The Confederate Command Problem in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1862 (open access)

The Confederate Command Problem in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1862

This thesis is a study of the Confederate command problem in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1862.
Date: May 1960
Creator: Dickey, Raymond D.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Role of Beaumarchais in the American Revolution (open access)

The Role of Beaumarchais in the American Revolution

This thesis explores the role of Caron de Beaumarchais in the American Revolution as a controversial topic in history and his shipping arms and ammunition to America during the 1777 campaign.
Date: June 1967
Creator: Shewmake, Antoinette
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Americans who did not wait: the American Legion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1917 (open access)

Americans who did not wait: the American Legion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915-1917

This study examines the five American Legion battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force formed in 1915 specifically to recruit American volunteers for the Canadian overseas contingent of the First World War. This study reviews the organization of Canada's militia and Anglo-American relations before examining the formation of the American Legion, the background of its men, and the diplomatic repercussions it sparked. This study is based largely on material in the Public Archives of Canada including war records and the personal papers of several participants. During its brief existence, the American Legion precipitated constitutional, diplomatic, and political problems. The issues the American Legion raised were mostly solved by America's entry in the war. The episode hastened the maturity of Canada as a nation.
Date: May 1996
Creator: Smylie, Eric
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Confederate Arkansas: a Study in State Politics (open access)

Confederate Arkansas: a Study in State Politics

Arkansas state politics during the Civil War was influenced by the preceding thirty years and many of the state's problems for which political answers were sought were similar to problems experienced in this period of political development. The war simply magnified and multiplied the problems faced by the state. This thesis is concerned with identifying the political forces in the state and their development, with investigating problems to which political solutions were sought and attempts made to solve these. Finally, an effort is made to determine the effectiveness of the various political moves made during the terms of Governors Rector and Flanagin.
Date: August 1971
Creator: Cox, James L.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Mexican Connection: Confederate and Union Diplomacy on the Rio Grande, 1861-1865 (open access)

The Mexican Connection: Confederate and Union Diplomacy on the Rio Grande, 1861-1865

This study examines the efforts of the Union and Confederate diplomatic agents to influence the events along the Rio Grande during the Civil War. The paper compares the successful accomplishments of Confederate agent Jose Quintero to the hindered maneuverings of the Union representatives, Leonard Pierce and M. M. Kimuey. Utilizing microfilmed sources from State Department records and Confederate despatches, the paper relates the steps Quintero took to secure the Confederate-Mexico border trade, obtain favorable responses from the various ruling parties in northern Mexico, and hamper the Union agents' attempts to quell the border trade.
Date: May 1978
Creator: Fielder, Bruce M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
United States Psychological Operations in Support of Counterinsurgency: Vietnam, 1960 to 1965. (open access)

United States Psychological Operations in Support of Counterinsurgency: Vietnam, 1960 to 1965.

This thesis describes the development of psychological operations capabilities, introduction of forces, and the employment in Vietnam during the period 1960-1965. The complex interplay of these activities is addressed, as well as the development of PSYOP doctrine and training in the period prior to the introduction of ground combat forces in 1965. The American PSYOP advisory effort supported the South Vietnamese at all levels, providing access to training, material support, and critical advice. In these areas the American effort was largely successful. Yet, instability in the wake of President Ngo Dinh Diem's overthrow created an impediment to the ability of psychological operations to change behaviors and positively affect the outcome.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Roberts, Mervyn Edwin, III
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Confederate Naval Department and its Operation at New Orleans (open access)

The Confederate Naval Department and its Operation at New Orleans

Many books have been written on the battles of the Civil War. Most of these deal only with engagements between the armies; little has been written concerning the Confederate Navy. Yet the struggles of the Confederate Navy cannot be overlooked in determining why, after so many victorious battles in the field, the Confederacy still failed to defeat the Union.
Date: January 1960
Creator: O'Glee, John Clifford
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Pennsylvania Rifle: the Evolution of its Tactical Employment in the American Revolution (open access)

