Civil War Infantry Tactics; Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness

Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2015. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xxii, [2], 299, [5] pages. Includes Illustrations, Preface, Appendix: A Tactical Glossary of the Civil War, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Barcode sticker on back of DJ. Dr. Earl J. Hess (Ph.D., Purdue University, 1986) is a leading author of military histories of the Civil War. After terms at the University of Georgia, Texas Tech University, and the University of Arkansas, he settled at Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate, Tenn., in 1989, where he holds the Stewart McClelland Chair. Hess has published nearly twenty books and more than 120 journal articles and academic reviews. Dr. Hess's books offer new insights on Civil War battles and campaigns, and also focus on thematic topics such as the use of weapons, tactics, and transportation in the Civil War. He has been called "the premier military historian of the Civil War" and his work has garnered praise for its "combination of adroit writing, high intelligence, and well-reasoned but unabashed judgments". Readers will find that his books offer perspectives on both the Union and Confederate experience, and also reveal the driving motivations of combat soldiers, whether serving under Grant or Lee. Civil War Infantry Tactics won the Tom Watson Brown Book Award, Society of Civil War Historians, 2016 and was a Finalist for the Lincoln Prize, 2016. For decades, military historians have argued that the introduction of the rifle musket-with a range five times longer than that of the smoothbore musket-marked a dramatic change in Union and Confederate military operations and altered the course of the Civil War. The rifle musket, it has been argued, made the shoulder-to-shoulder formations of linear tactics obsolete. Earl J. Hess challenges these deeply entrenched assumptions. He contends that long-range rifle fire did not dominate Civil War battlefields, since soldiers had neither the training nor the desire to take advantage of the rifle's increased range. Drawing on the drill manuals available to officers and a close reading of battle reports, Civil War Infantry Tactics demonstrates that linear tactics provided the best formations and maneuvers to use with the single-shot musket, whether rifle or smoothbore. The training soldiers received in this system, combined with their extensive experience in combat, allowed small units a high level of articulation and effectiveness. Far from an outdated relic that led to higher casualties and prolonged the war, regimental officers north and south found the linear system to be indispensable to the survival of their units on the battlefield. Hess zeroes in on formations and maneuvers (or primary tactics), describing their purpose and usefulness in regimental case studies, and pinpointing which of them were favorites of unit commanders in the field. The Civil War was the last conflict in North America to see widespread use of the linear tactical system, and Hess convincingly argues that the war also saw the most effective tactical performance yet in America's short history. This book is a study of infantry tactics in the Civil War, crafted within the context of the new interpretation of the rifle musket and its effect on military operations. It is important to set the story of Civil War infantry tactics within the larger context of Western military history. One of the problems with the traditional interpretation of the rifle musket is that historians have assumed that the American Civil War was an exceptional experience in world military history, with revolutionary implications that Europeans were foolish to ignore. In fact, the Civil War was very much a part of international military developments, but it was far less important in those developments than American historians have tended to think. It is also important to set this study within the context of Civil War military history. In addition to its new interpretation of linear tactics, it is the first study of what often is called the lower or minor level of tactics, the actual formations and maneuvers used by officers and men.