A War All Our Own: American Rangers and the Emergence of the American Martial Culture by James Sandy, M.A. A Dissertation In HISTORY Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTORATE IN PHILOSOPHY Approved Dr. John R. Milam Chair of Committee Dr. Laura Calkins Dr. Barton Myers Dr. Aliza Wong Mark Sheridan, PhD. Dean of the Graduate School May, 2016 Copyright 2016, James Sandy Texas Tech University, James A. Sandy, May 2016 Acknowledgments This work would not have been possible without the constant encouragement and tutelage of my committee. They provided the inspiration for me to start this project, and guided me along the way as I slowly molded a very raw idea into the finished product here. Dr. Laura Calkins witnessed the birth of this project in my very first graduate class and has assisted me along every step of the way from raw idea to thesis to completed dissertation. Dr. Calkins has been and will continue to be invaluable mentor and friend throughout my career. Dr. Aliza Wong expanded my mind and horizons during a summer session course on Cultural Theory, which inspired a great deal of the theoretical framework of this work. As a co-chair of my committee, Dr. Barton Myers pushed both the project and myself further and harder than anyone else. The vast scope that this work encompasses proved to be my biggest challenge, but has come out as this works’ greatest strength and defining characteristic. I cannot thank Dr. Myers enough for pushing me out of my comfort zone, and for always providing the firmest yet most encouraging feedback. If I turn out as half the professor as he I have done alright. Dr. Ron Milam has been a part of my academic career from the very beginning and has long served as my inspiration in pursuing a life in academia. His constant guidance and support throughout my graduate career and beyond has been one of the most impactful relationships in my life. I cannot thank my committee enough for assisting in the creation and completion of this work; I can truly say it would not have been possible without them. To all my family and friends who have offered unrelenting encouragement and support I offer my deepest thanks and gratitude. Finally and most importantly, I want to thank my wife Megan who has served as the ultimate source of inspiration and support across this seemingly endless odyssey. Together we finally finished it….Thank You. i Texas Tech University, James A. Sandy, May 2016 Table of Contents Acknowledgments................................................................................................... ii Leading The Way .....................................................................................................1 I. Violent Origins ...................................................................................................14 A ‘Wild and Surly’ Way of War ............................................................................16 The Gorham Family Tradition ...............................................................................23 An Unmistakable Identity ......................................................................................37 Branding the Ranger American .............................................................................47 II. A Civility Savaged ............................................................................................58 War as an Art? .......................................................................................................61 Savaged Civility? ...................................................................................................77 Thunderbolt, the Black Knight and a Gray Ghost .................................................88 Union Irregulars and the End of an Era ...............................................................100 III. Ranger Amnesia .............................................................................................107 Reconstruction and the Close of the Frontier ......................................................109 A 'Great Insurrection' ...........................................................................................129 'Routine and Indiscriminate Killings' ...................................................................140 IV. American Ranger 2.0 .....................................................................................155 'An American Bucher and Bolt Force' .................................................................158 A Dangerous and Hazardous Mission -- Somewhere ..........................................178 'The Spirit of the Bayonet' ...................................................................................192 V. Vietnam - An Evolving Standard ....................................................................204 Truth and Freedom .............................................................................................208 ii Texas Tech University, James A. Sandy, May 2016 'The Night Ambushers'.........................................................................................221 A New Standard Bearer .......................................................................................241 Epilogue - Sua Sponte ..........................................................................................250 Works Cited .........................................................................................................257 Appendix ..............................................................................................................278 iii Texas Tech University, James A. Sandy, May 2016 Leading the Way… “…my pack is on my back, my gun is oiled and loaded as I walk into the shadow of death, I fear no son-of-a-bitch.”1 The statement jumped off the page of the hastily scribbled page. As Major John M. Jones peered through the letters of his men, acting as censor for the United States Army, the young private’s words stood out. Writing to his family one last time before the unit stepped off, maybe the young man was reassuring himself more than anything of his fortitude for the coming operation. Volunteering for “…a dangerous and hazardous operation – somewhere”2, the private and the rest of the 5307th Composite Unit (provisional) found themselves in Ningbyen, Burma about to embark towards China. Over three thousand American soldiers answered the president’s cryptic call in the late summer of 1943. Men volunteered from the Caribbean, the Pacific and all over the United States without knowing anything about their mission or destination. That letter and others like it represents the last opportunity for many of the men in the unit to write to their loved ones, as nothing but five months of non-stop combat in some of the most difficult terrain in the world lay ahead of them. Fighting the battle hardened Japanese 18th Division through thick jungle and over razor sharp mountain ridges, the unit pushed ever closer to China as the vital Ledo road was hastily constructed in their wake. By August of 1944, only two hundred of the original three thousand Americans were still standing as death, injury, and disease had taken an unprecedented toll on the unit.3 Captain Fred Lyons remarked in an interview years later, that by the end of their journey “…All I wanted was unconsciousness.”4 Better known as Merrill’s Marauder, for their commander Frank Merrill, the unit was disbanded shortly after their final action that August. Reorganized into the 475th Infantry for the remainder of the war, the unit’s heritage lived on. In 1954 the unit became the 75th Infantry regiment, which in Vietnam would become the 75th Ranger Regiment. The legacy of Merrill and his Marauders are carried forward and today 1 Jones, Major John M. “War Diary of 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) – Beginning 15 January 1944.” Donovan Research Library, Ft. Benning, Georgia. D787.25 .J 718.. 30. 2 Ibid, 1. 3 Charles Hunter served as a colonel within the 5307th and his personal account based off of his wartime journals claims that only two of the units’ members were never injured/hospitalized. Hunter, Charles N. Galahad. San Antonio: Nayler Co, 1963. 215. 4 Lyons, Fred O. (Capt) Merrill’s Marauders in Burma, Interview with Paul Wilder, 1945. 1 Texas Tech University, James A. Sandy, May 2016 represented on the U.S. Army Ranger’s beret patch, one color for each of the Marauder combat teams and the symbolic sun image of the C-B-I Theater.5 This link represents but a small portion of the long standing and interconnected history of the Ranger in American history. A fluid and evolving concept and identity, the American Ranger can be traced back to 1607 at Jamestown through to modern day. As one of the oldest American6 military traditions, the evolving Ranger represents one of the fundamental symbols and markers of an American martial culture. The American Ranger represents the original American martial identity and the marker of an American martial culture. As the Ranger developed and evolved, an American martial culture evolved alongside it. The American Ranger demonstrates the deeply interconnected relationship between the American martial culture and modes of irregular warfare. As the American military and its culture grew and evolved with the nation as a whole, the position of irregular warfare transitioned greatly. Originating in colonial times, the American martial culture embodied an irregular and extirpatively violent Ranger. Colonial rangers first distinguished themselves