ABSTRACT
The American experience can hardly be described as one of great tactical or strategic brilliance. The role of the political objective is absolutely critical in the conduct of war by a democracy, because the objective provides the rallying cry to generate and sustain the public support without which a democracy cannot long fight. Over the course of the American experience, war has expanded to vast proportions. In the eighteenth century, the spectrum of warfare was usually limited to the stylized linear wars fought by small, professional European armies. Military objectives shape military strategy, and in the American experience military objectives have come full circle as have the strategies used to achieve those objectives. The story of military technique is the story of attempting to use technology in the most effective manner. The rifled weapons of the Civil War caused significant changes in infantry tactics.
