Kirjahaku

In the spring of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant as general-in-chief of the Union armies devised a plan of concerted action to bring down the Confederacy. As part of that strategy, Grant aimed to destroy General Robert E. Lee's supply source for his Army of Northern Virginia in western Virginia and to use military activity there as an extended turning movement to threaten Lee from the west. In this outstanding study, Richard R. Duncan offers a riveting overview of these military operations as well as their impact on the civilian population, shedding light on an often overlooked chapter of the Civil War in Virginia. Initially, Duncan explains, Grant proposed a three-pronged pincer movement to strike at the depots and transportation system in southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley's breadbasket. The Army of the Kanawha, under General George Crook, struck at the New River Bridge to cut the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, while a subordinate cavalry expedition lead by General William Averell moved against the saltworks and lead mines in southwestern Virginia. Meanwhile, General Franz Sigel advanced up the Shenandoah Valley to threaten Staunton and form a junction with Crook. If all went well, the combined army was then to advance on Lynchburg.As Duncan shows, these Federal operations proved only partially successful. Despite a victory at the battle of Cloyds Mountain and the destruction of the New River Bridge, Grant's pincer movement faltered in the Shenandoah Valley at the battle of New Market. A renewal of the initiative by General David Hunter in late May and early June briefly secured Federal objectives and dominance over western Virginia. But General Jubal Early stopped the Army of West Virginia at the gates of Lynchburg, and Confederate forces went on to regain the Shenandoah Valley and even to threaten Washington.Unlike most works on the eastern theater, Lee's Endangered Left emphasizes the high price civilians paid for these campaigns. The Federal troops' need for food and horses and the Union objective of crippling the South's ability to wage war brought serious losses to Confederate and Unionist civilians alike, reflecting the increasingly destructive nature of the war. The devastation civilians experienced in western Virginia, Duncan asserts, would later reverberate in the burning of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, by Confederate troops and in the sufferings inflicted upon Georgians by William T. Sherman.Providing a much-needed overview of the first part of the Virginia campaign, Lee's Endangered Left thoroughly integrates the military operations in western Virginia into the larger canvas of the entire eastern theater. Civil War historians and buffs alike will welcome Duncan's work.

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.