Featured battle : South Mountain

Part of American Civil War

Date : 14 September 1862

Even though McClellan had in his possession a lost copy of Lee's complete troop disposition between Harper's Ferry and Hagerstown, showing that Longstreet and Jackson were spread out and separated by the Potomac, he only advanced very slowly and was successfully delayed by D H Hill's Confederate forces blocking the passes through South Mountain while Lee concentrated at Sharpsburg.

The Transformation of British Naval Strategy

James Davey
This is a book aimed more at the specialist rather than the general browser. Having said that it is written in an easy flowing style which makes the subject matter easy to understand. The subject of the book, sub-titled 'seapower and supply in Northern Europe 1808 to 1812' is the logistical problem of keeping a substantial fleet supplied with all its needs far from any base. The story is one of the evolution and development of systems which brought together the different branches of the supply chain to become a very efficient 'machine'. The end user, Admiral Saumarez's fleet, contributed greatly, in terms of the feed back, to the vast improvements made. The text is supported by very few illustrations and maps but with a wealth of tables and graphs.
A book not to missed by students of Napoleonic naval warfare.
I warmly recommend a fascinatingly good read.
The Boydell Press, 2012