The Pennsylvania Rifle: the Evolution of its Tactical Employment in the American Revolution

There are two opinions as to the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania Rifle during the Revolutionary War. On one hand it is alleged that the rifle was, at best, not particularly useful, and that its disadvantages outweighed its advantages. In contradiction to this we find that the British military appealed to London for rifles, and that the British government specified that there be a definite number of riflemen among the mercenaries they hired. Furthermore, according to Fortescue, the British military were forced to change their tactics, at least in part, because of the rifle. It is the purpose of this thesis to resolve this conflict by determining which of the two positions, if either ,is correct, or to determine the extent to which they may both be correct.
Date: August 1964
Creator: Johanns, Walter Alfred
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mr. Stanton's Navy: the U. S. Army Ram Fleet and Mississippi Marine Brigade, 1862-1864 (open access)

Mr. Stanton's Navy: the U. S. Army Ram Fleet and Mississippi Marine Brigade, 1862-1864

The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the importance of the military principle of unity of command by examining the military history of a Union army unit during the Civil War. The Mississippi Marine Brigade and its predecessor, the Ellet Ram Fleet, being a creation of the War Department, and yet conducting tactical operations within the scope of the Navy Department, vividly illustrates the problems inherent in joint army-navy operations. The brigade's primary mission was to counter guerrilla warfare in the Mississippi River valley. The text describes the organization, administration, and major operations of the brigade as a mobile, independent, private military force.
Date: May 1975
Creator: Mangrum, Robert G.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Unionism in Texas: 1860-1867 (open access)

Unionism in Texas: 1860-1867

This thesis studies the issue of unionism in Texas during the era of the Civil War.
Date: January 1954
Creator: Haynes, Billy Dwayne
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The British-Loyalist Strategy to Recover the Southern Provinces During the American Revolution (open access)

The British-Loyalist Strategy to Recover the Southern Provinces During the American Revolution

This thesis examines the efforts of the British loyalists in Georgia and the Carolinas to assist the British army bring the southern provinces back under royal control. These efforts and a judgment of the reasonableness of the trust in the zeal and strength of the southern loyalists are the subjects of this study.
Date: August 1966
Creator: Griffin, Roger Allen
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The West Gulf Blockade, 1861-1865: An Evaluation (open access)

The West Gulf Blockade, 1861-1865: An Evaluation

This investigation resulted from a pilot research paper prepared in conjunction with a graduate course on the Civil War. This study suggested that the Federal blockade of the Confederacy may not have contributed significantly to its defeat. Traditionally, historians had assumed that the Union's Anaconda Plan had effectively strangled the Confederacy. Recent studies which compared the statistics of ships captured to successful infractions of the blockade had somewhat revised these views. While accepting these revisionist findings as broadly valid, this investigation strove to determine specifically the effectiveness of Admiral Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Since the British Foreign Office maintained consulates in three blockaded southern ports and in many Caribbean ports through which blockade running was conducted, these consular records were vital for this study. Personal research in Great Britain's Public Record Office disclosed valuable consular reports pertaining to the effectiveness of the Federal blockade. American consular records, found in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. provided excellent comparative reports from those same Gulf ports. Official Confederate reports, contained in the National Archives, various state archives and in the published Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies revealed valuable statistical data on foreign imports. Limited use was made of …
Date: May 1974
Creator: Glover, Robert W.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Clarence R. Huebner: An American Military Story of Achievement (open access)

Clarence R. Huebner: An American Military Story of Achievement

In the eyes of the American public excellence is often overshadowed by brilliance of personality. This is particularly true in the portrayal of many of the country's military leaders in World War II. A prime example of this phenomenon is Douglas MacArthur, whose larger than life persona made him a newspaper fixture during the war despite a series of strategic and tactical blunders that would have led to the sacking of a less visible (and publicly popular) leader. At the level of divisional commanders, this triumph of brilliance over excellence is best exemplified by the two primary leaders of the country's 1st Infantry Division, Terry de la Mesa Allen and Clarence R. Huebner. One was a hard-drinking, swashbuckling leader who led by almost the sheer force of his personality; the other, a plain spoken, demanding officer who believed that organization, planning and attention to detail were the keys to superior battlefield performance. The leadership differences between Allen and Huebner have been documented in multiple publications. What has not been documented is the life of the truly overshadowed general - Huebner. Huebner's transition to the leadership of the 1st Infantry Division (1st ID) constitute only a small period in a military …
Date: May 2006
Creator: Flaig, Steven
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Oran M. Roberts

