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| The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War | 
 enlarge | Author: Brent Nosworthy
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $6.69
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (17 reviews)
Sales Rank: 509404
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 752
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0786715634
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780786715633
ASIN: 0786715634
Publication Date: March 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Fascinating and important, but with serious flaws. February 13, 2006
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Brent Nosworthy describes himself as an "independent" author. He is also a Civil War re-enacter. In writing this book he has made an original and informative contribution to the historical analysis of the American Civil War.
Nosworthy covers a wide range of subjects, many of which I hadn't previously understood, such as why some units in the early days of the war called themselves "Zouaves" and wore funny red uniforms. It seems that the uniforms, the training, and the tactics of Zouave units were patterned after the special units developed by the French for fighting their wars in Algeria. The uniforms were quickly discarded when it became clear that they made excellent targets in the open fields and woods of Northern Virginia, but Zouave training and tactics continued to influence American military thinking throughout the war, and continue to do so to some extent even today.
He explains the origin of the term "Napoleon" for the bronze 12 pounder field artillery piece favored by both sides. It was named after Napoleon III, not Bonaparte. He explains how the ballistic pattern of the Minie ball influenced battlefield tactics, why generals on both sides were reluctant to use field fortifications until the very end of the war, and the rationale for using wool uniforms winter and summer.
Interesting as such details are to students of the Civil War, Nosworthy's use of first-person accounts to illustrate his points is the most effective aspect of the book. Nosworthy's re-enacter experience serves him well in these sections. He is able to convey the actual experience of the soldier on the battlefield with terrifying effect. One marvels at the willingness and ability of men to undergo the experience of Civil War battle just once, let alone repeatedly, as the veterens did.
He places the Civil War in the context of European military thinking of the time. It is significant that the Crimean War and Napoleon III's invasion of Italy occurred just before the Civil War, since Napoleon's Zouaves made their reputation as "shock troops" in those wars, particularly at the battle of Solferino. French military science was of the highest prestige in that period, and French military manuals were translated and used at West Point. The French debacle in 1870 changed all that, of course. The outlines of this evolution are well-known, but Nosworthy relates these general developments to the specifics of weapons and tactics in a highly illuminating manner.
In spite of the many good, even great, things about this book, it has several serious flaws.
Nosworthy has insufficient control of his material. He often loses focus and becomes repetitious. There is a lack of discipline and logic in the book's organization. He is argumentative at times, assuming the unbecoming role of "debunker". He is especially obnoxious in the final chapter, which is a rant against his fellow military historians, as though he is in some kind of competition with them, rather than in a cooperative search for the truth.
He goes to great lengths to prove his thesis that Civil War battlefield tactics weren't much different from those of the smooth-bore period, but he does not succeed. Why, if that were the case, were the frontal assaults of Pickett's Charge, Kenesaw Mountain, Cold Harbor, and many others, such disasters? He says himself that as the war progressed, troops on both sides tended more and more to entrench their positions almost immediately at the start of a battle. Why was this, if not because of the increased lethality of the rifled musket and Minie ball at long range? Is there any doubt that had the Americans at Bunker Hill been armed with rifled muskets the British regular troops wouldn't have been able to form up their lines to begin with, let alone to eventually throw the colonials out of their trenches?
His prose rivals that of the best when describing the experiences of men in battle, but when expressing his personal opinions his language becomes pompous and verbose, as though he had read one too many 19th century memoir. The unevenness of his writing is the most noticeable symptom of his lack of professional training. A good editor could have helped him with this.
He tries to create a new term, the "rifle musket", using it repeatedly. George R. Stewart, Bruce Catton, and William McNeill were content with "rifled musket", in which "rifle" assumes the adjectival form with the "-ed" ending. Nosworthy himself writes of "rifled artillery", so why create a compound noun "rifle musket"? It's an unnecessary distraction.
He seems to think "nonplussed" means "unperturbed" or "stalwart", rather "perplexity", its true meaning. Again, a good editor could have saved him from this embarrassment.
Any Civil War "buff" will find this book, in spite of its flaws, well worth reading. It's a good book. A good editor could have helped make it a great book.
