"[BOOK] Civil War Infantry Tactics, Hess" Topic

Has anyone read Civil War Infantry Tactics by Earl J. Hess? It sounds interesting:

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Sounds pretty similar to the arguments advanced by Paddy Griffiths some time ago.

His book on Logistics is very good. H

Civil War Infantry Tactics, The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat and Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation – three excellent books.

Hess is a fine historian who really gets teeth into a subject area with plenty of detail and good insight for wargamers on how things actually worked in practice, away from the blood and thunder of books concentrated on battle and campaign accounts alone.

I'd buy all three. No hang on a minute, I already did!

Great, thanks very much – will buy a copy.

They are good. There are some minor technical errors though that that you need to watch out for. (I've been in contact with Dr. Hess and he agrees that the errors exist.)

Read it, more scholarly than Paddy's. He also uses material from a rare book not many folks know about, which surprised and impressed me. I don't necessarily agree with Griffiths or Hess, but Hess made his point better and stronger. I thought it a good read.

Here's a review I wrote on the book:

Earl Hess has written an excellent narrative history that provides a solid review of how both the Union and Confederate armies fought in the American Civil War. Having said that, this is the kind of book that the tactics or Civil War aficionado will appreciate; it is not for a casual reader of the Civil War.

The author presents a very logical approach to the subject. Hess' first two chapters review the tactical heritage inherited by those who fought the Civil War, both European and early American. The author then reviews the three primary manuals available to the two antagonists and how the officers and men trained for battle.

Hess then gets into the meat of the book with six chapters reviewing specific, actual tactical situations as they were fought on the battlefield based on first person accounts by soldiers of both sides. He reviews moving forward and skirmishing, multiple lines, changing front, columns, multiple maneuvers, and large formations each with their own chapter. Although a bit dry at times the author really gets into these tactics as they were actually executed vice what the drill manuals said or where they used formations as designed. At the same time he demonstrates that, as the war went on, how the efficiency of the soldiers and their commanders steadily improved, as they were able to execute more complex tactical maneuvers even under fire.

Chapter 11 then provides an overview of how tactics evolved after the Civil War. He makes the point that what really changed was not the range of rifled muskets, but the volume of fire especially as the century continued, and how tacticians changed their tactics and formations to deal with the increased lethality of the battlefield, all of which had to be balanced against the need for command and control of the troops to achieve their objectives. He also argues that the range and lethality of the battlefield really didn't change even as the volume of fire increased, if for no other reason than human factors such as the difficulty a man has of discerning a man-size target after 300 yards.

My only issue with the book, and I consider it a small one, is that Chapter 11, "Tactical Developments After the Civil War," is not really related to the book as a whole. In other words, the first ten chapters do not support the thesis he presents in Chapter 11. And, although I found Chapter 11 very interesting, his argument requires more than a single chapter to support his conclusions.

All in all a very good book, and I definitely recommend it for those who are interested in the formations and the issue of command and control on the Civil War battlefield.

Very good review, thanks for that.

I agree with the above. I have 2 of the 3.

Great review, Ray. I also appreciated it on Amazon.

Hess came up on a recent trip that included two very much published Civil War authors. His tactics book was considered to be very good, his battle/campaign books not as much. From the two I was touring with, that was good enough for me.

I have two of the three books mentioned and will likely get the logistics study as well. But I am curious as to what the "rare book" mentioned by DJCoaltrain is? I went through the footnotes and bibliography and didn't notice anything that unusual.

The book arrived today, looking forward to reading it!

Finished reading the book today and what a jolly good read it was too! Thanks all for the recommendations. About to start the authors book the Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat.

I am rereading The Bloody Crucible of Courage by Noseworthy. Also includes discussions of cavalry, artillery, and naval. Thought it pretty good.

Started playing Rebels and Patriots and wanted to reread about the tactics of the time in my effort to classify units for scenarios.

Would this book add to what Noseworthy says?

Nosworthy's book is complemented by the two books by Hess; all of them add to the understanding of the overall topic. One addition book to consider is Frederick Ray, Shock Troops of the Confederacy (2006). Ray examines the sharpshooter battalions used by the ANV during the last year and a half of the war. A good idea of the scope of his study can be seen at:

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Nosworthy did another book five years after Bloody Crucible, called "Roll Call to Destiny – The Soldiers Eye View of Civil War Battles"

In it he uses first hand accounts of small unit engagements to examine how it felt to take part in various types of action:

Infantry v Infantry

Fighting in Woods

Artillery attacking a Fort

Cavalry v Cavalry

Infantry operating in Rough Terrain

Although its only around one third the size of the other book its an interesting read on what it was like to be in the three combat arms.