Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness

Earl J. Hess

Louisiana State University Press, 2015, 300 pp. + 22 pp. introduction, $45.00        

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                As the plethora of Civil War studies goes on, many narratives attempt to explain the intricacies of infantry tactics as they occurred within a battle or campaign.  There are a select few books on infantry tactics themselves, most of which are reproductions of existing tactics manuals from the period.  In his book, Civil War Infantry Tactics, Earl J. Hess explains the very nature of how tactics evolved into what they become for the time of the Civil War from European Influences to Early American Tactics and even mentions the difficulties of the introduction of the rifled musket.  Throughout this book, all aspects of infantry tactics are explained in detail and with sheer excellence that this book is a welcome addition to the lack of modern tactical study.

                Earl J. Hess is the Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History at Lincoln Memorial University and is the author of many works.  Some of his most famous works include his three part study on field fortifications which includes In the Trenches at Petersburg.  He is also the author of Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign; The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee and The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi.  He is also the author of one of the most esteemed works on Pickett’s Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg, which was the 2001 winner of the James I. Robertson Jr. Prize from the Civil War Library and Research Center.

                There are many places in this book which causes it to shine.  First and foremost, the book is solely dedicated to the study of infantry tactics during the Civil War and the immense amount of knowledge which he placed to help the reader understand what was being said.  The narrative is aided by the tables which commanders used, or did not use, to employ the tactic at the time.  Certain chapters were dedicated to certain tactics such as skirmishing, training and columns.  He even ends his work with an analysis of tactical development after the war.  But one of the most enjoyable parts of the work was the look into the evolution of tactics from European influences and early American as well.  While battles were used to create explanations for certain tactics being explained, Hess never goes into a chronological detail of battles and campaigns and how they morphed the decisions taken at combat.  Furthermore, the narrative is quite engaging for any reader, even the most schooled Civil War student.  There are new bits of information spread all over the work which shine with the excellence Hess has been known to bring to his work.  The end effect of this book is a work which should accompany any reproduction of an infantry manual owned by Civil War readers and students. 

                I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Civil War studies, especially strategy and tactics.  Hess brings excitement to the study and he brings light to things which may have caused confusion for some readers and it is a welcome addition to a study which has been ignored in other works.  I cannot remember the last time a work was written about infantry tactics as well as this one here.  Finally, we have a modern study on these tactics and I cannot be happier for this addition to the realm of Civil War academia.

The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction

Mark Wahlgren Summers

The University of North Carolina Press, 528 pp., 2014, $40.00

ISBN: 978-1-4696-1757-2

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Considered one of the harshest points in American history, the treatment of Reconstruction in written history books has been lacking and overly focused on specific issues.  The Ordeal of the Reunion is a phenomenal one volume work on the period while focusing on those points which are lacking in recent historiography.  Mark Wahlgren Summers handles many of the issues of Reconstruction but also takes things one more step in every point he makes.  One of the best parts of his narrative focuses on the effects of this period on the west.  The book also mentions racial equality and relations, but does not make a note of spending long periods of time on them.  This not only makes the book one of the more reliable works on this period, but one of the best.

                Mark Wahlgren Summers is a professor of history at the University of Kentucky focusing on 19th Century United States history, United States political history and political cartoons.  He has authored many other works including A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia and the Making of Reconstruction, Railroads, Reconstruction, and the Gospel of Prosperity, and Rum, Romanism and Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884.  He is currently working on a project about the Gilded Age politics and the Andrew Johnson impeachment.  This book is also part of the Littlefield History of the Civil War Era published by the University of North Carolina Press.    

                One of the major highlights of this book is what was sought to do differently than usual.  Not only did Summers give us a history of the Reconstruction period, but he also gave us the facets of the era which were not wholly realized in other volumes.  Instead of hammering home the ideal of racial equality and the Freemen’s Bureau, Summers focuses on the need to create the “more perfect Union” and the process which allowed those states back into the Union.  Not only was the West a major part of the narrative, he also focuses on the realm of foreign policy which I have not yet read in a book on the period.  He praises the successes which the Reconstruction period had but also explains the failures.  Throughout this book, there is never any question as to the reasoning behind his explanations or theses due to the massive amount of research he placed into this narrative.  Taking from many personal accounts, Summers talks about the aftermath of the war and the abilities for the men who served to get back into their communities.   This fresh outlook into the period of the Reconstruction not only gives Civil War students everywhere a chance to view the period in a new and better light, but may change the opinion of many when it comes to the unfair treatment Reconstruction has received in the past.

                I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War.  This book not only deals with Reconstruction, but shows the reader of the harshness of life after a terrible war.  The narrative is approachable to anyone who is newly entering the realm of Civil War academia or a seasoned veteran.  The book is aided by political cartoons and drawings from a myriad of newspapers from the time.  In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone studying the Civil War as a whole as a fitting end to the conflict.  Summers has triumphed in his work here. 