 Fascinating and well written April 22, 2005
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am not a Civil War buff and haven't read a ton of military history, but I really liked this book. It was very well written and explained the tactics and weapons used in the context of what other countries were doing around the same time. I read another review that said this was "dry", and I guess it is if you are looking for heart-tugging emotional stories about the soldiers' lives. But if you are looking for a clear and revealing overview of how soldiers prepared and fought on a technical level, without the usual Civil War pretense or bombast, this is very enjoyable and informative.
 Another Near-Miss March 25, 2005
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
This volume is like the Powder River-an inch deep and a mile wide. While the author has evidently done a large amount of research from a very impressive bibliography, the text, and many of the conclusions, don't match the effort that was quite obviously put into this book.
There is a lot of good information in this volume, but it appears to this reviewer that the author was attempting to be all things to all readers and enthusiasts. That, coupled with some glaring errors and critical information left out leaves the book crippled.
The artillery section, for example, is very poorly done. Information in the section(s), such as ammunition, the reference to French artillery practices in the Napoleonic period, tactics, and the problem with identifying Henry Jackson Hunt (who would become the artillery chief of the Army of the Potomac) giving him three separate entries in the Index, all contribute to the impression that the research done here was superficial at best.
Further, while the excellent Artillerist's Manual by John Gibbon is referenced, the equally excellent, and necessary, Ordnance and Gunnery by Benton and Field Artillery Tactics 1864 have not. Other excellent artillery references, such as The Guns at Gettysburg and Sound of the Guns by Fairfax Downey have not been referenced which would have enabled the author to develop his artillery sections in the book to an acceptable and accurate level of scholarship.
Emory Upton has only been mentioned in passing, and his comrade in arms, David Russell, not at all. Upton was arguably the best tactician produced by either side in the conflict and his absence is striking. He and Russell were responsible for the superb night attack at Rappahannock Station in November 1863, the first successful night attack of the war. Further, Upton's famous assault at Spotsylvania in 1864 is barely mentioned in passing. Seems to me that these innovative and successful tactics should have been presented for discussion and review along with some of the other examples the author focuses on.
Further, James Wilson, the famous Union cavalry commander whose horsemen rampaged in the South late in the war and defeated Bedford Forrest gets no mention in this text.
The excellent Time-Life Civil War Series doesn't appear to have been used as source material, while such dubious works as Attack and Die have been. While the Time-Life Series is a secondary source, it is an immense study, full of primary source material contributed by an excellent team of Civil War historians.
While a noble effort, this work falls short of its intended objective and contains too many errors to be used as a standard reference. This is the same situation with the authors two other works, The Anatomy of Victory and With Musket, Cannon, and Sword, which is unfortunate.
Bloody Crucible of Courage February 7, 2005
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Nosworthy studies Civil War tactics and weaponry, particularly in their connection with earlier European practice and in their theoretical development.
This study has some interesting points to make, particularly that under some circumstances attacks, including sabre charges, were highly successful -- an argument that goes against the oversimplified idea that Civil War defenders always got the upper hand. Nosworthy seems to emphasize Union sources, especially in his discussion of cavalry attacks which cites no Confederate successes at all, but uses some Confederate accounts as well throughout the text. At times he seems a bit trusting of single primary sources, particularly memoirs, but overall the use of sources and the arguments are convincing. Another intriguing discussion centers on the massive amount of lead that had to be fired to cause a casualty, and the reasons why that was the case.
The book does rather little to address soldier mentalities and the physical experience of battle -- some material is discussed but not as much as expected. I was also disappointed with its lack of discussion of any intelligence-gathering activity -- particularly when analyzing the cavalry, it seems strange to leave out scouting and the screening of army movements, as well as raiding. Perhaps Nosworthy felt these activities were beyond his battlefield-centered scope.
Overall, this was a useful and pleasantly un-positivist study. It might have benefited from clearer organization and maybe some editing of its considerable length.
 Good information, but dry September 24, 2004
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is the only book I have found that gets into the details of why Civil War battles were fought the way they were. I always thought it seemed ridiculous that two armies would march in a line and just maul each other, but this book explains the logic and evolution of these tactics. Also, other Civil War books frustrated me because they just assume you know all the little details about small arms, artillery, and field works. This book just doesn't tell you about what they are, but how they were developed over time.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with another reviewer--the book is very dry because Nosworthy seems to repeat the same information over and over again. For example, he explains the Civil War rifled musket shortcoming of low muzzle velocity over and over again in the book, as if we had not read the previous chapters. It is a shame it so dry, because I think more books like this are needed.
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