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Struggle for the Shenandoah: Essays on the 1864 Valley Campaign

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This book is the product of a 1989 symposium at the Mont Alto Campus of Penn State. In addition to a thoughtful introduction, the essays are:
- The Shenandoah Valley in 1864 by Gary W. Gallagher
- Jubal A. Early and Confederate Leadership by Jeffry D. Wert
- Union Leadership in the 1864 Valley Campaign by A. Wilson Greene
- "The Cause of All My Disasters": Jubal A. Early and the Undisciplined Valley Cavalry by Robert K. Krick
- "I Resolved to Play a Bold Game": John S. Mosby as a Factor in the 1864 Valley Campaign by Dennis E. Frye

These are interesting chapters, at times provocative. I found particularly thought-provoking the last two essays. The failures of the Confederate Cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley are documented by Krick, with blunt quotes from their leaders, who called them wild, undisciplined, and worse. Frye's analysis of Mosby's influence in 1864 aims at some myths popularized by Mosby himself.

The book concludes with Bibliographic Notes, a four-page look at books on the 1864 Valley Campaign. This book is a valuable addition to the literature on this fascinating time.

Contributors to this collection of essays include Dennis E. Frye, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Wilson Greene, Robert K. Krick, and Jeffry D. Wert. I'm familiar with all of these authors, and I've read books by all except Dennis Frye. Several have written books on the 1864 Valley Campaign, so they are all well qualified to author essays on the subject. This book is the first in a series of essay collections edited by Gallagher. In later titles, some essays wander into Social History, and I'm not too fond of that. However, I was pleasantly surprised here when I found that all five essays focused on the military aspects of the campaign. The maps were only okay. It helps to have Jeffry Wert's From Winchester to Cedar Creek on hand when reading this title for the maps. Topics include an overview of the campaign, separate essays on Union and Confederate leadership, Early and the Confederate Valley Cavalry, and John S. Mosby's quest to hinder Sheridan's campaign. The book is rather short at 137 pages, but the excellent quality of each essay makes this one worth owning.

137 pp., 5 maps