Today - The Beginning of the end;

[Chogy]

Chogy


Check this out. A very good essay on the very topic you breach.

The Evolution And Influence Of Tactical Warfare In The American Civil War

A link to Jay Luvaas' excellent book. Went to a lecture by him about 10 years ago on the topic.

Amazon.com: The Military Legacy of the Civil War: the European Inheritance: jay luvaas: Books

And an excellent review of the subject by Pete Carmichael...an historian of the first rank.

Did the Civil War Affect European Military Culture?

Thank you sir for these excellent resources. My ACW library is not what it should be. ;)

Is it not on the US curriculum?

It is studied, but not in adequate detail, IMO, and the emphasis is 95% politics and post-war reconstruction. Understandable... kids aren't interested in the advancements in siege warfare and logistics.

[Albany Rifles]

I live in Amelia Court House, where Lee waited for the supply train that wouldn't come. Saylor's Creek battlefield is about 15 minutes away. It is very well preserved.

Been there a bunch of times...I am kind of an AOP Sixth Corps kind of guy so that battlefield is right in my wheelhouse.

[Albany Rifles]

it sped up the development of repeating rifles in the US, certainly-- particularly the spencer repeater. but the march towards breechloading rifles was clear by the mid-1860s. the prussians were using a breechloading dreyse needle gun by 1864 and the french had the chassepot by 1870, both of which could fire a lot faster (and one didn't have to stand) than the springfields of the union and the enfield muskets of the confederacy.

I guess I needed to more clear in my refrence to Ripley.

As Chief of Ordnance Ripley wielded enormous power on the purchase of weapons. He was a firm believer in slow, aimed rifle fire...muzzle loading rifles. He was convinced that repeaters were a waste of ammunition. The Bureau system made him an absolute tyrant and there was no bringing him off of that. Even when manufacturers went around him and appealled straight to the President it all went for naught because Ripley would just ignore th eorders to purchase the arms.

Only in select unit and the cavalry did repeaters/and or breech loaders become standard...and they did cause logistics nightmares for the Ordnance Corps.


bad maneuverability in the east, though. grant could never maneuver quite like he did in the vicksburg campaign out in the east.

What also hampered operations in the Eastern theater was the rivers tended to be obstacles while in the Western Theater they were avenues of approach for the Union.


McClellan used the York & James in 1862 but the Chickahominy proved to be his undoing as he got closer to Richmond.

The Rappahannock and Rapidan would bring Burnside and Hooker to grief in 1862 & 1863.

And Grant's move south was aided by the rivers as supply lines but restricted he maneuver more effectively than the roads.

Conversely in the West, the Tennessee & Comberland rivers were used to great advantage by Union forces all through the war.

At Vicksburg the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers were obstacles but once Grant got on the Eastern shore of the Mississippi he had no real river obstacles to deal with in the Vicksburg Campaign. The Big Black River was not and is not much of an obstacle. His forces forced the line in a day and never looked back. Plus he operated his army on a road network which to and from the state capitol of Jackson and the most important river port between New Orleans and Memphis.

[astralis]

AR,

I guess I needed to more clear in my refrence to Ripley.

As Chief of Ordnance Ripley wielded enormous power on the purchase of weapons. He was a firm believer in slow, aimed rifle fire...muzzle loading rifles. He was convinced that repeaters were a waste of ammunition. The Bureau system made him an absolute tyrant and there was no bringing him off of that. Even when manufacturers went around him and appealled straight to the President it all went for naught because Ripley would just ignore th eorders to purchase the arms.

Only in select unit and the cavalry did repeaters/and or breech loaders become standard...and they did cause logistics nightmares for the Ordnance Corps.

yup...old crusty bastard if there ever was one. Tsouras had him disappear early on in his Rainbow of Blood books where the US goes to war with the UK...only way to even things out

but he was going to be out the door in 1863 or so...just at a time when most armies in Europe were starting to convert.

What also hampered operations in the Eastern theater was the rivers tended to be obstacles while in the Western Theater they were avenues of approach for the Union.


McClellan used the York & James in 1862 but the Chickahominy proved to be his undoing as he got closer to Richmond.

The Rappahannock and Rapidan would bring Burnside and Hooker to grief in 1862 & 1863.

And Grant's move south was aided by the rivers as supply lines but restricted he maneuver more effectively than the roads.

Conversely in the West, the Tennessee & Comberland rivers were used to great advantage by Union forces all through the war.

At Vicksburg the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers were obstacles but once Grant got on the Eastern shore of the Mississippi he had no real river obstacles to deal with in the Vicksburg Campaign. The Big Black River was not and is not much of an obstacle. His forces forced the line in a day and never looked back. Plus he operated his army on a road network which to and from the state capitol of Jackson and the most important river port between New Orleans and Memphis.

that's a good point. grant didn't seem to succeed til the end in being able to use the James. wonder which was the worse obstacle, the rivers or the forests.