Battle of New Jersey

It was once noted that only those who remember war fondly are those who have had the least contact with it. This point has been debated for a very long time but, the evidence seems to indicate that it is very true. War has been often romanticized and governments, in particular, always like to play up the heroic aspects. That is not to say that there are no heroes or villains but, one has to remember, that tragedy makes them who they are. The exception and not the rule are what people pay attention too and the media business, without a doubt, makes it’s living off of this since the day to day norms are not really considered news.

This has been true since long before our era of faster than light communications whether it be the internet, the television, or even telegraphs and newspapers of the by gone era. Movies and websites have replaced books and periodicals, of which, replaced poems and songs. The heart of the matter, for a species which is fond of story telling, is glamorizing the day to day droll which is life. Our perceptions of war are no different in this respect, so, it is not surprising that we elevate the horror that is war with the tales of those who have somehow overcome it. Still, there is yet another side of this equation.

What is not very well known is that every time the public has gotten a better look at war, usually thanks to a technological innovation, those who normally do not see it for what it is, are horrified by the vision. The normal reaction is that something must be terribly wrong and this war is not being fought correctly because, the image they are seeing is not what they imagined it to be. Never, does anyone seem to consider that this is what war has always been. The impact of these glimpses have had a very profound impact on the culture at large but, almost never, does anyone see it for what it is.

The first great example of this is a literary character that is still with us to this very day. Dracula, the famous blood sucking monster is now a staple and archetype for an entire literary genre yet, this character was based on a very real man named Vlad Tepist, sometimes called Vald the Dragon, and usually Vlad the Impaler by his enemies. In his time he was universally hated and feared by both friend and foe alike. The reason why Vlad is still with us today is technology and war.

Vlad was one of a long line of minor dictators that controlled the border states between the constantly warring Ottoman’s and the Hapsburg dynasty. These buffer kingdoms were largely supported by either side in order to fend off invasion and larger wars. Vlad was a puppet dictator of the Hapsburgs and his job really only had one requirement, make the Turks fear and hate him by any means possible. The Hapsburgs were perfectly fine with anything that their proxy’s did so long as the border wars remained border wars. Such a situation was not uncommon in such regions, throughout history. So what went wrong for Vlad?

Technology changed the picture and, in this case, it was the printing press. Suddenly books were cheap and, as a result, more people could afford them. This led to people wanting to read and literacy rates jumped all throughout Europe. When you are printing books in a competitive market you need juicy stories to sell your books and the tales of the war in the border regions were just that. Being horrifying, charismatic, and feared as a monster was an advantage in Vlad’s job until more people began to read solid tales of his exploits. Suddenly he became a liability to the Hapsburgs who eventually arrested him and then demonized him due to the political embarrassment he was causing in the rest of Europe. No one seemed to understand that the real monster was, and always had been, war.

The same was true a few hundred years later when England, France, and the Ottoman’s went to war with Russia in 1854. A new invention meant that people no longer had to read about the battlefields, they could now see them even if they were not there. The new invention was the photograph and, the Crimean War, as it would come to be known as, was the first widely photographed war in history. Since the technology of the time only allowed for pictures of the military camps to be taken, at least safely, that is what most people saw. They were appalled by the conditions and just assumed that the war was being prosecuted incorrectly. It never seemed to occur to anyone that camp life for armies at war had always been this way. The result of this public outcry was the International Red Cross.

The changes made after the Crimean War were far more profound than just the highly visible Red Cross. Armies began changing the ways that they did business for all of history. It was quite common for civilians to follow armies in the field. Many of these people were just families of the soldiers, most of whom lived with the army in war and peace. They were usually given mundane jobs that people always need to have done. An army is a small city on the move and their requirements for services are no different. This includes everything from washing clothes to preparing meals and, for the more technical jobs, there were always merchants (known to the armies as suttlers) who provided everything from prostitutes to tailors. One of the services provided was also medical care and, by our standards today, we would find it horrifying. The people in 1854 most certainly did and the Crimean War would put an end to the traditional camp followers. Most of these services would be put in uniform and under military control, by 1898, all thanks to the photograph.

By the late 1890’s, photographic technology had grown by leaps and bounds. There were two basic developments that would shape the war and, for the first time ever, this technology would be seen by governments as important, even if it was rarely discussed in any official manner. The two technologies would chart two very separate paths but, both would be influential in many ways. These two developments would also both be personified by the men who championed the technologies. They were both from the United States, they both would become extraordinarily wealthy because of the war, and they were both of a new breed that had been born in the late 19^th century. They were, literally, the first class of ‘rock stars’ of science. One man was George Eastman and the other was Thomas Edison.

The Eastman company was primarily concerned with expanding the photograph industry and, they largely succeeded by making it simple enough that anyone could afford to take a picture and did not require a trained technician to do so. His first “Instamatic” Camera was released for general sale just before the war. It is likely that it would have been a success no matter what but, the sudden conflict made his camera’s worth ten times their weight in gold. Everyone wanted to take pictures with their loved ones who were departing for the front and Eastman gave them a cheap and easy way to do it.

By 1901 the use of these camera’s had expanded as people figured out they were good for more than just family portraits. These disposable camera’s were small, light weight, and soldiers began using them right at the front. It was now possible to take pictures of actual fighting and many soldiers did so. Reporters also started using them and, as a result, this war became the most documented war in history, up till that point. Now every aspect of the conflict was being seen as these pictures filtered back to the general populace via mail from the soldiers at the front.

