Download or read book The Last Battle of Winchester written by Scott C. Patchan and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, The Last Battle of Winchester is the first serious study to chronicle the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. The fighting began about daylight and did not end until dusk, when the victorious Union army routed the Confederates off the field. It was the first time Stonewall Jackson's former corps had ever been driven from a battlefield, and the stinging defeat set the stage for the final climax of the 1864 Valley Campaign at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. The Northern victory was a long time coming. After a spring and summer of Union defeat in the Valley, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cobbled together a formidable force under redoubtable cavalryman Phil Sheridan. His task was a tall one: sweep Jubal Early's Confederate army out of the bountiful Shenandoah and reduce the verdant region of its supplies. Thus far, the aggressive Early had led Jackson's veterans to one victory after another at Lynchburg, Monocacy, Snickers Gap, and Kernstown. Author Scott Patchan, recognized as the foremost authority on the 1864 Valley Campaign, dissects the five weeks of complex maneuvering and sporadic combat before the opposing armies ended up at Winchester, an important town in the northern end of the Valley that had changed hands dozens of times during the war. Tactical brilliance and ineptitude were on display throughout the day-long affair as Sheridan threw infantry and cavalry against the thinning Confederate ranks, and Early and his generals shifted to meet each assault. A final blow against Early's left flank collapsed the Southern army, killed one of the Confederacy's finest combat generals in Robert Rodes, and planted the seeds of the sweeping largescale victory at Cedar Creek the following month. Patchan's vivid prose is based upon more than two decades of meticulous firsthand research and an unparalleled understanding of the battlefield. Nearly two dozen original maps, scores of photos, hundreds of explanatory footnotes, and seven invaluable appendices enhance our understanding of this watershed battle. Rich in analysis and dramatic character development, The Last Battle of Winchester is certain to become a classic Civil War battle study.
Download or read book The Last Battle of Winchester written by Scott C. Patchan and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-07-19 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Unique insight, good storytelling skills, deep research, and keen appreciation for the terrain . . . one outstanding work of history.” —Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning author of Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions The Third Battle of Winchester in September 1864 was the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. What began about daylight did not end until dusk, when the victorious Union army routed the Confederates. It was the first time Stonewall Jackson’s former corps had ever been driven from a battlefield, and their defeat set the stage for the final climax of the Valley Campaign. This book represents the first serious study to chronicle the battle. The Northern victory was a long time coming. After a spring and summer of Union defeat in the Valley, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cobbled together a formidable force under Phil Sheridan, an equally redoubtable commander. Sheridan’s task was a tall one: sweep Jubal Early’s Confederate army out of the bountiful Shenandoah, and reduce the verdant region of its supplies. The aggressive Early had led the veterans of Jackson’s Army of the Valley District to one victory after another at Lynchburg, Monocacy, Snickers Gap, and Kernstown. Five weeks of complex maneuvering and sporadic combat followed before the opposing armies met at Winchester, an important town that had changed hands dozens of times over the previous three years. Tactical brilliance and ineptitude were on display throughout the daylong affair as Sheridan threw infantry and cavalry against the thinning Confederate ranks and Early and his generals shifted to meet each assault. A final blow against Early’s left flank finally collapsed the Southern army, killed one of the Confederacy’s finest combat generals, and planted the seeds of the victory at Cedar Creek the following month. This vivid account—based on more than two decades of meticulous research and an unparalleled understanding of the battlefield, and rich is analysis and character development—is complemented with numerous original maps and explanatory footnotes that enhance our understanding of this watershed battle.
