Desperate Engagement

Posted on 12 April 2018 by Marc Leepson

The Battle of Monocacy, which took place on the blisteringly hot day of July 9, 1864, is one of the Civil War s most significant yet little known battles What played out that day in the corn and wheat fields four miles south of Frederick, Maryland., was a full field engagement between some 12,000 battle hardened Confederate troops led by the controversial Jubal Anderson Early, and some 5,800 Union troops, many of them untested in battle, under the mercurial Lew Wallace, the future author of Ben Hur When the fighting ended, some 1,300 Union troops were dead, wounded or missing or had been taken prisoner, and Early who suffered some 800 casualties had routed Wallace in the northernmost Confederate victory of the war.Two days later, on another brutally hot afternoon, Monday, July 11, 1864, the foul mouthed, hard drinking Early sat astride his horse outside the gates of Fort Stevens in the upper northwestern fringe of Washington, D.C He was about to make one of the war s most fateful, portentous decisions whether or not to order his men to invade the nation s capital Early had been on the march since June 13, when Robert E Lee ordered him to take an entire corps of men from their Richmond area encampment and wreak havoc on Yankee troops in the Shenandoah Valley, then to move north and invade Maryland If Early found the conditions right, Lee said, he was to take the war for the first time into President Lincoln s front yard Also on Lee s agenda forcing the Yankees to release a good number of troops from the stranglehold that Gen U.S Grant had built around Richmond.Once manned by tens of thousands of experienced troops, Washington s ring of forts and fortifications that day were in the hands of a ragtag collection of walking wounded Union soldiers, the Veteran Reserve Corps, along with what were known as hundred days men raw recruits who had joined the Union Army to serve as temporary, rear echelon troops It was with great shock, then, that the city received news of the impending rebel attack With near panic filling the streets, Union leaders scrambled to coordinate a force of volunteers.But Early did not pull the trigger Because his men were exhausted from the fight at Monocacy and the ensuing march, Early paused before attacking the feebly manned Fort Stevens, giving Grant just enough time to bring thousands of veteran troops up from Richmond The men arrived at the eleventh hour, just as Early was contemplating whether or not to move into Washington No invasion was launched, but Early did engage Union forces outside Fort Stevens During the fighting, President Lincoln paid a visit to the fort, becoming the only sitting president in American history to come under fire in a military engagement.Historian Marc Leepson shows that had Early arrived in Washington one day earlier, the ensuing havoc easily could have brought about a different conclusion to the war Leepson uses a vast amount of primary material, including memoirs, official records, newspaper accounts, diary entries and eyewitness reports in a reader friendly and engaging description of the events surrounding what became known as the Battle That Saved Washington Praise for Flag An American Biography There is no story about the flag that he omits We now have a comprehensive guide to its unfolding The Wall Street Journal The fascination of history is in its details, and the author of Flag An American Biography knows how to find them and turn them into compelling reading This book brings out the irony, humor, myth, and behind the scenes happenings that make our flag s 228 year history so fascinating The Saturday Evening Post Flag is a valuable addition to American history, and Leepsoncertainly is due a portion of authorly glory for this absorbing account of America s national icon Richmond Times Dispatch Timely and insightful The Dallas Morning News To understand the USA and her citizens, it is necessary to understand the origins, the legends, and the meaning of our flag Marc Leepson s Flag is a grand book, worthy of its grand subject Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys and The Keeper s Son Flag is a very significant contribution to our history And it is a book that everyone who cares about the United States should read Veteran Magazine New Download [ Desperate Engagement ] by [ Marc Leepson ] – kino-fada.fr The battle at Monocacy Junction in July, 1864 is not as well known as other engagements during the Civil War But it may well have been as important, at least, as some better known battles Desperate Engagement describes the context for the battle, its actual occurrence, and then the aftermath and a series of reflections In short, Jubal Early and the 2nd Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia were sent to the Shenandoah, to clear it of Northern troops, as Generals Sigel, Hunter, and Crook had The battle at Monocacy Junction in July, 1864 is not as well known as other engagements during the Civil War But it may well have been as important, at least, as some better known battles Desperate Engagement describes the context for the battle, its actual occurrence, and then the aftermath and a series of reflections In short, Jubal Early and the 2nd Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia were sent to the Shenandoah, to clear it of Northern troops, as Generals Sigel, Hunter, and Crook had been attacking the area And, if the opportunity arose, to advance on Washington, D C itself, to perhaps free Confederate prisoners, to force General U S Grant to divert soldiers from his siege in Virginia to relieve pressure on the Capitol, maybe to even occupy parts of the city This book outlines why E...my great great grandfather s diary kept throughout the civil war was used as a reference a REALLY interesting book especially when being from the DC areaI have grown up in northern Virginia, where battlegrounds abound and reenactments are not uncommon So it was interesting to read a book specifically about my area and the battles and skirmishes that happened as the Confederates made an attempt to distract Grant from his siege of Richmond in 1964 Robert E Lee ordered General Early to take back control ...Fascinating reading however, I want to reread it and write notes as I m going along There are other events mentioned in it that I d like to read also.Very good bit of history not normally discussed in the development of DC.Was in the midst of the read when, while channel surfing, I caught the author on C SPAN giving a tour of DC as he unfolded the story in the book Made the book memorable for mea must read for civil war buffs Contains an interesting piece of history regarding President Lincoln.This book has some flaws, but overall its pretty good Generally, it gets better as it goes along.FlawsAt the start, the author spends the first two chapters detailing events throughout the first three years of the war, which is rather excessive, especially for people who know a fair amount of the Civil War Even for people with less knowledge, it seems a bit much Further, throughout the first several chapters there are several amateurish historical errors, including getting the chronologic This book has some flaws, but overall its pretty good Generally, it gets better as it goes along.FlawsAt the start, the author spends the first two chapters detailing events throughout the first three years of the war, which is rather excessive, especially for people who know a fair amount of the Civil War Even for people with less knowledge, it seems a bit much Further, throughout the first several chapters there are several amateurish historical errors, including getting the chronological order of battles wrong, and attributing a...It s reallya history of Jubal Early s June July 1864 campaign through the Shenandoah Valley, parts of Maryland and to the outskirts of Washington, D.C., than a book just about the Battle of Monocacy, which only covers a few chapters in the book That said, overall, it was a great read of Early s campaign, the military figures involved and an overall assessment o...A decent book on Early s Maryland Campaign It does a good job of telling the story of the Battle of Monocacy, in which Lew Wallace uses a quickly thrown together group of Union troops to delay Early This delay probably kept the Confederate f...

English
12 April 2018

Marc Leepson