from Guild Press of Indiana A recent holiday to the USA enabled me to purchase the above programme. For anyone with a serious interest in the American Civil War, I must say that this is a must. I can well remember purchasing the four volume work 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil war' and believing that, with them, I had arrived in the area of true background research. I would never in a million years decry the four volumes work but, to the true enthusiast, the Civil War CD-ROM will be found to be one of the ultimate companions. The programme consists, primarily, of three databases, the 'Official Records' (land), Dyer's 'Compendium of the War of the Rebellion', and Fox's 'Regimental Losses in the American Civil War'. Each in its own right is a virtual goldmine of information but, in this form, the whole program puts it on a level of true wealth. For the past year I have been endeavouring to list, by campaign, all the actions along with the Orders of Battle involved in the eastern theatre. In one place I have discovered, by cross referencing, a veritable Aladdin's cave of information. Unfortunately information is still scarce in respect of information concerning the Confederacy but, to a certain degree, this is to be expected. Having said that, there is still a large amount of information listed under OR's concerning the Confederacy. To the wargames campaigner there is a wealth of information concerning the Union forces including a complete list of all federal units by state. Additionally there can be found a well documented list of Union casualties of a vast number of actions. Anyone wishing to re-fight the whole of the war in miniature will be able to assess their progress by comparing casualty returns. I have had the programme for some months now and I am impressed with the ease of use. Single items are easy to find and it is a simple matter to extract and print information as necessary. A simple browse through the material gives a fascinating return in useful information and it is extremely easy to get side-tracked from a course of research. I have found this to be one of those programmes that make me wonder how on earth anyone can do without it if they want true facts on the conflict. Also included is 'A User's Guide to the Official Records of the Civil War', along with 'Military Operations of the Civil War: A Guide Index to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies', and I would recommend the reading of these two documents. I feel I cannot recommend this programme enough both for its content and ease of use. The supplier is Guild Press of Indiana, Carmel, IN 46032 and the cost was $69.95 (use $1.65 as a rough Guide for currency conversion) and is available for Windows and Macintosh. They also have on offer: Confederate Military History at $39.95 Southern Historical Papers at $69.95 Atlas of the Official Records of the Civil War at $59.95 The American Indian CD-ROM at $69.95. I shall be ordering further items from Guild Press so, hopefully, I may be able to give details of further products. If you are really into the Civil War, then grab these with both hands. {Thanks for the review George and I look forward to more of the same later. Already placed an order via Richard so I am now eagerly awaiting their arrival. For those of you with Internet access you might like to try www.civilwar.com which has extensive link information and is another wealth of information. Graham}. [They have arrived and Grahams is somewhat chuffed with them. Kenn] Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #128 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com