Discussion Essential books about artillery?

[major bill]

If one wanted to understand Civil War artillery, what are the top few books that person needs? A couple of references books and a couple of general Civil War artillery that are essential.

 

[Belfoured]

Just offhand, for field artllery I'd suggest Cole - Civil War Artillery at Gettysburg - pretty good discussion of all aspects. The "bible" is Hazlett, Olmstead, et al,. Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War - sort of technically oriented; Spruill - Summer Thunder - is a nice Army War College-style tour guide focused on artillery at Gettysburg. Two period manuals are worthwhile - the Board's "Instruction" (1861 or 1864) and Gibbon's Artillerist's Manual (1863); Naisawald has a good narrative history of the Army of the Potomac's field artillery - originally published 1960 and slightly revised more recently. Interestingly, there aren't many good discussions of tactics - Nosworthy's Bloody Crucible of Courage has one of the better discussions in a pretty good chapter or so on tactics and developments during the War. I'll let others handle siege/garrison/heavy.

 

[John Winn]

I, too, recommend all those noted by @Belfoured .

The complete reference for Naisawald's book, btw, is:

Naisawald, L. VanLoan (1999) Grape & Canister: The Story of the Field Artillery of the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865 (Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania).

In addition, I would recommend these for your library:

Coggins, Jack (1990) Arms and Equipment of the Civil War (Dover Publications, Mineola, New York)

It's short but packed with information and great illustrations (also by the author). It covers more than artillery but there's a lot about artillery, field and heavy. You can get used copies of this publication for cheap on Amazon.

Alexander, Edward Porter edited by Gary Gallagher (1989) Fighting For The Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (University of North Carolina Press).

In addition to just being a great read there is a lot of detail about the use of artillery. Porter was one of the great artillerists.

Jones, Charles H. (2001) Artillery fuses of the Civil War (O'Donnell Publications, Alexandria, Virginia)

If you want to know about fuses this is the ticket. The downside is that it's expensive and somewhat hard to find. One could certainly understand fuses without reading this book but it has great photos and really is the premier reference.

Melton, Jack W. Jr. (2018) The Half Shell Book: Civil War Artillery Projectiles (Historical Publications, Charleston, South Carolina)

This is a great piece of work, beautifully presented. It has high quality photos of shells cut in half as well as some x-rays along with very good text. If you want to know the nitty gritty of how shells were constructed this is the one to have. There's really no competition. The downside is that it's expensive. You have to order it directly from Jack from his Civil War Projectile and Cannon web site (which everyone interested in CW artillery ought to know about).

Hope that helps.

Oh, and I have written a piece about field artillery which covers the basics and is factually correct (peer reviewed). If you want a copy I'd send you a PDF if you PM me your email address.

 

[Andy Cardinal]

How about Wise's Long Arm of Lee?

 

[major bill]

I use my copy of Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War by Warren Ripley a great deal. I did enjoy Cannoneers in Gray by Larry Daniel.

 

[James Brenner]

I use my copy of Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War by Warren Ripley a great deal. I did enjoy Cannoneers in Gray by Larry Daniel.

 

[James Brenner]

Disregard #6 above; too many fat fingers. I'm not sure what you mean by "understand", but I will assume you'd like to know about artillery history. If so, the two best books are: John C. Tidball, The Artillery Service in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Lawrence Kaplan, ed. (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2011) and William E. Birkhimer, Historical Sketch of the Organization, Administration, Materiel, and Tactics of the Artillery, United States Army. (James G. Chapman, 1886; Reprint: New York: Greenwood, 1968). You can't go wrong by going to the original sources.

 

[Belfoured]

Disregard #6 above; too many fat fingers. I'm not sure what you mean by "understand", but I will assume you'd like to know about artillery history. If so, the two best books are: John C. Tidball, The Artillery Service in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Lawrence Kaplan, ed. (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2011) and William E. Birkhimer, Historical Sketch of the Organization, Administration, Materiel, and Tactics of the Artillery, United States Army. (James G. Chapman, 1886; Reprint: New York: Greenwood, 1968). You can't go wrong by going to the original sources.