The pictures were not so great, often blurry, and of general poor quality. This did not matter to the people back home because it was not what they were seeing that mattered but, more to the point, it was what they were not seeing. War was nothing like anyone imagined. There were no great lines of men in gorgeous uniforms who were heroically charging behind national banners towards the enemy. What they were seeing were men living in horrific trenches with dirty uniforms that barely deserved the name. They also saw explosions kicking up dirt in devastated and unimaginable landscapes. Last but not least, they saw mangled bodies that had obviously been lying exposed for days or maybe even weeks.

This was not something that many people talked about. The public record on the matter is silent unless you count the side effects. Maybe it was simply the over polite attitudes of the day, not wanting to shock a neighbor who had lost a loved one at the front but, it was still changing attitudes. The real effects were secondary in nature, and hence, often over looked. This can be easily proven by looking at events in area’s where these camera’s were most common. Anti war sentiment was steadily growing in the United States where they were the most common. This sentiment became quite explosive in the market where these camera’s were the second most common, in France.

There was yet one more piece of photographic technology that was counter balancing these glimpses of the real war. It was the motion picture and in the mid 1890’s both forms of it had become common in most industrialized nations. These two machines allowed people to see the most realistic form of photography that had been invented to date. They were called the Kinetoscope and the Vitascope. Both were produced and largely controlled by one man, Thomas Edison.

Our first glimpse of Edison’s role in the war was in his submarine building competition with John Phillip Holland. Edison had not only managed to run Holland out of the bidding war but, right out of the country and into the welcoming arms of the Confederate Navy. Not long after the Ionian Sea, the Confederate use of submersibles became widely known despite the best efforts of the CSN to keep them a secret. While the Confederate Navy was very good at keeping secrets the Confederate Congress was not and, as soon as the first legislature found out about their wonderful new weapon, the entire Congress knew about it soon after. That meant the entire world knew not long after that.

Needless to say, the news was not very good for Edison who had turned out one failed copy of Holland’s designs after another. Fan’s of Edison point out that his submarines would have actually performed better than those built by the CSA but, we will never know. Their chief deficiency seemed to be Edison and his hard nosed approach in dealing the US Navy who, by 1901, had already fired him and awarded the contract to another competitor, George Westinghouse. Even so, Edison had many other military contracts and the Holland Affair did not ingratiate him with some very key people. This is why he started looking for something to put him back in the good graces of the US Government.

The motion picture technology had been around for almost a decade at this point and exactly why it was that no one had produced any war films is anyone’s guess. The most likely explanation was that, simply, no one had thought to do it. Edison did originate the idea, however, and it came to him as he looked through countless newspapers and saw pictures that were taken by Eastman’s camera. Motion picture technology, of the time, was incapable of capturing the battlefield. The equipment was too bulky and sensitive. Edison hit upon an idea. His companies were already turning out short films for his machines so, why not stage a battle? Since Edison controlled the only real film distribution system, of the time, he could do pretty much anything he wanted.

Edison started with a single film that was staged in a public park in West Orange, New Jersey. We only have a few brief glimpses of the film since most of it has not survived. What little we can see looks quite ludicrous to the modern eye. In it, there are two lines of opposing men, rallied around flags, wearing a mottled collection of uniforms, that were thirty years out of date, and shooting weapons that created huge puffs of white smoke. It has been written that the conclusion of this five minute film showed the US troops (who could only be distinguished by their flag since they wore the same uniforms as the Confederates) running the enemy off in a valiant charge.

The movie was meant exclusively for the Kinetoscope market. These machines were basically one person peep shows that cost a nickel to watch. People would put their eyes next to a hole and turned a crank to advance the film. In 1901 you could still find these machines in lobby’s, restaurants, department stores, barber shops, and even one Broadway theater that had a bank of them installed in a hallway. Sales tripled wherever the film was shown and, oddly enough, copies were being distributed, through neutral Holland and Belgium, so, this film became equally popular in allied nations as well. Edison quickly realized that he had something.

Stripes Over Bars became the pattern for an entire series of films that Edison quickly expanded to include his Vitascope, which was, the first real motion picture projector. It was used to film screenings that could be seen by more than one person at a time. Contrary to popular beliefs, Edison never claimed that his war films were of real battles, however, he never said that they were not either. Many people, after first viewing these films, believed that what they saw was real. These films were also growing in length, and patriotism, with every new print. The detractors of Edison, and those who found the movies as ludicrous as they truly were, dubbed all of the films to be, “The Battle of New Jersey.” Over time this expression would come to be used anytime someone thought they were being sold a bad deal.

Edison was unconcerned with his detractors. He had many and was used to ignoring them. What he was concerned with was the fact that he had found his way back into the doors of government contracts once the effects of these films began to be realized in Washington. When President Roosevelt asked for a private screening of one particular film, at the White House, Edison knew he had accomplished his goals. Despite this fan fare, ironically, it would not be the US who would first take full advantage of this new propaganda.

This is where the story takes another bizarre turn and, while it is not a true case of life imitating art, it is a case of where the fictional world will drastically alter the real one. The two places where the propaganda war had already been going full force was in France and Germany. Both Boulanger and Wilhelm were intrigued by this film and both demanded to see it. Boulanger instantly saw the possibilities since he was a man who was growing more and more concerned with his public image. He ordered his own war films and even diverted French troops to help make them.

Wilhelm was impressed by the film but, still, he only saw it as little more than a toy. It would be the suggestion of one of his staff members, a decorated soldier who was privy to his inner circle, by the name of Helmuth Von Moltke, that a German film of this kind would be useful. Wilhelm eventually decided to order such a film and, while Moltke had nothing more to do with it beyond that point, he would eventually get the credit for it‘s success. This would lead to changes that would alter the entire war.