Some of our Favorite Books.

The one thing most reenactors don't do enough of is research. Asking questions on an online forum gets you a wide variety of answers, but its like asking a 'usual suspect' skinner (vendor) if his goods are authentic - in other words, there is no substitute for picking up a book and actually researching!

And here are a few articles writtten by us and some CS western theater QM and Ordnance information from the Official Records.

And here are some good WWW research links...

Then visit our favorite book guy.   Reenactor references are at the end.

So little time, so many books...  This page will be updated constantly and new books added in yellow.

Military Dictionary (can be found online here)
H.L Scott
NY: Van Nostrand, 1864:reprinted Denver:Yuma Press, 1984

Customs of Service
August V.Kautz
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1864
(reprints, when available, through Shamrock Hill)

The Company Clerk
August V.Kautz
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1863
(reprints, when available, through Sullivan Press)

Revised Regulations for the United States Army (available online here)
Philadelphia: J.G.L. Brown, 1861
Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States
Richmond, J.W. Randolph, 1863
NHS reprints through Shamrock Hill

Gilham's Manual For Volunteers  (parts of this can be found online here)
Major William Gilham
Philadelphia: Charles Desilver, 1861
(Leather bound facsimile reprint available through Shamrock Hill)

Rifle and Infantry Tactics, Revised and Improved,By Brig. Gen William J. Hardee, C.S. Army and Infantry-Tactics [Title V, Evolutions of the Line] by Major-General Scott.
Raleigh, NC: Spelman, 1862 (reprint available as The NC Drill Manual from Levi Ledbetter, Sutler).

The interim   U.S. Infantry Tactics. for the instruction, exercise, and manoeuvres of the United States infantry, May 1861 can be found here - this is essentially the 1855 version of Hardee's, with the inclusion of the manual of arms from Scott's Infantry-Tactics.

Hardtack and Coffee
John D. Billings
New York, NY: Time-Life Books, 1982

Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia
Carlton McCarthy
Lincoln, NE: Univ. Of Nebraska Press, 1993
Widely reprinted in paperback

"Co. Aytch" - A Side Show of the Big Show
Sam R. Watkins
Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1987
(widely available in paperback)

Life in the Confederate Army
William Watson
Baton Rouge: LSU, 1995

Three Months in the Southern States
Lt. Col. Arthur J. Fremantle
Lincoln, NE: Univ. Of nebraska Press, 1991.

The Rebel Yell and the Yankee Hurrah
John W. Haley
Camden, ME: Down East Books, 1985

Sojourns of a Patriot- The Field and Prison Papers of an Unrecronstructed Confederate
Richard B Abell & Fay A Gecik
Murfreesboro, TN: Southern Heritage Press, 1998

Soldiering: The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull
Rice C. Bull
New York, NY: Berkeley Books, 1988

One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry
John Worsham
Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot, 1995

The Story of the Great March
Brevet Major George Ward Nichols
NY, Harper Bros, 1865; reprinted Williamstown, MA: Corner House, 1984.

Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard
Wilbur F. Hinman
Cleveland, N.G. Hamilton, 1887:reprinted Galway, NY: York Publishing, 1993.

The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion.
Bvt. Lieut. Col. Robert N.Scott,  editor
Washington; GPO, 1890; reprinted on CD-ROM: Carmel, IN: Guild Press of Indiana, 1996.
Includes Dyer's Compendium and Fox's Numbers and Losses. Available from Shamrock Hill.

Leadership During the Civil War
R. Heleniak and L. Hewitt, ed.
Shippensburg, PA: White Mane, 1992.

