US Army Center of Military History
Encyclopedia
The United States Army Center of Military History is a Directorate within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army
. The Center is responsible for the appropriate use of history
throughout the United States Army
. Traditionally, this mission has meant recording the official history of the Army in both peace and war, while advising the Army Staff on historical matters.
, a monumental history of the Civil War begun in 1874, and to a similar work on World War I prepared by the Historical Section of the Army War College.
The modern organization of the Army's historical efforts dates from the creation of the General Staff historical branch in July 1943 and the subsequent gathering of a large team of historians, translators, editors, and cartographers to record the official history of World War II. This team began publication of the United States Army in World War II series (the well-known "green books"), which numbers 79 volumes. Since then, the Center has produced detailed series on the Army's role in the Korean
and Vietnam War
s and has begun a series on the U.S. Army in the Cold War
. These works, supplemented by hundreds of monographs and other publications on a rich mix of topics, have made the Center one of the major publishers of military history in the world.
Since its formation, the Center has provided historical support to the Army Secretariat and Staff, contributing essential background information for decision making, staff actions, command information programs, and public statements by Army officials. Over the decades it also has progressively expanded its role in the vital areas of military history education, the management of the Army's museum system, and the introduction of automated data-retrieval systems. The Center's work with Army schools ensures that the study of history is a significant part of the training of officers and noncommissioned officers. It also supports the use of history to foster unit pride and give today's soldiers an understanding of the Army's past. Much of this educational work is also performed at field historical offices and in Army museums. The Center thus provides all levels of the Army, as well as other services, government agencies, and the public, with a growing awareness of history that goes well beyond publications alone.
In addition, Army historians maintain the organizational history of Army units, allowing the Center to provide units of the Regular Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve with certificates of their lineage and honors and other historical material concerning their organizations. The Center also determines the official designations for Army units and works with the Army Staff during force reorganizations to preserve units with significant histories, as well as unit properties and related historical artifacts.
Underscoring the importance of oral history to an understanding of the past, CMH serves as a clearinghouse for the oral history programs in the Army at all levels of command. It also conducts and preserves its own oral history collections, including those from the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the many recent contingency operations. In addition, the Center’s end-of-tour interviews within the Army Secretariat and Staff provide a basis for its annual histories of the Department of the Army.
As tangible representations of the service’s mission, military artifacts and art enhance the soldier’s understanding of the profession of arms. CMH manages a system of more than 120 Army museums and their holdings, encompassing some 450,000 artifacts and 15,000 works of military art. The Center also provides professional museum training, staff assistance visits, teams of combat artists such as those deployed under the Vietnam Combat Artists Program
, and general museum support throughout the Army. Current projects include the establishment of a National Army Museum
at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and a complementary Army Heritage and Educational Center at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
The Chief of Military History is responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of military history in the teaching of strategy, tactics, logistics, and administration. This mission includes a requirement that military leaders at all levels be aware of the value of history in advancing military professionalism. To that end, the Center holds a biennial history conference and workshop; publishes Army History, a professional bulletin devoted to informing the larger military history education community; and supplies readings for the Army school system, including the ROTC community, and texts and other support for the Army’s staff ride
program. In this effort, the Chief of Military History is assisted by a historical advisory committee that includes leading academic historians and representatives of the
Army school system.
Staff rides enable military leaders to retrace the course of a battle on the ground, deepening their understanding of the recurring fundamentals of military operations. As one of the Army’s major teaching devices, staff rides are particularly dependent on a careful knowledge of military history. Center historians lead rides directed by the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff and attended by senior members of the Army Staff.
The responsibilities of the Chief of Military History have also thrust the Center into the national and international historical arena. It administers the Army’s far-flung Command History Program, to provide historical support to Army organizations worldwide. In addition, since the first Persian Gulf War, the Center has coordinated the deployment of military history detachment
s and the collection of historical data during peacekeeping and wartime operations, including those in northern Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army
The Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army has a primary mission, as specified in Title 10 of the United States Code and reiterated in General Orders #3 and Regulations, to provide direct support to the Secretary of the Army, the Under Secretary of the Army and other...
. The Center is responsible for the appropriate use of history
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
throughout the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. Traditionally, this mission has meant recording the official history of the Army in both peace and war, while advising the Army Staff on historical matters.
