The Boy Generals George Custer Wesley Merritt And The Cavalry Of The Army Of The Potomac

Author : Adolfo Ovies
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781611215359
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Boy Generals written by Adolfo Ovies and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac is the first installment in a remarkable trilogy to examine the strategy, tactics, and relationships of the leading Union army's mounted arm and their influence on the course of the Civil War in the Eastern Theater.George Armstrong Custer's career has attracted its fair share of coverage, but most Custer-related studies focus on his decision-making and actions to the exclusion of other important factors, including his relationships with his fellow officers. Custer developed his tactical philosophy within the politically ridden atmosphere of the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps. His relationship with his immediate superior, Wesley Merritt, was so acrimonious that even Custer's wife Libbie described him as her husband's "enemy."The Boy Generals examines in detail the steadily deteriorating relationship of two cavalrymen with opposing tactical philosophies, and how this relationship affected events in the field. Custer was a hussar--a firm believer in the shock power of the mounted saber charge--while Merritt was a dragoon, his tactics rooted in the belief that the purpose of the horse was to transport the trooper to the battlefield, where he could fight dismounted with his carbine. With these diametrically opposed belief systems, it was inevitable that these officers would clash. What has often been described as a spirited rivalry was in fact something much darker, an association that moved from initial distaste to acrimony, and finally, outright insubordination on Custer's part.Author Adolfo Ovies mined deeply Official Reports, regimental histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts, together with unpublished and little used primary sources of men who fought in their commands. This rich and satisfying study exposes the depths of one of the most dysfunctional and influential relationships in the Army of the Potomac and how it affected cavalry operations in the Eastern Theater.The Boy Generals will change the way Civil War readers think of the premier Union army's mounted arm, as well as George Custer's legacy.

Author : Adolfo Ovies
Publisher : Savas Beatie
ISBN 13 : 1611216184
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac written by Adolfo Ovies and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2023-12-07 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second installment of Al Ovies’ The Boy Generals trilogy, George Custer, Wesley Merritt and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, from the Gettysburg Retreat through the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, encompasses a period jammed with tumultuous events for the cavalry on and off the battlefield and a significant change of command at the top. Once below the Potomac River, the Union troopers raced down the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains but were unable to prevent General Lee’s wounded Army of Northern Virginia from reaching Culpeper. The balance of the 1863 was a series of maneuvers, raids, and fighting that witnessed the near-destruction of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade at Buckland Mills and the indecisive and frustrating efforts of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run campaigns. Alfred Pleasonton’s controversial command of the mounted arm ended abruptly, only to be replaced by the more controversial Philip H. Sheridan, whose combustible personality intensified the animosity burning between George Custer and Wesley Merritt. Victory and glory followed the Cavalry Corps during the early days of Overland campaign, particularly at Yellow Tavern, where Rebel cavalier Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded. The “spirited rivalry” between Custer and Merritt, in turn, took a turn for the worse. At Trevilian Station, the bitterness and rancor permeating their relationship broke into the open to include harsh official reports critical of the other’s actions. Merritt’s elevation to temporary command of the 1st Cavalry Division cemented their rancor. Just as their relationship worsened, so too did the tenor of the war darken as the sieges of Richmond and Petersburg ground on, and Confederate partisan Col. John S. Mosby intensified guerrilla operations that disrupted Union logistics in the Shenandoah Valley. When Gen. Ulysses Grant demanded that Sheridan escalate retribution, the cavalry commander delivered his infamous edict to “eat out Virginia clear and clean as far as they go, so that crows flying over it for the balance of the season will have to carry their provender with them.” Much of the gritty task fell on the shoulders of the boy generals. Adolfo Ovies’ well-researched and meticulously detailed account of the increasingly dysfunctional relationship between Custer and Merritt follows the same entertaining style in the first installment. The Boy Generals changes the way Civil War enthusiasts will understand and judge the actions of the Union’s bold riders.

Author : Adolfo Ovies
Publisher : Savas Beatie
ISBN 13 : 1611215366
Total Pages : 410 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Boy Generals written by Adolfo Ovies and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2021-06-11 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First in a trilogy—a study of the strategy, tactics, and rivalry between two leaders of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry during the American Civil War. George Armstrong Custer’s career has attracted its fair share of coverage, but most Custer-related studies focus on his decision-making and actions to the exclusion of other important factors, including his relationships with his fellow officers. Custer developed his tactical philosophy within the politically ridden atmosphere of the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps. His relationship with his immediate superior, Wesley Merritt, was so acrimonious that even Custer’s wife Libbie described him as her husband’s “enemy.” The Boy Generals examines in detail the steadily deteriorating relationship of two cavalrymen with opposing tactical philosophies, and how this relationship affected events in the field. Custer was a hussar—a firm believer in the shock power of the mounted saber charge—while Merritt was a dragoon, his tactics rooted in the belief that the purpose of the horse was to transport the trooper to the battlefield, where he could fight dismounted with his carbine. With these diametrically opposed belief systems, it was inevitable that these officers would clash. What has often been described as a spirited rivalry was in fact something much darker, an association that moved from initial distaste to acrimony, and finally, outright insubordination on Custer’s part. Author Adolfo Ovies mined deeply official reports, regimental histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts, together with unpublished and little used primary sources of men who fought in their commands. This rich and satisfying study exposes the depths of one of the most dysfunctional and influential relationships in the Army of the Potomac and how it affected cavalry operations in the Eastern Theater. The Boy Generals will change the way Civil War readers think of the premier Union army’s mounted arm, as well as George Custer’s legacy. Praise for The Boy Generals “A grand effort . . . a “Must Read.” It will be a standard bearer; a marvelous book that should remain among the very best. . . . It will certainly grace my library.” —Frederic C. Wagner III, author of The Strategy of Defeat at the Little Big Horn “Well-written, thoroughly researched, and entertaining. This is one you cannot miss.” —Eric J. Wittenberg, award–winning author of “The Devil’s to Pay”: John Buford at Gettysburg: A History and Walking Tour