Attack and Die; Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage
G. McWhiney and P. Jamieson
Tuscaloosa: UA Press, 1982

Battle Tactics of the Civil War
Paddy Griffith
New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1989

Soldiers Blue and Gray
James I. Robertson, Jr.
Columbia, SC: Univ of S. Carolina Press, 1988

The Union Soldier in Battle
Earl J. Hess
Lawrence, KS: Univ. Press of Kansas, 1997

The Vacant Chair; The Union Soldier Leaves Home
Reid Mitchell
NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993

The Life of Billy Yank
The Life of Johnny Reb
Bell I. Wiley
Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1983

Embattled Courage
Gerald F. Linderman
New York. NY: The Free Press, 1987

Civil War Soldiers
Reid Mitchell
New York, NY: Viking Penguin, Inc.,1988

The Civil War Infantryman
Gregory A. Coco
Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Pub., 1996

The Army of Robert E. Lee
Phillip Katcher
NY: Sterling, 1995

Tennessee's Forgotten Warriors; Frank Cheatham and His Confederate Division
Christopher Losson
Knoxville, UT Press, 1989.

Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee
Larry J. Daniel
Chapel Hill, Unc Press, 1991.

The Last Full Measure; the Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers
Richard Moe
NY: Avon, 1994

Shiloh; A Novel
Shelby Foote
NY: Vintage, 1991

Road to Disunion; Secessionists at Bay 1776-1854
William W, Freehling
NY: Oxford, 1990

The Confederate Republic
George C. Rable
Chapel Hill; UNC, 1994

The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience
Emory F. Thomas
Columbia: USC Press, 1991

The Peculiar Institution
Kenneth M. Stampp
Vintage: NY 1994

Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men; the Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War
Eric Foner
NY: Oxford, 1970

State Troops and Volunteers; a Photographic Record of North Carolina's Civil War Soldiers, Vol. I.
Greg Mast
Raleigh: State of NC, 1995

Echoes of Glory:
Arms and Equipment of the Union
Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy
Ann Arbor, MD: Tally Hall, 1996 Paperback edition
(get the Time-Life hardback from Shamrock Hill)

G.I. The Illustrated History of the American Soldier, His Uniform and His Equipment.
Johnny Reb; The Uniform of the Confederate Army, 1861-1865
Les Jensen
Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 1996

G.I. The Illustrated History of the American Soldier, His Uniform and His Equipment.
Billy Yank; The Uniform of the Union Soldier, 1861-1865.
Michael J. McAfee & John P. Langllier
Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 1996

Civil War Cartridge Boxes of the Union Infantryman (the standard work)
Paul D. Johnson
Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray, 1998

Round Ball to Rimfire; A History of Civil War Small Arms Ammunition
Dean S. Thomas
Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1997

Brassey's History of Uniforms: American Civil War Confederate Army
Ron Field
London, Brassey's Ltd., 1996
Available through Shamrock Hill
 

Brassey's History of Uniforms: American Civil War Union Army
Robin Smith
London, Brassey's Ltd., 1996
Available through Shamrock Hill
 

Plates and Buckles of the American Military 1795-1874 (the standard work)
Sydney C. Kerksis
Kennesaw, GA: Kennesaw Mtn Press, 1974 (4th ed, 1991)
Available through North-South Civil War Trader
 

American Military Belt Plates
Michael J. O'Donnell & J. Duncan Campbell
Alexandria, VA:  O'Donnell Publications, 1996
Available through North-South Civil War Trader

Record of American Uniforms and Historical Buttons (the standard work)
Alphaeus H. Albert
cite to follow
Available through North-South Civil War Trader

American Socket Bayonets and Scabbards (the standard work)
 Robert M. Reilly
cite to follow
Available through North-South Civil War Trader

Civil War Canteens (the standard work)
Sylvia, Stephen W. and Michael J. O’Donnell. .
Orange: Moss Publications, 1990 (2nd Ed.)  - out of print?

Parade, Inspection and Evolutions of the Infantry Battalion
Major Dominic J. Dal Bello
Santa Barbara, CA: AoP Press, 1994
Available through Shamrock Hill

The Hardcracker Handbook; Recreating the Western Federal Infantryman
Cal Kinzer, ed.
The Hardcracker Project

3^rd Mississippi Camp of Instruction Handbook
Tom Czenkanski, ed.