Jay Luvaas (15 June 1927 – 9 January 2009) was an American
military historian
Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships.
Professional historians ...
who was an expert on the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
and the history of military theory. He was the first civilian to hold a visiting professorship of military history at
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
, and was a professor of
military history
Military history is the study of War, armed conflict in the Human history, history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to Politics, local and international relationship ...
at the
United States Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army staff college in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, with a Carlisle postal address, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instru ...
in
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England.
Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
, Pennsylvania. He was the founder of the modern military
staff ride
The term staff ride describes three different types of military exercises and examinations, usually conducted on a particular future battlefield or area of operation for the purpose of preliminary reconnaissance, terrain study and tactical prepar ...
, and was a two-time recipient of the
Outstanding Civilian Service Medal of the
Department of the Army
The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense. The DA is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is organized. It is led ...
.
Family and education
Jay Luvaas was the son of
Morten Jay Luvaas (1896–1973) and Agnes Olson (1900–1982), both children of
Norwegian immigrants. He was born on 15 June 1927 in
Erie, Pennsylvania
Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pen ...
[Obituary of Jay Luuvas]
Daily Press (Williamsburg), 14 January 2009. and grew up in
Meadville, where his father, a graduate of
St. Olaf College, taught music at
Allegheny College
Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college in Meadville, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1815, Allegheny is the oldest college in continuous existence under the same name west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is a member of the G ...
, and composed choral music. Luvaas served in the US Navy from July 1945 to March 1946, and graduated from Allegheny in 1949; he received his Ph.D. in
military history
Military history is the study of War, armed conflict in the Human history, history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to Politics, local and international relationship ...
from
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
in 1956, where he was a student of
Theodore Ropp
Theodore Ropp (1911–2000) was an American historian who served as a professor at Duke University.
Academic career
Theodore Ropp's first teaching position was as an instructor in history at Harvard University in 1937–38. In 1938, Duke Univers ...
. Luvaas died in 2009 from complications of
Alzheimers
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term memory, remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can incl ...
and was survived by his wife, Linda Sowers, and his five children; he was interred in
Evergreen Cemetery in
Gettysburg.
[
]
Career
Luvaas' ''The Civil War: A Soldier's View'' (1958) collected the writings of Colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
George Francis Robert Henderson, a British observer of the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. Henderson's international reputation had been built on a biography of Stonewall Jackson
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...
; Luvaas' study combined Henderson's work as a military historian/biographer and a teacher of the art of war, recognizing that Henderson's fame rested on his career as a teacher and writer, not as a field officer. In the final chapter, as J. Orin Oliphant points out, Luvaas analyzed Henderson's contribution to military thinking and education.
In 1959, the University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...
published Luvaas' dissertation on the lessons learned by British, French and Prussian military observers of the Civil War, ''The Military Legacy of the Civil War: The European Inheritance''; this was republished in 1988 by University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...
.[ In this study, he examined the American Civil War through a foreign soldier's eyes, and found the view very different from those presented by American soldiers. Luvaas offered a careful account of the conclusions of the European military observers, particularly the Prussian, British and French. These observers eventually helped to shape tactics of ]World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, but not, as previously believed, the Second Schleswig War
The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig–Holstein question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 Februar ...
between Prussia and Denmark or the Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
.
From 1956 to 1982, Luvaas taught at his own ''alma mater'', Allegheny College, where he was a professor of history. In 1972, he was the first civilian to serve as a visiting professor at the United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
. In 1982, he left Allegheny to teach at the Army War College, where he held the prestigious Harold Keith Johnson Chair of Military History at the U.S. Army Military History Institute (USAMHI).[Jay Luvaas, ''G. F. R. Henderson and the American Civil War'', Military Affairs, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Autumn, 1956)]
pp. 139–153
DOI: 10.2307/1985100 Accepting a permanent position there, he taught lieutenant colonels and colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
s on the fast track for general staff posts, and wrote papers and taught courses specific to their interests and needs.
Luvaas remained at the Army War College until his retirement in 1995. After his retirement, he became Distinguished Fellow there in 1997. He was a two-time recipient of the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal from the Department of the Army
The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the United States Department of Defense. The DA is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is organized. It is led ...
.[ In his retirement, he was also director of the George Washington Flowers Collection of Southern Americana at the Duke University Library.]
Impact on study of military history
Military historians consider Luvaas the founder of the modern staff ride
The term staff ride describes three different types of military exercises and examinations, usually conducted on a particular future battlefield or area of operation for the purpose of preliminary reconnaissance, terrain study and tactical prepar ...
. He visited the battlefields of the American Civil War annually, either on War College Staff Rides or with regular tours.[ Beginning in 1962, Luvaas led groups of amateur and student historians to various Virginia and Pennsylvania battlefields; the group, nicknamed the Army of Cussewago, after Cussewago Creek near Meadville, included over time Luvaas' friends, interested historians, students from Allegheny, and cadets from West Point. Luvaas' and Nelson's volume the U.S. Army War College Guide to the Battle of Gettysburg (1986) is a feature in Civil War battlefield tours.
With his friend Brigadier General Harold W. Nelson, Luvaas authored several volumes of the US Army War College Staff Ride Series on the Civil War: Gettysburg, ]Antietam
The Battle of Antietam ( ), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virgin ...
, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and co-authored another on the Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater of the ...
and the Atlanta campaign. Luvaas also the translated military writings of Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
and Frederick the Great
Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...
, and edited volumes of the writings by George Henderson, and a book on the history of military theory in Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries.[
Luvaas argued that the primary value of the subject of history to a military officer is not merely a factual background, but also a grasp of trends and the meaning of ideas. History should not be subjected to the idea that it repeats itself, an unreasonable process that forces historical evidence into convenient patterns. Rather, the study of history, military history in particular, helps to illustrate points of leadership and doctrine. In his 1985 essay on officer education, Luvaas maintained that the best people to teach officers were civilian historians, although others promoted a modified view, that a faculty of civilian military historians should be tempered with professional soldiers.
The combined spirit if the professional soldier and the civilian historian, Benjamin Franklin Cooling suggests, is a ''new'' school of military history that unifies old and new historical styles: it modifies the patriotic gore described by ]Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing ...
with contextual and integrative studies of leadership and theory. There is room for both the "informed and broader contextual study of military history as suggested by Professor Jay Luvaas, ... and orhis more popular resurrected "historical rides" to Civil War battlefields."
Assessment
Luvaas was one of a generation of historians to examine the Anglo-American tradition in military history. Trumbull Higgins described Luvaas' work in ''Education of An Army: British Military Thought 1815-1940'' (1964), as a careful and detailed study of the development in military thought from Wellington
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
to World War I, and a much needed analysis that flowed logically from Luvaas' earlier work on the Civil War.
In his 1999 review of ''Military Legacy of the Civil War'' (1959), Owen Connelly maintained that Luvaas had never written or edited a bad book and that he "demolished the widely accepted idea that U.S. Civil War had demonstrated the nature of modern war to Europeans, especially the Prussians," lessons that they employed successfully against Denmark and France immediately. Instead, Connelly maintained, Luvaas argued that the Prussians had all but ignored their Civil War observations until after 1914, as did the other powers. According to Connelly, Luvaas' work in ''Napoleon on the Art of War'' argued that Napoleon "created" the operational level of war, a category between strategy and tactics. Furthermore, Napoleon made the ''corps'' his standard unit, and it was adopted by all the major armies in turn, making operational art possible.[ Owen Connelly, The Journal of Military History, Reviewed Work: Napoleon on the Art of War by Jay Luvaas Vol. 63, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), DOI: 10.2307/120576]
pp. 977–978
Selected writing
* ''The Military Legacy of the Civil War: The European Inheritance,'' University of Chicago Press 1959, University Press of Kansas, 1988
* ''A Prussian Observer with Lee,'' American Military Institute, 1957
* ''The education of an army: British military thought 1815–1940,'' University of Chicago Press 1964
* Editor: ''George Henderson The Civil War: a soldier’s view; a collection of Civil War writings,'' University of Chicago Press 1958
* ''New interpretations of The Civil War / in the writings of Col. G.F.R. Henderson,'' Da Capo 1996
* Editor and Translator, ''Frederick the Great on the Art of War,'' Da Capo 1999
* Editor and Translator, ''Napoleon on the Art of War,'' New York: Free Press 1999
* with Harold W. Nelson: ''The U.S. Army War College guide to the Battles of Chancellorsville & Fredericksburg,'' New York: Perennial Library 1989
* with Harold W. Nelson: ''The U.S. Army War College guide to the Battle of Gettysburg,'' Carlisle, Pennsylvania: South Mountain Press 1986, 2. Auflage mit Leonard Fullenkamp, University Press of Kansas, 2012.
* with Harold W. Nelson: ''Guide to the Atlanta campaign : Rocky Face Ridge to Kennesaw Mountain,'' University Press of Kansas 2008
* Contributor with Stephen Bowman, Leonard Fullenkamp], ''Guide to the Battle of Shiloh,'' University Press of Kansas 1996
* with Harold W. Nelson: ''The U.S. Army War College guide to the Battle of Antietam : the Maryland Campaign of 1862,'' Perennial Library 1987
* New Introduction by Basil Liddell Hart
Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (31 October 1895 – 29 January 1970), commonly known throughout most of his career as Captain B. H. Liddell Hart, was a British soldier, military historian, and military theorist. He wrote a series of military his ...
, ''Sherman: soldier, realist, American,'' Da Capo 1993
* ''Generalship, historical perspectives,'' US Army Center of Military History 2008
* Editor, ''Dear Miss Em: General Eichelberger’s war in the Pacific, 1942–1945,'' Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press 1972
* Contributor, "The Great Military Historians and Philosophers" (chapter four), in John E. Jessup (ed), ''A Guide to the Study and Use of Military History'' Government Printing Office, 1979
* Contributor, "European Military Thought and Doctrine, 1870-1914" (chapter four), in Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who was Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposi ...
(ed.), ''The Theory and Practice of War: Essays Presented to Captain B. H. Liddell Hart on his Seventieth Birthday,'' London: Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1965
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luvaas, Jay
American military historians
Allegheny College alumni
Duke University alumni
1927 births
2009 deaths
United States Military Academy faculty
United States Army War College faculty