Includes over 30 maps and Illustrations The Staff Ride Handbook for the Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863, provides a systematic approach to the analysis of this key Civil War campaign. Part I describes the organization of the Union and Confederate Armies, detailing their weapons, tactics, and logistical, engineer, communications, and medical support. It also includes a description of the U.S. Navy elements that featured so prominently in the campaign. Part II consists of a campaign overview that establishes the context for the individual actions to be studied in the field. Part III consists of a suggested itinerary of sites to visit in order to obtain a concrete view of the campaign in its several phases. For each site, or “stand,” there is a set of travel directions, a discussion of the action that occurred there, and vignettes by participants in the campaign that further explain the action and which also allow the student to sense the human “face of battle.” Part IV provides practical information on conducting a Staff Ride in the Vicksburg area, including sources of assistance and logistical considerations. Appendix A outlines the order of battle for the significant actions in the campaign. Appendix B provides biographical sketches of key participants. Appendix C provides an overview of Medal of Honor conferral in the campaign. An annotated bibliography suggests sources for preliminary study.

First published in 1987. War in the 18th century was a bloody business. A line of infantry would slowly march, to the beat of a drum, into a hail of enemy fire. Whole ranks would be wiped out by cannon fire and musketry. Christopher Duffy's investigates the brutalities of the battlefield and also traces the lives of the officer to the soldier from the formative conditions of their earliest years to their violent deaths or retirement, and shows that, below their well-ordered exteriors, the armies of the Age of Reason underwent a revolutionary change from medieval to modern structures and ways of thinking.

It takes someone who has really done it to make sense of the nuts and bolts of scouting in hostile territory. This analysis is based on the lives and experiences of frontiersmen like Sam Brady and Simon Kenton in the Kentucky and Tennessee Indian wars. Included are the methods of silent movement, concealment, organization, equipment and internal signals. These techniques are timeless and have been the mainstays of scouts for thousands of years. The focus is on making them work. "Some Thoughts on Scouts and Spies is not a book to read once. Instead readers will keep referring back to this book to expand their knowledge. It is a book for those those who want to improve their skills in hunting. It is a book for those who have become involved with the reenacting hobby, and find themselves studying and doing 'Historical Archaeology.' For all of them, this book will serve as a manual on the "Scouting" trade." - Ray H. Swenson, MA - History Instructor and Visiting Lecturer of Colonial American History, Rock Valley College Senior Lieutenant, Rogers' Cadet Company of Rogers' Rangers