Review by Choice Review
Krick, chief historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and author of Lee's Colonels (1984), has provided in this book the best study of the 1862 battle of Cedar Mountain that readers are ever likely to get. After Robert E. Lee's defeat of the Union Peninsular Campaign, President Lincoln assigned Major General John Pope to threaten the Confederate capital from the north, thus drawing strength away from Lee's main army. Unfortunately for Lincoln, Lee sent "Stonewall" Jackson to deal with the overmatched Pope. In a minutely detailed and sprightly narrative, Krick traces the movements of the two forces until they clashed at Cedar Mountain northwest of Richmond in August 1862. The result was a short but bloody engagement that halted Pope's advance and prompted Lee to turn his attention away from the Union army southeast of Richmond and concentrate on the new threat from the north. Colored by numerous revealing anecdotes, well written, and exhaustively researched, this is now the standard work on this battle. Useful maps, photographs, and illustrations; good endnotes; adequate bibliography and index. -R. G. Lowe, University of North Texas
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
A battlefield historian and Civil War expert offers a meticulously researched study of Stonewall Jackson's last battle as an independent commander, the Confederate victory at Cedar Mountain in August 1862. Krick has provided not merely a regiment-by-regiment but nearly a company-by-company account of a hard-fought engagement in which both sides conducted themselves with courage and skill. The sheer mass of detail will daunt the casual reader, but the serious Civil War student will find it not only an absorbing narrative but a model for battle narratives. For large Civil War collections. Appendix, notes, bibliography; to be indexed. --Roland Green
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Of all of Stonewall Jackson's battles, Cedar Mountain remains his least understood. Long neglected, it reveals much about the colorful and eccentric Jackson, a man who could be cold, cruel, distant, and secretive and then generous, friendly, and brilliant. Fifty percent of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was in the hands of this general whose job it was to halt the advance into Virginia of a newly created federal army under General John Pope. Relying upon both published and unpublished primary sources, Krick provides a virtual minute-by-minute account of the battle and of the Confederate commander. It was at this battle that Jackson exercised independent command for the last time, and Krick unravels the many conflicting accounts--on both sides--of the importance of the battle and of Jackson's management of the fighting. Recommended for academic and public libraries with Civil War holdings. History Book Club selection.-- Jason H. Silverman, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
