The American Civil War is often said to have predicted the way in which later wars such as the Boer War and the First World War would be fought. As a result the British Army has been criticized for not heeding its lessons, a view that can be traced back to the 1930s.

This book challenges that long-held view, and demonstrates that the responses to the lessons of the war in the British Army were more complex, better informed, and of higher quality, than normally depicted.

"...highly persuasive in making that case that the Civil War's role in reshaping the British Army to meet the challenges of the next century, though limited in scope, remains greatly underestimated in both popular and professional historical writing....contains more than enough intellectual heft to force us to freshly question many traditional interpretations related to the matter. This book is very highly recommended reading for all students of the American Civil War as well as those concerned with the half-century of British Army development that preceded its involvement in the Great War."