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
This thesis analyzes the political career of Oran M. Roberts during the critical period from 1850 to 1873. Through a reassessment of Roberts's extensive personal papers in the context of modern historical scholarship, the author explains how Roberts's political philosophy reflected the biases and prejudices typical of his era, as well as his own material interests and ambitions. Topic areas covered include Roberts's position on the Compromise of 1850, his constitutional philosophy, his involvement in the secession movement in Texas (including his service as president of the state secession convention), his military career during the Civil War, his participation in Presidential Reconstruction, his views on Congressional Reconstruction, and his role in the process of "redemption" in Texas.
Date: May 2004
Creator: Klemme, A. Christian
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
General Paul Von Lettow-vorbeck’s East Africa Campaign: Maneuver Warfare on the Serengeti (open access)

General Paul Von Lettow-vorbeck’s East Africa Campaign: Maneuver Warfare on the Serengeti

General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s East African Campaign was a conventional war of movement. Lettow based his operations on the military principles deduced from his thorough German military education and oversea deployments to China and German South West Africa. Upon assignment to German East Africa, he sought to convert the colony’s protectorate force from a counterinsurgency force to a conventional military force. His conventional strategy succeeded early in the war, especially at the Battle of Tanga in October 1914. However, his strategy failed as the war in East Africa intensified. He suffered a calamitous defeat at the Battle of Mahiwa in November 1917, and the heavy losses forced Lettow to adopt the counterinsurgency tactics of the colonial protectorate force.
Date: May 2012
Creator: Nesselhuf, F. Jon
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The German Officer Corps and the Socialists, 1918-1920: A Reappraisal (open access)

The German Officer Corps and the Socialists, 1918-1920: A Reappraisal

This work attempts to examine the relationship shared by two ideologically opposed groups during the post-World War I period in Germany. The officer corps is viewed as a relic of the traditional imperial state while the socialists represented the harbinger of the modern, democratic, industrialized state. Although it should seem evident that these two factions of society would be natural enemies, the chaos of World War I pushed these ideological, opposites into the same corner.
Date: May 1973
Creator: Pierce, Walter Rankin
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Company A, Nineteenth Texas Infantry: a History of a Small Town Fighting Unit (open access)

Company A, Nineteenth Texas Infantry: a History of a Small Town Fighting Unit

I focus on Company A of the Nineteenth Texas Infantry, C.S.A., and its unique status among other Confederate military units. The raising of the company within the narrative of the regiment, its battles and campaigns, and the post-war experience of its men are the primary focal points of the thesis. In the first chapter, a systematic analysis of various aspects of the recruit’s background is given, highlighting the wealth of Company A’s officers and men. The following two chapters focus on the campaigns and battles experienced by the company and the praise bestowed on the men by brigade and divisional staff. The final chapter includes a postwar analysis of the survivors from Company A, concentrating on their locations, professions, and contributions to society, which again illustrate the achievements accomplished by the veterans of this unique Confederate unit. As a company largely drawn from Jefferson, Texas, a growing inland port community, Company A of the Nineteenth Texas Infantry differed from other companies in the regiment, and from most units raised across the Confederacy. Their unusual backgrounds, together with their experiences during and after the war, provide interesting perspectives on persistent questions concerning the motives and achievements of Texas Confederates.
Date: August 2014
Creator: Williams, David J. (History teacher)
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Professor Carl A. Helmecke and Nazism: A Case Study of German-American Assimilation (open access)

