American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Gentlemen,
I read "Battle Tactics Of The Civil War", several years ago....I will mention 2 things about the book.....1. It does provide some rather interesting insights into the style of combat....2. The Author spends a "bit" too much time talking about how amateurish the American troops were in comparison to their European counterparts. He established that we definatly could not shot straight and that the British troops of the time would have easily swept aside our Union troops with no trouble had they intervened....I felt I was reading a propoganda peice....Regards, Hank

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Division CO
Carroll's Corp

I have the book, and pretty much agree with Hank. Griffith did make a point that Civil War tactics that evolved were the result of field expediency by untrained and inexperienced troops and not optimum, which to him was the French chasseur a pied model of double-timing around the battlefield. I got the impression that Griffith felt the training required to make ideal troops would have taken longer than the war lasted. But the book was well-written and thought provoking, IMHO, and he supported his claims with much selected anecdotal evidence.

MG Mike Mihalik
1/III/AoMiss/CSA

Better spoken than what I was able to state on my limited memory.....your remarks are definatly on the mark.....Regards, Hank

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Division CO
Carroll's Corp

So do you imply Bill that to be able to write about something in History you must be from the same nationality than the subject?

If so, there would not be a lot of competent people to talk about anything...

For me, the criteria of a good historian are based on his hability to analyze a situation and on his ability to use as much documentation as he can to explain his views.

Otherwise if I follow your though only a French would be able to write about French history (the Revolution, Napoleon, Campaign of 1940, etc). Same for English, Germans Polish, Austrians, etc...
I remember reading a wonderful Biography on Fouché (Police minister of the French 1st Empire) by Stefan Zweig (an Austrian writer and biographer). And even if the persons weren't from the same period and the same country, language, etc... Zweig was able to feel Fouché in a very convincing way.

After all Americans, British, French, Germans, Chineses, etc. are all human


<font color="green">
<b>BG David Guégan</b>, Brittany Volunteers,
<b>Army of the Cumberland </b>
</font id="green">

Gents,
I was simply trying to point out that I feel, having read the book that Griffith had an extreme bias against American troops of the period....The reference to his establishing that the Brits shot straighter was a bit of sarcasm on my part referring to a section of the book where he talks about how some Euro army of the period was able to use their infantry effectively firing at a range of a mile, and that Americans were not capable of this....He constantly referred to the Euro's as "Proffesionals" and used less appealing terms to refer to Americans.....He may have had a point at the beginning of the war when both sides were green....I doubt he would have later on....so in summarizing....like it or not, Bill, essentially we are on the same side on this one......lol....(The previous statement(s) was not even meant to smoke, much less flame anyone, other than perhaps Griffith) Regards, Hank

BG Hank Smith
Army of Georgia
Smith's Division CO
Carroll's Corp

"I have never trusted a Brit to properly write on the Civil War just as much as I wouldnt look for a good book about the English Civil War from a Yank." - Bill Peters

Careful Bill, statements like this on other club boards have been labeled 'biggotted'. I wonder where those voices are here?

MajGen Al 'Ambushed' Amos
3rd "Amos' Ambushers" Bde, Cavalry Division, XX Corps, AoC
The Union Forever! Huzzah!