Overview

KEYNOTE . An account of the key American Civil War battle at New Market Charles R. Knight's Valley Thunder is the first full-length account in more than three decades to examine the combat at New Market on May 15, 1864, the battle that opened the pivotal Shenandoah Valley Campaign, a strategically important and agriculturally abundant region that helped feed Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant intended to attack the Confederacy on multiple fronts so it could no longer “take advantage of interior lines.” Grant tasked Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel and a motley collection of units numbering some 10,000 men to clear the Valley and threaten Lee's left flank. Opposing Sigel was John C. Breckinridge, a former vice president and now Confederate major general who assembled a scratch command to repulse the invading Federals. A Confederate victory drove Union forces from the Valley, but they would return, reinforced and under new leadership, within a month. Before being repulsed, they marched over the field at New Market and capture Staunton, burn VMI in Lexington, and very nearly capture Lynchburg. That summer would permanently sweep the Confederates from the “Bread Basket of the Confederacy.” Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market is based upon years of primary research. Knight's balanced and objective approach includes a detailed examination of the complex prelude leading up to the day of battle. His entertaining prose introduces a new generation of readers to a wide array of soldiers, civilians, and politicians who found themselves swept up in one of the war's most gripping engagements. AUTHOR Charles R. Knight is a former Historical Interpreter at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park, and currently serves as the curator of the Douglas MacArthur Memorial. ILLUSTRATIONS 16 b/w photographs *

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9781932714807

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Reviews

.. .an essential piece for anyone interested in the smaller engagements of the Civil War. --Collected Miscellany .. .balanced and objective approach...exciting and informative. --Lone Star Book Review

Detailed, insightful, comprehensive, exceptionally well documented, and featuring eight appendices, eleven battlefield maps, and black/white historical photos, Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market is an essential, core addition to personal, community, college, and university library American Civil War History collections and supplemental studies lists. --Midwest Book Review Charles Knight has provided an insightful and well-researched addition to the catalogue of works on the Battle of New Market. The Battlefield Park staff applaud this effort by one of our former co-workers! --Scott H. Harris, Director, New Market Battlefield State Historical Park Valley Thunder surely takes its place now among the dozen finest and most complete accounts of any Civil War action, and it would be hard to name any account of a secondary fight of this size that has been better treated. Knight's study is a contribution not just to Virginia or Confederate literature, but a book that will serve the entire Civil War community for generations to come, and probably much longer than my thirty-six years. The only way we will get a better account is if Breckinridge and the others come to life and give it to us from their own lips. --William C. Davis, former editor of Civil War Times, Illustrated, author of The Battle of New Market (1975), and the award-winning author of Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour ...an essential piece for anyone interested in the smaller engagements of the Civil War. --Collected Miscellany ...balanced and objective approach...exciting and informative. --Lone Star Book Review

Author Information

Charles Knight is a native of Richmond, VA, where he developed a love for history at an early age. He has worked at museums and historic sites for more than 20 years in Virginia, Arizona, and North Carolina, and currently serves as the Curator of Military History at the North Carolina Museum of History. He is a past member of the Scottsdale (AZ) Civil War Round Table and current member of the Raleigh CWRT and the Leonidas L. Polk Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is a die-hard Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles fan and lives with his wife and two children in Holly Springs, NC.

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