Professor Carl A. Helmecke and Nazism: A Case Study of German-American Assimilation

Carl A. Helmecke, like many German Americans marginalized by the anti-Germanism of the First World War and interwar period, believed that democracy had failed him. A professor with a doctoral degree in social philosophy, he regularly wrote newsletter columns declaring that the emphasis on individualism in the United States had allowed antidemocratic forces to corrupt the government, oppress citizens, and politicize schools and institutions for propaganda purposes. Moreover, widespread hunger and unemployment during the Great Depression added to the long list of failures attributable to democracy. What the United States needed, Helmecke thought, was political change, and he believed that the Nazi regime in his homeland, albeit flawed, had much to offer. In 1937, he went on a teaching sabbatical to Nazi Germany to study the Third Reich's education and social programs. When he returned to the United States, he began promoting Nazi ideals about education and labor camps. Although Hitler's 1939 invasion of Poland, followed by the United States entry into World War II, brought his fascist illusions for political change in the United States to an abrupt end, his belief in the correctness of an autocratic system of governance for Germany rather than that of the western democracies …
Date: December 2022
Creator: Collins, Steven Morris
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Enemy of My Enemy Is What, Exactly? the British Flanders Expedition of 1793 and Coalition Diplomacy (open access)

The Enemy of My Enemy Is What, Exactly? the British Flanders Expedition of 1793 and Coalition Diplomacy

The British entered the War of the First Coalition against Revolutionary France in 1793 diplomatically isolated and militarily unprepared for a major war. Nonetheless, a French attack on the Dutch Republic in February 1793 forced the British to dispatch a small expeditionary force to defend their ally. Throughout the Flanders campaign of 1793, the British expeditionary force served London as a tool to end British isolation and enlist Austrian commitment to securing British war objectives. The 1793 Flanders campaign and the Allied war effort in general have received little attention from historians, and they generally receive dismissive condemnation in general histories of the French Revolutionary Wars. This thesis examines the British participation in the 1793 Flanders campaign a broader diplomatic context through the published correspondence of relevant Allied military and political leaders. Traditional accounts of this campaign present a narrative of defeat and condemn the Allies for their failure to achieve in 1793 the accomplishments of the sixth coalition twenty years later. Such a perspective obscures a clear understanding of the reasons for Allied actions. This thesis seeks to correct this distortion by critically analyzing the relationship between British diplomacy within the Coalition and operations in Flanders. Unable to achieve …
Date: August 2012
Creator: Jarrett, Nathaniel W.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
"On the Precipice in the Dark": Maryland in the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861 (open access)

"On the Precipice in the Dark": Maryland in the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861

This dissertation is a study of the State of Maryland in the secession crisis of 1860-1861. Previous historians have emphasized economic, political, societal, and geographical considerations as the reasons Maryland remained loyal to the Union. However, not adequately considered is the manner in which Maryland understood and reacted to the secession of the Lower South. Historians have tended to portray Maryland's inaction as inevitable and reasonable. This study offers another reason for Maryland's inaction by placing the state in time and space, following where the sources lead, and allowing for contingency. No one in Maryland could have known that their state would not secede in 1860-61. Seeing the crisis through their eyes is instructive. It becomes clear that Maryland was a state on the brink of secession, but its resentment, suspicion, and anger toward the Lower South isolated it from the larger secession movement. Marylanders regarded the Lower South's rush to separate as precipitous, dangerous, and coercive to the Old Line State. A focus on a single state like Maryland allows a deeper, richer understanding of the dynamics, forces, and characteristics of the secession movement and the federal government's response to it. It cuts through the larger debates about the …
Date: May 2017
Creator: Hamilton, Matthew K.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Collective Security and Coalition: British Grand Strategy, 1783-1797 (open access)