The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

Mark A. Noll

The University of North Carolina Press, 2015 Paperback, 216 pp., $22.95

ISBN: 978-1-4696-2181-4

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There are great number of lectures and dissertations, but none of them have ever been handled like this before.  In The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, Mark Noll uses sermons, articles and memoirs to argue the theological parameters of the causes of the Civil War.  This is not a one volume treatment of religion on the effect of the war, but looking into how the theological battles on the subject of slavery was handled in the early stages of the conflict and even throughout the war.  The end product is one of the most thought provoking studies done on religion and the effects it can have on the minds of the people and ways in which the words of the preachers can influence a nation.

                Mark A. Noll is one of the country’s leading Christian historians and specializes in Christianity in both the United States and Canada.  He is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at Notre Dame University.  His other works include America’s God: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln, Protestantism – A Very Short Introduction, and Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the Present.  Noll is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is the 2006 recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities medal at a White House Ceremony.

                Unlike other works written about religion during the Civil War, this book turns the attention to the theological explanations which were given during the conflict.  The great questions posed in this book are the one which were placed during the events and shows both sides of the question as they were proposed then.  This book also explains the strong stance which theologians took during the Antebellum period especially on the subject of Slavery, and not just slavery but African Americans as well.  Most of the beginning of the book deals with both Protestant and some Jewish theologians since they were the most prominent at the time, but Noll also deals with the Catholic peoples at this time as well.  This study, which reaches all around the different religions of America during this time, shows the many schools of thought fueling the arguments which not only brought about war but created legislation as well.  The many different theologians mentioned in this book may be familiar to some, especially Henry Beecher, but there is definitely something to be learned in this volume by anyone remotely familiar with religion in the war.  Some of the points made in this book are even groundbreaking in their very nature. 

                I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in religion during the Civil War along with anyone interested in the war as a whole.  The narrative and exhaustive research are well done and is easily accessible to anyone.  Even beginner students of the war will find something of value in this book.  In conclusion, no study of religion in the Civil War should go without a reference to this book and should be hailed as one of the most prominent civilians studies of the war along with religious studies of the war.

A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

Christ Mackowski and Kristopher D. White          

Savas Beatie, 2013, 174 pp. + 18 pp. introduction, $12.95

ISBN: 978-1-61121-148-1

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There has been a great amount of historical research being placed into the Emerging Civil War Series and this installment about Spotsylvania Court House is no different.  Much like the other volumes in this series, the wealth of information along with driving tours and a multitude of pictures of the field is incredible to behold.  There have been many books written about places like Antietam and Gettysburg, but I can only think of a few which center themselves around the action at the Spotsylvania Court House.  Thanks to this volume, the knowledge of this terrible battle can be known to students of the Civil War who do not know much about this battle.

                Those who have seen my previous reviews will already know about both Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White.  Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is an author of many other Civil War studies and is a professor in the school of journalism and Mass Communication at Saint Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York.  Mackowski is also a historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Park where he gives tours of the four major battlefields of the area including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania.  He also gives tours of the building where Stonewall Jackson died.  Kristopher D. White is a historian for the Penn-Trafford Recreation Board and is also a continuing education instructor for the Community College of Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He served as a military historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park as is a former Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg.  He also has a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich University.

                As stated in the introduction, there is a great combination between both the narrative of the battle and touring stops and routes.  In books such as these, they offer the opportunity for new comers to the Civil War to experience the battlefield unlike any other.  The narrative of battle is incredible and action packed while being supplied with drawings, portraits and maps which can aide any reader, even if they had never read a book on the Civil War.  While there were a great many commanders mentioned in this book, I was never confused about who was being talked about.  There have been many times when a dry and unmoving narrative can unleash names after names of commanders and the reader may have trouble with something like that.  In this book, there is never any question as to who is being mentioned through the text.  The book is also sectionalized be their chapters as a way to break up the battle in order to understand it more simply than other accounts have done.  Overall, this book not only should be read by those interested in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, but should be taken as a field guide along with them upon visiting the park.  No tour of Spotsylvania Court House battlefield should go without this fine book.

                I highly recommend this book, along with the Emerging Civil War Series, to anyone interested in the Civil War.  Throughout the flowing narrative and tour stops, a greater understanding of what happened at this battle is gained.  Both Mackowski and White should be praised again for their work on analyzing battles not as researched as others.  It is imperative that I should mention this again: No tour of Spotsylvania Court House battlefield should go without this fine book.

