Wayne Hsieh, Assistant Professor

19th Century U.S. Military History; Civil War

Email:  hsieh@usna.edu

Education:

• Ph.D. - University of Virginia
• M.A. - University of Virginia
• B.A. - Yale University

Research Interests:

The boundary bewteen "objective," for lack of a better term, military expertise and "subjective" cultural factors in the mid-nineteenth century United States.  What aspects of military professionalism and effectiveness are not contingent on political, ideological, and cultural factors?  How do these two different types of phenomena interact with one another?

Publications:

"'I Owe Virginia Little, My Country Much": Robert E. Lee, the United States Regular Army, and Unconditional Unionism."  In Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration, edited by Gary Gallagher, Edward L. Ayers, and Andrew W. Torget, 35-57.  Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006.

"Christian Love and Martial Violence: Baptists and War - Danger and Opportunity."  In Virginia's Civil War, edited by Peter Wallenstein and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, 87-100.  Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005.

Book Reviews:

Commander of All Lincoln's Armies: A Life of General Henry W. Halleck, by John F. Marszalek.  Cambridge, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004.  Canadian Journal of History, 41, Spring/Summer 2006, 153-55.

Nations Divided: America, Italy, and the Southern Question, by Don H. Doyle.  Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2002.  Civil War History, 52, June 2006, 193-195.

Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864, by Earl J. Hess.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.  North Carolina Historical Review, 82, October 2005, 519-20.

Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War, by R.J. Blackett.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.  Civil War History, 49, June 2003, 188-89.

Paper Presentations:

"The Old Army in War and Peace: West Pointers and the Civil War Era, 1814-1865," USNA History Department Works in Progress Seminar, 9 December 2005.

"The Problem of 'Demoralization': Virginia Baptists' Distrust of War in 1860/1861," presented on February 23, 2002 at the Douglass Southall Freeman and Southern Intellectual History Conferences (Richmond, VA).

Languages:

Reading knowledge of French and German, two years of college-level Classical Greek, basic proficiency in spoken Mandarin Chinese and very basic knowledge of written characters.