Jubal's Raid: General Early's Famous Attack on Washington in 1864 (review)

98 CIVIL WAR HISTORY for his edition of John Dooley's war journal, has done a painstaking job on this diary. However, by alternating between giving verbatim quotations and utilizing paragraph summaries of other passages, he has lent a certain choppiness to the text that may annoy readers desiring the sum rather than many parts. This is a small flaw in an otherwise valuable work. The memoirs stand as irrefutable proof that, a century ago, allegiance to God and the Confederacy could be intense and synonymous. James I. Robertson, Jr. State University of Iowa Jubals Raid: General Early's Famous Attack on Washington in 1864. By Frank E. Vandiver. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1960. Pp. xii, 198. $4.95.) "Jubal's Raid" is a lively and interesting account of General Jubal A. Early's foray into the valley of Virginia, covering the period from June 13 to July 12, 1864, and culminating in an assault on Washington. On June 13, 1864, General Lee dispatched General Early with the Second Corps from the lines near Cold Harbor to destroy General David Hunter's Federal army which, having swept up the valley, was moving on Lynchburg—the key to Lee's communications to the west. Early was instructed then to move down the valley and threaten Washington. By this strategy Lee hoped to draw off troops from Grant's army at Petersburg . These objectives were brilliantly executed by Early. Checking Hunter at Lynchburg and pursuing him into the valley, Early marched unopposed swiftly down the valley when Hunter abandoned it and retreated into western Virginia. The sudden appearance of Early in the lower valley on July 3 alarmed the authorities at Washington, and troops from various fronts were rushed to its defense. Early crossed the Potomac into Maryland and, at Monocacy Creek on July 9, defeated General Lew Wallace. Wallace's bold resistance , by delaying Early's advance to Washington, Mr. Vandiver infers, probably saved Washington from capture. The most revealing pages in JubaTs Raid are those in which the author describes the consternation and confusion in Washington upon receiving the news from the Monocacy. The capital was almost defenseless except for "ragtag units" of untrained militia, a reserve corps of convalescent veterans, and a few dismounted cavalry. Government clerks drilled frantically on vacant lots and the Quartermaster General Meigs hastily organized the men in his department into combat units. Refugees swarmed into the city with tales of the surrounding country alive with gray uniforms. And to compound confusion, there was the problem of command structure —generals contending as to who was in command. The author states that "decay and demoralization characterized the Washington defenses." Resuming the march to Washington on July 10, Early arrived on the Book Reviews99 outskirts, in sight of Fort Stevens, in the afternoon of the eleventh. But by that time there were already troops enough to repel an attack and, learning that night that additional troops had reached Baltimore, Early gave up all hopes of capturing Washington and, during the night of July 12, recrossed the Potomac into Virginia. Mr. Vandiver convincingly contends that, on the whole, the raid was a sound campaign, despite the failure to seize Washington. It had forced Grant to detach veterans to protect the capital; it had also made possible the harvesting of the crops in die Shenandoah Valley; it probably prolonged the conflict through 1864; and it had demonstrated that the Confederacy had not lost its offensive power. While Mr. Vandiver does not rate Early as another Jackson, he does consider him the equal, at least, of Ewell, his predecessor in command of the Second Corps—an opinion with which Sandie Pendleton, brilliant assistant adjutant general of the Second Corps under Jackson, Ewell, and Early, would have agreed. General Lee retained his confidence in Early's ability, even after he had been subsequently defeated by General Philip H. Sheridan. Dr. Vandiver is the author of several books dealing with the Confederacy, the most recent being Mighty StonewaU. JubaTs Raid is a much-needed story of a neglected episode, the last Confederate offensive. It is written with the author's usual clarity and brilliancy. W. G. Bean Washington and...