American Civil War books for Wargamers. Part 1 Uniforms and Tactics

American Civil War wargaming - a short list of recommended books. This is my personal set of recommendations for gaming in the ACW though there is a vast literature available particularly from university presses in the US.

Uniforms:

The following two Ospreys cover most of the basic uniforms of the forces involved, though not the more specialised volunteer units like the Zouves, Chasseurs, etc that were common in the earlier period and add a lot to the appeal of the ACW. There are the obvious limitations of the Men at Arms format and these can be supplemented by many other books on specific units or types of unit.

American Civil War Armies (I): Confederate Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry.

American Civil War Armies (II) Union Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery

American Civil War Armies (III) Specialist Troops

For more inspirational uniform books Don Troiani's books are hard to beat and the main one for the ACW is  Don Troiani's Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War.There are a number of other books illustrated by Don Troiani on more specialised subjects such as Cavalry and Artillery, Infantry, or Militia and Volunteers.


Tactics:

Paddy Griffith Battle Tactics of the Civil War (Yale Nota Bene) Controversial but a useful examination of the tactics used in the war and a challenge to the rifle myth. I think it is not completely accurate in calling the ACW the last Napoleonic war, as Nosworthy helps makes clear. 

Brent Nosworthy The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War builds on the work that Paddy Griffiths did in Battle Tactics with actual statistical analysis of the ranges that combat occurred at. This helped prove that the ACW was usually fought at closer ranges than were claimed by many historians.

In part 2 I'll talk about campaign and unit histories and personal memoirs.