The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army. It consisted of the small United States Army (the regular army), augmented by massive numbers of units supplied by the Northern states, composed of volunteers as well as conscripts. The Union Army fought and eventually defeated the smaller Confederate States Army during the war which lasted from 1861 to 1865. About 360,000 died from all causes; some 280,000 were wounded.

History

Formation

When the American Civil War began in April 1861, there were only 16,000 men in the U.S. Army, and of these many Southern officers resigned and joined the Confederate States Army. The U.S. Army consisted of ten regiments of infantry, four of artillery, two of cavalry, two of dragoons, and one of mounted infantry. The regiments were scattered widely. Of the 197 companies in the army, 179 occupied 79 isolated posts in the West, and the remaining 18 manned garrisons east of the Mississippi River, mostly along the Canadian border and on the Atlantic coast.

With the secession of the Southern states, and with this drastic shortage of men in the army, President Abraham Lincoln called on the states to raise a force of 75,000 men for three months to put down the "insurrection". Lincoln's call forced the border states to choose sides, and four seceded, making the Confederacy eleven states strong. The war proved to be longer and more extensive than anyone North or South had expected, and on July 22, 1861, Congress authorized a volunteer army of 500,000 men The call for volunteers initially was easily met by patriotic Northerners, abolitionists, and even immigrants who enlisted for a steady income and meals. Over 10,000 Germans in New York and Pennsylvania immediately responded to Lincoln's call, and the French were also quick to volunteer. As more men were needed, however, the number of volunteers fell and both money bounties and forced conscription had to be turned to. Nevertheless, between April 1861 and April 1865, at least two and a half million men served in the Union Army, of whom the majority were volunteers.

It is a misconception that the South held an advantage because of the large percentage of professional officers who resigned to join the Confederate States Army. At the start of the war, there were 824 graduates of the U.S. Military Academy on the active list; of these, 296 resigned or were dismissed, and 184 of those became Confederate officers. Of the approximately 900 West Point graduates who were then civilians, 400 returned to the Union Army and 99 to the Confederate. Therefore, the ratio of Union to Confederate professional officers was 642 to 283. (One of the resigning officers was Robert E. Lee, who had initially been offered the assignment as commander of a field army to suppress the rebellion. Lee disapproved of secession, but refused to bear arms against his native state, Virginia, and resigned to accept the position as commander of Virginia forces. He eventually became the commander of the Confederate States Army.) The South did have the advantage of other military colleges, such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute, but they produced fewer officers. Only 26 enlisted men and non-commissioned officers are known to have left the regular United States Army to join the Confederate Army, all by desertion.

Major organizations

The Union Army was composed of numerous organizations, which were generally organized geographically.

; Department : An organization that covered a defined region, including responsibilities for the Federal installations therein and for the field armies within their borders. Those named for states usually referred to Southern states that had been occupied. It was more common to name departments for rivers (such as Department of the Tennessee, Department of the Cumberland) or regions (Department of the Pacific, Department of New England, Department of the East, Department of the West, Middle Department).

; District : A subdivision of a Department (e.g., District of Cairo, District of East Tennessee). There were also Subdistricts for smaller regions.

; Military Division : A collection of Departments reporting to one commander (e.g., Military Division of the Mississippi, Military Division of the Gulf). Military Divisions were similar to the regions described by the more modern term, Theater.

; Army : The fighting force that was usually, but not always, assigned to a District or Department but could operate over wider areas. Some of the most prominent armies were:

::*Army of the Cumberland, the army operating primarily in Tennessee, and later Georgia, commanded by William S. Rosecrans and George Henry Thomas. ::*Army of Georgia, operated in the March to the Sea and the Carolinas commanded by Henry W. Slocum. ::*Army of the Gulf, the army operating in the region bordering the Gulf of Mexico, commanded by Benjamin Butler, Nathaniel P. Banks, and Edward Canby. ::*Army of the James, the army operating on the Virginia Peninsula, 1864–65, commanded by Benjamin Butler and Edward Ord. ::*Army of the Mississippi, a briefly existing army operating on the Mississippi River, in two incarnations—under John Pope and William S. Rosecrans in 1862; under John A. McClernand in 1863. ::*Army of the Ohio, the army operating primarily in Kentucky and later Tennessee and Georgia, commanded by Don Carlos Buell, Ambrose E. Burnside, John G. Foster, and John M. Schofield. ::*Army of the Potomac, the principal army in the Eastern Theater, commanded by George B. McClellan, Ambrose E. Burnside, Joseph Hooker, and George G. Meade. ::*Army of the Shenandoah, the army operating in the Shenandoah Valley, under David Hunter, Philip Sheridan, and Horatio G. Wright. ::*Army of the Tennessee, the most famous army in the Western Theater, operating through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Carolinas; commanded by Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, James B. McPherson, and Oliver O. Howard. ::*Army of Virginia, the army assembled under John Pope for the Northern Virginia Campaign.

Each of these armies was usually commanded by a major general. Typically, the Department or District commander also had field command of the army of the same name, but some conflicts within the ranks occurred when this was not true, particularly when an army crossed a geographic boundary.

The regular army, a term used to describe the permanent United States Army, was intermixed into various units and formations of the Union Army, forming a cadre of experienced and skilled troops. They were regarded by many as elite troops and often held in reserve during battles in case of emergencies. This force was quite small compared to the massive state-raised volunteer forces that comprised the bulk of the Union Army.

; Theaters Operations in the Civil War were distinctly divided within broad geographic regions known as theaters. For overviews of general army operations and strategies, see articles on the main theaters, including the Western Theater, and Eastern Theater.

Personnel organization

Soldiers were organized by military specialty. The combat arms included infantry, cavalry, artillery, and other such smaller organizations such as the United States Marine Corps, which, at some times, was detached from its navy counterpart for land based operations. The Signal Corps was created and deployed for the first time, through the leadership of Albert J. Myer.

Below major units like armies, soldiers were organized mainly into regiments, the main fighting unit with which a soldier would march and be deployed with. According to W. J. Hardee's "Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics" (1855), the primary tactics for riflemen and light infantry in use immediately prior and during the Civil War, there would be, within each regiment, ten companies, each commanded by a captain, and deployed according to the ranks of captains. Regiments were almost always raised within a single state, and were generally referred by number and state, e.g. 54th Massachusetts, 20th Maine, etc.

Regiments were usually grouped into brigades. However, brigades were changed easily as the situation demanded. The regiment was the main form of permanent grouping. Brigades were usually formed once regiments reached the battlefield, according to where the regiment might be deployed, and alongside which other regiments.

Leaders

Several men served as generals-in-chief of the Union Army throughout its existence: Winfield Scott: July 5, 1841 November 1, 1861 George B. McClellan: November 1, 1861 March 11, 1862 Henry W. Halleck: July 23, 1862 March 9, 1864 Ulysses S. Grant: March 9, 1864 March 4, 1869

The gap from March 11 to July 23, 1862, was filled with direct control of the army by President Lincoln and United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with the help of an unofficial "War Board" that was established on March 17, 1862. The board consisted of Ethan A. Hitchcock, the chairman, with Department of War bureau chiefs Lorenzo Thomas, Montgomery C. Meigs, Joseph G. Totten, James W. Ripley, and Joseph P. Taylor.

Scott was an elderly veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War and could not perform his duties effectively. His successor, Maj. Gen. McClellan, built and trained the massive Union Army of the Potomac, the primary fighting force in the Eastern Theater. Although he was popular among the soldiers, McClellan was relieved from his position as general-in-chief because of his overly cautious strategy and his contentious relationship with his commander in chief, President Lincoln. (He remained commander of the Army of the Potomac through the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam.) His replacement, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, had a successful record in the Western Theater, but was more of an administrator than a strategic planner and commander.

Ulysses S. Grant was the final commander of the Union Army. He was famous for his victories in the West when he was appointed lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Union Army in March 1864. Grant supervised the Army of the Potomac (which was formally led by his subordinate, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade) in delivering the final blows to the Confederacy by engaging Confederate forces in many fierce battles in Virginia, the Overland Campaign, conducting a war of attrition that the larger Union Army was able to survive better than its opponent. Grant laid siege to Lee's army at Petersburg, Virginia, and eventually captured Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. He developed the strategy of coordinated simultaneous thrusts against wide portions of the Confederacy, most importantly the Georgia and Carolinas Campaigns of William Tecumseh Sherman and the Shenandoah Valley campaign of Philip Sheridan. These campaigns were characterized by another strategic notion of Grant's—deny the enemy the supplies needed to continue the war by widespread destruction of its factories and farms along the paths of the invading Union armies.

Grant had critics who complained about the high numbers of casualties that the Union Army suffered while he was in charge, but Lincoln would not replace Grant, because, in Lincoln's words: "I cannot spare this man. He fights."

Among memorable field leaders of the army were William Rosecrans, George Henry Thomas and William Tecumseh Sherman. Others, of lesser competence, included Benjamin F. Butler.

Union victory

The decisive victories by Grant and Sherman resulted in the surrender of the major Confederate armies. The first and most significant was on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Although there were other Confederate armies that would surrender in the following weeks, such as Joseph E. Johnston's in North Carolina, this date was nevertheless symbolic of the end of the bloodiest war in American history, the end of the Confederate States of America, and the beginning of the slow process of Reconstruction.

Casualties

Of the 2,213,363 men who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, 364,511 died in combat, or from injuries sustained in combat, disease, or other causes, and 281,881 were wounded. More than 1 out of every 4 Union soldiers was killed or wounded during the war; casualties in the Confederate Army were even worse—1 in 3 Southern soldiers were killed or wounded. Though it should be noted that the Confederates suffered a considerably lower amount of overall casualties than the Union, at roughly 260,000 total casualties to the Union's 360,000. This is by far the highest casualty ratio of any war in which America has been involved. By comparison, 1 out of every 16 American soldiers was killed or wounded in World War II, and 1 out of every 22 during the Vietnam War.

In total, 620,000 soldiers died during the Civil War. There were 34 million Americans at that time, so 2% of the American population died in the war. In today's terms, this would be the equivalent of 5.9 million American men being killed in a war.

Ethnic groups

The Union Army was composed of many different ethnic groups, including large numbers of immigrants. About 25% of the white people who served in the Union Army were foreign-born.

The estimate of 25 percent of the Union armed forces being foreign-born is very accurate. This means that about 1,600,000 soldiers and sailors were born in the United States, including about 200,000 African-Americans. About 200,000 soldiers were born in one of the German states (although this is somewhat speculative since anyone serving from a German family tended to be identified as German regardless of where actually born—Sanitary Commission Report, 1869). About 200,000 soldiers and sailors were born in Ireland. Although some soldiers came from as far away as Malta, Italy, India, and Russia, most of the remaining foreign-born soldiers came from England, Scotland and Canada.

Breakdown of the approximately 2.2 million Union soldiers [ethnic origin and nativity have be conflated inconsistently here by an editor]:

1,000,000 (45.4% of all Union soldiers) native-born white Americans.

516,000 (23.4%) Germans; about 216,000 were born in Germany.

210,000 (9.5%) African American. Half were freedmen who lived in the North, and half were ex-slaves from the South. They served under white officers in more than 160 "colored" regiments and in Federal regiments organized as the United States Colored Troops (USCT).

200,000 (9.1%) Irish.

90,000 (4.1%) Dutch.

50,000 (2.3%) Canadian.

50,000 (2.3%) born in England.

40,000 (1.8%) French or French Canadian. About half were born in the United States of America, the other half in Quebec.

20,000 (0.9%) Scandinavian (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Danish).

7,000 Italian

7,000 Jewish

6,000 Mexican

5,000 Polish (many of whom served in the Polish Legion of Brig. Gen. Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski)

4,000 Native Americans

Several hundred of other various nationalities.

Many immigrant soldiers formed their own regiments, such as the Irish Brigade (69th New York, 63rd New York, 88th New York, 28th Massachusetts, 116th Pennsylvania); the Swiss Rifles (15th Missouri); the Gardes Lafayette (55th New York); the Garibaldi Guard (39th New York); the Martinez Militia (1st New Mexico); the Polish Legion (58th New York); the German Rangers (52nd New York); the Highlander Regiment (79th New York); and the Scandinavian Regiment (15th Wisconsin). But for the most part, the foreign-born soldiers were scattered as individuals throughout units.

For comparison, the Confederate Army was not very diverse: 91% of Confederate soldiers were native born and only 9% were foreign-born, Irish being the largest group with others including Germans, French, Mexicans (though most of them simply happened to have been born when the Southwest was still part of Mexico), and British. Some Southern propaganda compared foreign-born soldiers in the Union Army to the hated Hessians of the American Revolution. Also, a relatively small number of Native Americans (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek) fought for the Confederacy.

Army administration and issues

Various organizational and administrative issues arose during the war, which had a major effect on subsequent military procedures.

Blacks in the army

The inclusion of blacks as combat soldiers became a major issue. Eventually, it was realized, especially after the valiant effort of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Battle of Fort Wagner, that blacks were fully able to serve as competent and reliable soldiers. This was partly due to the efforts of Robert Smalls, who, while still a slave, won fame by defecting from the Confederacy, and bringing a Confederate transport ship which he was piloting. He later met with Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, to argue for including blacks in combat units. This led to the formation of the first combat unit for black soldiers, the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. Regiments for black soldiers were eventually referred to as United States Colored Troops. The blacks were paid less than white soldiers until late in the war and were treated harshly. This is one of the biggest reasons why they protested. Even after the end of the war, they were not permitted (by Sherman's order) to march in the great victory parade through Washington, DC.

Unit supplies

Battlefield supplies were a major problem. They were greatly improved by new techniques in preserving food and other perishables, and in transport by railroad. General Montgomery C. Meigs was one of the most important Union Army leaders in this field.

Combat medicine

Medical care was, at first, extremely disorganized and substandard. Gradually, medical experts began calling for higher standards, and created an agency known as the United States Sanitary Commission. This created professional standards, and led to some of the first advances in battlefield medicine as a separate specialty. General William Alexander Hammond of the Medical Corps did some major work and provided some important leadership in this area.

Additionally, care of the wounded was greatly improved by medical pioneers such as Clara Barton, who often worked alone to provide supplies and care, and brought a new level of dedication to caring for the wounded.

Military strategy

The Civil War drove many innovations in military strategy. W. J. Hardee published the first revised infantry tactics for use with modern rifles in 1855. However, even these tactics proved ineffective in combat, as it involved massed volley fire, in which entire units (primarily regiments) would fire simultaneously. These tactics had not been tested before in actual combat, and the commanders of these units would post their soldiers at incredibly close range, compared to the range of the rifled musket, which led to disastrous mortality rates. In a sense, the weapons had evolved beyond the tactics, which would soon change as the war drew to a close. Railroads provided the first mass movement of troops. The electric telegraph was used by both sides, which enabled political and senior military leaders to pass orders to and receive reports from commanders in the field.

There were many other innovations brought by necessity. Generals were forced to reexamine the offensive minded tactics developed during the Mexican–American War where attackers could mass to within 100 yards of the defensive lines, the maximum effective range of smoothbore muskets. Attackers would have to endure one volley of inaccurate smoothbore musket fire before they could close with the defenders. But by the civil War, the smoothbores had been replaced with rifled muskets, using the quick loadable minié ball, with accurate ranges up to 900 yards. Defense now dominated the battlefield. Now attackers, whether advancing in ordered lines or by rushes, were subjected to three or four aimed volleys before they could get among the defenders. This made offensive tactics that were successful only 20 years before nearly obsolete.

Desertions and draft riots

Desertion was a major problem for both sides. The daily hardships of war, forced marches, thirst, suffocating heat, disease, delay in pay, solicitude for family, impatience at the monotony and futility of inactive service, panic on the eve of battle, the sense of war weariness, the lack of confidence in commanders, and the discouragement of defeat (especially early on for the Union Army), all tended to lower the morale of the Union Army and to increase desertion.

In 1861 and 1862, the war was going badly for the Union Army and there were, by some counts, 180,000 desertions. In 1863 and 1864, the bitterest two years of the war, the Union Army suffered over 200 desertions every day, for a total of 150,000 desertions during those two years. This puts the total number of desertions from the Union Army during the four years of the war at nearly 350,000. Using these numbers, 15% of Union soldiers deserted during the war. Official numbers put the number of deserters from the Union Army at 200,000 for the entire war, or about 8% of Union Army soldiers. It is estimated that 1 out of 3 deserters returned to their regiments, either voluntarily or after being arrested and being sent back. Many of the desertions were by "professional" bounty men, men who would enlist to collect the often large cash bonuses and then desert at the earliest opportunity to do the same elsewhere. If not caught, it could prove a very lucrative criminal enterprise.

The Irish were also the main participants in the famous "New York Draft Riots" of 1863 (as dramatized in the film Gangs of New York). The Irish had shown the strongest support for Southern aims prior to the start of the war and had long had an enmity with black populations in several Northern cities dating back to nativist attacks on Irish immigrants in the 1840s, when it was observed that blacks, who rivaled the Irish at the bottom of the economic ladder, were frequently reported encouraging on nativist mobs.

With the view that the war was an upper class abolitionist war led in large part by former nativists to free a large black population, which might move north and compete for jobs and housing, the poorer classes did not welcome a draft, especially one from which a richer man could buy an exemption. As a result of the Enrollment Act, rioting began in several Northern cities, the most heavily hit being New York City. A mob reported as consisting principally of Irish immigrants rioted in the summer of 1863, with the worst violence occurring in July during the Battle of Gettysburg. The mob set fire to everything from African American churches and an orphanage for "colored children" as well as the homes of certain prominent Protestant abolitionists. A mob was reportedly repulsed from the offices of the staunchly pro-Union New York Tribune by workers wielding and firing two Gatling guns. The principal victims of the rioting were African Americans and activists in the anti-slavery movement. Not until victory was achieved at Gettysburg could the Union Army be sent in; some units had to open fire to quell the violence and stop the rioters. By the time the rioting was over, perhaps up to 1,000 people had been killed or wounded (estimates varied widely, now and then).

See also

Grand Army of the Republic

Military history of African Americans

Uniform of the Union Army

United States National Cemeteries

Hispanics in the American Civil War

Notes

References

Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. 2 vols. Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86. ISBN 0-914427-67-9.

Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers. New York: Free Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0-02-911815-3.

Hattaway, Herman, and Archer Jones. How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. ISBN 0-252-00918-5.

McPherson, James M. What They Fought For, 1861-1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8071-1904-4.

Further reading

Nevins, Allan. The War for the Union. Vol. 1, The Improvised War 1861 – 1862. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959. ISBN 0-684-10426-1.

Nevins, Allan. The War for the Union. Vol. 2, War Becomes Revolution 1862 – 1863. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1960. ISBN 1-56852-297-5.

Nevins, Allan. The War for the Union. Vol. 3, The Organized War 1863 – 1864. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. ISBN 0-684-10428-8.

Nevins, Allan. The War for the Union. Vol. 4, The Organized War to Victory 1864 – 1865. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. ISBN 1-56852-299-1.

Shannon, Fred A. The Organization and Administration of the Union Army 1861-1865. 2 vols. Gloucester, MA: P. Smith, 1965. . First published 1928 by A.H. Clark Co.

Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865 Organization and Operations. Vol. 1, The Eastern Theater. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-36453-1.

Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865 Organization and Operations. Vol. 2, The Western Theater. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-253-36454-X.

External links

Civil War Home: Ethnic groups in the Union Army

"The Common Soldier", HistoryNet

A Manual of Military Surgery, by Samuel D. Gross, MD (1861), the manual used by doctors in the Union Army.

U.S. Civil War Era Uniforms and Accouterments

Louis N. Rosenthal lithographs, depicting over 50 Union Army camps, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Official Army register of the Volunteer Force 1861; 1862; 1863; 1864; 1865

Civil War National Cemeteries

Christian Commission of Union Dead

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols 1-8

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols 9-12

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols 13-15

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols. 16-17

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols. 20-21

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols, 22-23

Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers who died in Defense of the Union Vols. 24-27

de:United States Army im Sezessionskrieg es:Ejército federal (Guerra Civil Estadounidense) fr:Armée de l'Union it:Esercito dell'Unione pl:Armia Unii pt:Exército da União

name	Andrew Klavan
birth place	New York City, New York, United States
occupation	Writer
website	http://www.andrewklavan.com}}

Andrew Klavan, (born 1954) is an American author and screenwriter of "tough-guy" mysteries and psychological thrillers. Two of Klavan's books have been adapted into motion pictures: True Crime (1999) and Don't Say A Word (2001). He has been nominated for the Edgar Award four times and has won twice. Playwright and novelist Laurence Klavan is his brother.

Early life

Klavan was born in New York City. His father was Gene Klavan, a New York City disk jockey and one-half of the radio show "Klavan and Finch." He grew up on Long Island with his three brothers. He was raised in the Jewish tradition by his parents, but he did not believe in any of the tenets of the faith and later said that he felt "dishonesty" and "shame" pretending to do so. He became an agnostic shortly after his Bar mitzvah. He later converted to Christianity.

He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he met his future wife, Ellen Flanagan. He dropped out of school temporarily to work in local radio news. He then worked as a reporter for a small Putnam County, New York newspaper, as a reader for Columbia Pictures, and as a news writer for both WOR Radio and the ABC Radio Network. At this time, he self-identified as a liberal while opposing some policies, such as Affirmative Action.

Career

Klavan wrote his first novel, Face of the Earth, in 1977. He then moved to Putnam County, New York, where he worked as a reporter for a local newspaper. His experience covering local crime later formed the basis for his novel Corruption.

After Face of the Earth was published, Klavan returned to New York, where he took a series of jobs (as a script reader for Columbia Pictures and a news writer for WOR Radio and ABC Radio Networks) while writing mysteries and freelance book reviews. During this time he wrote The Scarred Man using the pseudonym Keith Peterson. Klavan's book, The Rain, won an Edgar Award for Best Original Paperback.

He also began to write supernatural thrillers, publishing such novels as The Animal Hour, Don't Say A Word — which was also nominated for an Edgar — and Corruption, and wrote the screenplay for the film version of Simon Brett's novel A Shock to the System.

Klavan and his family then moved to London, where he wrote True Crime, and two other novels. After seven years, he moved back to the United States, settling in Santa Barbara, California, where he completed the novel Man and Wife (currently in motion picture development), and wrote his Weiss/Bishop trilogy: Dynamite Road, Shotgun Alley, and Damnation Street.

In 2008, he released a war-on-terror political novel, Empire of Lies. In 2009, he published The Last Thing I Remember, a thriller aimed at young adults.

Klavan has been a regular contributor of short video commentaries under the general title "Klavan on Culture", posted at PJTV.com. He also became a contributor to the center-right social networking and blogging Web site Ricochet.com on May 17, 2010.

Political philosophy

Identifying himself as a conservative, Klavan has expressed the view that "rightists" are the victims of discrimination in Hollywood. In his view, people in the American arts are not fulfilling their inherent role of "speaking truth to power," since they are not willing to criticize those of the Left in power. In July 2008, he likened George W. Bush to Batman in The Dark Knight, starting with their public vilification. The article set off a firestorm of criticism.

Klavan has said,

Bibliography

Face of the Earth (1977)

Agnes Mallory (1985)

Mrs. White (1987) (as Margaret Tracy, with Laurence Klavan)

There Fell A Shadow (1988) (as Keith Peterson)

The Rain (1988) (as Keith Peterson)

Darling Clementine (1988)

The Trap Door (1988) (as Keith Peterson)

Son of Man (1988)

The Scarred Man (1989) (as Keith Peterson)

Rough Justice (1989) (as Keith Peterson)

Don't Say a Word (1991)

The Animal Hour (1992)

Corruption (1993)

True Crime (1995)

Suicide (1995)

The Uncanny (1998)

Hunting Down Amanda (1999)

Man and Wife (2001)

Dynamite Road (2003)

Shotgun Alley (2004)

Damnation Street (2006)

Empire of Lies (2008)

The Homelanders: The Last Thing I Remember (2009)

The Homelanders: The Long Way Home (2010)

The Homelanders: The Truth of the Matter (2010)

The Identity Man (2010)

The Homelanders: The Final Hour (2011)

Schizophrenia (2012)

Filmography

White of the Eye (film) (1987)

''A Shock to the Call (2008) (Screenplay)

References

External links

Klavan, Andrew Crime Time Interview

Apuzzo, Jason. Liberty Film Festival

Curtis, Brian. "Do You Fear Me Now?" Slate, February 2006

Klavan, Andrew. "Clinton Doth Protest Too Much." Los Angeles Times, September 2006

Category:1954 births Category:American novelists Category:American bloggers Category:American screenwriters Category:Converts to Christianity from Judaism Category:Former atheists and agnostics Category:Living people Category:People from New York City Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

it:Andrew Klavan

name	Tom Morello
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Baptiste Morello
born	May 30, 1964 Harlem, New York
alias	The Nightwatchman
genre	Alternative metal, rap metal, funk metal, alternative rock, folk rock, hard rock
occupation	Musician, songwriter, activist, actor
instrument	Guitar, vocals, harmonica, mandolin, bass guitar, drums, piano, banjo
associated acts	Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman, Street Sweeper Social Club, Lock Up, Class of '99, Cypress Hill, Axis of Justice, Electric Sheep, Travis Barker
label	SonyBMG, Epic, Interscope
years active	1979–present
notable instruments	"Arm the Homeless" - Custom guitar with a Kramer neck and custom performance body."Soul Power" - Custom Fender Stratocaster"Sendero Luminoso" - Fender Telecaster "Burnt Budweiser" - Gibson Les Paul "Whatever It Takes" - Ibanez classical acoustic Ibanez Artstar Hollowbody (Custom). }}

Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello (born May 30, 1964) is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club. Tom is also the co-founder (along with Serj Tankian) of the non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice, which airs monthly on KPFK 90.7FM in Los Angeles. He is best-known for his unique and creative guitar playing style, which incorporates feedback noises, unconventional picking and tapping as well as heavy use of guitar effects. He was ranked #26 in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Early life

Tom Morello was born on May 30, 1964, in Harlem, New York, to Ngethe Njoroge and Mary Morello. He is of Irish and Italian descent on his maternal side, and Kikuyu Kenyan descent on his paternal side. His mother was a schoolteacher from Marseilles, Illinois, who earned a Master of Arts at Loyola University, Chicago and travelled to Germany, Spain, Japan, and Kenya as an English language teacher between 1977 to 1983. His father was a Kenyan participant in the Mau Mau Uprising, and served as Kenya's first ambassador to the United Nations. Morello's paternal uncle, Jomo Kenyatta, was the first elected president in Kenyan history. His parents met in August 1963, while attending a pro-democracy protest in Nairobi, Kenya, and Morello was conceived the first night they made love in a hut. After discovering her pregnancy, Mary returned to the United States with Njoroge in November, and married in New York City.

When Morello was 16 months old, Njoroge returned to his native Kenya, and denied his paternity of his son. Morello was raised solely by his mother in Libertyville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. There he attended Libertyville High School, where his mother was a U.S. history teacher. She was the homeroom teacher for Tom's classmate and fellow guitarist Adam Jones, of the band Tool, while teaching at Libertyville. Tom sang in the school choir and was active in speech and drama club; a prominent role was Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Morello developed leftist political leanings early, and has described himself as having been "the only anarchist in a conservative high school", and has since identified as a nonsectarian socialist. In the 1980 mock elections at Libertyville, he campaigned for a fictitious anarchist "candidate" named Hubie Maxwell, who came in fourth place in the election. He also wrote a piece headlined "South Africa: Racist Fascism That We Support" for the school alternative newspaper The Student Pulse.

Morello graduated from high school with honors in June 1982, and enrolled at Harvard University as a political science student that autumn. He was the first student at his high school to be accepted at Harvard, and was in fact the first person from Libertyville, Illinois ever to enroll there. Morello graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies from Harvard. He moved to Los Angeles, where he first supported himself by working as an exotic male stripper.

"When I graduated from Harvard and moved to Hollywood, I was unemployable. I was literally starving, so I had to work menial labour and, at one point, I even worked as an exotic dancer. 'Brick House' (by The Commodores) was my jam! I did bachlorette parties and I'd go down to my boxer shorts. Would I go further? All I can say is thank God it was in the time before YouTube! You could make decent money doing that job – people do what they have to do. "

Adam Jones moved to Los Angeles as well; Morello introduced Jones and Maynard James Keenan to Danny Carey, who would come to form the band Tool.

From 1987 to 1988, Morello worked in the office of California Democratic Senator Alan Cranston; however, this proved to be a negative experience for Morello, who decided never to pursue a career in politics.

"I never had any real desire to work in politics but if there was any ember burning in me, it was extinguished working in that job because of two things: one of them was the fact that 80 per cent of the time I spent with the Senator, he was on the phone asking rich people for money. It just made me understand that the whole business was dirty. He had to compromise his entire being every day. The other was the time a woman phoned up to the office and wanted to complain that there were Mexicans moving into her neighborhood. I said to her, 'Ma'am, you're a damn racist,' and she was indignant. I thought I was representing our cause well, but I got yelled at for a week by everyone for saying that! I thought to myself that if I'm in a job where I can't call a damn racist a damn racist, then it's not for me. "

Musical influences

At age 13, Morello joined his first band; a Led Zeppelin cover band as the lead singer. At this same age, Morello purchased his first guitar. Around 1984, Morello first started studying the guitar seriously. He had formed a band in the same year called the Electric Sheep which featured future Tool guitarist Adam Jones on bass. The band wrote original material that included politically charged lyrics. None of the songs composed by the Sheep contained solos; soloing was a skill that Morello began learning in college.

At the time, Morello's musical tastes lay in the direction of hard rock and heavy metal, particularly Kiss, Iron Maiden. As he stated in Flight 666 he is a huge fan of Piece of Mind, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. Morello developed his own unique sound through the electric guitar. Later, his musical style and politics were greatly influenced by punk rock bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and Devo.

Recording career

Rage Against the Machine (1991–2000; 2007–present)

In 1991 Tom was looking to form an old band after Lock Up disbanded. Tom was impressed by Zack de la Rocha's freestyle rapping and asked him to join his band. He also drafted drummer Brad Wilk, who he knew from his band Lock Up, where Wilk unsuccessfully auditioned for a drumming spot. The band's lineup was completed when Zack convinced his childhood friend Tim Commerford to play bass. After frequenting the L.A. club circuit, Rage Against the Machine signed a record deal with Epic Records in 1992. That same year, the band released their self titled debut. They achieved a considerable amount of mainstream success and released three more studio albums.

In August 2000 in Los Angeles during the Democratic National Convention, Rage Against the Machine performed outside the Staples Center to a large crowd numbering in the thousands while the Convention took place inside. After several audience members began to throw rocks, the Los Angeles Police Department turned off the power and ordered the audience to disperse, firing rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd.

In late 2000, after Commerford's stunt at the VMA's, the disgruntled de la Rocha quit the band. On September 13, 2000, Rage Against the Machine performed their last concert at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. After the band disbanded, their fourth studio album, Renegades, became a collection of cover songs from artists such as Bob Dylan, MC5, Bruce Springsteen and Cypress Hill. 2003 saw the release of their last album, titled Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, an edited recording of the band's final two concerts on September 12 and 13, 2000 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was accompanied by an expanded DVD release of the last show and included a previously unreleased music video for "Bombtrack".

After disbanding, Morello, Wilk and Commerford went on to form Audioslave with former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, and released three albums as well as a DVD from the band's concert in Cuba. De la Rocha started working on a solo album collaboration with DJ Shadow, Company Flow, and The Roots' Questlove, but the project was dropped in favor of working with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. Recording was completed, but the album will probably never be released. So far, only one track has been released: "We Want It All" was featured on "Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11".

On April 29, 2007, Rage Against the Machine reunited at the Coachella Music Festival. The band played in front of an EZLN backdrop to the largest crowds of the festival. The performance was initially thought to be a one-off, but this turned out not to be the case. The band played 7 more shows in the United States in 2007 (including their first non-festival concert in 7 years at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin), and in January 2008, they played their first shows outside the US since re-forming as part of the Big Day Out Festival in Australia and New Zealand. In August 2008 they headlined nights at the Reading and Leeds festivals.

The band has since continued to tour around the world, headlining many large festivals in Europe and the United States, including Lollapalooza in Chicago. In 2008 the band also played shows in Denver, Colorado and Minneapolis, Minnesota to coincide with the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention, respectively. Though they played together for these events, they do not play together regularly.

Audioslave (2001–2007)

After de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, the remaining band mates began collaborating with former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell at the suggestion of producer Rick Rubin. The new group was first rumored to be called The Civilian Project, but the name Audioslave was confirmed before their first album was released.

The band released their eponymous debut album on November 19, 2002. It was a critical and commercial success, attaining triple-platinum status.

The band released their second album, Out of Exile, on May 24, 2005. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts and attained platinum status. In the same year, they released a DVD documenting their trip as the first American rock band to play a free show in Cuba. The band's third album, Revelations, was released in the fall of 2006. As of February 15, 2007, Audioslave have broken up as a result of frontman Cornell's departure due to "irresolvable personality conflicts". The band reunited with Zack de la Rocha and resumed their previous band, Rage Against the Machine.

The Nightwatchman (2003–present)

Morello is less known for his folk music, which he plays under the alias The Nightwatchman. He has explained:

In November 2003 The Nightwatchman joined artists Billy Bragg, Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers, Steve Earle, Jill Sobule, Boots Riley of The Coup and Mike Mills of R.E.M. on the Tell Us the Truth Tour. The thirteen-city tour was supported by unions, environmental and media reform groups including Common Cause, Free Press and A.F.L.-C.I.O. with the ultimate goal of "informing music fans, and exposing and challenging the failures of the major media outlets in the United States." Tom Morello explained:

"Media consolidation needs smashing and globalization needs unmasking. When presidents and politicians lie, it is the job of the press to expose those lies. When the press fails, the gangstas come out from hiding. The lie becomes the law. The point of the Tell Us the Truth Tour is to help others make connections, and to show them that activism can change the policies of this country."

One of his many songs, "No One Left", which compares the aftermath of September 11 to that of a U.S. attack on Iraq, appears on the album Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11.

The Nightwatchman also appeared on the album/DVD Axis Of Justice: Concert Series Volume 1, contributing the songs "Until the End", "The Road I Must Travel", and "Union Song".

Morello, as The Nightwatchman, released his debut solo album, One Man Revolution, on April 24, 2007.

The Nightwatchman joined the Dave Matthews Band for its short European tour in May 2007. As well as opening for the Dave Matthews Band, he was invited to guest on a couple of songs each night. The last night of this Morello/DMB arrangement was May 30, 2007 at Wembley Arena in London, on Tom's birthday.

The Nightwatchman is currently supporting Ben Harper on tour. During this tour, Morello has been joining Harper onstage for a cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", on which he plays the electric guitar in the style for which he's best known.

Morello has presided over a Hotel Café residency in L.A. since November 2007, which has featured many of his musical cohorts, including Serj Tankian, Perry Farrell, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, Shooter Jennings, Nuno Bettencourt, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Jill Sobule, Boots Riley, Alexi Murdoch, Wayne Kramer of MC5 and others.

On October 10, 2008, The Nightwatchman appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson as a musical guest, promoting his new album The Fabled City.

Street Sweeper Social Club (2006–present)

Following Audioslave's breakup in 2007, Morello met up with Boots Riley of The Coup, suggesting that they start a band which Morello had named Street Sweeper. After giving Riley a tape of various songs to write to, the two created the duo Street Sweeper Social Club.

Street Sweeper Social Club opened for Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction in May 2009.

Other side projects (1994–present)

Morello has played with a great number of artists. Some of the more notable contributions are listed below.

Morello and RATM bandmate Brad Wilk joined with Maynard James Keenan of Tool and Billy Gould of Faith No More to record the song "Calling Dr. Love" for the 1994 Kiss tribute album Kiss My Ass. The lineup was billed as Shandi's Addiction.

In 1995 Morello formed a short-lived project called Weatherman with former Articles of Faith frontman Vic Bondi. They recorded demos in September 1995. Bondi wrote all the lyrics, while Morello wrote all the music. One track, "Enola Gay", was recorded by Brett Eliason in fall 1996.

Morello played lead guitar and produced on three tracks of Primus' 1999 studio album Antipop.

Morello played the guitar on The Faculty soundtrack, featured with Class of '99 for their cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (pt. 2)".

Morello worked with The Crystal Method on their 2001 album Tweekend. He co-produced and played guitars on the smash single "Name of the Game" and "Wild, Sweet and Cool".

Morello recorded guitars along with country legend Johnny Cash during his late career with American Recordings, which was released on the Unearthed.

Morello has worked with the punk band Anti-Flag on numerous occasions: he produced their 2003 album The Terror State, recorded the guitar solo on "Depleted Uranium is a War Crime" on their 2006 album For Blood & Empire, and has played at some of their concerts.

Morello played guitar in the single "One Man Army" by The Prodigy, which appears on the Spawn Soundtrack and on the "Smack My Bitch Up" single as an instrumental version.

Morello played guitar on the Atari Teenage Riot song Rage.

Morello played a short solo on the Benny Mason band song Exodus IV.

