Ever come across a reference from an old magazine that doesn’t seem to be available anywhere? Well, if so, shooting me a note might be helpful to some readers of this blog. I was fortunate enough to come across the hardbound twentieth anniversary printing of CWTI this weekend. 1961-2 to 1981-2 in 20 volumes for a quite reasonable price. And it was my wife’s idea to pick it up instead of asking where I would put it. So if you’re looking for something, let me know.

Also, if anyone’s looking for a complete set of the OR, I know a bookseller who would really like to get one out of his store.

I found a new (for me) biographical reference yesterday. While doing some research on George Myers’ reenlistment officer, Thomas W. Simson, I came across an entry on a Google search from a reference I hadn’t seen before. The work was Guy Vernor Henry’s two volume Military Record of Civilian Appointments in the United States Army , published in New York in 1873.

Henry compiled the work in attempt to capture the service of military officers who did not graduate from the military academies, feeling that their service and contributions were not being preserved for the future. From a scholarly standpoint, some of the information could be considered suspect, as Henry solicited the officers or their survivors to provide his information and some of it cannot be verified. He didn’t let this lead to hyperbole, however, and the vast majority of the entries are very concise. For a unit like the 6th US Cavalry, the majority of whose officers were not military academy graduates, the books are very helpful.

One part of the first volume that I was very happy to discover was the section on medical officers of the regular army. I had previously unearthed very little information on surgeons and assistant surgeons appointed and assigned to the regular army.

The two volumes vary slightly in organization. The first volume attempts to list officers by branch of service, while the second simply lists them alphabetically. Only on rare occasions in the first volume is someone listed under the wrong branch of service. Both volumes are indexed, however, and information is easily located.

Overall, I think Henry’s work is a valuable research tool, and a good companion for Heitman’s and Powell’s works. And although the files are quite large (42MB for Volume I and 30 MB for Volume 2), as a free download you can’t beat the price.

Sergeant Larson, 4th Cav., by James Larson. San Antonio: Southern Literary Institute, 1935.

I finally finished this book last night and enjoyed it very much. James Larson was an enlisted man in Company H, 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment when the war broke out in 1861. He accompanied his regiment east from the frontier to the western theater, where he served for the duration of the war. The book was published by his daughter after his death in 1921 in a limited edition of only 300 copies.

This book is valuable for the insight it provides into service by the common cavalryman in the western theater during the war. Larson’s modest, candid writing style makes it easy for the reader to visualize the incidents that he describes, without much of the hyperbole often found in first-person accounts of the war. I have posted a few of these over the last several weeks, and a few more will follow in the future.

Larson provides excellent accounts of the departure of resigning officers at the war’s outbreak, details of the long march east to the fighting, service with Minty’s brigade, the opening skirmishes of the battle of Chickamauga, the battle of Nashville, and Wilson’s 1865 raid to Selma and Macon. His narrative provides an enlightening view of the war from the perspective of an enlisted cavalryman.

This work provides little insight into grand strategy or macro views of battles, as Larson didn’t have those views of the fights in which he was engaged. He does an excellent job of staying within the purview of what he saw and heard. What limited speculation that he does make is clearly labelled as such.

Overall, I think this book adds to the body of knowledge on the war, despite the overabundance of books on the subject, and merits publication in a second, larger edition if such a thing could be arranged.

One of the most interesting and entertaining of Civil War books that I’ve read recently is Common Soldier, Uncommon War, by Sidney Morris Davis. Davis was a private in Company F, 6th US Cavalry, and his memoirs cover his service from his enlistment as the regiment was forming until the end of the war.

Sidney takes the reader on an almost day by day adventure through the war in the boots of a common soldier. As a result, it’s one of the most comprehensive looks at life in the Union cavalry during the Civil War that I’ve ever seen. Nothing escapes Morris’ mention. From how new horses were assigned to soldiers and how new soldiers were taught to ride them to the hijinks of ‘foraging’ to opinions on the effectiveness of various officers, Morris has an opinion.

His modest yet tongue in cheek writing style and plethora of amusing anecdotes make this memoir a very easy read. Every page seemingly has a new story or incident worth noting. the editor, Charles F. Cooney, did an excellent job of not intruding overly much in the narrative, merely adding the occasional footnote to clarify a location or individual.

In addition to the multitude of details that this book provides on life in the cavalry in the Civil War, it also has a vivid section on the experiences of Union soldiers in Belle Isle prison late in the war. Morris was captured during the Battle of Fairfield in July 1863, as were many in his regiment, and he chronicles their experiences on the long march back to Richmond from Pennsylvania and their subsequent experiences with prison life.

