Now available in paperback, The Last Battle of Winchester is the first serious study to chronicle the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. The fighting began about daylight and did not end until dusk, when the victorious Union army routed the Confederates off the field. It was the first time Stonewall Jackson's former corps had ever been driven from a battlefield, and the stinging defeat set the stage for the final climax of the 1864 Valley Campaign at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. The Northern victory was a long time coming. After a spring and summer of Union defeat in the Valley, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cobbled together a formidable force under redoubtable cavalryman Phil Sheridan. His task was a tall one: sweep Jubal Early's Confederate army out of the bountiful Shenandoah and reduce the verdant region of its supplies. Thus far, the aggressive Early had led Jackson's veterans to one victory after another at Lynchburg, Monocacy, Snickers Gap, and Kernstown. Author Scott Patchan, recognized as the foremost authority on the 1864 Valley Campaign, dissects the five weeks of complex maneuvering and sporadic combat before the opposing armies ended up at Winchester, an important town in the northern end of the Valley that had changed hands dozens of times during the war. Tactical brilliance and ineptitude were on display throughout the day-long affair as Sheridan threw infantry and cavalry against the thinning Confederate ranks, and Early and his generals shifted to meet each assault. A final blow against Early's left flank collapsed the Southern army, killed one of the Confederacy's finest combat generals in Robert Rodes, and planted the seeds of the sweeping largescale victory at Cedar Creek the following month. Patchan's vivid prose is based upon more than two decades of meticulous firsthand research and an unparalleled understanding of the battlefield. Nearly two dozen original maps, scores of photos, hundreds of explanatory footnotes, and seven invaluable appendices enhance our understanding of this watershed battle. Rich in analysis and dramatic character development, The Last Battle of Winchester is certain to become a classic Civil War battle study.

A comprehensive, deeply researched history of the pivotal 1863 American Civil War battle fought in northern Virginia. June 1863. The Gettysburg Campaign is underway. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia pushes west into the Shenandoah Valley and then north toward the Potomac River. Only one significant force stands in its way: Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy’s Union division of the Eighth Army Corps in the vicinity of Winchester and Berryville, Virginia. What happens next is the subject of this provocative new book. Milroy, a veteran Indiana politician-turned-soldier, was convinced the approaching enemy consisted of nothing more than cavalry or was merely a feint, and so defied repeated instructions to withdraw. In fact, the enemy consisted of General Lee’s veteran Second Corps under Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell. Milroy’s controversial decision committed his outnumbered and largely inexperienced men against some of Lee’s finest veterans. The complex and fascinating maneuvering and fighting on June 13-15 cost Milroy hundreds of killed and wounded and about 4,000 captured (roughly one-half of his command), with the remainder routed from the battlefield. The combat cleared the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley of Federal troops, demonstrated Lee could obtain supplies on the march, justified the elevation of General Ewell to replace the recently deceased Stonewall Jackson, and sent shockwaves through the Northern states. Today, the Second Battle of Winchester is largely forgotten. But in June 1863, the politically charged front-page news caught President Lincoln and the War Department by surprise and forever tarnished Milroy’s career. The beleaguered Federal soldiers who fought there spent a lifetime seeking redemption, arguing their three-day “forlorn hope” delayed the Rebels long enough to allow the Army of the Potomac to arrive and defeat Lee at Gettysburg. For the Confederates, the decisive leadership on display outside Winchester masked significant command issues buried within the upper echelons of Jackson’s former corps that would become painfully evident during the early days of July on a different battlefield in Pennsylvania. Award-winning authors Eric J. Wittenberg and Scott L. Mingus Sr. combined their researching and writing talents to produce the most in-depth and comprehensive study of Second Winchester ever written, and now in paperback. Their balanced effort, based upon scores of archival and previously unpublished diaries, newspaper accounts, and letter collections, coupled with familiarity with the terrain around Winchester and across the lower Shenandoah Valley, explores the battle from every perspective.

