In his perceptive analysis of President Jefferson's actions as commander-in-chief of the military, Theodore Crackel persuasively shows how Thomas Jefferson sought during his two terms to reform the regular military establishment in an effort to instill an ongoing loyalty to the new regime. On previous occasions, Federalist regulars had opposed Jefferson vehemently and to counter this Jefferson, as president, dismissed many Federalists, introduced Republicans into the officer ranks at every opportunity, and began efforts to win over his more moderate opponents. To aid this process of Republicanization, he divided the opposition against itself and later expanded the force.

Aware of the difficulty he was likely to encounter in his efforts to find qualified Republicans, Jefferson created a military academy at West Point for the purpose of training otherwise poorly prepared (but politically acceptable) sons of the Republican faithful. This book discusses the founding of the academy, and offers a detailed and fascinating account of the academy in its infancy. It is a detailed study of social change in the military and an authoritative account of the political reformation of the Army conducted by Jefferson and Dearborn.

Mr. Jefferson's Army is a fresh new approach to the military history of the era—not drums and bugles, but the army in the social and political context of the time.