I am an Asness Fellow with the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, National World War II Museum, New Orleans; Senior Historian, George Washington Leadership Institute, Mount Vernon, Virginia; and Professor of Military History (ret.), U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. I specialize in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American military history, but I teach and write on a variety of subjects. Prior to joining the War College, I was Professor of Military History at the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where I taught for over ten years. Before joining SAMS, I spent six years teaching, leading, and designing staff rides at the Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth. From 2002-2006, I was Assistant Professor of History at Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio, and Director of Honors from 2005-06 (tenured). Previously, I was Assistant Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History and Geography at Texas Lutheran University.
In addition to my teaching, I am also the author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022), which studies the largest operations undertaken by the Continental and British armies in the winter of 1778. My first book, For Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861 (New York: New York University Press, 2015), is a cultural and intellectual history of soldiering in the United States. Presently, I am editing a collection letters and journal tentatively titled A Most Uncommon Soldier: The Letters and Journal of Edward Ashley Bowen Phelps, 1846-1848 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas), which is a micro history and biography of a most interesting soldier. Phelps served in the Mexican War as a private in Company H, Regiment of Mounted Riflemen (today Troop H, 3d Squadron, 3d Cavalry Regiment). In addition to my books, I have also published a number of articles and chapters.
I've been fortunate in having been awarded several research fellowships, including a 2021-2022 Visiting Fellowship at Maynooth University Arts & Humanities Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth; a Residential Research Fellowship, 2016-2017, at The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, Mount Vernon, Virginia; a Society of the Cincinnati Scholars’ Grant, 2015-2016; a Residential Research Fellowship, David Library of the American Revolution, 2014-2015; and a Society for the History of the Early American Republic/Mellon Faculty Research Stipend in Early American History, 2005. In June 2025, I was elected a member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and in November 2020, I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Before joining academe, I had been a sales representative at Kraft and was an Armor and Cavalry officer in the US Army.
1998, PhD, United States History, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1994, MA, United States History, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1984, BA, History, University of California, Los Angeles
U.S. military history
Colonial and Revolutionary American history
Books
Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022. Finalist, Inaugural American Battlefield Trust Book Prize for History
For Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861. New York: New York University Press, 2015
Audiobook
Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778. Read by Adam Verner. Landover, MD: Audiobooks.com, 2022
Pamphlet
New York Campaign, 1776. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2025
Peer Reviewed Articles
“History, Mission Command, and the Auftragstaktik Infatuation.” Military Review 102, no. 3 (July-August 2022): 53-66
“La historia, el mando tipo misión y la obsesión con la Auftragstaktik.” Military Review: Edición Hispanoamericana 77, no 4 (Cuarto Trimestre 2022): 2-16
“A História, o Comando de Missão e a Fascinação com Auftragstaktik.” Military Review: Revista Profissional do Exército dos EUA 77, no. 2 (Segundo Trimestre 2022): 50-64
“‘[T]he zealous activity of Capt. Lee’: Light-Horse Harry Lee and Petite Guerre.” The Journal of Military History79, no. 1 (January 2015): 9-36 (Awarded Moncado Prize, Society for Military History)
“A People and its Soldiers: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861.” International Bibliography of Military History 33, no. 1 (2013): 1-26
“New and Significant Works on Decolonization in the Atlantic World: The American Experience, 1775-1783.” International Bibliography of Military History 31, no. 2 (2011): 212-219
“Self-Governance, Military Discipline, and the American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861.” The Journal of Military History 65, no. 1 (January 2001): 45-76
Articles
“The Capture of Savannah.” Hallowed Ground Magazine 25, no. 4 (Winter 2024-2025): 24-27
“‘[O]ur Army will hut this Winter at Valley forge’: George Washington, Decision-Making, and the Councils of War.” Army History, no. 117 (Fall 2020): 6-26 (Awarded Distinguished Writing Award, Army History Foundation)
“Toward an American Army: American Soldiers, the War of 1812, and National Identity.” Army History, no. 88 (Summer 2013): 42-57
“Foraging and Combat Operations at Valley Forge, February-March 1778.” Army History, no. 79 (Spring 2011): 6-29 (Awarded Distinguished Writing Award, Army History Foundation)
“Manifest Destiny” Cobblestone (December 2000): 6-7
“Los Niños Héroes.” Cobblestone (December 2000): 34-35
Essays and Chapters
“Scouting the Field: Reconnoitering the Military History of the Declaration of Independence.” The Military History of the Declaration of Independence. Edited by Christopher P. Magra. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2026
“Taking the Classroom to the Battlefield: The Staff Ride.” Military, War, and Society in the Modern United States: Teaching Military History. Edited by Beth Bailey and Andrew Preston. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2026
“Imperial Collisions: War Times and Societies in Colonial America.” Cambridge History of War and Society in America, pt. 1, Wartimes. Edited by Andrew J. Huebner and Jennifer D. Keene. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2026
“The Citizen-Soldier is Dead. Long Live the Citizen-Soldier.” The Revolution at 250: Twenty Four Historians Reflect on the Founding. Edited by Francis D. Cogliano, 194-205. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2026
“The Citizen Soldier.” The Oxford Handbook of American Military History. Edited by Samuel J. Watson, 205-219. New York: Oxford University Press, 2025
“Walking, Talking, Teaching, and Learning: The Staff Ride,” Teaching Military History, Center for Military, War, and Society Studies, University of Kansas, August 2021, https://teachingmilitaryhistory.com/military-history-and-pedagogy/herrera-staff-ride
“The King’s Friends: Loyalists and British Strategy in the War for Independence.” Strategy in the American War of Independence: A Global Approach. Edited by Donald J. Stoker and Kenneth J. Hagan, 100-119. London: Routledge, Cass, 2009
“Brave Rifles at Tall ‘Afar, September 2005.” In Contact!: Case Studies from the Long War, vol. 1. Edited by William Glenn Robertson, 125-152. Ft. Leavenworth: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006
Courses
2026 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| WWS 561 | Decision Points I |
2025 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| WWS 561 | Decision Points I |