A Want of Vigilance

Part of the Emerging Civil War Series, this history covers a crucial clash between the Blue and the Gray that impacted future Union tactics and victories. The months after the Battle of Gettysburg were anything but quietfilled with skirmishes and cavalry clashes. Nonetheless, Union commander Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade had yet to encounter his Confederate counterpart, Gen. Robert E. Lee, in combat. Lee's army, severely bloodied at Gettysburg, did not have the offensive capability it once possessed. Yet Lee's aggressive nature could not be quelled, and he looked for the chance to strike out at Meade. In mid-October, 1863, both men shifted their armies into motion, each surprising the other. Quickly, Meade found himself racing northward for safety along the Orange Alexandria Railroad, with Lee charging up the rail line behind him. Last stop: Bristoe Station, Virginia. In A Want of...

“Lee is undoubtedly bullying you,” one of Meade’s superiors goaded.

Lee’s army—severely bloodied at Gettysburg—did not have quite the offensive capability it once possessed, yet Lee’s aggressive nature could not be quelled. He looked for the chance to strike out at Meade.

In mid-October, 1863, both men shifted their armies into motion. Each surprised the other. Quickly, Meade found himself racing northward for safety along the Orange Alexandria Railroad, with Lee charging up the rail line behind him.

Last stop: Bristoe Station.

Authors Robert Orrison and Bill Backus have worked at the Bristoe Station battlefield, which is now surrounded by one of the fastest-growing parts of Virginia. In A Want of Vigilance, they trace the campaign from the armies camps around Orange and Culpeper northwest through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the vital railroad to Centreville and back in a back-and-forth game of cat and mouse: the goggle-eyed snapping turtle versus the old gray fox pitted against each other in one of the most overlooked periods of the war."

REVIEWS

" an excellent short summary of a complex but often overlooked period of the Civil War. The tactical stalemates of Bristoe and later Mine Run led to the reorganization of the Union war effort in the East and the subsequent Overland Campaign of the Spring and Summer of 1964.

Civil War News September 2016