Booknotes: Southern Army Units 1861-1865, Vols 1 and 2

New Arrival:

• Southern Army Units, 1861-1865: A Compilation - Volume 1, Alabama to Mississippi & Southern Army Units, 1861-1865: A Compilation - Volume 2, Missouri to Virginia by Phil Osborne (Author, 2025).

For assistance in researching Confederate Army units, there are a number of reference works of varying degrees of completeness and detail. Building upon what were essentially just basic unit lists compiled during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, Joseph Crute added more information in his single-volume 1987 work Units of the Confederate States Army. In the 1990s, even more detail was provided by Stewart Sifakis's multi-volume Compendium of the Confederate States Armies. However, both, while laudable efforts on the part of their authors, have been criticized for not being comprehensive enough. Most recently, Dan Fullerton's Armies in Gray: The Organizational History of the Confederate States Army in the Civil War, which conveys unit information via an organizational tree extending all the way down to the smallest maneuver units (regiments, battalions, and artillery batteries), was published in 2017. Now, with Philip Osborne's two-volume set Southern Army Units, 1861-1865, we have another work available for cross-referencing this vast amount of unit data.

From the description: Osborne's set "lists by state the infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments, battalions and batteries that made up the armies of the southern states during the American Civil War 1861-1865. In addition to listing those units that were organized for service in the Confederate States Army, the work also includes those units that remained in individual state service. These were primarily the militia for each state and the work contains comprehensive information on these units that is not readily available elsewhere. Information for each unit contains its main designation, alternative designations, commanding officers, artillery armament, areas of service and occasional extra information on the lesser known units."

It's worth mentioning that Osborne's reach extends to state militia, home guard local forces, state armies (ex. Missouri State Guard), and reserves, thus the title's "Southern" rather than "Confederate" designation. If such information is available, battery armaments at various points during the war are listed. That alone should spark the interest of those frustrated by their absence within most published orders of battle. Keep your eyes peeled for the review, which will go into more detail in regard to content.