Customer Reviews

Civil War Guns

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This is the most complete work on Civil war weapons that I have seen. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in 19th Century firearms. The Civil War was the changing point for Firearms and Mr Edwards documents these changes very well. Not a book that you read cover to cover, but a great reference.

This book is written as more of a narrative history of civil war small arms than the sort of encyclopedic work I was expecting. The author provides many historical details and the technical differences of the weapons as well as production levels, etc. Despite the extensive history it provides, the book is written in many ways from a collector's viewpoint.

The fundamental weakness of this volume is organization. The information is somewhat scattered and doesn't settle on a format. It is particularly unfortunate that no summary tables of production or purchases of the many arms are given. A novice on the subject would be lost.

After early technical development discussions the author moves to the matter of how arms procurement was conducted north and south. Then it makes a major detour in lengthy review of the various "scandals" that were investigated. While informative, this makes for cumbersome reading. Following chapters discuss various classes of arms, manufacturers, or theaters.

By comparison Coates & Thomas' "Introduction to Civil War Small Arms" is far better organized. It has crisper illustrations, readily accessed summaries, as well as a list of arms use by hundreds or thousands of regiments (the latter completely absent in Edwards work.) For a wargamer or casual student, the Coates & Thomas work is superior.

This is not to say that Civil War Guns is not an entertaining or worthwhile read. I did enjoy the book and do recommend it, but I was expecting more from a large format 438 page work.