Download or read book The Second Battle of Winchester written by Eric J. Wittenberg and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, deeply researched history of the pivotal 1863 American Civil War battle fought in northern Virginia. June 1863. The Gettysburg Campaign is underway. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia pushes west into the Shenandoah Valley and then north toward the Potomac River. Only one significant force stands in its way: Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy’s Union division of the Eighth Army Corps in the vicinity of Winchester and Berryville, Virginia. What happens next is the subject of this provocative new book. Milroy, a veteran Indiana politician-turned-soldier, was convinced the approaching enemy consisted of nothing more than cavalry or was merely a feint, and so defied repeated instructions to withdraw. In fact, the enemy consisted of General Lee’s veteran Second Corps under Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell. Milroy’s controversial decision committed his outnumbered and largely inexperienced men against some of Lee’s finest veterans. The complex and fascinating maneuvering and fighting on June 13-15 cost Milroy hundreds of killed and wounded and about 4,000 captured (roughly one-half of his command), with the remainder routed from the battlefield. The combat cleared the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley of Federal troops, demonstrated Lee could obtain supplies on the march, justified the elevation of General Ewell to replace the recently deceased Stonewall Jackson, and sent shockwaves through the Northern states. Today, the Second Battle of Winchester is largely forgotten. But in June 1863, the politically charged front-page news caught President Lincoln and the War Department by surprise and forever tarnished Milroy’s career. The beleaguered Federal soldiers who fought there spent a lifetime seeking redemption, arguing their three-day “forlorn hope” delayed the Rebels long enough to allow the Army of the Potomac to arrive and defeat Lee at Gettysburg. For the Confederates, the decisive leadership on display outside Winchester masked significant command issues buried within the upper echelons of Jackson’s former corps that would become painfully evident during the early days of July on a different battlefield in Pennsylvania. Award-winning authors Eric J. Wittenberg and Scott L. Mingus Sr. combined their researching and writing talents to produce the most in-depth and comprehensive study of Second Winchester ever written, and now in paperback. Their balanced effort, based upon scores of archival and previously unpublished diaries, newspaper accounts, and letter collections, coupled with familiarity with the terrain around Winchester and across the lower Shenandoah Valley, explores the battle from every perspective.
Download or read book Bloody Autumn written by Daniel T. Davis and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2014-01-19 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “essential addition to serious students’ libraries” detailing the historic military offensive that helped sway the outcome of the American Civil War (Civil War News). In the late summer of 1864, Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant set one absolutely unconditional goal: to sweep Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley “clean and clear.” His man for the job: Maj. Gen. “Little Phil” Sheridan—a temperamental Irishman who’d proven himself just the kind of scrapper Grant loved. The valley had already played a major part in the war for the Confederacy as both the location of major early victories against Union attacks, and as the route used by the Army of Northern Virginia for its invasion of the North, culminating in the battle of Gettysburg. But when Sheridan returned to the Valley in 1864, the stakes heightened dramatically. For the North, the fragile momentum its war effort had gained by the capture of Atlanta would quickly evaporate. For Abraham Lincoln, defeat in the Valley could mean defeat in the upcoming election. And for the South, its very sovereignty lay on the line. Here, historians Davis and Greenwalt “weave an excellent summary of the campaign that will serve to introduce those new to the Civil War to the events of that ‘Bloody Autumn’ and will serve as a ready refresher for veteran stompers who are heading out to visit those storied fields of conflict” (Scott C. Patchan, author of The Last Battle of Winchester).
Download or read book Defend the Valley written by Margaretta Barton Colt and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1999 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author "brings to life the courage, recklessness, heartbreak, and deprivation of the (Shenandoah) Valley Campaign and the battles to the east of the Blue Ridge" ("The Commercial Appeal"). 60 photos.
Download or read book From Winchester to Cedar Creek written by Jeffry D. Wert and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title takes a close look at a turning point in the Civil War. In the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864, U.S. Major General Philip H. Sheridan led his army to a series of decisive victories for the Union over Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early and the Confederate Army of the Valley. In ""From Winchester to Cedar Creek"", author Jeffry D. Wert highlights Sheridan's victories in the critical area of the Virginia Valley as defining moments of the Civil War. Sheridan's campaign ensured Confederate defeat in Virginia and ultimately contributed to Lincoln's reelection and the Union's victory in the Civil War. Drawing on manuscript collections and many published sources, Wert offers vivid descriptions of the battles of Third Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Tom's Brook, and Cedar Creek. The book also explores how the interplay of the strengths and weaknesses of the Union and Confederate commanders, Sheridan and Early, resulted in victories for Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah. Grounded in detailed research, Wert's compelling narrative portrays the military strategies these commanders employed and how their tactical decisions impacted civilian sacrifice in the Valley. First published in 1987, Wert's chronicle remains the definitive book on Sheridan's command and the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864. Offering a balanced treatment of both Union and Confederate experiences during the campaign, Wert emphasizes its importance as a turning point in the war from both military and civilian points of view. Supplemented with situation maps and photographs, ""From Winchester to Cedar Creek"" not only documents and dynamically recounts the events that unfolded between the summer and fall of 1864 in the Virginia Valley, but it also details the political, strategic, and tactical forces that made the Shenandoah Valley campaign so important to the outcome of the Civil War.
