Stackpole Books

As some of you might remember for seven years I was book review editor of the Military and Naval History Journal that has since ceased publication. Occasionally, I still receive books to review and over the past year I have received six books from Stackpole Books (5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA. 17055-6921, orders 800-732-3669) that I think are worth having on your history bookshelf.

Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879 by Thomas Goodrich, a Stackpole 2002 reprint of the 1977 edition in paperback. Includes 34 photographs, four maps, index, bibliography and notes, it is 352 pages in paperback for $19.95. This book is easy to read and full of contemporary quotes.

The Custer Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to the Life of George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian Wars by Thom Hatch, a 2002 Stackpole book, 288 pages paperback for $29.95. Each of nine chapters contains overview, sidebars (83 total), 80 photographs, 22 maps, epilogue, and biographies (135 total with 24 Native American).

Eyewitness to the Indian Wars 1865-1890, Volume two The Wars for the Pacific Northwest, edited by Peter Cozzins. A 2002 edited volume of 56 contemporary accounts (3 Native American), 784 pages and is available in hardcover for $49.95. The accounts cover The Snake-Paiute War and After, 1866-72; Modoc War, 1872-73; The Nez Perce Campaign, 1878; The Bannock War, 1878; and The Sheepeater Campaign, 1879. There are 56 contemporary accounts (three Indian). The book includes loads of photographs and illustrations, 45 pages of notes, index, and nine contemporary maps. A few of the articles contain OB information and quite a bit more can be inferred from the text.

Frontier Classics Series, The Conquest of the Missouri: The Life and Exploits of Captain Grant Marsh by Joseph Mills Hanson a 2003 reprint of the 1909 edition with a new introduction by Paul Hedren. Includes 28 photographs and map in 484 pages in paperback for $21.95. Marsh started out as a 12 year old riverboat hand, he was piloting on the Missouri in 1873, was Captain of the Far West during the Great Sioux War and carried the first news of Custer’s defeat at the Little Big Horn.

The Blue, The Gray, and the Red: Indian Campaigns of the Civil War a 2003 Stackpole book by Thom Hatch, includes notes, bibliography, index, nine photographs, and 15 maps in hardcover for $29.95. The book runs chronologically from Dec 1861 to February 1865 in ten chapters concerning ten campaigns against the Indian by both Confederate and Federal units. This is a nice easy read, has some very good information for OBs, which makes it very useful for gaming.

Frontier Classics Series, Twenty Years Among Our Hostile Indians (Describing the Characteristics, Customs, Habits, Religion, Marriages, Dances, and Battles of the Wild Indians in their Natural State, together with the Fur Companies, Overland Stage, Pony Express, Electric Telegraph, and other Phases of Life in the Pathless Regions of the Wild West) by J. Lee Humfreville, a 2002 Stackpole reprint (originally published in 1899) in paperback, available for $19.95. Humfreville was a Captain in the cavalry with two tours in the West 1862-1866 on the Northern Plains with the 11th Ohio Cavalry and 1867-1874 with the 9th US Cavalry. With 56 chapters there is hardly a tribe not described and pictured at least once. The photograph list is four pages long and the photos are great. The photos include lodge types for most of the tribes discussed, nearly all the men shown are in war costume. The author’s best work comes from tribes he actually had contact with. The Introduction by Edwin Sweeney is worth reading several times to appreciate Humfreville’s prejudices and information mistakes.

Generally, I think this set of books from Stackpole makes an excellent small library for anyone interested in the Western Indian Wars between 1861 and 1890, although to really make a nice library I would add volume one of Eyewitness to the Indian Wars 1865-1890, The Struggle for Apacheria also from Stackpole. While the types and style of books are different, between edited contemporary accounts and researched scholarly types, the mix is quite good and they all read well.

From a gaming perspective these volumes are filled with useful information from Indian battle tactics, weapons, battledress, ideas concerning OBs, to photographs of warriors.

On a scholarly note the newer volumes’ (The Blue, The Red and The Grey, The Custer Companion and Scalp Dance) research is solid and mostly based on contemporary accounts and records. If you are interested in American Indian Warfare in the West then these books should be on your shelf. Highly Recommended!

Foundry Books

SMALL WARS AND SKIRMISHES 1902-18: Conflicts and Campaigns in Africa, Asia and the Americas by Edwin Herbert, with illustrations by Ian Heath, 2003, 224 pages, 254 figures plus 34 maps for $50.00 USD.

The book contains so much information that I just had to list the chapters for you to peruse:

1. Introduction: definition and characteristics of small wars
2. US campaigns against the Moros in the Southern Philippines 1902–13
3. US campaigns against the Pulahanes in the Northern Philippines 1902–7
4. The Banana War era: US small wars in Central America 1902–14
5. Portuguese West Africa: the Bailundo expedition 1902
6. Portuguese East Africa: the Barue expedition 1902
7. The Dutch in the East Indies 1904–8
8. In darkest Africa: the Belgian Force Publique in Zandeland 1904–5
9. Lugard’s conquest of Hausaland 1903
10. British campaigns against the Warrior Mullah in the Horn of Africa 1902–14
11. The British mission to Tibet 1904
12. British East Africa: the expedition against the Nandi 1905–6
13. The Zulu Rebellion 1906
14. The Zakha Khel and Mohmand expeditions on the North-West Frontier 1908
15. Skirmishes in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1910–14
16. The British expedition against the Abors on the North-East Frontier 1911–12
17. The Herero and Nama Rebellion in German South-West Africa 1904–7
18. The Maji Maji Rebellion in German East Africa 1905–6
19. The German penetration of Cameroon 1904–12
20. American intervention in Mexico 1910–14
21. The First Italo-Sanusi War 1911–17
22. The pacification of French Morocco 1903–14
23. The Kert expedition in Spanish Morocco 1911–12
24. French Equatorial Africa: the conquest of Wadai 1909–12

II. Small incidents in a Great War
25. The Sanusi invasion of Egypt 1915–16
26. The Arab revolt against the Turks 1916–18
27. The British expedition to Dar Fur in Western Sudan 1916
28. French West Africa: the Tuareg Revolt in the Southern Sahara 1916–17
29. Pershing’s pursuit of Pancho Villa 1916
30. British operations in Persia: the siege of Shiraz 1918

III. A policeman’s lot
31. The Dinshaway Incident in Egypt 1906
32. Baule Resistance to the French, Ivory Coast 1909–11
33. The Blue Sultan of Spanish Sahara 1910–18 34. Back to Africa: the American Intervention
in Liberia 1912
35. The 1912 Rebellion in Northern Rwanda (German East Africa) 218
36. The Giriama War in Kenya 1914–15
37. Shakespear of Arabia 1915
38. John Chilembwe and the ‘Watch Tower’ Rising in Nyasaland 1915
39. Mutiny of the 5th Native Light Infantry at Singapore 1915
40. Revolt in Bussa, Northern Nigeria 1915

Each chapter contains a brief description of the campaign, tactics, terrain, uniforms, weapons, historical effects and further reading list. They can also include organization and command and control information among others items of interest. You can’t go wrong with this, 40 chapters/40 campaign scenarios, loads of uniform drawings and descriptions. COVERS THE WORLD, WOW!

Sorry for gushing, but the book is so good I can’t wait until they release one for 1880-1901, just think about it all the Space 1889 campaigns covered, oh wait wrong universe. Back to the real world, this is full of great information, since Ted (can you belief it he actually reads this newsletter) is a gamer and this is gamer friendly. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED