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Hunt Continues his Work

5/21/2021

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Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station: The Problems of Command and Strategy After Gettysburg, from Brandy Station to the Buckland Races, August 1 to October 31, 1863
Jeffrey Wm Hunt
Savas Beatie, 2019, 480 pages, $34.95
ISBN: 978-1-61121-396-6
Image courtesy of amazon.com
            
 
I’ve said this many times when it comes to the Battle of Gettysburg.  The fight did not end with the failure of Longstreet’s Assault on the third day of battle, or Pickett’s Charge as it’s more well known.  There were still many fights to be had in the campaign, including the retreat back into Virginia.  Thanks to Jeffrey Wm Hunt, he’s been taking care of that. In his previous work, Meade and Lee after Gettysburg, he began to chronicle the retreat and the fights that ensued on the road.  Here in Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station, he continues that work.  

            Jeffrey Wm Hunt is the author of Meade and Lee After Gettysburg, and gained his Bachelors Degree in Government and his Masters Degree in History from the University of Texas.  He is the Director of the Texas Military Forces Museum and an adjunct professor of History at Austin Community College.  He’s been teaching there since 1988.  He also served as the Director of the Living History Program at the Admiral Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg.  

            As stated before, this book continues the narrative from Meade and Lee After Gettysburg.  From there, we take a look at the continuing operations, and it doesn’t disappoint.  While I know this is a history book, the action is fast paced, and often times feels like we’re moving from exciting battle to exciting battle.  Robert E. Lee continues to struggle with his corps commanders, mainly in the form of A.P. Hill, and the tug of war pushed through Pennsylvania until the Confederate forces could retreat across the Rappahannock River.  However, this book also shows the struggle Meade had with trying to run the battles in his own way, eventually leading to interference from Washington.  Meade’s actions during the campaign have always fascinated me, and the political nature of command is shown here in droves.  It is possibly one of the things I enjoy most about this book.  While Hunt could continually talk about the battles, and I wouldn’t mind if he did, it was the politicking that intrigued me.  Success and failure are one thing, but blame is another, and that is prevalent in one of the concluding chapters concerning the retreat and pressure from Washington that Meade felt.  Hunt’s narrative is wonderfully written, and overall, I think that this book perhaps takes care of one major flaw in how we see the battle today.  We often see Lee and his army slowly trudging back to Virginia after Gettysburg, but this book proves different.  It shows that the fight was still there, and I appreciate that.

            I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Gettysburg Campaign.  Not only is it well researched and well documented, it is told in a sweeping narrative that reads oftentimes like a novel.  The amout of fighting during this period is well chronicled, and I can see his work being read for years by scholars and students alike.  This proves, yet again, that we still have a lot to learn about the Gettysburg Campaign.  Highly Recommended.


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Wittenberg Delivers Again!

5/21/2021

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Holding the Line on the River of Death: Union Mounted Forces at Chickamauga, September 18, 1863
Eric J. Wittenberg
Savas Beatie, 2018, 288 Pgs., $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-61121-430-7
Image Courtesy of amazon.com          
 
When you’re looking for material on the cavalry for the American Civil War, look no further than Eric J. Wittenberg.  His books covering the cavalry actions during the campaign of Gettysburg have become masterworks and some of them are already being called necessary studies.  His book, Holding the Line on the River of Death chronicles cavalry operations on the first day of Chickamauga, and in usual Wittenberg style, he brings the depth to this research that unmatched when it comes to cavalry studies.
  
            Eric J. Wittenberg is a prolific author on the American Civil War and, as was stated in the introduction, covers a great deal of material on cavalry operations during that conflict.  His books include The Devil’s to Pay: John Buford at Gettysburg.  A History and Walking Tour, of which he was awarded the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable’s 2015 Book Award.  Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions, The Battle of Brandy Station: North America’s Largest Cavalry Battle, and Protecting the Flank: the Battles for Brinkerhoff’s Ridge and East Cavalry Field.  While he has written other works on the war, there are too many to name here.  He also runs tours at numerous Civil War Battlefields and has worked in saving land at Trevilian Station and Brandy Station, Virginia. 
 
            While my main study throughout the years has been the Battle of Gettysburg, I have been reading quite a bit more on the western theater as of late.  This book has helped me in that regard.  Hold the Line on the River of Death is one of those books that I needed.  In his usual narrative style, Wittenberg writes out the chain of events in a way that allows the reader to have a full comprehension about the material.  This follows the first day at Chickamauga and the actions of the Union cavalry under Colonel Minty.  It also follows Colonel Wilder’s “Lightning Brigade” which were mounted infantry.  And here, we see that they were able to hold off the enemy with delaying actions.  The narrative of the fight details the grand defense made by the Union, and the frustration of the enemy, including Bragg who was delayed heavily by this action.  Wittenberg brings sufficient introduction to all of this, with the stepping stones of battle plotted out properly for the reader.  The book is also accompanied by a few appendices and a driving tour.  The appendices detail orders of battle and a section on tactics that are useful to any Civil War student.

            I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the western theater of the war.  Wittenberg always brings a significant amount of research to his material, and this book is no exception.  As I am not well versed on the western theater, I’m not certain how this subject has been covered in the past, but I can say now that this book will satisfy any reader who wants to look deeper into Chickamauga or the west.  And as far as more books on the cavalry are concerned, you can’t go wrong with this one.  Highly recommended! 


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