George Luther Stearns became John Brown's single most important financial backer. He personally owned the 200 Sharps rifles Brown brought to Harper's Ferry. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew asked Stearns to recruit the first northern state African-American regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, recently made famous by the Hollywood movie Glory. Stearns was made a major and made Assistant Adjutant General for the Recruitment of Coloured Troops. He recruited over 13,000 African-Americans and established schools for their children and found work for their families. After Emancipation, he worked tirelessly for African-American civil rights. Friends and associates included the Emersons and the Alcotts, Thoreau, Lydia Maria Child, Charles Sumner, Andrew Johnson, and Frederick Douglass.

"Read how one man with vision and courage profoundly changed America's landscape during the Civil War. We are indebted to Heller for uncovering this unheralded heroic figure. A great American story." General Richard B. Myers Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and currently a professor of Military History and Leadership at Kansas State University "George Luther Stearns lived a remarkable life and deserves a remarkable biography such as this one. Well researched, informative, and compelling in its arguments, Charles E. Heller's In Advance of Fate is a work that will be of value to anyone with an interest in Civil War America and the men who fought the good fight against slavery. Highly recommended." C. Ethan S. Rafuse Author of McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union and co-editor of The Ongoing Civil War: New Versions of Old Stories. "Dr. Charles E. Heller's impressively researched work tells the fascinating story of the transformation of Boston industrialist George L. Stearns from an apolitical citizen with only sympathetic leanings against slavery to a radical abolitionist, who ... boasted ..".I gave old John Brown every pike and rifle he carried to Harper's Ferry." Through Heller's tracing of Stearns' largely forgotten contributions we gain important insights into and understandings of the broader trajectory of America's violent confrontation with racial slavery.....is essential reading for those who seek to fully appreciate the moral vision, courage, determination, and commitment of Sterns and Massachusetts abolitionists." Bruce Mactavish Assistant Professor, History/Associate Dean College of Arts & Sciences, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas

The combat experience of World War I provided the U.S. Army with its first significant exposure to chemical warfare. The purpose of this paper is to show how the Army prepared for this kind of warfare and how soldiers in the American Expeditionary Forces, from generals to doughboys, played a prominent role.

This volume, a collection of eleven original essays by many of the foremost U.S. military historians, focuses on the transition of the Army from parade ground to battleground in each of nine wars the United States has fought. Through careful analysis of organization, training, and tactical doctrine, each essay seeks to explain the strengths and weaknesses evidenced by the outcome of the first significant engagement or campaign of the war. The concluding essay sets out to synthesize the findings and to discover whether or not American first battles manifest a characteristic "rhythm." America's First Battles provides a novel and intellectually challenging view of how America has prepared for war and how operations and tactics have changed over time. The thrust of the book--the emphasis on operational history--is at the forefront of scholarly activity in military history.