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TACTICS DURING THE AGE OF THE MUSKET — BRENT NOSWORTHY
 
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The Bloody Crucible of Courage
Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War

In the mid-1970s after playing the original La bataille de la Moscova, I became interested in Napoleonic tactics and set out to design a hyper-realistic simulation of how troops fought on this level during this period. It quickly became obvious, however, that it was impossible to obtain a true understanding of Napoleonic warfare without first tracing the development of weapons technology and fighting methods throughout the entire era of the musket. No period in military history should ever be examined in isolation. The extension of the analysis to the immediately preceding and the immediate following periods invariably affords new, valuable insights. Often, what is initially considered unique to a period or a particular place takes on a more iterative, developmental quality.

It was equally apparent that few modern works delved into this matter and most of what existed was limited to one or two pages of "received wisdom" per book. Sensing the need for books that looked at tactical level warfare in detail, I began on what would turn out to be a trilogy on fighting methods employed during the musket era. The first work, The Anatomy of Victory (1990) explored the nuances of tactics during the eighteenth century while the second, With Musket Canon and Sword (1996) sought to do the same for the Napoleonic period.

I have spent the last eleven years working on the third work in the trilogy, The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War, about to be published by Carroll and Graf.

More than a comparison of the two sides' fighting methods and no mere abstract discussion about military theory, this work attempts to present the most thorough study of the true origin of Civil War military practices available. Every effort has been made to weave together the story of newly emerging weapons, the resulting changes in military doctrine, and the combatants' experiences as these innovations were applied to the battlefield. Detailing the four-year evolution of warfare from General Irvin McDowell's first tentative efforts to Lee and Grant's final exertions at Appomattox, it examines tactical variation due to regional differences and the distinctive circumstances of each campaign, such as the methods used in the eastern theatre versus those in the west; the confused fighting in the Wilderness; the "trench" warfare at Vicksburg and in front of Petersburg; and the techniques used in other famous battles, like Gettysburg and Antietam. The book also recognizes the primacy of the war's most compelling voices, containing hundreds of first-hand accounts, graphic and emotional descriptions of what it was like to see and hear the Minié balls striking a nearby companion.


Praise for The Bloody Crucible of Courage

Gordon C. Rhea
Books about the American Civil War's battles and participants abound. The literature, however, is surprisingly devoid of studies about weapons and tactics used during that conflict. Existing tomes delve into discrete areas of Civil War military doctrine and armaments, but serious students will search in vain for a single work that explicates that critical body of knowledge in a cogent, comprehensive, and authoritative manner. Mr. Nosworthy's book fills that important gap.

Here, for the first time under one cover, is the story of the evolution of weaponry and tactics in the Civil War era that puts those military developments in historical perspective. Employing clear prose, Nosworthy walks readers through the development of rifled muskets and artillery; the evolution of defensive field works; the growth of ironclads, torpedoes, and other destructive contrivances; and the impact those innovations had on the deployment of men on the battlefield. In the process of narrating the military realities of civil war combat, Mr. Nosworthy challenges a host of misconceptions that have clouded our understanding of America's bloodiest conflict. I have learned much from The Bloody Crucible of Courage and only wish that it had been available years ago, when I began my set of books about the Overland Campaign. Mr. Nosworthy's book deserves an honored place on the shelf of every Civil War scholar and buff.
Gordon C. Rhea; Author, Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26 - June 3, 1864 (LSU Press, 2002).


Jack Greene
Utilizing numerous primary sources, including many foreign language documents, Nosworthy has written a provocative account that goes to the heart of how and why of tactical level combat during the Civil War. This is a book that anyone interested in Civil War combat will want to read and study to more fully understand that great struggle. It will also level a blast at many of the myths and misunderstandings still propagated today.
Jack Greene; Co-author, Ironclads at War (Combined Books, 1998).


Joseph G. Bilby
Brent Nosworthy, who has earned an enviable reputation as a scholar of military tactics from 1689 through the Napoleonic era, has now turned his attention to the American Civil War. Nosworthy's The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War is a landmark work that establishes a new standard of excellence in the field. Nosworthy has expanded the study of Civil War tactics and weapons use beyond the pioneering work of Paddy Griffith and my own conclusions on small arms in Civil War Firearms. In doing so, he has effectively deconstructed the long unchallenged "conventional wisdom" in the field. No future Civil War campaign or battle study will be written without extensive reference to The Bloody Crucible of Courage.
Joseph G. Bilby has written numerous articles/books on the Civil War, including Civil War Firearms.



Paddy Griffith
Brent Nosworthy's new book on the weapons, tactics and battle experience of the Civil War is hugely welcome and long overdue. Of all the thousands of works written in North America about this conflict, barely a handful have treated those particular aspects in a modern and analytical manner: but now at last we have a really serious and deeply-researched volume which tackles all the key issues head-on. 'The Bloody Crucible of Courage' is indeed the book we have long been waiting for!

In common with Stephen Crane's classic novel, to which its title pays indirect homage, Nosworthy's new work lays bare all the emotions and quirkiness of men in combat, while setting them within a higher intellectual structure. Unlike Crane, however, Nosworthy presents the full historical and technical documentation, chapter and verse, for every step of the way. Admittedly, this makes for a text that is too closely-textured and carefully-argued for it to be swallowed whole in a single sitting. It is nevertheless essential reading, not least for the wider European perspective that it casts upon a war that has too often in the past been viewed through very parochial spectacles. And beyond that refreshing historiographical perspective, 'The Bloody Crucible of Courage' also offers us a truly magnificent quarry of facts, explanations and pertinent interpretations that every student of the Civil War will surely want to keep constantly at hand.
Paddy Griffith, Instructor, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, U.K.



Joseph Pereira
The most common error of the historian, both professional and amateur, is to concentrate so completely on one area and one period as to neglect to study what came before and thus look at their subject as a snapshot. In the case of the American Civil War, the political evolution is well documented and studied, but the art and machinery employed during the war are typically looked upon as unique to the period and viewed in a vacuum creating a sad misconception. In The Bloody Crucible of Courage, author Brent Nosworthy examines the fighting methods and "innovations" of the Civil War as no other single volume has done. This well researched and comprehensive work dispels many myths of "firsts" and lays out a clear provenance of the way in which the war was fought and the machinery employed in its execution. As a long time re-enactor, I recognize the value of knowing the history before the history I represent. I strongly recommend this book as a must have for the library of anyone interpreting the military history of the War Between the States and as the quotable resource for the student of military tactics of the 19th century.
Joseph Pereira, PhD
Colonel Commanding, The Liberty Greys
6th Battalion, 1st Division, Army of Northern Virginia
 
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