Valley of the Shadow: A Novel

by Ralph Peters

  So here we go:

  Original sources. As always, there is no substitute for reading the words of the men who served on those fields—while recognizing that they, too, could be mistaken or bluntly dishonest. The Official Records are indispensable, but beyond that great compilation, I love the letter collections and the diaries, the immediacy of their reportage. Next best are the memoirs written after the war, even allowing that many a passage was sharpened to settle a score. For further reading about the battles in this book, seek out the splendid, voluminous, warmhearted letters of Clement Anselm Evans, compiled and edited in Intrepid Warrior by Robert Grier Stephens, Jr. This is my favorite letter collection from the entire war. Make Me a Map of the Valley, culled from the diaries of Jedediah Hotchkiss by Archie P. McDonald, offers insights from a very well-placed observer, but be forewarned: While Hotchkiss thought like an engineer, he also wrote like an engineer.

  Among the many memoirs of this campaign, my favorite is John Brown Gordon’s Reminiscences of the Civil War—despite Gordon’s calculated efforts to win over readers North as well as South. Gordon was a master of airbrushing history long before the airbrush was invented. (Yet compared with Jubal Early, he was a paragon of integrity. These things, too, are relative.) Then there’s the wonderful A Soldier’s Story of His Regiment (61st Georgia), by “Private G. W. Nichols.” This little book provides a great, soldier’s-eye view of events, from murderous hospital wards to the battlefield’s front lines. Accurate overall, the memoir, written long after the war, also illumines how memory betrays us. Nichols recalls General Evans as present at Third Winchester, while Evans’ carefully dated letters home show that, returning from his convalescence, he had not passed north of Staunton by the time Fisher’s Hill was lost. This adds to the confusion created by the Confederate habit of calling brigades after their commanders—even when under the temporary command of another officer. But let us be generous: Nichols made honest errors, while higher-ranking contemporaries doctored history until they killed the patient.

  The Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, for example, must be taken with several quarries’ worth of salt. By the time he wrote, Sheridan had changed from the often generous commander he had been to what later generations would call a “glory hog.” He was a great soldier, but not a great man. Still, there’s no avoiding the book—you have to read it. An Autobiography, by Lew Wallace, is rich in detail and honest overall, but written in a florid late-Victorian style that makes it difficult going for modern readers. For those who want easier marching, The Sword & the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace, by Ray E. Boomhower, provides a brief but first-rate overview of this neglected hero’s life. If any Civil War figure and nineteenth-century American deserves a full-length, scholarly biography, it’s Lew Wallace (my nominee for patron saint of soldier-authors).

  I also recommend With the Old Confeds, by Captain Samuel D. Buck; Under Custer’s Command: The Civil War Journal of James Henry Avery, compiled by Karla Jean Husby and edited by Eric J. Wittenberg; and the unique eyewitness account, buttressed by research, of Monocacy, Fighting for Time, by Glenn H. Worthington, who experienced the battle swirling around him when he and his family were trapped in his childhood home.

  Biographies. Sometimes you fall in love with both a book and its subject. For me, that was the case with Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior & President, a magnificent biography by Ari Hoogenboom. It’s worth reading not only for the detailed, fair-minded, and inspiring portrait of Hayes as soldier and president, but for the panorama it provides of our country in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. As for William McKinley, he’s due for a fresh, full-scale biography. Meanwhile, Major McKinley: William McKinley & the Civil War, by William H. Armstrong, provides a solid overview of McKinley’s military service.

  I must interject: During my research, I found that a few historians quibbled about the extent of Hayes’ heroism at Third Winchester and whether he made a difference. One suspects they might feel differently had they been a brigade commander trapped in a swamp under enemy fire with the responsibility not only for his dying men, but for his army’s flank amid a battle not going as planned. As a soldier, I admire Hayes enormously—a great and a good man who made the right decision when others wavered.

