Damn the Torpedoes: Fighting Words, Rallying Cries, and the Hidden History of Warfare

by Brian Burrell

• ISBN13: 9780071342629
• ISBN10: 0071342621
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-04-01
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional

Summary

This is a fascinating look at--and behind--the legendary words of war that distinguish--and disguise--military history. It is a book about "war viewed through the filtering lens of fighting words and battle cries," in the author's phrase, and about how war becomes history. Featuring incidents of glorious defiance and inglorious surrender, Dam the Torpedoes reveals what standard narratives leave out--how real men (not paper heroes) have gone into battle.

Author Biography

Brian Burrell is also the author of The Words We Live By: The Creeds, Mottoes, and Pledges that Have Shaped America. Both author and book have prominently featured on The Today Show, on CNN's Booknotes, and in USA Today, The Boston Globe, and Parade.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Don't Flinch from the Fire, Boys!	3	(18)
The Battle of New Orleans (1862)
Fighting Words	3	(1)
A Sailor of Fortune	4	(7)
Is It to End This Way?	11	(2)
History Repeats Itself	13	(3)
I Buy a Chinese Family and Join a Pirate Brig	16	(5)
Charge, and Give No Foot of Ground!	21	(18)
Going over the Top at Balaclava
The Charge	21	(2)
The Battle Studies of Charles Ardant du Picq	23	(3)
The Charge of the Light Brigade	26	(13)
Fire at Will!	39	(18)
Explaining Sergeant York
Reluctance under Fire	39	(5)
A Capsule History of Reluctance in Battle	44	(4)
The Phenomenon of Sergeant York	48	(3)
The Price of Battle Readiness	51	(6)
Don't Fire until You See the Whites of Their Eyes!	57	(18)
In Search of the Perfect Volley at Fontenoy and Quebec
Ready, Level, Fire!	57	(2)
The Battle of Fontenoy	59	(5)
The Battle of Quebec	64	(2)
The Effectiveness of Volley Fire	66	(4)
The Fastest with the Mostest	70	(5)
Come on, Lads! Who Will Follow Me?	75	(14)
Little Round Top and Other Local Situations
Points of View	75	(1)
Why Battles Look More Realistic at the Cinema	76	(2)
The Struggle for Little Round Top	78	(3)
Who Will Follow Me?	81	(3)
Tales That Redound to the Glory of Our Arms	84	(5)
Sauve Qui Peut!	89	(20)
The Tricky Business of Retreat
Pandemonium	89	(2)
Conquer or Die	91	(4)
He Who Leaves a Fight Loses It	95	(2)
Xenophon and the Ten Thousand	97	(4)
War and Peace: Bagration at Schon Grabern	101	(8)
We Few, We Happy Few	109	(20)
The Unreliability of Numbers in History
The Advantage of Being Outnumbered	109	(2)
Effectives and Effectiveness	111	(1)
Gideon's Raid	112	(3)
The Battle Royal	115	(2)
The Cult of the Three Hundred	117	(2)
Hans Delbruck's Crusade for Truth in Numbers	119	(10)
I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight!	129	(20)
The Annals of Defiance from Thermopylae to Waterloo
Bastogne	129	(3)
Le Mot de Cambronne	132	(1)
Go Ahead, Make My Day!	133	(1)
The Birth of the ``Nuts'' Scenario	134	(2)
Come and Take Them	136	(2)
There's a Shot in the Locker	138	(3)
Send More Japs	141	(2)
Contempt for the Enemy	143	(2)
If	145	(4)
Cry Havoc!	149	(16)
Letting Slip the Dogs of War at Harfleur and Fort William Henry
Harfleur	149	(2)
The Nasty Business of Siege Craft	151	(3)
The Massacre at Fort William Henry	154	(4)
The Ultimate Victims of Sieges	158	(7)
You Were Not There!	165	(16)
Opportunities Won and Lost
Brave Crillon	165	(1)
The History of Nations Is the History of Their Armies	166	(2)
Dulce et Decorum Est pro Patria Mori	168	(3)
Go Tell the Spartans	171	(3)
Follow Me, and Dethrone the Czar	174	(4)
Where Wert Thou, Brave Crillon?	178	(3)
Damn the Torpedoes!	181	(20)
Farragut at Mobile Bay (1864)
England Expects	181	(3)
The Use and Abuse of History	184	(3)
Farragut at Mobile Bay	187	(5)
The Main Event	192	(5)
It Is Well That War Is So Terrible	197	(4)
Further Reading	201	(4)
Index	205