This title takes a close look at a turning point in the Civil War. In the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1864, U.S. Major General Philip H. Sheridan led his army to a series of decisive victories for the Union over Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early and the Confederate Army of the Valley. In ""From Winchester to Cedar Creek"", author Jeffry D. Wert highlights Sheridan's victories in the critical area of the Virginia Valley as defining moments of the Civil War. Sheridan's campaign ensured Confederate defeat in Virginia and ultimately contributed to Lincoln's reelection and the Union's victory in the Civil War. Drawing on manuscript collections and many published sources, Wert offers vivid descriptions of the battles of Third Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Tom's Brook, and Cedar Creek. The book also explores how the interplay of the strengths and weaknesses of the Union and Confederate commanders, Sheridan and Early, resulted in victories for Sheridan's Army of the Shenandoah. Grounded in detailed research, Wert's compelling narrative portrays the military strategies these commanders employed and how their tactical decisions impacted civilian sacrifice in the Valley. First published in 1987, Wert's chronicle remains the definitive book on Sheridan's command and the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864. Offering a balanced treatment of both Union and Confederate experiences during the campaign, Wert emphasizes its importance as a turning point in the war from both military and civilian points of view. Supplemented with situation maps and photographs, ""From Winchester to Cedar Creek"" not only documents and dynamically recounts the events that unfolded between the summer and fall of 1864 in the Virginia Valley, but it also details the political, strategic, and tactical forces that made the Shenandoah Valley campaign so important to the outcome of the Civil War.

An “essential addition to serious students’ libraries” detailing the historic military offensive that helped sway the outcome of the American Civil War (Civil War News). In the late summer of 1864, Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant set one absolutely unconditional goal: to sweep Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley “clean and clear.” His man for the job: Maj. Gen. “Little Phil” Sheridan—a temperamental Irishman who’d proven himself just the kind of scrapper Grant loved. The valley had already played a major part in the war for the Confederacy as both the location of major early victories against Union attacks, and as the route used by the Army of Northern Virginia for its invasion of the North, culminating in the battle of Gettysburg. But when Sheridan returned to the Valley in 1864, the stakes heightened dramatically. For the North, the fragile momentum its war effort had gained by the capture of Atlanta would quickly evaporate. For Abraham Lincoln, defeat in the Valley could mean defeat in the upcoming election. And for the South, its very sovereignty lay on the line. Here, historians Davis and Greenwalt “weave an excellent summary of the campaign that will serve to introduce those new to the Civil War to the events of that ‘Bloody Autumn’ and will serve as a ready refresher for veteran stompers who are heading out to visit those storied fields of conflict” (Scott C. Patchan, author of The Last Battle of Winchester).

On January 19, 1862, Confederate and Union forces clashed in the now-forgotten Battle of Mill Springs. Armies of inexperienced soldiers chaotically fought in the wooded terrain of south-central Kentucky as rain turned bloodied ground to mud. Mill Springs was the first major Union victory since the Federal disaster of Bull Run. This Union triumph secured the Bluegrass State in Union hands, opening the large expanses of Tennessee for Federal invasion. From General Felix Zollicoffer meeting his death by wandering into Union lines to the heroics of General George Thomas, Civil War historian Stuart Sanders chronicles this important battle and its essential role in the war.

The third Battle of Winchester (or Battle of Opequon) was fought on 19 Sept. 1864 where Major General Phillip H. Sheridan won a victory against Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early.

Cornelia Peake McDonald kept a diary during the Civil War (1861- 1865) at her husband's request, but some entries were written between the lines of printed books due to a shortage of paper and other entries were lost. In 1875, she assembled her scattered notes and records of the war period into a blank book to leave to her children. The diary entries describe civilian life in Winchester, Va., occupation by Confederate troops prior to the 1st Manassas, her husband's war experiences, the Valley campaigns and occupation of Winchester and her home by Union troops, the death of her baby girl, the family's "refugee life" in Lexington, reports of battles elsewhere, and news of family and friends in the army.