Download or read book The Last Battle of Winchester written by Scott C. Patchan and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Last Battle of Winchester is the first serious study to chronicle the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. The fighting began about daylight and did not end until dusk, when the victorious Union army routed the Confederates off the field. It was the first time Stonewall Jackson's former corps had ever been driven from a battlefield, and the stinging defeat set the stage for the final climax of the 1864 Valley Campaign at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. The Northern victory was a long time coming. After a spring and summer of Union defeat in the Valley, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cobbled together a formidable force under redoubtable cavalryman Phil Sheridan. His task was a tall one: sweep Jubal Early's Confederate army out of the bountiful Shenandoah and reduce the verdant region of its supplies. Thus far, the aggressive Early had led Jackson's veterans to one victory after another at Lynchburg, Monocacy, Snickers Gap, and Kernstown. Author Scott Patchan, recognized as the foremost authority on the 1864 Valley Campaign, dissects the five weeks of complex maneuvering and sporadic combat before the opposing armies ended up at Winchester, an important town in the northern end of the Valley that had changed hands dozens of times during the war. Tactical brilliance and ineptitude were on display throughout the day-long affair as Sheridan threw infantry and cavalry against the thinning Confederate ranks, and Early and his generals shifted to meet each assault. A final blow against Early's left flank collapsed the Southern army, killed one of the Confederacy's finest combat generals in Robert Rodes, and planted the seeds of the sweeping largescale victory at Cedar Creek the following month. Patchan's vivid prose is based upon more than two decades of meticulous firsthand research and an unparalleled understanding of the battlefield. Nearly two dozen original maps, scores of photos, hundreds of explanatory footnotes, and seven invaluable appendices enhance our understanding of this watershed battle. Rich in analysis and dramatic character development, The Last Battle of Winchester is certain to become a classic Civil War battle study. About the Author: A life-long student of military history, Scott C. Patchan is a graduate of James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley. He is the author of many articles and books, including The Forgotten Fury: The Battle of Piedmont (1996), Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign (2007), and Second Manassas: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge (2011). Patchan serves as a director on the board of the Kernstown Battlefield Association in Winchester, Virginia, and is a member of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation's Resource Protection Committee.
Download or read book Three Days in the Shenandoah written by Gary Ecelbarger and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-10-22 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The battles of Front Royal and Winchester are the stuff of Civil War legend. Stonewall Jackson swept away an isolated Union division under the command of Nathaniel Banks and made his presence in the northern Shenandoah Valley so frightful a prospect that it triggered an overreaction from President Lincoln, yielding huge benefits for the Confederacy. Gary Ecelbarger has undertaken a comprehensive reassessment of those battles to show their influence on both war strategy and the continuation of the conflict. Three Days in the Shenandoah answers questions that have perplexed historians for generations. Bypassing long-overused sources that have shrouded the Valley Campaign in myth, Ecelbarger draws instead on newly uncovered primary sources—including soldiers’ accounts and officers’ reports—to refute much of the anecdotal lore that for too long was regarded as fact. He narrates those suspenseful days of combat from the perspective of battlefield participants and high commanders to weave a compelling story of strategy and tactics. And he offers new conclusions regarding Lincoln’s military meddling as commander in chief, grants Jefferson Davis more credit for the campaign than previous accounts have given him, and commends Union soldiers for their fighting. Written with the flair of a seasoned military historian and enlivened with maps and illustrations, Three Days in the Shenandoah reinterprets this important episode. Ecelbarger sets a new standard for envisioning the Shenandoah Campaign that will both fascinate Civil War buffs and engage historians.
