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Yankee Blitzkrieg: Wilson's Raid through Alabama and Georgia

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In the spring of 1865 Union General James Wilson mounted a cavalry campaign designed to destroy the industrial sections of Alabama and Georgia that were still untouched by combat. From the Tennessee River to Selma and Montgomery Alabama and on to Columbus and Macon, Georgia this campaign was lightening fast, crushing everything in its path.

Moving 14,000 men over 500 miles in just a month is a remarkably uncommon feat. So is fighting 4 major battles along the way. But General Wilson's forgotten campaign not only defeated and captured Nathan Bedford Forrest but also captured Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens as well.

This book is the study of a massive Union cavalry operation that was executed with impunity, one that destroyed what little was left of the Confederacy. It is also the campaign that captured the Confederate government!

James Pickett Jones details this event exceptionally well. You will not be disappointed.

Yankee Bltizkrieg is one of the most enlightening studies of Wison's raiders in their finest hour. The book follows Wilson and his men from rain drenched northern Alabama to a triumphant capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Georgia. It explores how Wilson effectively moved over 12,000 men for over 500 miles in the span of about a month. A feat which would have made Guderian proud! It is a must for Civil War enthusiasts and military strategist

In the cold and wet spring of 1865, in the Civil War's fourth year, 14,000 Union cavalrymen under Major General James Wilson surged forward like a mighty deluge into the Confederate states of Alabama and Georgia. Wilson's orders were to tear through this untouched region and gut any remaining industrial capacity of the dying Confederacy. Wilson's Raid covered well over 525 miles in less than two months, proving MG Wilson an able commander, capturing or killing several thousand rebels and leaving a swathe of territory in smoking ruins. The large-scale operation would have had more fame and recognition had its success not been necessarily overshadowed by Robert E. Lee's surrender and the final end of the long and terrible war itself.

James Pickett Jones' "Yankee Blitzkrieg" is the only work in book form to treat Wilson's Raid in detail. It is primarily an operational history, focusing on the movements of brigades and divisions during the conduct of the great raid. There are enough recollections of lower-grade Union officers and enlisted men to give the feel of the action, from accounts of destroying factories to daring cavalry assaults on Confederate positions. "Yankee Blitzkrieg" is a well-written history of the Civil War's largest cavalry operation but it does suffer from a lack of detailed maps. Despite this drawback it remains a worthy addition to any Civil War buff's bookshelf, and is a highly informative account of Wilson's Raid.

In the spring of 1865, Major General James H. Wilson and 14,000 Union cavalry troops destroyed key Confederate industrial facilities in what had been, until then, relatively unscathed areas of Alabama and Georgia. Yankee Blitzkrieg: Wilson's Raid Through Alabama And Georgia is a vividly reconstructed account tracing Wilson's lightning run south and places the campaign within the larger context of the last days of the Civil War. Historian James Jones describes in detail the strategic background of the raid, covers the raid from both sides, and notes the economic significance of the industrial facilities destroyed. Jones' description of Wilson's capture of Jefferson Davis is the standard interpretation of what happened when Davis was taken by Union forces. Yankee Blitzkrieg is superb reading for Civil War buffs and students of Civil War history.