Customer Reviews

From Winchester to Cedar Creek

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An excellent narrative of the campaign. It's as if the thoughts of Philip H. Sheridan and Jubal A. Early were downloaded into print.

The details of battle are refreshing and go far into showing how these commanders handled themselves and their men in battle. Not only has the military aspect of the campaign been supported and thoughly researched, but the civilian population as well. Also, the statistics on both sides have been balanced to give proper respect to the men without playing favorites to one cause or another.

Old Abe owed much to Sheridan for his victories over Early. The President road into the Whitehouse on the coat-tails of these victories, and this book describes them in excellent detail.

This book comes highly recommended and a must for your Civil War collection!

Wert has written what is probably the best account to date of the confrontation between Sheridan and Early in the 1864 Shennandoah Campaign. While the book was originally published in 1987, I am not aware of any new studies of the campaign. The only other title on the campaign I have read is the one by Edward Stackpole that was published sometime in the 1950s - 1960s and I believe Wert's title is better written and more up to date.

Wert's writing style can be described as entertaining without being simplistic. He lacks the detail of other authors (for example, read Harry Pfanz' titles on Gettysburg if you want detail), but is able to keep the reader's attention. I enjoyed reading his descriptive accounts of the major characters (Sheridan, Early, Custer, Rodes, Ramseur, Russell, etc.) and the battles of Winchester, Toms Brook, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.

My major complaint with the book concerns the maps. The maps in this title and Civil War titles by other authors are too few and lack necessary detail. In my humble opinion, there could have been at least 7-10 more. Having more maps and more detail in the maps makes it much easier for a student (not a professional) of the Civil War like me to follow the actions and flow of the book.

Complaint aside, I do recommend the book as the definitive account of the 1864 Shennandoah Valley Campaign (unless there is a newer one that I am not aware of). Read and enjoy.

This is a very good, useful close study of the Valley campaign in the fall and winter of 1864. Wert primarily focuses on studies of the major battles, giving enough first-person quotes to keep the narrative interesting. Occasionally his descriptions of the battlefield action are confusing, but that's probably a characteristic of the available sources. His discussion of the controversy over plundering at Cedar Creek is good, although I'm not entirely convinced. I find it a little surprising that, in discussing Early's failure to use his cavalry effectively, he does not mention the general's refusal of Mosby's offer of help, something which he brings up in his bio of Mosby. Also, in analyzing Early as a general, it might have been appropriate to mention the absolutely scathing and, in my view, entirely inappropriate speech which Early made to his troops after Cedar Creek blaming them for the defeat. Overall, this book has to be considered the canonical work on the campaign.

This is the best book on the Valley Campaign of 1864 and features lots of research on the 4 battles that occured during the campaign. The book is well-written, but I found that it could be dry at times. However, this is still a very good book. One of the best points about this book is Wert's analysis of Sheridan's and Early's generalship. Wert gives well-reasoned and sound conclusions on the analysis of the two generals. The book also features a terrific chapter on John Mosby and his Rangers role in the campaign and features a pretty good look at the role the campaign played in Lincoln's 1864 reelection campaign. All in all a very good book, but due to the amount of detail and research perhaps only Civil War and history buffs will enjoy this book.

Wert writes a better book here than he did with his biography of Gen. Longstreet. A fine, well researched story of what has been relegated to the status of sideshow to the campaigns of General Grant in 1864. Wert balances detail (unit citations down to regimental level) with discussions of strategies and the big picture pressures under which both commanders operated. My greatest criticism is that the maps are simplistic and would have been more useful if they had been drawn to the same level of detail (regimental with better terrain markings) as the author uses in the text. Overall, a good read for civil war buffs.

I am currently researching the Valley Campaign of 1864 and Jeffry Wert's book is certainly the best book I have read on this campaign and one of the best on any campaign in the war. He begins with a brief overview of the blunders in the Valley in the later spring and summer of 1864 and with Sheridan's appoint to headup the newly formed army. He is meticulous in his exacting detail, 35 pages of footnotes for 291 pages of text, but he is hardly pedantic. The writing is crisp and you feel carried along as the campaign progresses. After setting the stage he gives a nice thumnail of the commanders and their subordinates. I do have to agree with another reviewer as far as the maps, a sore point with me if you read other reviews of mine, there could have been more. But this certainly does not diminish the excellently written text. Anyone interested in this aspect of the war cannot really understand it without reading this. I would this up with many of the great volumnes of the war.

Wert's books are generally overrated by Civil War readers. He is not a great researcher, but rather plays to the popular reader. If you want to read underresearchered, popular history Wert is your boy; if you want in-depth perceptive analysis then look elsewhere. If you hold him up to the stardard of Richard Summers, John Hennessey or Harry Pfantz then reading Wert is like eating candy: fun but easily forgotten. A list of the sources he did not consult when writing this book might be as long as his text.