Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign by Peter Cozzens

The other day I picked up Peter Cozzens' newest book, Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, from the library. This book came out just a tad late to be of use to me during the recent roundtable study group on this campaign. But I was still interested to see the book. I haven't been able to sit down and devote a ton of time to reading it (its an impressive tome at over 600 pages) but I have skimmed it and read some sections on particular battles. I think this just might be the new main resource on the campaign, pushing Robert Tanner's book (Stonewall in the Valley) to the side. I like Cozzens' maps, although I wish they were larger and more plentiful. But they are nice maps nonetheless. I particularly like how the cartographer used shading to denote slopes and hills.

I've always liked Cozzens' work (Corinth-Iuka, Stones River, Chickamauga and Chattanooga). I was a bit surprised to see him leave the Western theater but his foray into the East is a very valuable addition to the history of this campaign. Now I hope he returns to the West and gives us the same treatment of a battle there.

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