As The Nightwatchman, Morello has often performed alongside Boots Riley, frontman of The Coup; also, he produced and performed on a track for The Coup's 2006 release Pick a Bigger Weapon. In July 2006, it was reported that Morello and Riley were to collaborate on a project called Street Sweepers (see section above).

Morello sat in with the Dave Matthews Band featuring Butch Taylor and Rashawn Ross for multiple dates on the band's May 2007 stint in Europe. He performed on "#41", "American Baby Intro" and "Satellite" at various dates on the brief tour.

Morello appears in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as a "guitar boss" (the first of 3 in the career mode of the game) in a night club. Beating him in a one-on-one battle (playing an original composition he recorded for the game) will unlock him as a playable character and will result in the player and Tom playing the master track of "Bulls on Parade" as an encore immediately following the battle. Morello's original composition features many of his trademark guitar effects like those heard in songs such as Audioslave's "Cochise" and "Doesn't Remind Me" and Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" and "Sleep Now in the Fire".

In April 2006, Morello produced two tracks for the group Outernational; on the band's website, it states that Morello will be producing their debut album.

In April 2008, Morello made two guest appearances with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Anaheim Pond. They performed an extended electric version, featuring guitar solos, of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (which had been previously covered by Rage Against the Machine on Renegades). One of these performance was included on Springsteen's Magic Tour Highlights EP as an audio track or video download.

On October 29, 2009 Morello performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden. He performed "The Ghost of Tom Joad", "London Calling", "Badlands" and "Higher and Higher" with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Morello performed on Steve Earle's track, "Lungs," on Earle's Townes Van Zandt tribute album, Townes (album).

On February 23, 2010 Cypress Hill released the second single, "Rise Up", from their album Rise Up featuring Tom Morello on guitar. He is also featured on the track "Shut 'Em Down" from the same album.

Morello performed with the rockabilly supergroup Fistful of Mercy on the November 10, 2010 edition of Conan.

Morello performed on Serj Tankian's "Goodbye - Gate 21".

Appearances in films

Morello played on a number of soundtracks, including Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Spider-Man, and most recently The A-Team. He was an "Additional Electric Guitar" in the 2008 superhero movie Iron Man and played a terrorist. He also stars in the movie Berkeley (2005) and in Star Trek: Insurrection. He also collaborated with John Debney for the score for Iron Man 2

Additionally, Morello has appeared as himself in an array of documentary films; such as Sounds Like a Revolution, Iron Maiden: Flight 666, about heavy metal band Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, and in Chevolution, an exposé about the famous Guerrillero Heroico photo of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

Guitar playing technique

Morello is famed for his guitar style, which consists of heavy metal/punk hybrid riffs and hip hop-inspired sounds. Matthew Bellamy of the British band Muse has cited Morello as an influence, which can be heard in his use of pitch-shifting in solos.

To produce his alien guitar sounds, Morello chooses various effects pedals. During his tenure in RATM, he used a Dunlop Cry Baby, a Digitech WH-1 Whammy, a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay, a DOD EQ pedal (set flat and just used to boost the volume during guitar solos or particular rocking moments), and an Ibanez DFL Flanger. Around the time of The Battle of Los Angeles he added a Boss TR-2 Tremolo pedal (which can be heard on "Guerrilla Radio"). For Audioslave, Morello replaced the Ibanez Flanger with a MXR Phase 90. His amplifier of choice has always been a 50-watt Marshall JCM 800 2205 and a Peavey 4x12 cabinet. Though the Marshall is his amp of choice with Rage Against the Machine, he used a Vox AC30 combo amplifier for multiple overdubs on Audioslave's album Revelations. While the Marshall amplifier has two channels, he only uses the overdrive channel, and simply turns down the volume on his guitar to get cleaner sounds.

In the studio, Morello uses the same setup for the bulk of the guitar tracks. For The Battle of Los Angeles, he also used a few other amps, such as a Line 6 as heard on the clean, spacey intro of "Mic Check", plus a Pignose mini-amp and a MusicMan "Twin" style amp. During the recording of Audioslave's last album, Revelations, Morello experimented with different amplifier setups. For the title track's solo he split his signal to his standard Marshall 2205 head and Peavey cabinet and a 100 watt Fender Bassman head and an Orange cabinet. With delay sent to one while the other is unaffected the sound is being "ping-ponged" between the two amplifiers. He also borrowed a VOX AC30 amplifier from producer Brendan O’Brien for some tracks.

Morello's unique technique and talent led to him being voted the fifth greatest guitarist of the past 30 years in a 2010 BBC poll.

Politics

Activism

On August 27, 2008 Morello performed in Denver, Colorado at the Open The Debates rally in opposition to the Commission on Presidential Debates exclusion of third party candidates from the nationally televised debates. He performed "This Land is Your Land" as The Nightwatchman and endorsed Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader. Sean Penn, Jello Biafra, Brooke Smith and Cindy Sheehan were also part of the rally.

In October 2009, Morello, among a number of musicians, sued the US government for the declassification of all documents relating to the use of music in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. He stated, "Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured -- from waterboarding to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts -- playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums. Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney's idea of America, but it's not mine. The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me."

On February 21, 2011 Morello organized and performed an acoustic concert in support of the protests over collective bargaining rights in Madison, WI. The concert also featured The MC5's Wayne Kramer and Boston punk band Street Dogs. He wrote an article in Rolling Stone about his experience.

Axis of Justice

Morello and Serj Tankian of System of a Down are the co-founders of Axis of Justice, a political group whose declared purpose is "to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice together." They "aim to build a bridge between fans of music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice." The group has worked for such causes as immigrant rights and death-penalty abolition. Its recommended book list includes such authors as Noam Chomsky, Karl Marx, Che Guevara, George Orwell, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Grant Morrison.

Morello and Tankian, together with a handful of other artists, including Maynard James Keenan, Wayne Kramer of the MC5, the hip hop group Jurassic 5, and Michael "Flea" Balzary of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released a live recording of covers and original songs, titled The Axis of Justice Concert Series Volume 1.

On April 6, 2006, Tom Morello was honored with the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award for his support of worker's rights and for his AOJ work. Tom has worked on numerous labor campaigns: the Guess sweatshop boycott, the LA janitors strike, the Taco Bell boycott, the southern California grocery workers strike and lockout, and others.

Morello was a strong supporter of the Immigrants Reform Rally and protest around the US. He feels that there's enough room for everyone in the United States, whether those people want to work or not. Morello played as The Nightwatchman at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles and has featured many articles on AOJ. On September 28, 2006, Morello was one of 400 protesters arrested protesting in support of immigrant hotel workers' rights, in what organizers called "the largest act of civil disobedience in the history of the Los Angeles". Morello knew he was going to be arrested; he wore bright yellow signs, and gave the LAPD his driver's license number a few days before the march. Morello told MTV:

Personal life

Tom Morello has a son called Rhodes Morello, he stated this on one of his "The NightWatchman Speaks" videos on his YouTube channel. Morello is a vegetarian for both health and ethical reasons.

Equipment

Guitars

Morello uses heavily modified guitars from various manufacturers, but he has never had an official endorsement deal with any company.

Mongrel Custom "Arm The Homeless" - Morello's most famous guitar, and his main guitar for standard tuning since 1991. The original guitar was made by Performance Guitar USA for Morello to his exact specifications. It featured a Stratocaster body with a Performance Corsair neck, 2 Seymour Duncan JB pickups and A chrome original Floyd Rose tremolo system. However, when he got the guitar he hated everything about it and completely reassembled it. Since then just about everything has been changed countless times. The only thing that remains from the original guitar is the body. The body is blue with the words "Arm the Homeless" written on it in black and red. It has a 3-way toggle switch (pickup selector) mounted on the lower horn, 2 volume knobs and 1 tone knob, 4 Hippos (painted) on the front, one large hippo (upside down) painted on the back, and a hammer and sickle symbol sticker. The neck is a 22 fret Performance guitar neck with a rosewood board and a "banana" headstock. It also has Gotoh Crownhead tuners. It has an EMG 81/EMG H set of pickups and a Ibanez Edge Floyd Rose Tremolo. The guitar is tuned to standard E. This guitar is available in the video game Guitar Hero 3:Legends of Rock.

