On October 22, I'll Address the Dupuy Institute Conference on Fighting Effectiveness in Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive

At 9:00 A.M. on October 22, I'll address in person the Dupuy Institute's Fourth Historical Analysis Conference on fighting effectiveness in Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive, which I covered in my most recent book, Lee Besieged: Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18-July 1, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2025). The conference will take place from October 21 through October 23 at 1934 Old Gallows Road in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

The Dupuy Institute is dedicated to scholarly research and analysis of historical data related to armed conflict. The Institute provides historically-based analyses of lessons learned from modern military campaigns. In an effort to pursue the goals of Col. Trevor N. Dupuy, who wrote many books including books on the American Civil War, the Institute amasses historical data and strivees to refine understanding of the complexities of modern warfare. The Institute is committed to the accumulation of recorded, detailed data from actual battlefield experience and the utilization of actual battlefield experience to understand all dimensions of combat, including technological and human factors. 

I am going to compare Dupuy's method for measuring combat effectiveness set forth in his book, A Genius for War: The German Army and General Staff, 1807-1945 (London: MacDonald and Jane's, 1977), with the standard work on combat effectiveness in our Civil War, Thomas L. Livermore's Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, 1861-1865 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1901).

The results of both methods of measuring fighting effectiveness, on page 368 of Lee Besieged, turn out to be very similar. For a copy of Lee Besieged, please click on this link and then what appears afterward.

I will also explain my modifications to the two methods to measure the fighting effectiveness of the combatants during Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive. I include include prisoners as if they were dead. Prisoners were as good as dead during the critical campaign of 1864 because the Union and Confederacy were not exchanging them during that period as they had before and would afterward.