Reviews for Battle of Monroe's Crossroads: And the Civil War's Last Campaign

The average rating for Battle of Monroe's Crossroads: And the Civil War's Last Campaign based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-07-02 00:00:00 Keith Knowles The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads is one of those engagements which every Civil War buff ought to know, mainly for its sheer lunacy and storytelling value. Wade Hampton, Joe Wheeler, and the Confederate cavalry have a mission: To capture Judson Kilpatrick. Hampton and Wheeler gather their forces to do the deed while Kilpatrick is traveling towards Monroe's Crossreads in a manner rather unusual for a cavalry general. The unsuspecting Kilpatrick is resting his head in the lap of his paramour Alice, (a 'Yankee schoolteacher' Wittenberg estimates to be around age 50) with his feet dangling out the window of his carriage. As Kilpatrick spends the night with Alice in the upstairs bedroom of the Monroe house, his staff bunking downstairs and his men dozing peacefully in the yard, the Confederate troopers silently form a ring around the house and launch a surprise attack. The Union men are driven out of the yard while Kilpatrick, hearing the commotion, wanders sleepily downstairs and out onto the front porch clad only in his shirttail to see two Confederate officers charging up to demand the location of General Kilpatrick. What happens next? The oldest trick in the book, that's what happens. Kilpatrick points towards a fleeing Federal and says, 'He went that way.' Incredibly, the Confederates fall for this, giving Kilpatrick time enough to run off through a swamp. Directly afterwards the Confederates close in on the house, and Kilpatrick's staffers flee upstairs where Alice hides them in her bedroom. This lady of lowered virtue then goes down to confront the Confederates. She tells the searchers she has wounded men in her bedroom and that they please not be disturbed, and the Confederates politely obey, assuming she is the lady of the house. Thus Kilpatrick's staff escapes capture. By this time a full-scale melee is bursting out all over the Monroe yard as the Union men counterattack. As Alice steps out onto the porch a chivalrous Confederate officer, still thinking she's the lady of the house, rushes up to rescue her from her peril. He escorts her to a ditch where she is sheltered from the fire, but a soldier notes that she is proof that curiosity in women is stronger than the love of life; she keeps sticking her head out to see the action. Meanwhile Kilpatrick finds some of his scattered men, locates a saddleless nag to ride, and leads them back into the fight in one of the least picturesque rallies ever, still in his shirttail. The counterattack is successful, the Monroe house recaptured, and honor is (sort of) saved. Alice goes back to New England, and Kilpatrick, who has lost literally everything except his shirt, begs Wade Hampton to return his beloved horse Spot. With an incredulous sneer, Hampton does so. Although the reader might get somewhat lost in all the troop movements, the basic story is a good read. There really needs to be a 'populist' version of this story because not everyone will make it through to the good parts, but the book is still recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-05-28 00:00:00 Renee Iademarco Many of my readers are no strangers to the fine work which Eric J. Wittenberg has published throughout his career and this is yet another addition to his cavalcade of Civil War academia. Originally published in 2006, the 2015 edition makes the work available in paperback. The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads is an excellent study into the final campaign of the Civil War. The general idea is that the Civil War ended with the surrender of General Lee during the Appomattox Campaign and the writing surrounding Sherman accepting Johnston's surrender has not been justly covered. Here, in this work, we get a look into the ways in which the final campaign was the last and epic conclusion the Civil War deserved. Eric J. Wittenberg is the author of many works including The Devil's to Pay: John Buford at Gettysburg, Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Action and Protecting the Flank at Gettysburg. He has authored many other numerous works with other co-authors including the famous Plenty of Blame to Go Around. He is the recipient of many awards and has often been chosen as the History and Military Book Club selections. Some of his awards include the 1998 Bachelder Coddington Award and the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Writing Award. He is considered an authority on Civil War Cavalry. The work opens with an incredible biographical sketch of Judson Kilpatrick whom we got to see in his book on South Cavalry Field at Gettysburg, but is detailed more in depth here. One of the highlights which has been seen all throughout the work of Wittenberg is the way in which he explains the political and militaristic background of the characters involved in the fighting. I found this especially well done when talking about Kilpatrick. I believe he is one of the more forgotten about commanders of the war, and here Wittenberg does him justice. The narrative of the battle is done in a well written easy to follow style aided by both photographs of the field and maps. One of the things which struck me as I read through his battle analysis was the humanistic element which he brought to the combat. When talking about the cavalry charge, it seemed as though the tension from the combatants was reaching out to me as a reader more than any other cavalry charge described in Civil War accounts. This cavalry charge is, as stated above in the introduction, the last epic conclusion the Civil War deserved. I can think of no other author who could have written such a fine narrative to describe the events here. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the final year of the Civil War. This is a battle most people do not normally hear about and because of this fine work by Wittenberg, it has been brought to light. The narrative flows quite nicely with the regular Wittenberg style we have all come to know and love. This book proves that Wittenberg really is the authority on Civil War cavalry and should be considered as such for this generation and the generation to come. Matthew Bartlett - Gettysburg Chronicle