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Clash of Cavalry: The Battle of Brandy Station (review)
- Civil War History
- The Kent State University Press
- Volume 6, Number 3, September 1960
- pp. 322-324
- 10.1353/cwh.1960.0029
- Review
- Additional Information
322CIVIL WAR HISTORY Refreshing indeed, in these postwar years when Jefferson Davis has become the whipping boy of the Confederacy, is Akin's estimate of him as ". . . the best man in the Government for his place. Many want him out of office. Were he removed today, we should be ruined in a few months." His estimate of Lee is summed up in the sentence "I wish my children could see him." After perusing the thumbnail sketches of Akin's colleagues, his estimates of the failings of the group as a legislative body, and his fulminations against the number of secret sessions, the reader feels that he has been personally to Richmond duringthelast months of the Confederacy. The inclusion of a number of letters from Mrs. Akin to her husband serves to show the obverse of the coin. Had these been interspersed chronologically with those of Akin, they would have given a clearer picture both of the times and of the relationship between this man and wife. Akin's letters, for example, contain minute instructions as to how his wife should conduct his affairs in Georgia and savor somewhat of the dictator. Upon reading Mrs. Akin's letters, however, one discovers that she asked for such detailed instructions. Enhancing the letters is the beautiful format in which they are presented and the interest-arousing chapter titles which Dr. Wiley has supplied in the form of excerpts from the letters themselves. With its usable index, the publication is a worthy production of one of the university presses of the Old South. WrLLARD E. Wight Georgia Institute of Technology. Clash of Cavalry: The Battle of Brandy Station. By Fairfax Downey. (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1959. Pp. xv, 238. $4.95.) studies of single engagements of the Civil War have interested authors ever since the end of the conflict. In recent years, a number of books dealing with individual battles have appeared. To mention only a few, Gettysburg, Vicksburg , Fredericksburg, Atlanta, all have been competently covered. Now we have a volume on the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, the greatest single cavalry clash of the entire war. Fairfax Downey, the author of this book, is in love with the cavalry. The clash of steel upon steel, the smell of leather and horses, the spirited charge, the esprit de corps of half forgotten units, the bugle calls of days gone by, and the manual of arms with weapons long discarded—these are well covered in this work. Military lore comes naturally to Mr. Downey, a retired lieutenant colonel of the United States army. Writing with verve, he has taken great pains to look into the minutiae of the cavalry service of both armies, and he has assembled much information about the uniforms, equipment, and songs of the horsemen of the 1860's. The drama of the cavalry charge is his main theme. Military lore and cavalry tradition alone, however, do not constitute history. The significance of a battle cannot be understood properly unless the engagement is seen as an action with historical causes, characteristics, and results which set it apart from other encounters. This applies to major battles such as Gettysburg as well as to comparatively minor ones such as Brandy Station; Book Reviews323 and if this cavalry action merits monographic treatment at all, its over-all significance must be emphasized. This, unfortunately, the author has failed to do. Why is the Battle of Brandy Station important? In this clash between General Alfred Pleasanton's Federal cavalry and General J. E. B. Stuart's Confederate troopers in Virginia, the Union cavalry came into its own. After having been outgeneralled for many months by Stuart and his horsemen, the Federals succeeded in taking their enemies by surprise and in carrying out efficiently a difficult reconnaissance in force. Stuart managed to fight off the attackers so that the battle ended in a draw, but afterwards it had become obvious that Confederate cavalrymen could no longer afford to sneer at their enemies. Sohumiliated was the Confederate commander by the encounter that he is said to haveundertaken his disastrous Gettysburg raid in order to redeem his reputation. The Federals, who withdrew in good order...