Collective Security and Coalition: British Grand Strategy, 1783-1797

On 1 February 1793, the National Convention of Revolutionary France declared war on Great Britain and the Netherlands, expanding the list of France's enemies in the War of the First Coalition. Although British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had predicted fifteen years of peace one year earlier, the French declaration of war initiated nearly a quarter century of war between Britain and France with only a brief respite during the Peace of Amiens. Britain entered the war amid both a nadir in British diplomacy and internal political divisions over the direction of British foreign policy. After becoming prime minister in 1783 in the aftermath of the War of American Independence, Pitt pursued financial and naval reform to recover British strength and cautious interventionism to end Britain's diplomatic isolation in Europe. He hoped to create a collective security system based on the principles of the territorial status quo, trade agreements, neutral rights, and resolution of diplomatic disputes through mediation - armed mediation if necessary. While his domestic measures largely met with success, Pitt's foreign policy suffered from a paucity of like-minded allies, contradictions between traditional hostility to France and emergent opposition to Russian expansion, Britain's limited ability to project power …
Date: May 2017
Creator: Jarrett, Nathaniel
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The German-Polish Boundary at the Paris Peace Conference (open access)

The German-Polish Boundary at the Paris Peace Conference

Although a great deal has been written on the Paris Peace Conference, only in recent years have the necessary German documents been available for an analysis of the conference, not only from the Allied viewpoint but also from the German side. One of the great problems faced by the Allied statesmen in 1919 was the territorial conflict between Germany and Poland. The final boundary decisions were much criticized then and in subsequent years, and in 1939 they became the excuse for another world war. In the 1960's, over twenty years after the boundaries established at Versailles ceased to exist, they continued to be subjects of controversy. To understand the nature of this problem, it is necessary to study the factors which influenced the delineation of the German-Polish boundary in 1919. From the conflict of national interests there emerged a compromise boundary which satisfied almost no one. After this boundary was destroyed by another world war, the victors were again faced with the complex task of reconciling conflicting strategic and economic necessities with the principle of self-determination. This time no agreement was possible, and the problem remained a significant factor in German-Polish and East-West relations. The methods by which the statesmen …
Date: August 1963
Creator: Bostick, Darwin F.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Causes of the Jewish Diaspora Revolt in Alexandria: Regional Uprisings from the Margins of Greco-Roman Society, 115-117 CE (open access)

Causes of the Jewish Diaspora Revolt in Alexandria: Regional Uprisings from the Margins of Greco-Roman Society, 115-117 CE

This thesis examines the progression from relatively peaceful relations between Alexandrians and Jews under the Ptolemies to the Diaspora Revolt under the Romans. A close analysis of the literature evidences that the transition from Ptolemaic to Roman Alexandria had critical effects on Jewish status in the Diaspora. One of the most far reaching consequences of the shift from the Ptolemies to Romans was forcing the Alexandrians to participate in the struggle for imperial patronage. Alexandrian involvement introduced a new element to the ongoing conflict among Egypt’s Jews and native Egyptians. The Alexandrian citizens consciously cut back privileges the Jews previously enjoyed under the Ptolemies and sought to block the Jews from advancing within the Roman system. Soon the Jews were confronted with rhetoric slandering their civility and culture. Faced with a choice, many Jews forsook Judaism and their traditions for more upwardly mobile life. After the outbreak of the First Jewish War Jewish life took a turn for the worse. Many Jews found themselves in a system that classified them according to their heritage and ancestry, limiting advancement even for apostates. With the resulting Jewish tax (fiscus Judaicus) Jews were becoming more economically and socially marginalized. The Alexandrian Jews were …
Date: May 2016
Creator: Vargas, Miguel M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Governors (open access)

Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Governors

One facet of the problem of state rights within the Confederacy is revealed through a study of the relations between President Davis and the war governors. As a means of investigating those relationships this study considers their attempts to solve several major problems. This work seeks to discover the degree of co-operation which existed between the President and governors and to establish what effect this co-operation or lack of it had on the failure of the states to support many important central government policies. It also seeks to determine what influence those relationships had on the outcome of the war.
Date: June 1959
Creator: Daniel, Arthur Gordon
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library