Customer Reviews

1863 US Infantry Tactics, The: Infantry of the Line, Light Infantry, and Riflemen

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This book defines the ideal training and practice for Civil War infantry. Read carefully and you can almost see the instuctors and the recruits on the training field. Those regiments that were rushed into battle with only a few weeks between formation and combat obviously did not receive the benefit of all that is in this book. Those soldiers that did have the full benefit probably lived much longer and received fewer wounds than those who didn't. The demands on instructors and trainees placed by this book and the excellent results that were surely achieved probably explain why many in the 20th Maine hated Adelbert Ames, their original regimental commander and then revered and praised him for the rest of their lives. The catharsis came at Gettysburg on Little Roundtop. Anyone who reads the fine descriptions of that battle can understand the benefits that must have been brought by Ames insistence on rigid and complete training.

I've seen 19th century writing sytle described as difficult for the modern reader of period memoirs. I have not found it to be so difficult. And this book provides an example of what must be the epitome of mid-century instructional style. A picture might be worth a thousand words but the writer(s) of this book were able to describe complex actions in many fewer than a thousand words. The descriptions are so clear and unburdened that pictures just jump into the mind. No, you can't speed read this book and fully appreciate it, but a careful reading brings many rewards to the Civil War buff.