cover image "Those Damn Horse Soldiers": True Tales of the Civil War Cavalry

"Those Damn Horse Soldiers": True Tales of the Civil War Cavalry

George Walsh, . . Forge, $27.95 (477pp) ISBN 978-0-765-31270-9

In the enormous American Civil War canon, comparatively little has been written about the cavalry. Walsh (Whip the Rebellion , etc.) remedies the situation with this sprightly account of cavalry leaders and operations, from their beginnings in the spring of 1862 to the war's bitter end at Appomattox on April 7, 1865. Walsh's narrative emphasizes personalities—most of them Southerners—including courageous Fitzhugh Lee, son of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee; fiery Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan; J.E.B. Stuart, who perished at the Battle of Yellow Tavern near Richmond in May of 1864; John Hunt Morgan, who daringly led Confederate troops into Indiana and Ohio; and John Singleton Mosby, known as "the Gray Ghost" because he and his men, operating in the northern Virginia Piedmont, seemed to appear and disappear without warning. Union luminaries include the fierce, take-no-prisoners Philip H. "Little Phil" Sheridan and young, hotheaded George Armstrong Custer. Walsh offers his personality-driven, battle-tactic–heavy stories in short chapters, presented chronologically and divided into actions in the eastern and western theaters, in this smoothly written, accessible effort. (Dec.)