Army Navy Journal 1871-1876
Army Perception in the 1870s
This is the last section that analyzes the various articles published in the Army & Navy Journal. The graph of the results from this period can be seen again in Figure 12: Army Navy Jouranl results for "Cavalry" and "Sheridan" 1863-1876. Between the years 1871 and 1876 there were a total of thirty two articles that referenced Sheridan and the Cavalry published in the ANJ. As shown on the graph, a large portion of these were the twenty six cavalry articles written in 1871. Of the thirty two total articles published in this period referencing the cavalry or Sheridan, eight of the longer and more substantial works were selected from a variety of years. This way the examination will be reflective of this period and how the conversation regarding the cavalry changed. Of the monthly publications during this period only thirty nine of the seventy two journals are available on the database. Of these thirty nine journals thirty two of these discussed the cavalry or Sheridan which is a large majority. Of these eight total articles of various years are examined below. At this time the Indian Wars on the plains had highs and lows when it came to armed conflict. Grant and Sherman each attempted to obtain less violent solutions through negotiations. Grant's Peace Policy proved to be relatively ineffective while Sherman's attempts to place the Native Americans on reservations were more successful but still had problems. When the negotiations failed, armed conflicted ignited the West. These conflicts can be seen on the Timeline, like the Red River War of 1874 and the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. During each of these War's Sheridan launched large campaigns against the Native Americans and as these articles will show it is interesting that they are not discussed more in the ANJ.
If any of the Voyant Tools below do not load, please click on the tool title to see an image file of the results, or go to the Sources page where all the visuals for this project are listed on the left hand side of your screen. Please take note that images of the Voyant tools are not interactive like the imbedded web tools.
Figure 19 shows the TermsBerry tool for the ANJ artiles examined from 1871-1876. This one shows the twenty five most used terms in the eight documents examined from 1871 to 1876. Of those terms, "cavalry" only appears in four of the documents but is the most frequently used word in this set of ANJ articles. This shows that while the cavalry are not discussed frequently, when they are they are the focus of the discussion. "Indians" is not far behind "cavalry" in how often it is used, but it too does not appear in all the documents. It is only in six of the documents. From this broad examination there is a clear change in the topics being covered in the ANJ. The changes in the frequency of which these words appear in this journal is reflective of how the articles of this time and the conversation among the officers was changing. As the journal began to expand their scope to include discussion of Europe and broader topics, their content began to become more diverse. They no longer focused on current events in the U.S. and their discussion of the cavalry and Indians began to become diversified. However it is interesting to note that the cavalry were so prevalent in the conversation considering there were fewer editions of the journal from this time to draw samples from.
Figure 20 above shows the trends tool for the ANJ articles during this period looking at the frequency of which "cavalry", "Indians", "infantry", and "Sheridan" where used in each of these documents examined. "Sheridan" only appears in one of the articles which focuses on the Indian Winter Campaign of 1876, when Sheridan launched the Great Sioux War. In comparison the "Indians" are mentioned in all the articles except two; one pertaining to the cavalry of Europe and one about new cavalry tactics. The article focusing on Europe understandably does not mention the Indians of North America. However, it is interesting that the article on new cavalry tactics does not mention the cavalry. During this time the U.S. Cavalry had been the primary toll of the U.S. Army used against the Native Americans. A discussion of new cavalry tactics in the 1870s would be expected to discuss new ways to adapt to the fighting on the plains and how to combat the Native Americans since they were their relatively new and primary enemy that they currently faced. Of the articles that talk about the cavalry, the topic focus has further changed to focus on solutions to these problems not the violence happening with them. The term "cavalry" is used more than any other word and it is only used in half of the articles, two of which specifically focus on the cavalry. These results are vastly different than those previously seen in the ANJ. It is interesting that the discussion of Indians and the conflicts with them have begun to shift and no longer included the cavalry when conflicts with the Indians were happening across the West at this time.
Figure 21 shows the Context tool for the eight articles of the ANJ from 1871 to 1876 shows both the terms "cavalry" and "Indians" in context. Scrolling through this tool will show the words around these terms to see how "cavalry" and "Indians" are used in these articles. The cavalry are the most frequently used in the "Future of the Cavalry" article that was written in Europe and focuses on how they are used there and how they will be used in the future. The other article in which "cavalry" is used the most in is the "New Cavalry Tactics" article. Since cavalry is most often used in these two articles, the context in which the term is used mostly pertains to descriptions of how the cavalry should be used in the field or how they were used in Europe from recent history. Other documents reference the cavalry have similar results to the previous documents from earlier years in the ANJ that were examined. The cavalry officers are discussed and they are shown being used to chase and combat the Native Americans in the West. The "Indians" when examined in context are seen being used much differently than before. While some documents discuss the violent acts committed by the Indians, like Fort Phil Kearny Massacre, most reference the Indians in reference to ways to deal with the problem they presently present. In the past violence with them was reported and they were presented as a problem. Now a discussion is being made as to what they can do to solve these situations. This is interesting in this period because while Wars are being waged on the plains officers are beginning to discuss how to find peaceful solutions to the problems the Army faces with the Indians.
Changing perceptions at the peak of war
From the distance these articles appear to be similar to those previously examined from 1866-1870. However when the Terms and Trends tools are examined for this period it shows that the Army & Navy Journal articles were changing in the early 1870s. Sheridan became far less prevalent during this period despite the fact that he was leading all American forces in the West. The cavalry were not as frequently mentioned as they were in the past and articles in this selection that mentioned them were focused on them as a topic. While the journal's topics began to expand in this period the "Indians" were still a major topic of discussion. While the articles of 1866-1870 showed a shift to emphasizing the Indians, the ones of this period showed a different conversation about them. Similar to the views expressed in Sherry Smith's work, the Indians were not simply viewed as violent savages as is popularly depicted. The officer's portrayal of the Indians in these articles was varied and they sought solutions to the problems they faced with the Indians. They began to see past the cycle of violence that was happening and looked into negotiating options more frequently. To further understand the views of the officers who were on the front lines like Smith' examination did, the next section will look into two prominent officers in the west between 1868-1877.