Upton
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EMORY, an American military officer; born in Batavia, N. Y.; Aug. ug. 27, 1839; was graduated at the United States Military Academy in May, 1861, and was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 4th artillery; and a few days later was promoted 1st lieutenant of the 5th artillery. He participated în the battle of Bull Run and in the Peninsula Campaign early in 1862. In October of that year he was commissioned colonel of the 121st New York Volunteers. He distinguished himself at the battle of Rappahannock Station, Va., in November, 1863, and especially at Spottsylvania, where he was wounded while leading the 12 attacking regiments of his corps. For this gallantry in the latter action he was promoted Br Brigadier-General of volunteers and brevetted lieutenant-colonel, U. S. A. He later participated in the Shenandoah Campaign, and won distinction at Winchester, Va., for which he was brevetted Major-General of volunteers. In March, 1865, he was brevetted Major-General, U. S. A., was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel, U. S. A., in July, 1866. He originated a system of military tactics which was adopted by the Government in 1867; was superintendent of the United States Military Academy in 1870-1875; and was promoted colonel, U. S. A., in 1880, and was assigned to the 4th artillery in San Francisco, Cal. His publications include: "A New System of Infantry Tactics" (1867); "Tactics for Non-Military Bodies" (1870); "The Armies of Asia and Europe" (1878); and "The Military Policy of the United States." He died in San Francisco, Cal., March 14, 1881.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 lists "The Military Policy of the United States" among Upton's works without noting that it was unfinished at his death and sat in manuscript for more than twenty years; the War Department finally printed it in 1904 under Secretary Elihu Root, who used its argument for an expansible professional army to help justify the General Staff and the reforms that bear his name. The entry is also silent on how Upton died: at the Presidio in San Francisco in March 1881, aged 41, he shot himself, an act later attributed variously to crippling headaches and a suspected brain ailment. Modern scholarship, above all Stephen Ambrose's 1964 biography "Upton and the Army," treats him less as a tactics author than as the intellectual ancestor of the twentieth-century American professional officer corps.
Written for this edition, 2026.