One drawback to this work is that it is very difficult to find. Affordable used copies can occasionally be found on Amazon and Alibris, and Eric was kind enough to send a note recently of a reprinted edition.

Lest everyone think that I love every book that I read, the next review will note be quite so positive. While I believe if one doesn’t have anything good to say they should stay quiet, it is fair to warn others of books’ contents before they spend money to buy them so long as the comments are fair and factual.

I noticed last night that Stephen Starr’s classic three volume series on the Union cavalry, The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, will be republished in September. All three volumes will be republished in a paperback format. Those interested in pre-ordering can check the Amazon listing here.

This is great news for cavalry enthusiasts, as previous editions of Starr’s books have become increasingly difficult to find. It is a wonderful reference, though I didn’t see anything in the listings about revisions, additions or new information.

Lest people start to think that I only review books after I finish one of Eric’s, I’ll be featuring a few more titles here over the next couple of months. I’m finally managing to finish some of these titles that I’ve acquired….

Across the Continent With the Fifth Cavalry, by George F. Price, is a history of the 5th Cavalry Regiment from its creation in 1855 until the book’s initial publication in 1883. It was reprinted in a limited edition of 750 copies by Antiquarian Press Limited in 1959. The book is written in three parts: a narrative history of the regiment, a listing of officers assigned to the regiment, and an appendix.

The narrative covers the regiment from its creation in 1855 until 1883, when the regiment was stationed in Montana. Price’s account provides a good idea of how regular army units were organized and trained prior to the Civil War. His history is 176 pages long, with 5 brief chapters totalling 32 pages covering the regiment’s activities during the Civil War. While there are some good nuggets in there, some of the coverage is very skimpy. In one paragraph, for example, Price covers the battle of Gettysburg, the pursuit of Lee’s army, re-equipping the regiment at Giesborough Point, and operations at Bristoe Station and Mine Run.

To my mind, the best of the book’s information is in the second section. Price lists biographical sketches of every single officer assigned to the regiment throughout its history. This is a gold mine of information, as even the junior officers are covered. It is a very long section and the majority of the book at 406 pages, but to my mind worth every one of them. In some cases there is obvious bias, and some of them are rather lengthy (Albert S. Johnston, for example, nets 18 pages), but overall this is a very valuable resource.

The appendix also contains a wealth of data. Compiled from the regiment’s official papers, it includes listings of all field officers, all commissioned and noncommissioned staff members, company officers organized by company, regimental duty stations, the complete battle roster, and more.

Overall, this is an excellent, though hard to find, resource. It is very important to remember, however, that this is a secondary source as far as the Civil War section is concerned. Price was not actually assigned to the regiment during the Civil War, though he is listed as a captain of the 5th cavalry on the title page. He served in volunteer cavalry units in the far west during the war, so the majority of the Civil war information is taken at second hand from unit records and conversations with those who were still serving when he was posted to the regiment.

Since the beginning of this project a couple of months ago, there has been a great deal of the acquisition and reading of material on Civil War cavalry, both primary and secondary sources. Once or twice a month, I will take the opportunity to review selected sources. This entry will focus on Eric Wittenberg’s Rush’s Lancers.

Regimental histories aren’t currently much in vogue, most likely because of the perception that a single regiment’s scope of experience was too limited to be of much historical value. Far more attention has been paid to various armies of the Civil War, and more recently to brigades in military histories. Rush’s Lancers illustrates the errors of this perception.

Wittenberg does a wonderful job of telling the tale of how a Civil War regiment was raised and trained, and describing the difficulties in keeping mounted troopers in the field. There are countless details derived from the words of soldiers of all ranks from the regiment, without bogging the reader down in minutiae. He skillfully blends many personal accounts into a single story without losing the story of the regiment as a whole in the many individual points of view. Although obviously a labor of love, his history of the unit is both even-handed and painstakingly complete. He tells the entire story of the regiment and its soldiers, not simply lingering on the high points and the regiment’s successes.

The enormous amount of time and research are clearly evident in the many endnotes listed in the book. It averages nearly 100 endnotes per chapter; many of them previously unpublished personal accounts. The book is richly illustrated with photographs of dozens of the regiment’s soldiers taken from both public and private collections. Once again Blake Magner’s excellent maps provide the reader easy clarity for the prose accounts of movements and battles.

On the whole, this is an excellent book. The style of writing is very easy to follow, and the pace of the book makes it a joy to read. I think this work will serve for years to come as an essential reference for the study of Civil War cavalry.