In light of our similar interest in midnineteenth European military affairs,- my good friend Pat Condray sent me an advance copy of his Moltke article. I find his thesis exactly correct. Pat is operating with a full clip here. I too have long heard the "quote" but as Pat points out, it does not stand up to critical analysis. I suspect the quote is real but was uttered -- or more -probably written - by some other German who was extolling the virtue of the "staff system " of which we, in 1860-65, had none and thus the idea that we were but "mobs," In time the "catchy phrase" may have been attributed to Moltke because -quite frankly -- nobody had a clue as to the names of the other German military leaders. Pat's article set me to thinking and so I did a bit of research on the issue and came up with several sources on the question: George Cary Eggleston, in A Rebel's Recollections written in 1874, says: "A newspaper correspondent has told us that the great leader of the German armies Count Von Moltke, has never read anything -- even a history -- of our war, and that when questioned on the subject, he has said he could not afford to spend time over 'the wrangling of two armed mobs.' If he ever said anything of the kind, which is doubtful, his characterization of the two armies had reference, probably, to their condition during the first year or two of the struggle, when they could lay very little claim indeed to any more distinctively military title." In a paper presented to The Civil War Round Table in Chicago 1960, Bruce Catton discusses the same issue. In a fantastic twist he says that he is proud that perhaps we were armed mobs but at least we were not a bunch of "goose-stepping retainers." Mr. Catton then goes on to explain, "We do pursue, finally, an American dream, and we evoke American means to attain it. We are, in this country, something new; and even our war with ourselves -- our stupid, costly, fearfully tragic attempt to lay hands on our own spirit -- was unique! We are an "armed mob", answerable to no traditions and to no Old World formulas, going forward to shape the future in accord with the dream that we have dreamed. And as we go and look back on what we've done and try to figure out the 'cost and the meaning of it all, we have nothing much to go on except the words which a poet a century ago left to us: 'Some day man will awaken from his long sleep, and will find that his dream remains, and only his sleep is gone." Beautiful stuff but back to the issue. My view is that I suspect that Moltke never said much of anything! Here are excerpts from the final paragraphs on Moltke from the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: "As a strategist Moltke cannot be estimated by comparison with Fredrick or Napoleon because he had not the authority either of a king or a commander-in-chief. While it is doubtful whether he can be convicted of any strategic errors, it seems beyond doubt that he never had to face a situation which placed any strain on his powers, for in the campaigns of 1866 and 1870 his decisions seemed to be made without the slightest effort and he was never at a loss. He had a tall spare figure and in his latter years his tanned features had received a set expression which was at once hard and grand. He was habitually taciturn and reserved, and though a most accomplished linguist, it was said of him that he was 'silent in seven languages.' " Good riddance I say. Perhaps Pat's article finally puts an end to the old Count's misquotation. Back to Dispatch July 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com