The Civil War and the Wars of the Nineteenth Century

Cassell History of Warfare

by Brian Holden-Reid

The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in America's history, comprising 149 general engagements of importance and 2200 skirmishes. Trace the course of this seminal confrontation, including such factors as generalship, staff work, organization, intelligence, and logistics, to see how they affected the shape and decisions of the battlefield. Look closely at the strengths and weakness of the opposing sides--the North's industrial power and the South's material shortages, for example--and the effect of new weaponry on tactics. And, unlike histories that downplay the connection between the outcome in the United States and the conflicts in Europe, this one reveals their interconnection by also examining the Crimean War and Prussia's battles with Austria and France.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Military Fiction, American Civil War, The World, The United States Of America

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. Brian Holden-Reid, FRHistS, FRGS, FRSA, FKC, is Professor of American History and Military Institutions in the Department of War Studies and Academic Member of Council, Kings College London. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHistS), the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2007 was he was awarded the Fellowship of King's College (FKC), the highest honour the college can award its alumni and staff.

Reviews

[Rock]

I can't figure out who this book is supposed to be for. There isn't enough detail to satisfy the enthusiast, yet characters are constantly introduced without context (the author will mention a regiment without bothering to identify which side they were on), baffling a the casual reader. There are some well-chosen illustrations, but the maps aren't all that helpful since they tend to lack detail (often failing to label features mentioned in the text and lacking any basic description of symbology).

[Jan]

Solid overview, but essential a book of the US Civil War with somewhat European wars slapped on. Not a coherent analysis / narrative with a clear idea/ambition

[Andrew Daniels]

I found this really confusing, mish-mash of names, blow-by-blows of battles and glib statements with weak backing

There are many books on the American Civil War, I didn't feel this is in the top 50%

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Roel]

Fijn om ook wat af te weten van deze periode. Helaas ligt de nadruk te veel op militaire details

[Mark]

Brian Holden Reid’s goal in this book, as he states in its 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 is 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 Civil War while putting it in the context of the evolution of modern warfare.

[Jason]

Grant and Moltke.