Rebels at the Gate [Hardcover]

W. Lesser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

Rebels at the Gate is the dramatic story of the first Union victories of the Civil War and the events that caused Virginians to divide their state. In a defiant act to sustain President Lincoln's war effort, Virginia Unionists created their own state government in 1861-destined to become the new state of West Virginia. Their actions blocked what should have been Confederate control of the territory and closed one of their key gateways to the Union states.

Against this backdrop, Union and Confederate troops fought the war's first campaign. Amid Virginia's rugged mountains, a Union army led by George B. McClellan grappled with Confederates directed by Robert E. Lee. Each general with his first command fought a great battle, which Lee lost, almost wrecking his career at the very start of the war.

A microcosm of the great issues that divided a nation, this first campaign secured "Western" Virginia for the Union, dictated future battlegrounds, chiseled raw recruits into hardy veterans and forged leaders who shaped the course of America's Civil War.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In 1861 Union and Confederate troops waged the first campaign of the Civil War in the rugged mountains of Virginia. General George McClellan led the Northern troops to victory over General Robert E. Lee's Southern army. Lesser writes that while the armies clashed, Virginia Unionists waged a political fight, creating a loyal state government to oppose the Confederate one in Richmond, the state of West Virginia. Lesser uncovered manuscripts, diaries, and letters from soldiers and civilians to relate the story of the first Union victories and the events that caused Virginians to divide the state. This detailed account of the Civil War's beginnings re-creates the sights and sounds, the feelings and passions of the battlefield. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

?The Early Battles That Split a State and Changed a Nation
?At the dawn of the Civil War, two men took up the reins of the Confederate and Union armies and led their troops into the war’s first campaign. Those men were Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan, and their victories and failures on the mountaintops of Virginia during those early battles would split a state and set the stage for America’s bloodiest war.
Praise for Rebels at the Gate
?“Lesser uncovered manuscripts, diaries and letters from soldiers and civilians to relate the story of the first Union victories and the events that caused Virginians to divide the state. This detailed account of the Civil War’s beginnings re-creates the sights and sounds, the feelings and passions of
the battlefield.”
-Booklist

“People tend to forget that the first land campaign of the Civil War was fought in Virginia, but in what is today West Virginia, a region that both sides thought to be of vital importance in 1861, as indeed it was. W. Hunter Lesser’s Rebels at the Gate is the first study of this campaign in generations, and surely the finest to date, thoroughly researched, thoughtfully presented and riddled with the future great lights of the war-Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan, William Rosecrans and more. Only the Civil War could have produced battles at places with names like Traveller’s Repose, and perhaps only a West Virginian like Hunter Lesser could have produced this fine study.”
-William C. Davis, author and two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee

“Hunter Lesser has fashioned what will now be the standard work on the
military and political struggle for western Virginia in the Civil War.” --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.; 1st edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570717478
• ISBN-13: 978-1570717475
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,529,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rebels at the Gates Opens an Overlooked Period in the ACW, May 12, 2004

By 

Barent K. Parslow (Staunton, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rebels at the Gate (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. Detailed enough to be useful and interesting but not dry, fast paced, it is a well written chronological account of an early period of the war and the many interesting people involved. The author clearly draws the links between actions taken during this period and later in the war. This is more than just another book on the Civil War. Mr. Lesser explains clearly, without bogging down in minutiae, how the political and military circumstances influenced West Virginia's formation.

A long time resident of West Virginia and western Virginia (the Shenandoah valley) and a sometime student of the American Civil War, I happily learned much that I didn't know about some of my favorite places and historical figures. Intrigued, I read this book straight through.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping and involving narrative of a turbulent time, June 8, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rebels at the Gate (Hardcover)

Written by an archaeologist and historical interpreter of twenty years' experience, Rebels At The Gate: Lee And Mcclellan On The Front Line Of A Nation Divided is a study and evocative presentation of the earliest days of the American Civil War. Presenting a portrait of the fundamental issues and charasmatic personalities so strong that the result was a nation polarized. When Virginia Unionists formed the new state of West Virginia to sustain President Lincoln's war effort and block Confederate control of the territory and a key point of access to the North, Union and Confederate troops led by George McClellan and Robert E. Lee respectively were pit in a severe campaign that set the stage for the long years of bloodshed to come. A gripping and involving narrative of a turbulent time in American history.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Companion to "Lee vs. McClellan", August 29, 2004

By 

Alan Rockman (Upland, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rebels at the Gate (Hardcover)

Clayton R. Newell covered the same ground as Mr. Lesser some years ago in his classic "Lee vs. McClellan" but what Mr. Lesser has done in "Rebels at the Gate" is take a fine portrait of the bitter, brother versus brother fighting in the hills of West Virginia and turned it into a landscape. He writes movingly of the Rebel General Garnett, who upon taking the West Virginia assignment to stop the Union forces knew he would die there; of little Josie Gordon, the 18 year son of a Union major, who enlisted in the Union Army much against the wishes of his father, and would be found dead on the battlefield by his heartbroken father.

He also writes of spies, of bushwackers like the deadly Nancy Hart, a little spitfire who killed a Union jailer taking her photo, of the various West Virginia politicians who clamored to 'secede' themselves from the Confederacy, and the figures of history, - Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, Robert E. Lee, and the sarcastic "bitter" (Ambrose) Bierce, whose Civil War experience, which began in West Virginia, had a profound impact on his future writings.

As a previous reviewer has noted, Lesser has a storyteller's gift, but he also knows his history. A worthy work to place alongside the Newell book, if you can still get a copy.