Tidball and Birkhimer are both well done from the angles of use/deployment of artillery in the ACW (Tidball, focused on massing) and history and organization/"systems" from 1775 - 1880's (Birkhimer). There's an interesting history between the two. Birkhimer claimed that the first true "horse artillery" was Ringgold's Company (Battery) C of the 3rd US starting in 1838 with the Poinsett reorganization. Tidbold disagreed. He felt that his own Battery A 2nd US was the first "permanent" horse artillery unit in 1861. Birkhimer served in the 3rd after the Civil War, so one would think that in addition to his research he would know. I've never seen a source for Tidball's claim but his good friend and sponsor was William F. Barry - co-author of the Board's "Instructions" and artillery commander for McCelllan early on and later for Sherman in Georgia. Barry was temporarily assigned to Ringgold's Company C in 1838 as part of the reorganization so my own speculation is that Tidball likely got his information from Barry - though I've see nothing supporting that so far. Everything I've seen from records of the War with Mexico shows that Company C (unlike the other three companies of "mounted" "flying artillery") was true horse artillery under Ringgold and, following his mortal wounding at Palo Alto, under his two successors, including Braxton Bragg.

 

[Belfoured]

I, too, recommend all those noted by @Belfoured .

The complete reference for Naisawald's book, btw, is:

Naisawald, L. VanLoan (1999) Grape & Canister: The Story of the Field Artillery of the Army of the Potomac, 1861-1865 (Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania).

In addition, I would recommend these for your library:

Coggins, Jack (1990) Arms and Equipment of the Civil War (Dover Publications, Mineola, New York)

It's short but packed with information and great illustrations (also by the author). It covers more than artillery but there's a lot about artillery, field and heavy. You can get used copies of this publication for cheap on Amazon.

Alexander, Edward Porter edited by Gary Gallagher (1989) Fighting For The Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (University of North Carolina Press).

In addition to just being a great read there is a lot of detail about the use of artillery. Porter was one of the great artillerists.

Jones, Charles H. (2001) Artillery fuses of the Civil War (O'Donnell Publications, Alexandria, Virginia)

If you want to know about fuses this is the ticket. The downside is that it's expensive and somewhat hard to find. One could certainly understand fuses without reading this book but it has great photos and really is the premier reference.

Melton, Jack W. Jr. (2018) The Half Shell Book: Civil War Artillery Projectiles (Historical Publications, Charleston, South Carolina)

This is a great piece of work, beautifully presented. It has high quality photos of shells cut in half as well as some x-rays along with very good text. If you want to know the nitty gritty of how shells were constructed this is the one to have. There's really no competition. The downside is that it's expensive. You have to order it directly from Jack from his Civil War Projectile and Cannon web site (which everyone interested in CW artillery ought to know about).

Hope that helps.

Oh, and I have written a piece about field artillery which covers the basics and is factually correct (peer reviewed). If you want a copy I'd send you a PDF if you PM me your email address.

Agree on all. McCaul's book on The Mechanical Fuze and the Advance of Artillery in the Civil War is also very good on what might colloquially be covered as "percussion fuzes", although it might be a bit technical for starters. For biographies, Edward Longacre's book on Henry J. Hunt is still the standard and Kent Masterton Brown's book on Alonzo Cushing is good.

 

[major bill]

Looks like I need to add a few titles to my library.

 

[Belfoured]

Looks like I need to add a few titles to my library.

Use only under a doctor's supervision - some of us obviously have become dependent on this stuff.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

Here are some of my Artillery books...

A few titles missing, like Cole's Gettysburg, and E.P. Alexanders book...
Pretty sure Ami thinks I have enough, I know of at least 3 titles I'd like...

 

[unicornforge]

I humbly suggest reading the free online book, "The Artillerist's Manual" located at

The Artillery Reserve

web site

 

[drezac]

there is not much I can add that has not been already covered. As far as to the technical aspects, the Barry/Hunt/French artillery manual will cover that. Also, you can find the ordnance manuals in Google Books, There is a lot of good information regarding how the ammunition is actually made.

 

[Belfoured]

I note that Mike has Artillery Hell - a very good book on the guns at Antietam. Another battle-specific book which is very good but somewhat rare is Witham's book on Shiloh. drezac makes a good point about the availability of the 1861 Ordnance Manual and others on the internet. One that I should have added is Roberts' Hand-Book of Artillery (1860) - it uses a sort of Q and A format which is actually pretty helpful. I also suggest the thesis papers archived online by the Command and General Staff College in pdf format. There are several regarding Civil War field artillery.

 

[UCVRelics]

For shells there is only one go to book IMHO

 

[Belfoured]

For shells there is only one go to book IMHO
View attachment 344154

The Melton Half Shell book mentioned by John Winn is excellent, albeit expensive.