Fender Stratocaster "Soul Power" - Originally made as a Factory Special Run for Guitar Center, Morello found it on the rack and really liked the look of it. It has a black finish with white binding and a color-matched headstock. It also has a mirror pickguard, Ibanez Edge Floyd Rose Tremolo, a 2-way on/off toggle switch wired as a kill switch, a Seymour Duncan Hotrails pickup in the bridge and Fender Noiseless pickups in the middle and neck positions. It has the words "Soul Power" on the top of the body in silver paint and is his main guitar in Audioslave for songs that are in standard E tuning.

Fender Telecaster, "Sendero Luminoso" - A black stock 1982 Standard Telecaster, his main guitar for use in drop-D in Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and Street Sweeper Social Club. He got this guitar in a trade with his roommate. The guitar has various stickers on its body, most notably the words "sendero luminoso" in white and red.

Fender telecaster 2. Black with white binding, mirror pickguard and toggle switch on the lower horn. Tom used this guitar when he played with Fistful of mercy on Conan.

Ibanez Artstar Hollowbody (Custom) - Made especially for Morello. Based on an old Vox Ultrasonic, it contains several on-board effects (wah, echo, dist, treble/bass boost) and is painted red and black paint. Used live on the song "Guerrilla Radio" by Rage Against the Machine but rarely seen anywhere else, until it was used in the video clip for Cypress Hill's "Rise Up".

Goya Rangemaster de Greco, "St. George Creamy" - Bought by Morello at a Canadian pawnshop for $60. It was modified with a Seymour Duncan hotrails pickup in the bridge position. A toggle switch was also added that is dead in the middle position, resulting in a "hummingbird chirp" when toggled. Used as a drop D guitar for some songs on the Rage Against The Machine record Evil Empire. Used in Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave.

Ibanez Talman (Custom) - Has 3 single coil "lipstick" pickups, an Ibanez Lo-Pro Edge tremolo, and a killswitch. It has a custom Kenyan flag finish and was used on "Revolver", "How I Could Just Kill a Man", and "Pistol Grip Pump" for Rage Against the Machine and "Exploder" for Audioslave. The guitar has a faulty internal pickup which makes odd feedback noises, which Tom adjusts by tweaking the tone knob and using the guitars tremolo. This technique can be heard at the beginning of Rage Against the Machine's "Revolver", Audioslave's "Exploder", and the live version of Street Sweeper Social Club's Promenade. Tom owns a second Talman, in a white finish, with two humbuckers.

Gibson EDS-1275 (Double Neck SG) - Tuned to drop-D on the 6-string neck, and only seen used live on "The Ghost of Tom Joad".

Ovation Breadwinner - Tuned to standard E, used for "Ashes in the Fall" for Rage Against the Machine. Also used with a MusicMan amp and Tone Bender pedal to capture the Korean radio station audio heard at the end of "Sleep Now in the Fire".He owns 2 others and confines them to the studio because he thinks they look ugly. Morello used one of these guitars in the video for Travis Barker's "Carry It", which he is featured in.

Gibson "Budweiser" Les Paul - Used during the recording of Audioslave's third album, Revelations. Originally bearing an orange Budweiser logo that Morello hated and burned off with a lighter. He liked the new appearance and modified the guitar with DiMarzio pickups. Drop-D tuning.

Gibson Les Paul Standard, #1 - orange burst finish. Tuned to drop-B for use in Audioslave and Street sweeper social club.

James Trussart Steelcaster - A Telecaster style guitar with a body made in steel, finished with a red star graphic over a holey front. Has Seymour Duncan pickups ( Alnico pro II in neck and a Hot rails in bridge). Seen occasionally on the Rage Against the Machine reunion tour, Tom also owns one with polished finish that was used on early tours.

Ibanez roadstar- Tom's backup guitar for arm the homeless. It has all the same specs as arm the homeless (light blue finish, edge trem, toggle switch on the bottom horn, emg pickups etc.) but has several small hippo stickers instead of the 4 larger ones seen on the original guitar. This guitar can be seen briefly in the "sleep now in the fire" music video.

"Whatever It Takes" guitar - A custom Ibanez Galvador classical acoustic guitar he uses during concerts as The Nightwatchman. Plain body with 'Whatever It Takes ((star))' left of the bridge.

Tanglewood Acoustic Guitar.

Note: The drop B tuning used by Tom is different to normal drop B. Tom uses the guitar in standard tuning but drops the low E down to a B.

Effects and amplifiers

Morello's amplifier and effects setup has been practically the same throughout his career in Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and Street Sweeper Social Club.

;Pedalboard:

DigiTech Whammy WH-1

Dunlop Cry Baby (from the mid 80's)

Boss DD-2 Digital Delay

Boss TR-2 Tremolo

DOD FX40b Equalizer

Ibanez DFL Flanger

MXR Phase 90 (Replaced the Ibanez Flanger for Audioslave)

;Amplification:

Marshall JCM800 2205 50-watt head (with the Marshall logo blocked out to avoid endorsment proposals)

Peavey 4x12 Cabinet

Selected discography

The Nightwatchman is the alter ego of Tom Morello, guitarist with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. While Morello is best known for his bracing mix of hard rock fury with hip-hop accents, as the Nightwatchman he performs as a solo acoustic singer and songwriter, playing self-penned songs that reflect his leftist political beliefs. Born in New York City in 1964 and raised in Libertyville, IL, by his mother (a longtime political activist), Morello taught himself to play guitar while he was a student at Harvard University, where he received a degree in political science. After graduating, Morello moved to Los Angeles and joined a hard rock band called Lock Up, which scored a deal with Geffen Records; however, Lock Up's sole album, released in 1989, sank without a trace and they soon broke up.

Morello had much better luck with his next project — Rage Against the Machine, which fused hip-hop rhythms and fractured heavy metal guitar sounds alongside Zack de la Rocha's agitprop lyrics. RATM released their first album in 1992, and became one of the most influential bands of the 1990s, blazing the trail for the rap-metal movement and confirming that there was still room for firebrand politics in mainstream rock & roll. Rage Against the Machine split up suddenly in 2000 following the release of their album Renegades, and Morello and his bandmates Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk soldiered on as Audioslave with former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell.

In 2003, inspired by Bob Dylan's early work and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska and outraged by the administration of George W. Bush, Morello began writing topical songs and singing them at informal shows in California coffeehouses. Calling himself the Nightwatchman, Morello admits to having severe stage fright during his first appearances as a vocalist, but before long he gained confidence and in 2004 the Nightwatchman took part in the Tell Us the Truth tour, a series of concerts (also featuring Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, and Boots Riley of the Coup) staged to raise awareness during the 2004 presidential campaign; an album was released from the tour's recordings, featuring two songs from Morello.

