The Training of Military Geographers

Military geography may be defined as the application of geographic techniques and knowledge to the solution of problems in tactics, strategy and logistics. In all our history, until very recently at least, the only real military geographers have been those keen and, on the whole, successful soldiers who appreciated the relationship between terrain and operations and who more or less intuitively made the necessary correlations. Outstanding examples of such leaders were Jeb Stuart, Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant. Jeb Stuart, the great Confederate leader, was a master of tactics in their relation to terrain. could judge almost instinctively the effect upon the speed of of a soggy Virginia clay pasture. had an uncanny eye for the cover a patch of woods afforded, the difficulties in terms of movement presented by the swamps of the Chickahominy, the passes of the Blue Ridge or the forests of Spotsylvania. And he could do the necessary thing: translate these into terms of fields of fire, defilade for howitzers or approaches for a given number of sabers. In choosing the right wind gap, the most feasible river crossing, the best cover and defilade, and in the quick appraisal of terrain as affecting the tactics and techniques of army, he is perhaps unequalled in our history. Lee accorded him the accolade when he said after Stuart's death: He never brought me a piece of false information. In the appraisal of terrain for the strategic disposition and movement of troops, the master of them all was Jackson. The valley campaign of '62 in which he played hide-and-seek with the Federal armies of Banks and Fremont and McDowell is the classic example of applied military geography. Perhaps as never before or since in history were the movements of infantry divisions so perfectly synchronized with the wooded and rugged Shenandoah Valley on the one hand and the capabilities and weapons of men on the other. All this to the end that mass and surprise and initiative were almost invariably favoring the grey clad foot cavalry wherever they clashed with the Federals. It is significant that at the very outset of this campaign Jackson trained himself, as Freeman records, and that his initial lessons

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• Comparative Accuracy in Four Civil War Maps of the Shenandoah Valley

  Brooks C Pearson•The Professional Geographer•2005

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