U.S. CIVIL WAR

◗ Iain MacGregor

◗ Osprey (2022)

◗ £7.99

◗ 128 pages (softback)

◗ ISBN:9781472850119

◗ ospreypublishing.com

This nifty little A5 landscape-format book gives a thumbnail sketch of 30 engagements – including several naval ones – in the American Civil War. Each has four pages, with an artist’s impression (from the corresponding Osprey main title), a couple of illustrations of men or equipment, and around an A4 page’s worth of text. Actions range in size from 3rd Day Gettysburg, to Glorieta Pass with a few hundred troops per side.

The text is sometimes ambiguous, so some actions are a little difficult to follow, but overall this gives a wide sweep of the war in an attractive (and well-priced) format. However, there are no maps and no outline orders of battle, which limits severely its value to wargamers. Bearing in mind that most of the engagements have been culled from other Ospreys, it should have been possible to substitute a smallscale map, plus a simple table showing numbers of troops by arm of service and the losses, in lieu of the minor illustrations in each four-page slice? It makes a useful painting guide though.