Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments and Independent Corps

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Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units: Battalions, Regiments, and Independent Corps. Fred Anderson Berg. Stackpole Books, 1972. 160 Pages.

This is an odd book which I had on loan from the local library system. When it arrived it was much thinner than I expected it to be. Also it is an alphabetical encyclopedia just as the title indicates. Essentially it lists alphabetically all brigades, regiments, and independent battalions and some independent smaller commands.

Each unit has a synopsis of when it was established, who commanded it, how it was organized, and when it was demobilized. It tends not to list the actions and battles it was part of. There is also a listing of the major brigades and their commanders by date as well as a somewhat confusing presentation of the order of battle for the Continental Army.

What this book makes abundantly clear is that the Continental Army suffered greatly in a diffusion of its strength through the abundance of all these independent units. It is no small wonder that they were able to field as many regiments at 70% authorized strength as they did.

This book also does a masterful job of introducing the reader to the staff organization of the Continental Army. While it seems to have most of the components of a modern army it becomes a bewildering mess of overlapping responsibilities and troop drain when it comes to the issue of logistics and supply. This book provides through a history and outline of the major departments some insight into this muck.

It does suffer from a lack of tables and charts to graphically illustrate the various chains and organizational schema. However it is a good reference book to pick up for the more than casual student of the war. For those with a casual or passing influence it will merely confuse.