A few months later, the Nightwatchman emerged again on Axis of Justice: Concert Series, Vol. 1, another live album drawn from a series of benefit concerts for Axis of Justice, a political activist group founded by Morello and Serj Tankian of System of a Down. Morello continued performing as the Nightwatchman when not busy with Audioslave, and in 2006 he recorded the Nightwatchman's first album, One Man Revolution, produced by Brendan O'Brien and released in April 2007. Lock Up

Something Bitchin' This Way Comes (1989)

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine (1992) US 3x Platinum

Evil Empire (1996) US 3x Platinum

Live & Rare (1998)

The Battle of Los Angeles, (1999) US 2x Platinum

Renegades (2000) US Platinum

Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (2003)

Audioslave

Audioslave (2002) US 3x Platinum

Out of Exile (2005) US Platinum

Revelations (2006) US Gold

The Nightwatchman

One Man Revolution (2007)

The Fabled City (2008)

Union Town (2011)

World Wide Rebel Songs (2011)

Street Sweeper Social Club

Street Sweeper Social Club (2009)

The Ghetto Blaster EP (2010)

Filmography

Saturday Night Live (Episode #21.17, 1996) .... Musical Guest (Rage Against the Machine)

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) (uncredited) .... Son'a officer

Star Trek: Voyager (Season 6, Episode 20, 2000, "Good Shepherd") .... Crewman Mitchell

Made (2001) .... Best Man

Berkeley (2005) .... Blue

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (2005) ... As Himself

Iron Man (2008) .... Insurgent #5

Chevolution (2008)... As Himself

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009) .... As Himself

Iron Man 2 (2010) .... Insurgent #5

References

External links

The Nightwatchman

Sandmonkey Lives (!)

Axis of Justice

Video of Tom Morello's network TV debut of "House Gone Up in Flames"

"The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", Rolling Stone, August 27, 2003. Accessed May 30, 2011.

Listen online: Tom Morello On Corporate Imperialism

Performing live at SXSW 2007 on 89.3 The Current

Tom Morello on The Hour

It’s Guitarist Tom Morello - video report by Democracy Now!

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name	The Nightwatchman
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Baptiste Morello
born	May 30, 1964New York City
origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
instrument	Guitar, harmonica, mandolin, vocals
genre	Folk rock, acoustic rock, anti-folk, protest music
occupation	Musician, songwriter, activist
years active	2003–present
label	Epic
associated acts	Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club, The Freedom Fighters Orchestra, Serj Tankian, Shooter Jennings, Perry Farrell, Axis of Justice, Lock Up, Electric Sheep
website	Official Website
notable instruments	Whatever It Takes Plain body, nylon string acoustic guitar Arm the Homeless Custom built electric guitar }}

The Nightwatchman is the alter-ego and solo act of Rage Against the Machine, Street Sweeper Social Club and former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. It was formed in 2003 as an outlet for his political views while he was playing apolitical music with Audioslave.

Career

Early career

Morello created the identity of The Nightwatchman when a desire to return to political activism in his music struck him in 2003, after over a year of playing non-activist rock in Audioslave. Morello describes The Nightwatchman as "the black Robin Hood of 21st century music" and "a reaction against illicit wars, a reaction against first strikes, torture, secret prisons, spying illegally on American citizens. It's a reaction against war crimes, and it's a reaction against a few corporations that grow rich [off] this illicit war while people beg for food in the city streets." More specifically, he later elaborated that the format was inspired by long-time social and political activist/musician Billy Bragg. Morello first saw him performing at a concert c. 1994, playing "fearlessly" before a crowd of 8,000 people in a tent alongside big-name rock bands of the time. The Nightwatchman first began playing political acoustic folk music in a Los Angeles coffeehouse before a small crowd, and soon after went on Billy Bragg's Tell Us the Truth tour.

The Tell Us the Truth tour was supported by unions, environmental and media reform groups including Common Cause, Free Press and A.F.L.-C.I.O. with the ultimate goal of "informing music fans, and exposing and challenging the failures of the major media outlets in the United States." His Nightwatchman persona has been compared to Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. He initially had no plans to record, but later recorded the song "No One Left" for Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11. At the Festival of Bonnaroo in 2007, The Nightwatchman performed "Guerilla Radio" to protest George W. Bush.

One Man Revolution

In February 2007, he announced a solo album, One Man Revolution, which was released on April 24, 2007 in the US and May 7 worldwide. The Nightwatchman's first headlining gig was played June 17, 2007 at the House of Blues in Dallas, Texas. Morello has toured since the CD was released and said he plans to tour the U.S. again in the fall. After seeing an early screening of the Michael Moore film Sicko Morello wrote the song, "Alone Without You" which featured in closing credits of the film and also with a music video directed by Moore in the DVD release. The song was also made available as an iTunes bonus track for One Man Revolution. Morello toured in support of the album as the opening act for Ben Harper During this tour, Morello joined Harper onstage on several occasions for a cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", on which he plays the electric guitar in the style for which he's best known. Other prominent musicians who Morello shared the stage with during the One Man Revolution tour includes, Serj Tankian, Perry Farrell, Jon Foreman from Switchfoot, Shooter Jennings, Nuno Bettencourt, Sen Dog from Cypress Hill, Jill Sobule, Boots Riley, Alexi Murdoch, Wayne Kramer from MC5, Slash and many others.

The Fabled City

The album The Fabled City was released on 30 September 2008. Two songs off the record, "Midnight in the City of Destruction" (about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina) and "King Of Hell" (written about Guantanamo Bay), had previously been leaked on The Nightwatchman MySpace or performed live during live sets.

So far The Satellite Party's Carl Restivo has been confirmed to be part of The Freedom Fighters as a second guitarist. To promote the new album Morello and the band appeared both on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien before heading out on 'The Fabled City tour', an eighteen stop tour in the United States.

World Wide Rebel Songs

To support the many unions affected by the anti-negotiation/bargaining laws due to the 2011 Wisconsin budget protests, Morello performed outside the Madison Capitol building on February 21, 2011, to rousing support. He also teamed up with fellow rock musician Wayne Kramer in support of the protesters performing the title song of his upcoming album, World Wide Rebel Songs.

On The Nightwatchman website, it was announced that Morello has signed with the label New West Records to release his third album as The Nightwatchman moniker, World Wide Rebel Songs, due out on August 30, 2011.

Morello released his EP Union Town on May 17, 2011. All proceeds of the EP sales will go to benefit The America Votes Labor Unity Fund.

The Freedom Fighters Orchestra

;Current members

Tom Morello – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitar

Carl Restivo – electric guitar, backing vocals

Robbie Seahag Mangano - bass guitar, backing vocals

Eric Gardner - drums, backing vocals

;Other contributors

Flea – bass at The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

Breckin Meyer – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Dave Gibbs – bass guitar, backing vocals

Discography

Studio albums

! Year	Title
2007	One Man Revolution	*Released: April 24, 2007	*Label: Epic Records	Compact Disc>CD
2008	The Fabled City	*Released: September 30, 2008	*Label: Epic Records	*Formats: CD
2011		*Released: May 17, 2011	*Label: New West Records	*Formats: CD
2011	World Wide Rebel Songs	*Released: August 30, 2011	*Label: New West Records	*Formats: CD

Live album

! Year	Title
2009	Live at Lime	*Released: December 10, 2009	*Label: None	*Formats: MP3

Singles

! Year	Album	Song	! Ref.
	One Man Revolution	"The Road I Must Travel"
	The Fabled City	"Whatever it Takes"

Other appearances

! Year	Album	Song(s)	! Ref.
	Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11	"No One Left"
Tell Us the Truth: The Live Concert Recording	"California's Dark" "House Gone Up in Flames"
Axis of Justice: Concert Series Volume 1	"Until the End"
		"Alone Without You"

Notes and citations

External links

Official Website

Official MySpace

Official Facebook

Fuzz Profile

Live pictures in Toronto

"Revolutionary Party Music" – video report by Democracy Now!

Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:American socialists Category:1964 births Category:Living people

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