Rally Once Again:

Battle Tactics of the ACW (book)

by Paul A. Koch

By Paddy Griffith; Crowood Press, Crowood House, Rambury, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 2HE, England. About $20.00 plus postage.

I have with one notable exception always been an enthusiast of Dr. Griffith's writings. I am pleased to say that Rally Once Again is another excellent piece in Griffith's growing bibliographic output.

I was at first rather taken, and at the time disappointed, that this full size book was a sort of hard bound rehash of his outstanding Battle - The American Civil War which was so glowingly reviewed by your editor some months ago. However this first impression was mistaken. While the earlier work contains a mountain of data which delights rule writers and ACW buffs of all sorts, it presents many of Griffith's conceptions as mere self-evident fact.

In this later work, rather the reverse is true. While a great deal of the data is not present, the reasoning, research and argument for the author's new, and at times, startling conceptions is present. Not only present, but presented in a most compelling form. His argument on small arm ranges forexample is most telling and contrary to my own preconceived but now corrected notions. Likewise his observations on staff work, fortifications and artillery usage are quite to the mark. I must confess the book hassent me to the drawing board examining procedures which might enhance my own gameswith hisvisionsof the reality of the conflict. I must add that I did find his treatment of the mounted arm somewhat one sided. The failure to even mention the second Shenandoah campaign leaves generous room for doubting balanced research.

This book however is a prize. One gets a real feeling of how Nineteenth Century battle worked. The work is hard bound and available in Great Britain only as of this date. That makes for a fairly high price tag, but for the serious gamer and ACW buff it is an absolute must. I highly recommend it.

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