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 1643364367
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Into the Crater written by Earl J. Hess and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2023-06-30 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, was the defining event in the 292-day campaign around Petersburg, Virginia, in the Civil War and one of the most famous engagements in American military history. Although the bloody combat of that "horrid pit" has been recently revisited as the centerpiece of the novel and film versions of Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, the battle has yet to receive a definitive historical study. Distinguished Civil War historian Earl J. Hess fills that gap in the literature of the Civil War with Into the Crater. The Crater was central in Ulysses S. Grant's third offensive at Petersburg and required digging of a five-hundred-foot mine shaft under enemy lines and detonating of four tons of gunpowder to destroy a Confederate battery emplacement. The resulting infantry attack through the breach in Robert E. Lee's line failed terribly, costing Grant nearly four thousand troops, among them many black soldiers fighting in their first battle. The outnumbered defenders of the breach saved Confederate Petersburg and inspired their comrades with renewed hope in the lengthening campaign to possess this important rail center. In this narrative account of the Crater and its aftermath, Hess identifies the most reliable evidence to be found in hundreds of published and unpublished eyewitness accounts, official reports, and historic photographs. Archaeological studies and field research on the ground itself, now preserved within the Petersburg National Battlefield, complement the archival and published sources. Hess re-creates the battle in lively prose saturated with the sights and sounds of combat at the Crater in moment-by-moment descriptions that bring modern readers into the chaos of close range combat. Hess discusses field fortifications as well as the leadership of Union generals Grant, George Meade, and Ambrose Burnside, and of Confederate generals Lee, P. G. T. Beauregard, and A. P. Hill. He also chronicles the atrocities committed against captured black soldiers, both in the heat of battle and afterward, and the efforts of some Confederate officers to halt this vicious conduct

Author : Gregory J. W. Urwin
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 9780803295568
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Custer Victorious written by Gregory J. W. Urwin and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1983-01-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Custer found himself in the one dilemma all soldiers most dread—he was outnumbered and completely surrounded. With disaster looming in every quarter and no chance of escape. . . ." So Gregory J. W Urwin pulls the reader into a scene describing not the Battle of the Little Big Horn but a Civil War engagement that George Armstrong Custer and his troop survived, thanks to strategy as much as naked courage. Many books have focused on Custer's Last Stand in 1876, making legend of total defeat. Custer Victorious is the first to examine at length, with attention to primary sources, his brilliant Civil War career. Urwin writes: "None of Custer's exploits against the Plains Indians could compare with those he performed while with the Army of the Potomac." The leader of a brigade called "the Wolverines," Custer was promoted to major general and the helm of the Third Cavalry Division when he was only twenty-four. Urwin describes the Boy General's vital contributions to Union victories from Gettysburg to Appomattox.

Author : David Coffey
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742543065
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sheridan's Lieutenants written by David Coffey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this exciting new work, David Coffey explores Sheridan's relationships with his subordinates and their substantial role in shaping the final year of the Civil War.

Author : Paul Andrew Hutton
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN 13 : 9780806134659
Total Pages : 604 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Custer Reader written by Paul Andrew Hutton and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is Custer as seen by himself, his contemporaries, and leading scholars. Combining first-person narratives, essays, and photographs, this book provides a complete introduction to Custer's controversial personality and career and the evolution of the Custer myth.

Author : James Harvey Kidd
Publisher : Kent State University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780873386708
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book One of Custer's Wolverines written by James Harvey Kidd and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Primarily known for his postwar exploits, most famously for his 1876 defeat at Little Big Horn, George Armstrong Custer led a formidable cavalry that became known as Custer's Wolverines. This volume presents the Civil War letters of one of those Wolverines, James H. Kidd.

Author : Elizabeth Bacon Custer
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Boy General written by Elizabeth Bacon Custer and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Stephen A. Bly
Publisher : Crossway
ISBN 13 : 9781581342369
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Senator's Other Daughter written by Stephen A. Bly and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2001 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grace Burnette Denison flees from home when she learns of a dark family secret and meets Colt Parnell who may accept her secret and faith in the Lord.