Philip Katcher

The Civil War sharpshooter is a curious beast, an interim link between the Napoleonic rifleman and the WWI sniper. As most soldiers, early supply problems solved, carried rifled and no longer smoothbore guns, this distinction from the Napoleonic Wars was eliminated. ACW sharpshooters served as light infantry fighting in skirmishing order, sometimes specially trained or equipped with better weapons. Even Berdan's sharpshooters who carried superior weapons acted in a light infantry capacity - show more confirmed by the surprising Gettysburg statistic that the sharpshooters suffered nearly an equal number of casualties as their Confederate firefight opponents.

This booklet should in fairness have been labeled Berdan's sharpshooters as its Union portion mostly deals with that unit (4 of the eight color plates show the famous men in green) and the Confederate portion combines jumbled accounts of units sharing the sharpshooter moniker. The topic of Civil War snipers with their telescopic rifles is only briefly treated (not surprising, given the paucity of sources) but given the booklet's title would have merited further discussion.

In one sentence, the author repeats the canard that the ACW sharpshooters were ancestors to the German WWI stormtroopers - apart from the fact that Europe tended to ignore the lessons from beyond the Pond, the storm troopers were heavy infantry (armed with grenades, flame throwers and a kitchen sink) seeking close combat not light troops fighting from a distance. show less

This is a good handbook for exploring the structure of the Army of Northern Virginia. The prose is competent, and the book includes a TOE, at certain times. The book is as good as Oman on Wellington's Peninsular army.

This is a handy guide to the Mexican War. It's useful for the wargamer, or if you just need a quick peek inside this little known conflict. There is information about organization of the armies, units, arms, and even a quickie order of battle.

The plates are nice. Thankfully, both armies were pretty uniform, and the accompanying print information provides descriptions of those unit types not illustrated.

Like many Ospreys, this book tries to cram a little too much into its 40 pages, so show more information is a bit sketchy at times--dinged half a star. show less

A valuable study of the Army of Northern Virginia from, essentially, a technical point of view. The uniforms of officers instead of their military virtues and failings are the study here. Professional discussions of weapons, uniforms and gear of the rank and file get similar treatment. Unlike the Union army the Confederate army became of hodgepodge of clothing, weaponry personal equipment. Also support personnel and units are examined carefully, e.g., the Provost Marshal (the MP's of the show more day), signal corps, medical department, even chaplains. show less