Annihilating time and space: The electrification of the United States Army, 1875--1920

The United States Army embraced electrical technology in the 1870s as part of a wider initiative to meet the challenge of the coastal defense mission. As commercial power storage, generation, and transmission technology improved and the army came to recognize the value of the energy source as a means and method of improving command and control, localized electrical networks were integrated into the active service of the military. New vulnerabilities emerged as the army became ever more reliant upon electric power, however, and electrification---the institutional adoption and adaptation of electrical technologies---emerged as a very expensive and contentious process guided by technical, political, and economic pressures, and influenced by conflicting personalities within the service.; This study considers the institutional evolution of the U.S. Army before and during World War I with respect to the adoption and application of electrical technology. The changing relationships between the military and electrical manufacturing and utilities industries during the period 1875--1920 are also explored. Using a combination of military archival sources and published primary materials, this study traces the effects of electrification on the army. In the end, this study proves that electrification was, at first, a symptom of, and later, a partial solution to the army's struggle to modernize and centralize during the period under consideration. Electrification produced a set of conditions that encouraged a new maturity within the ranks of the army, in technical, doctrinal, and administrative terms. This growth eventually led to the development of new capabilities, new forms of military organization, new missions, and new approaches to warfare.