Hello all, I was hoping someone could recommend me either some respectable books or even just some websites on early medieval warfare, i.e composition of armies, logistics, etc. I have two books on Carolingian warfare but they are more focused on the campaigns, not as much the grittier details.
thanks
Above all, I'd recommend Guy Halsall's Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450–900 (2003, ebook 2008). The Google Books preview will take you to the table of contents, which seems to cover exactly the questions you're asking.
A word of caution: Halsall confronts and rejects the style of Carolingian warfare that you seem disinterested in. Halsall particularly opposes work such as Bernard Bachrach's Early Carolingian Warfare, which Halsall considers to be a naive and misleading use of sources. Bachrach's work is nevertheless considered authoritative among some military historians (albeit not widely read outside of this subfield), and Bachrach has faulted Halsall's approach for showing a pattern of "sloppy or indifferent scholarship" (review in AHR 109.3 [2004]: 959).
I remain uncertain that Bachrach has adequately responded to Halsall's critique, and I generally sympathize with Halsall's use of sources and techniques. The advantage to reading Halsall over Bachrach is that Halsall admits where there are points of contention, and I think he does an exemplary job making these debates and their importance clear to readers who are first getting their feet wet in the field.
Regarding some often missed aspects of early medieval warfare, I think a very valuable read is Adam Kosto's brief article, "Hostages in the Carolingian World (714–840)," Early Medieval Europe 11.2 (2002): 123–47. If you find this article interesting, you might also consider his book: Hostages in the Middle Ages (2012).
David Wyatt has explored another interesting dimension of early medieval warfare: slave raiding. I'd recommend his brief entry "Slavery," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, ed. Clifford J. Rogers, 3 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 3:274-75. If you'd like a bit more on this, I'd recommend Wyatt's article, "The Significance of Slavery: Alternative Approaches to Anglo-Saxon Slavery," Anglo-Norman Studies 23 (2000), 327-47. A bit older but nevertheless very important article on slave raiding in early medieval warfare is Poul Holm's "The Slave Trade of Dublin, Ninth to Twelfth Centuries," Peritia 5 (1986), 317-45. Depending on your library's subscriptions, you will likely need to request these through an interlibrary loan service.
Beyond that, I'd recommend anything from the journal De Re Militari, which runs an excellent website full of primary sources and scholarly articles. A search for Carolingian turns up a number of interesting results.
For primary sources, Gregory of Tours is often cited. The opening chapters of The Life of Saint Guthlac also give a useful biography of a young nobleman at war (see Audrey Meaney's articles for more info). Asser's Life of Alfred and Einhard's Life of Charlemagne are two other really interesting primary sources that give more of a top-down view of early medieval warfare. I also love the rich metaphors of Anglo-Saxon poetry, particularly in "The Battle of Brunanburh" as translated by Tennyson.
I think the best bet here is to read through some of the current scholarship (particularly Halsall and Bachrach) and see who they cite. A number of their sources are likely found in cheap Penguin paperbacks (e.g. Gregory of Tours, Asser, and *Two Lives of Charlemagne), which can be found at almost any used book store.
And just as a follow-up: What are the two books on Carolingian warfare you already have?