Customer Reviews

United States Military Saddles, 1812-1943

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I originally ordered this book because of my interest in the "McClellan" saddles that are practically synonomous with the US Cavalry. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book covers not only the McClellan series, but every single saddle ever authorized by the US Military. The book gives a narrative, the original design specs, detailed drawings of each saddle, and at least one drawing of each saddle pictured while mounted with horse and rider. The illustrations (by the author) are excellent, with great detail. This book is the only one I've been able to find that covers the subject of US Military Saddles, and I can't see it being surpassed.

One of the most popular sources of information regarding military saddlery yet published, it's hard to find an avid collector, historian, or similarly obsessed person who doesn't have a copy on their shelf. Indeed, one must put this book on their "Must Have" list. That said, this book really isn't the "end all" source of info. This book was apparently a preliminary work, done before his "The Horse Soldier" series was published. Numerous saddle types are missing - artillery, pack and officers equipment are very lightly represented. There are some glaring mistakes, such as the total misidentification of the 1833 dragoon saddle, and the representation of the Ringgold pattern dragoon saddle. There are significant omissions, such as the four McClellan types used from 1887-1904, as well as a scattering of minor errors throughout the text and some drawing details. However, considering the scope of such a project and what most readers will take away from it, it's not too bad. The one disappointing aspect of this book is the constant reissue by the Univ. of Oklahoma Press without any effort to correct the multitude of errors this book sustains. I understand that Mr. Steffan willed the rights to this publication to the publisher before his death, so there may be some difficulties in actually doing this.

This brief work was a step on the path to the height of knowledge on the subject. As one reviewer stated it was a stop on the way to completion of his masterwork, the Horse Soldier (c.f), a four volume set.
I admit to much ignorance about the soldier's horse equipment before and during the Civil War, reasonable knowledge of uniformolology since that time through the twentieth century, and claim expertise in the individual equipment used by all US services since 1900 (which includes late nineteenth century issue), and definite familiarity with being a soldier from service in the Cold War period between Korea and Vietnam, I do know my US Army.
I am mainly interested in above the saddle, that is, the soldier, his clothing and individual equipment; in modern terms, the fighting and subsistance loads.
So, whats's your point, sez you?; the point is this, I was a friend of his since since we first met in 1970. We bonded immediately and we coresponded often by snail mail.
Randy, unfortunately died, before the completion of Vol 4 of Horse Soldier; there were some errors in it just as there are some in this work. But 40 years on, the state of knowledge has increased with more hands on discoveries and archive digging and the wide dissemination of knowledge on the Internet. The web site of the Society of the Military Horse is full of detailed discussion and has presented much new information. It is now possible to discuss things in near real time rather than spend ten years writing letters and making night rate phone calls to find out who's doing what. So if you find errors, omissions, and other new discoveries post them on a discussion site.
And take a look at Douglas McChristian's recent works on the 1870s and 1880s.( c.f) Took him a long time to dig out all that from the various National Archives locations
(In the sixties, we worker bees whle on vacation usually only sampled the main collections located in DC and at Suitland Md.) A lot of that stuff was unindexed, much was unsorted, and some had been weeded as well; or left out of order by previous researches when copying was done.
So the quest for knowledge goes on, jump in and swim along with the rest of us.