge, 12 January 1776]
All Prisoners guilty of Capital Crimes & Crimes not triable by a Regimental Court Martial are to be sent to the Provost.
The Provost is not to receive any Prisoner without a Crime specified in writing & signd by the Person committing him.
No Prisoner is to be suffered to be absent from his Confinement untill released by proper Authority.
The Provost Marshal is to provide a suitable Person, when necessary, to execute the Sentences of General Courts Martial, approved of & directed to be enforced by the Commander in Chief.
When any Men are sent to the Provost’s, The Provost Marshal is to send a Report of them immediately to the Regiment they belong to, & no Man is to be received by the Provost except his Crime is sent with him.
The Provost is to make a Return every Morning by Ten o’Clock to the Adjutant General, of the Number of Prisoners under Guard, specifying the Regiment they belong to, their Crimes, by whom & how long confin’d.
The Provost is to take due Care that all Orders from the Judge Advocate respecting the Trials of Prisoners be punctually executed. And is to post proper Centuries from his Guard at such Times & at such Places as a General Court Martial may sit.
The Provost is frequently to take a Party from his Guard & patrole the Avenues & Environs of the Camp; is to take up & confine all disorderly and suspicious Persons; to suppress Riots & Disturbances, is to inform the Quarter Master General of all Persons who keep unwarranted & destructive Dram Shops; and all other pernicious & Camp Nusances.
The Provost is to receive & obey all such Orders and Instructions as may at any Time be given him by his Excellency the Commander in Chief, the Adjutant General, the Quarter Master General & the Judge Advocate of the Army of the united Colonies. Given at Head Quarters at Cambridge this 12th Day of January A.D. 1776.
Go: Washington
Instructions to William Marony
[Cambridge, 12 January 1776]
All Prisoners guilty of Capital Crimes & Crimes not triable by a Regimental Court Martial are to be sent to the Provost.
The Provost is not to receive any Prisoner without a Crime specified in writing & signd by the Person committing him.
No Prisoner is to be suffered to be absent from his Confinement untill released by proper Authority.
The Provost Marshal is to provide a suitable Person, when necessary, to execute the Sentences of General Courts Martial, approved of & directed to be enforced by the Commander in Chief.
When any Men are sent to the Provost’s, The Provost Marshal is to send a Report of them immediately to the Regiment they belong to, & no Man is to be received by the Provost except his Crime is sent with him.
The Provost is to make a Return every Morning by Ten o’Clock to the Adjutant General, of the Number of Prisoners under Guard, specifying the Regiment they belong to, their Crimes, by whom & how long confin’d.
The Provost is to take due Care that all Orders from the Judge Advocate respecting the Trials of Prisoners be punctually executed. And is to post proper Centuries from his Guard at such Times & at such Places as a General Court Martial may sit.
The Provost is frequently to take a Party from his Guard & patrole the Avenues & Environs of the Camp; is to take up & confine all disorderly and suspicious Persons; to suppress Riots & Disturbances, is to inform the Quarter Master General of all Persons who keep unwarranted & destructive Dram Shops; and all other pernicious & Camp Nusances.
The Provost is to receive & obey all such Orders and Instructions as may at any Time be given him by his Excellency the Commander in Chief, the Adjutant General, the Quarter Master General & the Judge Advocate of the Army of the united Colonies. Given at Head Quarters at Cambridge this 12th Day of January A.D. 1776.
Go: Washington
Those are instructions to a military police commandant.
===============================================================================
So what went wrong in the Philippine Islands? Elsewhere, in Cuba and Puerto Rico and Hawaii, the Americans formed provosts out of regular line units and administered a rough justice that was a bit harsh, but still "fair" especially compared to the far harsher British and continental standards among civilian populations their military misruled. Why was the Philippine Islands different? Especially in Cuba, where the banditos still had their own civil war in progress and the American (Sugar Interests) backed provisional government had to call on the American army to put them down, why were there no wholesale mass murders, massive arsons and thefts of anything not nailed down? Why was the American caused mayhem and chaos an order of magnitude less? Cuba was terrible from 1898-1902, but it was Cubans amongst themselves and where the Americans put down the insurrectos, the situation actually calmed down. In the Philippine Islands, you read the American soldiers' diaries and they, themselves, paint a picture of Americans soldiers run amok, stealing, looting, burning, murdering, as if they were a bunch of locusts set loose upon the Filipino people.
WHY?
This war criminal.
There was no competent provost established under Elwell Stephen Otis. He had one on paper named Robert Patterson Hughes, but that arsonist authorized his own assigned troops to burn the city of Manila between the Intramuros and as far north as the Tullajan to flush out (the Filipino nationalists)^1 as he called them.
As for the rest of the "volunteer infantry", I suggest you read my Filipino-American War thread to find out why as soon as Teddy Roosevelt took over after McKinley was shot, and after he read Dewey's reports on how BAD things were in the Philippine Islands, there was a massive shakeup in the American high command. It was not as if McKinley had done nothing either. After he fired Russell Alger for the Beef Scandal and the Philippine War as soon as the latter half of 1899, his new Secretary of War, Elihu Roost, was sending FEDERAL troops to replace the "volunteer" brigands and out of control amok yahoos who formed 8th Corps at the time, but it took time to raise, train and equip the replacement regulars.
And it took time to build a proper provost corps to bring order to the chaos, that the lack of a decent competent provost marshall with assigned disciplined FEDERAL troops had caused.
Several factors led to this disaster:
a. the American refusal to recognize that a legitimate national liberation movement had established a functional civil administration; and the further refusal to cooperate with that administration, state to state, as was the case in Cuba.
b. the reliance on "Indian Fighters" as civil administrators.
c. the lack of a civilian oversight ON THE SPOT to make sure the military was properly administered and subordinate to the Washington governmwent.
d. using yahoos and "volunteers" (National Guard is still in the future and has to await Elihu Root's reforms. M.) as the line infantry.
===============================================================================
The lessons from this disaster would take until the further disaster of the American army amok in WWI France to straighten out.
Foe you see, the military police corps in the American army did not get organized until 1941, when George Marshall, who had seen the chaos that another brain dead "Indian Fighter" (John Pershing) had allowed to happen to military discipline inside the American army in WWI France, was determined to not allow in America's fourth go at a major overseas war turn into another international how not to make friends and influence people.
It still was a rough go, even with the military police there to arrests over 55,000 burglars, 30,000 rapists and an estimated 3,000 murderers out of some 8,000,000 Americans shipped overseas.
===============================================================================
And we are still 5trying to get it right.
We have a LONG way to go.
===============================================================================
^1 Hughes referred to the citizens of a country with electricity, steam propelled ships, a civil service bureucracy that was two times older than the United States as a nation, as expletive deleteds and "savages" and used the word that Unreconstructed Confederates and other American racists used to describe African Americans as a "label". Another favorite term he used was "Indians" as in Native Americans in its full perjorative meaning as understood at the time.