God’s Almost Chosen People: A Religious History of the American Civil War

George C. Rable

The University of North Carolina Press, 2015 Paperback, 586 pp., $32.50

ISBN: 978-1-4696-2182-1

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There are many books written about many aspects of the Civil War but there was always one category which seemed to go unwritten: Religion.  That is not to say that there were never any books on religion in the Civil War, but no book seemed to encompass the history of religion in the Civil War.  God’s Almost Chosen People by George C. Rable attempts to fill the void of religious study in the war and throughout the text makes some provocative points.  One thing can be certain when looking at a work such as this one: the monumental research provided in the pages will be seen as an advantage to have in the realm of Civil War academia.

                George C. Rable holds the Charles G. Sumersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama.  He is the author of many other works such as Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism, The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, and Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! which has been hailed as the primary narrative on the Fredericksburg campaign and also won the Lincoln prize.  He is also the winner of the Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award for the University of Alabama in 2003 and was the President of the Society of Civil War historians from2004-2008.  This work is also part of the Littlefield History of the Civil War Era, a sixteen volume series of books from some of today’s most respected Civil War historians compiled by the University of North Carolina Press.

                There have been books on the market about how religion morphed the ways in which the soldiers acted during the American Civil War, but this book takes a different approach to religion.  From the opening pages all the way to the end of the narrative, this book was all encompassing and dealt with all the major issues which the war pervaded.  By using the accounts and sermons from many of the influential ministers of the time to politicians using faith as a means for their ends was just fascinating on all counts.  Some of the most fascinating chapters were the way in which clergy and church administrators used the Bible as a way to prove that the other side of the conflict was in the wrong by what they were doing.  The section labeled “Holy War” and “War’s Purpose” really made you think about the causes of the Civil War and how it was seen as a whole.  Rable also pays attention to the minority religions such as the Mormons who had undergone a great deal of harassment before the war with the Mormon wars.  He also talks about the Catholic influence.  This is, in my experience of Civil War research, the only full volume treatment about Religion in the Civil War while others have a much more concentrated fell to them.  This was a great breath of fresh air to read as a full volume treatment.

                I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of religion in this county and anyone who is studying the Civil War.  The only way students can fully comprehend how the Civil War  morphed the way in which people used faith as not only an existential ground, but as a means to their own ends is to read this book.  I applaud George C. Rable for this phenomenal work about religion and suggest that it should be on the shelf of every Civil War historian. 

The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood

Stephen M. Hood

Savas Beatie, 2015, 286 pp. + 26 pp. introduction, $32.95

ISBN: 978-1-61121-182-5

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One of the most fascinating people to come out of the Civil War is General John Bell Hood.  His own recollections of combat in his book Advance and Retreat had left many people with questions that seemed as though they would never be answered.  Here, in The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood, some of those questions may be answered.  For the first time ever, the letters and correspondence of General Hood which never made it into print are here for the public to see.  Not only are they printed for the good of Civil War academia, but they are supplied with well written footnotes by Stephen M. Hood who is no stranger to the study.

                Stephen M. Hood is an award winning author and graduate of the Kentucky Military Institute, Marshall University.  He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps Reserve and is a descendent of John Bell Hood.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors on the Blue Gray Education Society of Chatham, Virginia and a past president of the Board of Directors of Confederate Memorial Hall Museum Foundation in New Orleans.  His previous work, John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General, was the recipient of the 2014 Albert Castel Book Award for the Best Book on the Civil War in the Western Theater.  It was also the recipient of the 2014 Walt Whitman Civil War Award for best general category Civil War title.

                There is no other author more qualified, I believe, to release the lost papers of John Bell Hood.  Mr. Hood has performed a labor of love by bringing these to the attention of the public and with the exhaustive research and work he put into his own footnotes, I could tell that this would be a book that will last through the ages.  The organization of the letters is second to none allowing the reader to look at the section which they are interested in instead of trying to find them through an index.  If you want to read about his exploits in the Atlanta campaign, there is a complete chapter devoted to those documents.   If you want to look at the Gettysburg and Chickamauga campaign where Hood was wounded, there is a chapter devoted to his medical records.  Everything you could want in a groundbreaking primary source is in this book and not only are they organized in a wonderful manner, but they are supplied with pictures and facsimiles of the letters so the readers can see the writing of the general himself.   In the end, you learn a great deal about Hood the commander and man which you had never knew before.

                I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the character of John Bell Hood.  He is one of the most interesting people to have survived and written about the war.  His descendent, Stephen Hood, shows us in this book that there is always something that has not yet reached the eyes of eager Civil War scholars and students.  This book should be on the shelf of every Civil War reader and I applaud Stephen Hood for bringing these documents to the attention of the public.

Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863

Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White

Savas Beatie, 2013, 400 pp., + 32 pp. introduction, $32.95

ISBN: 978-1-61121-136-8

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Just as the title states, both Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White look into the forgotten area of the Chancellorsville Battle.  The general idea of the battle tends to be grand scheme of Stonewall Jackson’s Flank Attack against the Eleventh Corps while the analysis usually ends with the wounding of the commander.  This book attempts to fill the void in study of the battle and does so in a phenomenal fashion.  By analyzing the actions of General Sedgwick and the Sixth Corps, this book gives us evidence that there is always something new to write about in the Civil War, a field where many are starting to think there is nothing new under the sun. 

                Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is an author of many other Civil War studies and is a professor in the school of journalism and Mass Communication at Saint Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York.  Mackowski is also a historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Park where he gives tours of the four major battlefields of the area including Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania.  He also gives tours of the building where Stonewall Jackson died.  Kristopher D. White is a historian for the Penn-Trafford Recreation Board and is also a continuing education instructor for the Community College of Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He served as a military historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park as is a former Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg.  He also has a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich University.

                As stated in my introduction, this book deals with the actions of the Sixth Corps and General Sedgwick during May 3rd, 1863.  Both Mackowski and White use a very engaging narrative to bring life to this little known aspect of the battlefield.  Throughout the text, the action takes us to the “Second Battle of Fredericksburg” and Salem Church and also gives some background into why General Hooker used Sedgwick as a Scapegoat for his report on the battle.  As I read through the book, which is supported by photographs and maps, I began to wonder why we do not study this area of battle especially when Sedgwick and his men held their own.  Both admit that there were some commanders who performed poorly in the Sixth Corps, but there were also many others who performed with great courage and ease.  The authors also state that one of the reasons Second Fredericksburg is a forgotten area of the battlefield is because it is seen in Confederate memory as a loss though the battle at Salem Church was a victory.  Without ruining much more for the readers, I happily say that this book is a welcome addition to the study of the Chancellorsville campaign.

                I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the battles and campaigns of the Civil War.  This is not only a book for people interested in the Chancellorsville campaign, but for people who wish to study strategy and tactics of the war along with the politics in the military which plagued the eastern theater of the conflict for the Union.  The narrative is easy to follow and there is never any question as to what is going on because of the wonderful maps and photographs which are supplied by the authors.  I praise both Mackowski and White for what they have brought to the forefront of Civil War study and hope that they continue to supply works such as these into the realm of Civil War academia.

The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848

Martin Dugard

Little Brown and Company, 2008, 446 pp., $29.99

ISBN: 978-0-316-16625-6               

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                Beginner students of the American Civil War will notice a pattern in many of the commanders they begin to study: many of them served in the Mexican American War.  While there is background into their service, there are very few works devoted to following specific people as they served in that war.  The Training Ground by Martin Dugard attempts to fix the lack of information regarding the commanders in the Mexican American War.  But does it succeed?  That seems to be the question going throughout the entirety of the text along with the validity of what is being said.  So what do I mean about this?  Let’s take a look into The Training Ground.

                Before working with Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard was the author of many nonfiction books including The Last Voyage of Columbus, Farther Than Any Man, Knockdown, Chasing Lance, and Into Africa.  He has also written for many magazines including Esquire, Outside Sports Illustrated, and GQ.  Now, he is known for co-writing the series of books by Bill O’Reilly which includes Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus and Killing Patton.  He is a New York Times bestselling author.

                Looking over the career of Mr. Dugard, there is evidence which points toward the field of Popular History and even makes certain people say that he is spreading himself out too much.  This has proven well and poor for historians recently.  In the case of Dugard, this book shows the poor side of that coin.  As the text rolls on through the book concerning the commanders during the Mexican American War, the narrative is quite easy to read, if not told in a dull fashion.  While I found myself moving through the book very quickly, I retained nothing of interest from what I had read.  The deeper the book got into the war, the more I began to think what I might tell people about this book.  Just to clarify, the main commanders which Dugard had chosen to use for his narrative were Grant, Lee, Sherman and Jefferson Davis.  While others are mentioned throughout the book, those were the main focus.  And yet, I feel as though I would know more about them if I had read a biography instead of this book.  Even poor biographies of Lee tend to give more information about the man than this book had in its three hundred and seventy-nine pages of narrative.  Overall, I felt as though this book had nothing to bring to the table when it comes to Civil War academia.  That being said, there are those who have asked whether Dugard’s book is entertaining for those not familiar with history.  I would have to answer that no, this book is not even entertaining for non-history readers.  I could understand if there were Civil War readers who gained nothing from this work, but even non-history readers could not get anything from this book.  The last thing which could help this work was whether or not it was a good introduction to the Mexican American War; I would still have to say that this one is one to avoid. 

                While the presentation of the book is nice, the text is riddled with factual errors about the commanders and has no grasp on the facts.  The narrative is quite nice, but nothing is retained while reading this work.  I do not recommend this book to the Civil War audience and place a warning with this work.  This is the same author who co-wrote Killing Lincoln.