Product Description

The Civil War was the bloodiest war in America's history, comprising 149 general engagements of importance and 2200 skirmishes. The author, a leading expert on the subject, narrates the history of the war and also describes how such factors as generalship, staff work, organisation, intelligence and logistics affect the shape and decisions of the battlefield. He looks closely at the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing sides - the North's industrial strength and the South's material shortages, for example - and the effect of new weapons on tactics. The author also covers the other crucial wars of the nineteenth century, the Crimean War and Prussia's wars with Austria and France.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #721641 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Professor Brian Holden Reid is head of American History and Military Institutions at King's College London, and is the Resident Historian at the British Army's Staff College, of which he is also a graduate.

Customer Reviews

Good evaluation of the rise of industrialized warfare
Brian Holden Reid's goal in this book, as he states in the introduction, is to place the Civil War in context with two other major conflicts of the mid-19th century, the Crimean War and the wars of German unification. Contrary to many traditional accounts of the warfare of the era, he sees the three as reflecting the evolution of large-scale industrialized warfare during those decades, with the different struggles nevertheless demonstrating commonalities in the impact of new technologies and the changing scale of war.

This is evident beginning with the Crimean War. Fought in the shadow of the Napoleonic wars (the British commander had been Wellington's secretary), Reid nonetheless demonstrates, in a very British-centric account, that the expedition to the Crimea would have been impossible without the steam-powered ships which sustained the forces. Yet while he challenges the notion of the British military as being 'a museum piece', he does note that the reforms introduced hardly addressed the challenges of the new warfare that commanders like Lord Raglan faced.

Similar limitations emerged at the command level during the Civil War. Reid's analysis of the conflict dominates the book, taking up three of its five chapters. His analysis if primarily operational and strategic, and it reveals how unready - and in many cases, unadaptable - commanders on both sides were to the new scale of warfare. Grant emerges as the dominant commander, Reid argues, not because of his ability as a field commander (which he sees as inferior to Lee's), but because of his grasp of 'what was important in the higher level of the conduct of war.' In this Reid ranks Grant with Helmuth von Moltke as the first masters of industrialized warfare, as the Prussian general demonstrated similar attributes in his successful pursuit of victory against Denmark (which is only briefly addressed), Austria, and France.

All of this Reid presents with a generous seasoning of his sharp observations which leave little doubt as to his opinion on matters (his assessment of the staff of Austrian general Ludwig Benedek is that they 'made for an entertaining dining club' is one of the more amusing among many) and make for a lively text. By comparing the three wars, he demonstrates clearly how industrialization transformed warfare, while his operational narrative shows how slowly commanders adapted to these changes. Heavily illustrated with photographs and maps, it is a quick read, and serves as an excellent introduction to the three wars and how they demonstrate the evolution of modern warfare.

The Jury is still out
This book provides an interesting comparison of the Crimean War, The American Civil War and the Wars of German Unification in the context of increasing industrialisation.

I enjoyed it, but was disturbed to find some fundamental mistakes - Page 79 "....and timed fuses which could explode the solid shot...". Solid shot cannot be fused or explode.

This sort of error leaves me with a certain amount of difficulty in accepting the accuracy of the rest of the book. My knowledege of the period is not extensive and would welcome comments from someone with a better insight. Is this book historically accurate ?