Battlefield Framework and How it Relates to a 19th Century Indian Battle: Washita

摘要

This study relates the battlefield framework found in the 1993 edition of FM 100-5 to a 19th Century Indian War campaign and battle, the Winter Campaign of 1868 and Battle of the Washita. A strong theme throughout the thesis is how well Washita and the Winter Campaign of 1868 would have used the new additions added to the definition of battlefield framework found in the 1993 FM 100-5 edition (if they had existed in 1868). Time, resources, space, and purpose were added to the long standing concepts of close, deep, rear, security, and reserve in the new FM 100-5. The thesis reviews the memoirs and reports of operational and tactical commanders of the Winter Campaign to discover whether the new additions were more useful to the operational and tactical commanders than the long standing concepts. This study emphasizes the importance of history in the formulation of evolving concepts in doctrine. Leaders of the Army in 1868 and 1993 knew that the nature of warfare expected in the future would not resemble the past. Both periods called for new doctrine. An issue addressed in the thesis is how much the past can serve future writers of doctrine. Battlefield framework, WASHITA.