C. A. L. Totten

Who was C. A. L. Totten?

Charles Adelle Lewis Totten was an American military officer, a professor of military tactics, a prolific writer, and an influential early advocate of British Israelism.

Charles Totten was born in a military family.

Totten graduated from West Point in June 1873. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Artillery Regiment. He was promoted to first lieutenant the next year. He would not be promoted again, however, due to slow promotions in the post-Civil War Army.

He taught military science and tactics at Massachusetts Agricultural College, from 1875 to 1878. In this assignment he introduced fencing as a collegiate sport.

Charles Totten and W. R. Livermore are variously credited with being the first to bring the practice of wargaming from Germany to the United States. Totten's book Stragegos, one of the first modern wargaming systems in the United States, was published in 1880.

In 1881 Totten participated in the Chiricahua Campaign against the Apaches in Arizona. For this service, Totten was entitled to receive the Indian Campaign Medal when it was established in 1907.