  Jubal: The Life and Times of General Jubal A. Early, CSA, by Charles C. Osborne, will remain the definitive biography of this uncompromising, brave, difficult, hard to admire, yet somehow admirable man. Just as Early did the best he could with what he had, his biographer has done the best with what he had. I found Early the most challenging character to capture in this novel: Even when he behaved awfully, I kept rooting for him, remembering the wretched odds he faced. I fear I have not done him justice. John Brown Gordon: Soldier, Southerner, American, by Ralph Lowell Eckert, is a well-executed, balanced account of the life of this unique, magnetic, thoroughly American character. Terrible Swift Sword, by Joseph Wheelan, is a much more trustworthy account of Sheridan’s life than the man’s own memoir; it’s handsomely written, too. Not least, Fighting with Jeb Stuart: Major James Breathed and the Confederate Horse Artillery, by David P. Bridges, got—and kept—my attention.

  Campaign and battle histories. On Monocacy, it’s worth tracking down Edwin Bearss’s reprinted monograph The Battle of Monocacy, which not only contains excellent maps, but was instrumental in saving the battlefield (just one more of Ed’s innumerable contributions to preserving and exploring our Civil War history). For full-blown accounts of the battle, two books run neck and neck: Desperate Engagement, by Marc Leepson, and Last Chance for Victory, by Brett W. Spaulding. These two worthy books disagree on a number of points. My approach when authors or eyewitnesses quarrel is always the same: I ask myself what would have made military sense, or how a soldier would have responded. I find it noteworthy how often first-rate historians are at odds with one another—but, then, a dozen participants can take away a dozen different perceptions of what happened on the same battlefield.

  For an overview of the autumn of 1864 campaign in the Valley, it’s impossible to do better than Jeffry D. Wert’s superb From Winchester to Cedar Creek. Yet I’m still fond of Sheridan in the Shenandoah, by Edward J. Stackpole, which is highly readable, if a bit dated. Specifically for Third Winchester (Opequon Creek), The Last Battle of Winchester, by Scott C. Patchan, is one of the best, most-detailed battle studies I’ve encountered. I found myself turning to it with embarrassing frequency (although I differed on a very few conclusions).

  Fisher’s Hill is often treated as a sideshow (while Tom’s Brook goes ignored), so it’s good to have The Battle of Fisher’s Hill, by Jonathan A. Noyalas, in print. It’s a short book about a battle that cast a long shadow. I recommend it.

  For cavalry operations, there are a number of good titles, but I’ll just list Custer Victorious, by Gregory J. W. Urwin, which is well researched and very readable, and Sheridan’s Lieutenants, by David Coffey, an excellent summary study.

  Last in this too-short list comes The Guns of Cedar Creek, by Thomas A. Lewis, another extremely impressive battle study. It provides a well-balanced, enthralling account of this unique and tragic fight, cutting through the myths to reach the men.

  * * *

  In closing, let me beg readers who’ve been drawn in by this novel to visit the battlefields I’ve struggled to describe. Monocacy, Third Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek all have been bayoneted by interstate highways—because so many Civil War battles were fought along major roads, and the same routes, slightly offset, remain in use. Nonetheless, each battlefield has a great deal to offer.

  Except for that highway cut—near where McCausland first blundered into Ricketts—Monocacy is remarkably well preserved. To the sorrow of those of us who regard these battlefields as sacred, much of the terrain on which Third Winchester was fought has been encrusted with housing developments, shopping malls, gas stations, a school, and vast expanses of macadam. Even so, a late but determined effort saved as much land as possible, and we can still walk the fi
elds where Breathed’s artillery went into action and Rud Hayes led his men through a deadly creek bottom. The walking trails are well signposted and thoughtfully laid out.

  Fisher’s Hill, by contrast, is almost perfectly preserved. Except for that highway cut and a few new homes on the opposing ridge, this is the field on which those armies contended much as it was. Additional preservation efforts are under way, but we all can do more, and must.

  Tom’s Brook, the Confederate cavalry’s worst rout of the war, was fought in two parts. Wesley Merritt’s battlefield by the town has suffered development, but Custer’s action along Back Road took place on land still largely unchanged. Its preservation, though, has been incidental, and it isn’t even marked by a roadside sign.

