Nestled between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia's Shenandoah Valley enjoyed tremendous prosperity before the Civil War. This valuable stretch of land--called the Breadbasket of the Confederacy due to its rich soil and ample harvests--became the source of many conflicts between the Confederate and Union armies. Of the thirteen major battles fought here, none was more influential than the Battle of Cedar Creek. On October 19, 1864, General Philip Sheridan's Union troops fina...

A fascinating documentation of the Battle of Fisher's Hill, explaining this pivotal Civil War battle and its implications for nearby civilians. The Battle of Fisher's Hill created a greater opportunity to destroy harvests from the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" than any other Union victory in the hotly contested Shenandoah Valley. Union major general Philip Sheridan's men forced Confederate lieutenant general Jubal A. Early's smaller force to retreat, leading to the burning of barns and ...

This biography explores General Philip H. Sheridan’s impact on the United States during and after the tumultuous Civil War era, offering a new insight into Sheridan’s changing perspectives on leadership and war, and how various individuals, including family, authors, artists, and entrepreneurs, shaped Sheridan’s legacy after his death in the summer of 1888.The son of Irish immigrants, Sheridan played a critical role in crushing the Confederacy during the Civil War, fighting to ensu...

The African American experience in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through ReconstructionThis book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now....

Author Jonathan Noyalas's study offers not only a history of an overlooked engagement in the oft-contested Shenandoah Valley, but—as Pulitzer Prize finalist Brian Matthew Jordan notes in the book's Foreword—"a keen reminder that Civil War battles are rich laboratories in which to observe the human experience in all its complexity." Decades after the Civil War's end, Confederate veteran John Alexander Stikeleather reflected on his experiences as a soldier in the 4th North Carolina Infantry....

Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was known as the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" due to its ample harvests and transportation centers, its role as an avenue of invasion into the North and its capacity to serve as a diversionary theater of war. The region became a magnet for both Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, and nearly half of the thirteen major battles fought in the valley occurred as part of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign. Civil War histor...

This regional history examines the process of mourning and reconciliation for the people of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley in the aftermath of the Civil War.After four bloody years of Civil War battles, the inhabitants of the Shenandoah Valley needed to muster the strength to recover, rebuild and reconcile. Most residents had supported the Confederate cause, and in order to heal the deep wounds of war, they would need to resolve differences with Union veterans.

This book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now.Correcting previous assumptions that slavery was not important to the Valley, and that enslaved people were treated better there than ...

In recent years, Civil War veterans have emerged from historical obscurity. Inspired by recent interest in memory studies and energized by the ongoing neorevisionist turn, a vibrant new literature has given the lie to the once-obligatory lament that the postbellum lives of Civil War soldiers were irretrievable. Despite this flood of historical scholarship, fundamental questions about the essential character of Civil War veteranhood remain unanswered. Moreover, because work on veterans has ...