The development of plans to protect the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere that concentrates on policy in the three years before Pearl Harbor, the gradual merger of hemisphere defense into a broader national defense policy, the transition to offensive plans after Pearl Harbor, and the military relationships of the United States with other American nations.

There is a clear and intentional onslaught against the spiritual ‘gates’. This has been revealed by the Lord. This is not an attack for the ‘now’ but an attack that has always existed. This is an attack that is escalating, intensifying and becoming more vicious than ever before. It is an attack to lead people away from God, thus an attack of the destruction of the person. And we are talking here about the ‘gate’ – entry point – of nations, of cities, of homes, of families, and our very lives. A gate is a strategic point. It is a point of legally ‘controlling’ what goes in and goes out of the ‘city’. The enemy is laying siege to gain entry, for once he has entered through the ‘gate’, he comes to steal, to destroy and to kill. For the Lord has shown the enemy has come like an assassin, like a thief and as a destroyer.

Ward Loren Schrantz, of Carthage, Missouri, entered the U.S. Army in 1912, at a time when military leaders were still seriously debating the future of the horse cavalry. He left active military service in 1946, after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Schrantz served capably at a time when the U.S. military was undergoing rapid technological and strategic transformation and, as a journalist and attentive observer, left a vivid personal account of his time in the Army and Missouri National Guard. Editor Jeff Patrick has woven three undated versions of Schrantz's memoir into a single narrative focused on the sparsely documented pre–World War I period from 1912 to 1917, thus helping to fill a significant gap in the existing literature. Schrantz's memoir is notable not only for the period it covers, but also for its lively evocation of a soldier's life during the U.S.-Mexico border disturbances of the early twentieth century. Schrantz's account demonstrates the perennial contrast between how soldiers were expected to behave and how they actually behaved; it offers colorful and authentic details not usually available from official histories. Patrick also has added an appendix consisting of the letters that Schrantz wrote for publication in his hometown newspaper, the Carthage Evening Press. These documents yield interesting insights into the attitudes and dispositions of U.S. soldiers during this time, as well as the perceptions and opinions of the "folks back home." Students, scholars, and others interested in military and borderlands history will find much to enjoy in Guarding the Border: The Military Memoirs of Ward Schrantz, 1912–1917.

Official records produced by the armies of the United States and the Confederacy, and the executive branches of their respective governments, concerning the military operations of the Civil War, and prisoners of war or prisoners of state. Also annual reports of military departments, calls for troops, correspondence between national and state governments, correspondence between Union and Confederate officials. The final volume includes a synopsis, general index, special index for various military divisions, and background information on how these documents were collected and published. Accompanied by an atlas.