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The Jones-Imboden Raid: The Confederate Attempt to Destroy the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and Retake West Virginia

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Just as the Federal Army of the Potomac set off on its Chancellorsville Campaign, the rebel top brass authorized an ambitious, albeit small scale, offensive of its own. Beginning in late April 1863, two Confederate cavalry brigades, under the command of Grumble Jones and John Imboden, trotted off into the hills of western Virginia, with a wide-ranging set of goals and high hopes. They aimed for the roadbed of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, hoping to break it up, making it useless as an avenue of supply for the Union armies pressing their way into Virginia. They went after cattle to feed the rebel army and for horses to mount more cavalrymen dressed in grey. They moved out of the Shenandoah Valley to relieve the local farmers of the burden of feeding their men, hoping to bring ample stocks back with them when they returned. They went to free the people of western Virginia from what they looked upon as foreign oppressors, certain that as soon as they rode through, thousands of fresh recruits would exercise their new freedom by volunteering for the Confederate cause.
The author, Darrell Jones, tells this story well. (He has published four other Civil War era books). His narrative is clear and very readable. His sources are sound, and his conclusions appear to be well supported. The book contains fifteen well-drawn maps that cover all phases of the raid and the engagements that happened along the way. Other well-chosen illustrations show the faces of the major characters who appear throughout the story. As a strategic effort, the Jones-Imboden Raid was a small, but very apt precursor for the Gettysburg Campaign that would begin shortly after it ended. Therefore, anyone wanting to fill in their knowledge of this little studied campaign will find more to ponder between these covers than you might at first expect.