Mission
The Center traces its lineage back to historians under the Secretary of War who compiled the Official Records of the RebellionOfficial Records of the American Civil War
The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion or often more simply the Official Records or ORs, constitute the most extensive collection of primary sources of the history of the American Civil War. Cornell University lists the official title as, "The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the...
, a monumental history of the Civil War begun in 1874, and to a similar work on World War I prepared by the Historical Section of the Army War College.
The modern organization of the Army's historical efforts dates from the creation of the General Staff historical branch in July 1943 and the subsequent gathering of a large team of historians, translators, editors, and cartographers to record the official history of World War II. This team began publication of the United States Army in World War II series (the well-known "green books"), which numbers 79 volumes. Since then, the Center has produced detailed series on the Army's role in the Korean
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
s and has begun a series on the U.S. Army in the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. These works, supplemented by hundreds of monographs and other publications on a rich mix of topics, have made the Center one of the major publishers of military history in the world.
Since its formation, the Center has provided historical support to the Army Secretariat and Staff, contributing essential background information for decision making, staff actions, command information programs, and public statements by Army officials. Over the decades it also has progressively expanded its role in the vital areas of military history education, the management of the Army's museum system, and the introduction of automated data-retrieval systems. The Center's work with Army schools ensures that the study of history is a significant part of the training of officers and noncommissioned officers. It also supports the use of history to foster unit pride and give today's soldiers an understanding of the Army's past. Much of this educational work is also performed at field historical offices and in Army museums. The Center thus provides all levels of the Army, as well as other services, government agencies, and the public, with a growing awareness of history that goes well beyond publications alone.
Historical activities
Under the direction of the Chief of Military history and his principal adviser, the Army’s Chief Historian, CMH’s staff is involved in some 50 major writing projects. Many of these efforts involve new research that ranges from traditional studies in operational and administrative history to the examination of such areas as procurement, peacekeeping, and the global war on terror. Those works under way and projected are described in the Army Historical Program, an annual report to the Chief of Staff on the Army’s historical activities. All Center publications currently in print are listed in the catalog Publications of the United States Army Center of Military History, which explains how to access them. Many publications also appear on the Center’s Web site.In addition, Army historians maintain the organizational history of Army units, allowing the Center to provide units of the Regular Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve with certificates of their lineage and honors and other historical material concerning their organizations. The Center also determines the official designations for Army units and works with the Army Staff during force reorganizations to preserve units with significant histories, as well as unit properties and related historical artifacts.
Underscoring the importance of oral history to an understanding of the past, CMH serves as a clearinghouse for the oral history programs in the Army at all levels of command. It also conducts and preserves its own oral history collections, including those from the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the many recent contingency operations. In addition, the Center’s end-of-tour interviews within the Army Secretariat and Staff provide a basis for its annual histories of the Department of the Army.
As tangible representations of the service’s mission, military artifacts and art enhance the soldier’s understanding of the profession of arms. CMH manages a system of more than 120 Army museums and their holdings, encompassing some 450,000 artifacts and 15,000 works of military art. The Center also provides professional museum training, staff assistance visits, teams of combat artists such as those deployed under the Vietnam Combat Artists Program
Vietnam Combat Artists Program
In June 1966, the Army Vietnam Combat Artists Program was established as part of the United States Army Art Program, utilizing teams of soldier-artists to make pictorial records of U.S. Army activities in the course of the Vietnam War for the annals of military history. The concept of the Vietnam...
, and general museum support throughout the Army. Current projects include the establishment of a National Army Museum
National Army Museum
The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, England adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the "Chelsea Pensioners". The National Army Museum is open to the public every day of the year from 10.00am to 5.30pm,...
at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and a complementary Army Heritage and Educational Center at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
The Chief of Military History is responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of military history in the teaching of strategy, tactics, logistics, and administration. This mission includes a requirement that military leaders at all levels be aware of the value of history in advancing military professionalism. To that end, the Center holds a biennial history conference and workshop; publishes Army History, a professional bulletin devoted to informing the larger military history education community; and supplies readings for the Army school system, including the ROTC community, and texts and other support for the Army’s staff ride
Staff ride
A Staff Ride is a systematic analysis of the site of a battle or other engagement, ordinarily undertaken by members of armed forces for the purpose of learning about the impact of geography, weather and other physical influences on those events as well as using the location as a source of inspiration...
program. In this effort, the Chief of Military History is assisted by a historical advisory committee that includes leading academic historians and representatives of the
Army school system.
Staff rides enable military leaders to retrace the course of a battle on the ground, deepening their understanding of the recurring fundamentals of military operations. As one of the Army’s major teaching devices, staff rides are particularly dependent on a careful knowledge of military history. Center historians lead rides directed by the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff and attended by senior members of the Army Staff.
The responsibilities of the Chief of Military History have also thrust the Center into the national and international historical arena. It administers the Army’s far-flung Command History Program, to provide historical support to Army organizations worldwide. In addition, since the first Persian Gulf War, the Center has coordinated the deployment of military history detachment
Military history detachment
A military history detachment is a detachment in the United States Army responsible for collecting documentation of the army in military conflicts for future work by military historians in writing both official and unofficial histories of the Army. United States Army Center of Military History...
s and the collection of historical data during peacekeeping and wartime operations, including those in northern Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Fellowships and publications
To stimulate interest in military history in the Army and the nation, CMH sponsors professional programs.- Fellowships: To encourage and support dissertations in military history by graduate students, the Center offers up to four dissertation fellowships each academic year. These fellowships carry a $9,000 stipend and access to the Center’s facilities and expertise. Although the fellowship program broadly defines the history of war on land, it selects winners with a preference for topics on the history of the U.S. Army. Inquiries should be addressed to the Chief Historian.
- Publications: The Center is particularly interested in projects of contemporary interest, such as expeditionary combat, multinational peacekeeping, NATO enlargement, humanitarian relief, nation-building, noncombatant evacuation, antiterrorism, and the management of change. In these areas the Center is able to facilitate research, provide graphics and editorial support, and carry manuscripts through to publication.
Historical services to the public
CMH’s art and documents collections, library, and reference services are available to private researchers. Official priorities permitting, its historians, curators, and archivists advise researchers on military history and stand ready to share their expertise concerning the location of sources. The Collections Branch of the Museum Division arranges temporary loans of paintings and drawings from the Army Art Collection to private organizations that agree to display the art publicly in accordance with Army regulations. The Army’s museums and historical holdings throughout the country and abroad are open to the public, and their curators are available to answer reference questions. Inquiries about these programs and services should be addressed to CMH’s Executive Officer.See also
- Military History DetachmentMilitary history detachmentA military history detachment is a detachment in the United States Army responsible for collecting documentation of the army in military conflicts for future work by military historians in writing both official and unofficial histories of the Army. United States Army Center of Military History...
- National Museum of the United States Army #Other Army museums
- United States Marine Corps History DivisionUnited States Marine Corps History DivisionThe United States Marine Corps History Division is a branch of Headquarters Marine Corps tasked with researching, writing, and maintaining the History of the United States Marine Corps. It also provides reference and research assistance; preserves personal experiences and observations through oral...
- Naval History & Heritage Command
- Department of Defense Historical Advisory CommitteeDepartment of Defense Historical Advisory CommitteeDepartment of Defense Historical Advisory Committee was chartered on 24 Jan 1996 to provide advice to the United States Secretary of Defense and the Secretaries of the military departments regarding the professional standards, historical methodology, program priorities, liaison with professional...
- Vietnam Combat Artists ProgramVietnam Combat Artists ProgramIn June 1966, the Army Vietnam Combat Artists Program was established as part of the United States Army Art Program, utilizing teams of soldier-artists to make pictorial records of U.S. Army activities in the course of the Vietnam War for the annals of military history. The concept of the Vietnam...
Further reading
The following publications provide additional information about the activities, services, and products of the Center of Military History:- U.S. Army History CMH Online Bookshelves
- History of "History" in the U.S. Army
- Publications of the United States Army Center of Military History
- Army Historical Program(by fiscal year)
- Guide to U.S. Army Museums
- Oral History: Techniques and Procedures
- The U.S. Army Art and Photo Collection
- Army History (a professional bulletin)
- Organizational History
External links
- Home page. United States Army Center of Military History (USACMH) official website
- Gough, Terrence J. The U.S. Army Center of Military History: A Brief History
- Frequently Asked Questions (including personnel records, casualties, unit histories, medals and awards, unit patches and insignia, and burial sites). USACMH official website