American Courage, American Carnage

American Courage, American Carnage

In the history of the U.S. Army, only one unit has fought in every 19th- and 20th-century American war: the 7th Infantry Regiment. This legendary regiment has more battle streamers than any unit in the Army, and the second-most Medal of Honor recipients. Now, after telling the story of the 7th Infantry’s modern combat experiences in The 7th Infantry Regiment: Combat in an Age of Terror, renowned military historian John C. McManus provides the prequel to that volume, American Courage, American Carnage, which tells how the 7th Infantry Regiment evolved from a fledgling frontier force in the early 19th century to a full-blown 20th-century combat outfit.

The combat history of the 7th Infantry begins with its great victory at the Battle of New Orleans, where the unit acquired its famous nickname, the Cottonbalers, because its soldiers were said to have fought the British from behind bales of cotton they had dragged from a New Orleans warehouse. The 7th Infantry Regiment would then see action in every 19th-century American war to follow, including the Mexican War, in which it played a major role in the victories at Fort Brown, Matamoros, Monterrey, Cerro Gordo, Contreras and Chapultepec, and the Civil War, in which the 7th fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and finally Gettysburg.

In the 20th century, McManus follows the regiment though the “meat-grinder slaughter” of the Argonne Forest campaign in WWI, and through its four amphibious landings in WWII, on the coasts of Africa, Sicily, Italy and southern France. WWII saw the regiment at its finest, with victories at Palermo, Messina, Anzio, Cisterna, Rome, Cape Cavalaire, Montelimar and Colmar.

One key issue for McManus is the 7th Regiment’s capture of Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s mountain retreat, at the end of WWII. McManus claims that because of a mistake originally made by historian Stephen Ambrose in his book Band of Brothers and perpetuated in the HBO series, the myth still persists that paratroopers from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, actually got there first. But the 7th Infantry Regiment captured Berchtesgaden, and McManus wants to set the record straight: “The Cottonbalers’ capture of Berchtesgaden is not a negotiable historical debate. It is an incontrovertible fact,” he writes.

Ultimately, in American Courage, American Carnage, McManus is not trying to glamorize the 7th Infantry, nor is he seeking merely to chronicle the minutiae of its existence. Instead he tries to provide a “time machine,” allowing us to see these common foot soldiers as real flesh-and-blood human beings and to get a sense of combat as they themselves experienced it. The result, then, is a visceral account of some ordinary Americans in some truly extraordinary circumstances.

Hardcover: 592 pages

Publisher: Forge ( May 20, 2009 )

Item #: 48-7147

ISBN: 9780765320124

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 1.33 inches

Product Weight: 25.0 ounces