Download or read book Meade and Lee After Gettysburg written by Jeffrey Wm Hunt and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “very satisfying blow-by-blow account of the final stages of the Gettysburg Campaign” fills an important gap in Civil War history (Civil War Books and Authors). Winner of the Gettysburg Civil War Round Table Book Award This fascinating book exposes what has been hiding in plain sight for 150 years: The Gettysburg Campaign did not end at the banks of the Potomac on July 14, but deep in central Virginia two weeks later along the line of the Rappahannock. Contrary to popular belief, once Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slipped across the Potomac back to Virginia, the Lincoln administration pressed George Meade to cross quickly in pursuit—and he did. Rather than follow in Lee’s wake, however, Meade moved south on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a cat-and-mouse game to outthink his enemy and capture the strategic gaps penetrating the high wooded terrain. Doing so would trap Lee in the northern reaches of the Shenandoah Valley and potentially bring about the decisive victory that had eluded Union arms north of the Potomac. The two weeks that followed resembled a grand chess match with everything at stake—high drama filled with hard marching, cavalry charges, heavy skirmishing, and set-piece fighting that threatened to escalate into a major engagement with the potential to end the war in the Eastern Theater. Throughout, one thing remains clear: Union soldiers from private to general continued to fear the lethality of Lee’s army. Meade and Lee After Gettysburg, the first of three volumes on the campaigns waged between the two adversaries from July 14 through the end of July, 1863, relies on the official records, regimental histories, letters, newspapers, and other sources to provide a day-by-day account of this fascinating high-stakes affair. The vivid prose, coupled with original maps and outstanding photographs, offers a significant contribution to Civil War literature. Named Eastern Theater Book of the Year byCivil War Books and Authors
Download or read book A Woman s Civil War written by Cornelia Peake McDonald and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cornelia Peake McDonald kept a diary during the Civil War (1861- 1865) at her husband's request, but some entries were written between the lines of printed books due to a shortage of paper and other entries were lost. In 1875, she assembled her scattered notes and records of the war period into a blank book to leave to her children. The diary entries describe civilian life in Winchester, Va., occupation by Confederate troops prior to the 1st Manassas, her husband's war experiences, the Valley campaigns and occupation of Winchester and her home by Union troops, the death of her baby girl, the family's "refugee life" in Lexington, reports of battles elsewhere, and news of family and friends in the army.
Download or read book Confederate Waterloo written by Michael J. McCarthy and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Engrossing . . . A lengthy review of the events of the final days of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the road to Appomattox” (Mark Silo, author of The 115th New York in the Civil War). The Battle of Five Forks broke the long siege of Petersburg, Virginia, triggered the evacuation of Richmond, precipitated the Appomattox Campaign, and destroyed the careers and reputations of two generals. Michael J. McCarthy’s Confederate Waterloo is the first fully researched and unbiased book-length account of this decisive Union victory and the aftermath fought in the courts and at the bar of public opinion. When Gen. Phil Sheridan’s forces struck at Five Forks on April 1, the attack surprised and collapsed Gen. George Pickett’s Confederate command and turned General Lee’s right flank. An attack along the entire front the following morning broke the siege and forced the Virginia army out of its defenses and, a week later, into Wilmer McLean’s parlor to surrender at Appomattox. Despite this decisive Union success, Five Forks spawned one of the most bitter and divisive controversies in the postwar army when Sheridan relieved Fifth Corps commander Gouverneur K. Warren for perceived failures connected to the battle. McCarthy’s Confederate Waterloo is grounded upon extensive research and a foundation of primary sources, including the meticulous records of a man driven to restore his honor in the eyes of his colleagues, his family, and the American public. The result is a fresh and dispassionate analysis that may cause students of the Civil War to reassess their views about some of the Union’s leading generals. “A detailed, scholarly analysis of one of the final battles of the American Civil War . . . A studious, unbiased account of the entire affair.” —Midwest Book Review
