I visited the battle of Monocacy battlefield museum recently. Once I finished touring the battlefield, I went back to the museum (which was closed for renovation) and the gift shop. They had a copy of Civil war western campaign map book by the American Battlefield Trust. My buddy picked that up and I was impressed with the map and unit detail in the book. The books are soft cover and punched, so you can put them in a binder, if you would like. So, I looked it up online when I got home. I saw they had three books. An east and a west campaign book and a Revolutionary War book. I went ahead and ordered the Rev War version (I will order the others soon). As it was available from Amazon, I got I fast.
The Rev war book covers pretty much all the larger Rev War battles. Some smaller ones show the units down to the regiment, while the larger battles go down to the brigade. The table of contents above shows all the battles that are included. This is a nice consolidated source to have in your collection.
Each battle gives a summary of the battle and personalities involved. It starts with the general positioning in the campaign and considerations before the fight. It then goes into the actual fight and how it ended. At the end of the page, you can find a reference on how much of the given battlefield has been maintained.
The jewels are the individual maps. These are mostly topographical and show the units in the fight and important terrain. The general movements of the troops is also included, with a couple of references to important points in the fight. A few of the battles are broken up into component areas, where the fight was more layered.
All in all a nice book. While I am not a civil war gamer, I will be collecting the two Civil War books, as I think they will be nice resources when I go on battlefield tours. These are often last minute decisions on my part, when I am traveling. So, having a single lightweight book that covers everything in better for me when I am on the road.
- Manteuffel