''Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics; for Exercise and Maneuvres of Troops when acting as Light Infantry or Riflemen'' is a book written by

William J. Hardee William Joseph Hardee (October 12, 1815November 6, 1873) was a career United States Army, U.S. Army and Confederate States Army officer. For the U.S. Army, he served in the Second Seminole War and in the Mexican–American War, where he was capt ...

in 1855. Its purpose was to act as a guide for commissioned officers in the instruction of their command.

Publication

In 1853, then- Secretary of War

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

ordered Hardee to write an updated manual on the use and tactics of the new weapons available, percussion rifles, which would be used throughout the Civil War. The book was finished by 1855, and became the standard manual on March 20 of that year. The manual has had multiple different prints, the most common of which being in 1861 and 1862. At that time, Hardee had joined the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

and held the rank of lieutenant general. The manual was in use with the United States Army as well as the Confederate States Army during the war.

References

External links

Partial online copy of the 1855 version (archived)

Online copy of the 1862 version
1855 books United States Army publications United States Department of War publications {{mil-book-stub