A Model of Guerrilla Warfare Applied to the Civil War and Geneal Nathan Bedford Forrest

Ultimately, the purpose of this study is to -understand better this phenomenon of the nineteen sixties—guerrilla war­fare. The Marine Corps Gazette, in 1961, gave over an entire issue to a study of guerrilla warfare. The following year a book evolved from that study, and in the introduction to that book the editor says: “A re-emphasized mission for the American fighting man is plain: Prepare to master the guerrilla. To beat the guerrilla on his own ground, the first essential is knowledge—knowledge about the enemy himself, his methods, strengths, weaknesses, tactics, and techniques. More than that, to beat the guerrilla means to fight not in the sharp black and white of formal combat, but in a gray, fuzzy obscurity where politics affect tactics and economics influence strategy. The soldier must fuse with the statesman, the private turn politician.” If we can gain an understanding of the guerrilla and guerrilla warfare, our reading of our own history will have a new significance