  Then there is Cedar Creek, where a coalition of organizations has been doing worthy work to preserve as much of the battlefield as possible—and a remarkable portion of it remains intact, despite the nearby junction of two interstates. This great, decisive battle not only deserves to be better known to Americans, but would benefit from a network of walking trails. Let’s hope that happens.

  On the northern edge of Middletown, near Jubal Early’s limit of advance, there’s a small National Park Service museum tucked into a strip mall. The bare-bones staff is enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and for those of us who fondly recall the “Electric Map” at Gettysburg, there’s a smaller LED-dotted map that gives the visitor a clear, clean overview of a battle that was hardly clean or clear. Most cars simply rush past on the Valley Pike (now widened and smoothly paved). Thanks to history’s fickleness, this great battle has been forgotten by the average American, as have the other battles in this book. For young Americans—taught to despise history as useless—even the cartoon version of Custer has faded, while Rutherford B. Hayes and Stephen Dodson Ramseur, Philip Sheridan and Jubal Early, aren’t even names in a schoolbook. I find it heartbreaking.

  This book is a call to remember.

  About the Author

  RALPH PETERS is a New York Times bestselling author, a retired U.S. Army officer and former enlisted man, a media commentator on strategic issues, and a lifelong student of history. His fiction and nonfiction writing on the American Civil War, under his own name and as Owen Parry, has won numerous literary prizes, including the W. Y. Boyd Literary Award (twice), the Herodotus Award, the Hammett Prize, and the General Meade Society’s Order of Merit. You can sign up for email updates here.

  RALPH PETERS’ NOVELS PUBLISHED BY FORGE

  Cain at Gettysburg (Boyd Award)

  Hell or Richmond (Boyd Award)

  The Officers’ Club

  The War After Armageddon

  RALPH PETERS’ CIVIL WAR MYSTERIES PUBLISHED UNDER THE PEN NAME “OWEN PARRY”

  Faded Coat of Blue (Herodotus Award)

  Shadows of Glory

  Call Each River Jordan

  Honor’s Kingdom (Hammett Prize)

  The Bold Sons of Erin

  Rebels of Babylon

  and

  Our Simple Gifts: Civil War Christmas Tales

  Ralph Peters is also the author of numerous books on strategy, as well as additional novels.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  How They Organized for War

  Epigraph

  Part I: The River

  Map of Theater of Operations

  Chapter 1

  Map of Prelude to Monocacy

  Chapter 2

  Map of McCausland’s Attacks, July 9, 1864

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Map of Gordon’s Attack, July 9, 1864

  Chapter 5

  Map of Early’s March on Washington

  Chapter 6

  Part II: The Valley

  Map of Lower Shenandoah Valley, September 17, 1864

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Map of Sheridan’s Early Morning Attack, September 19, 1864

  Chapter 9

  Map of Sheridan’s 11:40 a.m. Attack and Early’s Counterattack, September 19, 1864

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Map of Sheridan’s Afternoon Attack and Early’s Retreat, September 19, 1864

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Map of Fisher’s Hill, Initial Dispositions, September 20–22, 1864

  Chapter 14

  Map of Fisher’s Hill, September 22, 1864

  Chapter 15

  Part III: The Shadow

  Chapter 16

  Map of Positions of Sheridan and Early, October 17, 1864

  Chapter 17

  Map of Cedar Creek, Morning, October 19, 1864

  Chapter 18

  Map of Cedar Creek, Late Afternoon, October 19, 1864

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Ralph Peters’ Novels Published by Forge

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

  Copyright © 2015 by Ralph Peters

  All rights reserved.

  Maps by George Skoch

  Cover art: The Battle of Cedar Creek by Julian Scott (1846–1901); courtesy of the Vermont State House, Montpelier, Vermont

  A Forge Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

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  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-0-7653-7403-5 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4668-3981-6 (e-book)

  e-ISBN 9781466839816

  First Edition: May 2015