Richard Buxton

‘Bull Run to Boer War’ is an authoritative and precise study of how the British Army of the last four decades of the nineteenth century drew and applied lessons from the four bloody years of the American Civil War. Wonderfully written by Mike Somerville, the book takes a number of perspectives through the Civil War and the years that followed. Who were the British observers and what might their motivations or biases have been? What were the lessons for each branch of the British Army from artillery to infantry? There’s also a marvellous chapter on the early aeronauts. It’s clear that Somerville has delved deeply into first-hand accounts to validate or challenge the received wisdom that the British were remiss in studying the Civil War to better adapt to developments in weapons and transport. Students of the British Army and the American Civil War will both derive a great deal from Somerville’s observations and his thoughtful and logical conclusions. The book does what it says on the cover. In so doing it casts its own particular light on the developmental issues facing the British Army given its own far flung imperial strategic position as well as the centuries old challenges within Europe. For me and others who share a fascination of the Civil War itself, it gives new pause for thought about the many problems commanders North and South were struggling with in terms of the development of modern arms, the particular topography of the theatres of war and the unique political aspects of a civil war when compared with the expeditionary wars of the British Empire. Thoroughly recommended, this book deserves an authoritative position in the long running debate over how the British military establishment learned the lessons of the American Civil War.