Download or read book Hurricane from the Heavens written by Daniel Davis and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-19 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LeeOCOs army is really whipped, Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant believed.May 1864 had witnessed near-constant combat between his Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Grant, unlike his predecessors, had not relented in his pounding of the Confederates. The armies clashed in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Courthouse and along the North Anna River. Whenever combat failed to break the Confederates, Grant resorted to maneuver. I propose to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer, Grant vowedOCoand it had.Casualties mounted on both sidesOCobut Grant kept coming. Although the great, decisive assault had eluded him, he continued to punish LeeOCOs army. The blows his army landed were nothing like the Confederates had experienced before. The constant marching and fighting had reduced Robert E. LeeOCOs once-vaunted army into a bedraggled husk of its former glory.In GrantOCOs mind, he had worn his foes down and now prepared to deliver the deathblow.Turning LeeOCOs flank once more, he hoped to fight the final, decisive battle of the war in the area bordering the Pamunkey and Chickahominy rivers, less than fifteen miles from the outskirts of the Confederate capital of Richmond. I may be mistaken, but I feel that our success over LeeOCOs army is already assured, Grant confided to Washington.The stakes had grown enormous. GrantOCOs staggering casualty lists had driven Northern morale to his lowest point of the war. Would LeeOCOs men hold on to defend their besieged capitalOCoand, in doing so, prolong the war until the North will collapsed entirely? Or would another round of hard fighting finally be enough to crush LeeOCOs army? Could Grant push through and end the war?Grant would find his answers around a small Virginia crossroads called Cold HarborOCoand he would always regret the results.Historians Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt have studied the 1864 Overland Campaign since their early days working at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, where Grant first started on his bloody road southOCoa road that eventually led straight into the eye of a proverbial Hurricane from the Heavens.Hurricane from the Heavens can be read in the comfort of oneOCOs favorite armchair or as a battlefield guide. It is part of the popular Emerging Civil War Series, which offers compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil WarOCOs most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with more than one hundred photos, illustrations, and maps."
Download or read book Stonewall in the Valley written by Robert G. Tanner and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Copyright date 1996; previously published: Doubleday & Co., 1976.
Download or read book Beleaguered Winchester written by Richard R. Duncan and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Civil War, the strategically located town of Winchester, Virginia, suffered from the constant turmoil of military campaigning perhaps more than any other town. Occupied dozens of times by alternating Union and Confederate forces, Winchester suffered through three major battles, including some seventy smaller skirmishes. In his voluminous community study of the town over the course of four tumultuous years, Richard R. Duncan shows that in many ways Winchester's history provides a paradigm of the changing nature of the war. Indeed, Duncan reveals how the town offers a microcosm of the war: slavery collapsed, women assumed control in the absence of men, and civilians vied for authority alongside an assortment of revolving military commanders. Control over Winchester was vital for both the North and the South. Confederates used it as a base to strike the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and conduct raids into western Maryland and Pennsylvania, and when Federal forces occupied the town, they threatened Staunton -- Lee's breadbasket -- and the Virginia Central Railroad. At various times during the war, generals "Stonewall" Jackson, Nathaniel Banks, Robert Milroy, Richard Ewell, Jubal Early, and Philip Sheridan each controlled the town. Guerrilla activity further compounded the region's strife as insecurity became the norm for its civilian population. In this first scholarly treatment of occupied Winchester, Duncan has compiled a narrative of voices from the entire community, including those of groups often omitted from such studies, such as slaves, women, and Confederate dissenters. He shows how Federal occupation meant an early end to slavery in Winchester and how the paucity of men left women to serve as the major cohesive force in the community, making them a bulwark of Confederate support. He also explores the tensions between civilians and military personnel that inevitably arose as each group sought to protect its interests. The war, Duncan explains, left Winchester a landscape of wreckage and economic loss. A fascinating case study of civilian survival amid the turmoil of war, Beleaguered Winchester will appeal to Civil War scholars and enthusiasts alike.
Download or read book Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants written by Thomas Kemp Cartmell and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence in the Confederate States of America written by Jubal Anderson Early and published by . This book was released on 1867 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Civil War at Perryville written by Christopher L. Kolakowski and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Desperate to seize control of Kentucky, the Confederate army launched an invasion into the commonwealth in the fall of 1862, viciously culminating at an otherwise quite Bluegrass crossroads and forever altering the landscape of the war. The Battle lasted just one day yet produced nearly eight thousand combined casualties and losses, and some say nary a victor. The Rebel army was forced to retreat, and United States kept its imperative grasp on Kentucky throughout the war. Few know this hallowed ground like Christopher L. Kolakowski, former director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association, who draws on letters, reports, memoirs and other primary sources to offer the most accessible and engaging account of the Kentucky campaign yet, featuring over sixty historic images and maps.
