THE GUNS OF CEDAR CREEK

by Thomas A. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 27, 1988

Here, Lewis (The Shenandoah in Flames) offers a lively narrative history of what was once one of the best-remembered small combats of the Civil War, the Oct. 19, 1864, Battle of Cedar Creek. Through the end of the 19th century, Americans recognized the fight at Cedar Creek as a momentous affair that created a hero out of Gen. Philip Sheridan. Prior to this Shenandoah Valley battle, Sheridan had fought his way up the promotion ladder by associating his name with a number of gallant Civil War actions. But in Oct. 1864, he cemented his reputation when, on his famous black war-horse, Rienzi, he galloped 20 miles from the town of Winchester to the battlefield at Cedar Creek--and there rallied his about-to-be defeated army into an astounding victory. The stirring nature of Sheridan's victory has often obscured the other important men involved in the battle, and muted what the fight's outcome meant to the dying Confederacy. Here, Lewis gives ample space to Sheridan's subordinates and opponents, notably the tobacco-chewing bachelor curmudgeon, Confederate Lt. General Jubal Early, commander of the army that surprised Sheridan's troops at Cedar Creek; young Confederate general and martyr Dodson Ramseur, mortally wounded in the battle; George Crook, Sheridan's West Point comrade; dashing commander of the Union calvary, George Armstrong Custer; and others. Lewis also ably condenses the Valley's Civil War history and explains its strategic and logistical importance. A tightly focused work that contains heaps of anecdotal and human-interest material in addition to its in-depth military information.

Pub Date: July 27, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION