Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: Staff and Headquarters Operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-65 - Hardcover

Bartholomees, J.Boone

9781570032202: Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: Staff and Headquarters Operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-65

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1570032203 ISBN 13: 9781570032202

Publisher: University of South Carolina Press, 1998

The staff system of the Army of Northern Virginia demonstrates one of the peculiar traits of the Civil War. That war occurred on a cusp of military history - it had elements both ancient and modern, and it reflected the struggle of soldiers trying to reconcile the two. Civil War military institutions had their roots firmly planted in the traditions and doctrine of the past while they confronted modern problems. The story of the disconnection between linear tactics that would have been recognizable to either Alexander or Frederick the Great and deadly rifled muskets is familiar. The story of ill-trained and ill-prepared staffs trying to coordinate all the intricate details of a vast, semimodern army operating in a huge theater of war with doctrine and procedures that would soon be if they were not already outmoded is less familiar. That is the story of staff work in the Army of Northern Virginia.

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Review:

This first substantive study of Civil War staff work... is a truly original and worthwhile addition to the literature, one that we hope will spur further scholarship on the inner workings of the Union and Confederate armies. - Journal of American History

Synopsis:

In performing the tasks associated with organizing, training, equipping, moving, and fighting large armies, military commanders require the assistance of staff officers. This book examines how the staff officers of Robert E. Lee's army were selected, trained and organized.

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