The Civil War in the Eastern Theater during the late summer and fall of 1863 was anything but inconsequential. Generals Meade and Lee continued where they had left off, executing daring marches while boldly maneuvering the chess pieces of war in an effort to gain decisive strategic and tactical advantage. Cavalry actions crisscrossed the rolling landscape; bloody battle revealed to both sides the command deficiencies left in the wake of Gettysburg. It was the first and only time in the war Meade exercised control of the Army of the Potomac on his own terms. Jeffrey Wm Hunt brilliant dissects these and others issues in Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station: The Problems of Command and Strategy After Gettysburg, from Brandy Station to the Buckland Races, August 1 to October 31, 1863.

The carnage of Gettysburg left both armies in varying states of command chaos as the focus of the war shifted west. Lee further depleted his ranks by dispatching James Longstreet (his best corps commander) and most of his First Corps via rail to reinforce Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. The Union defeat that followed at Chickamauga, in turn, forced Meade to follow suit with the XI and XII Corps. Despite these reductions, the aggressive Lee assumed the strategic offensive against his more careful Northern opponent, who was also busy waging a rearguard action against the politicians in Washington.

Meade and Lee at Bristoe Station is a fast-paced, dynamic account of how the Army of Northern Virginia carried the war above the Rappahannock once more in an effort to retrieve the laurels lost in Pennsylvania. When the opportunity beckoned Lee took it, knocking Meade back on his heels with a threat to his army as serious as the one Pope had endured a year earlier. As Lee quickly learned again, A. P. Hill was no Stonewall Jackson, and with Longstreet away Lee’s cudgel was no longer as mighty as he wished. The high tide of the campaign ebbed at Bristoe Station with a signal Confederate defeat. The next move was now up to Meade.

Hunt’s follow-up volume to his well-received Meade and Lee After Gettysburg is grounded upon official reports, regimental histories, letters, newspapers, and other archival sources. Together, they provide a day-by-day account of the fascinating high-stakes affair during this three-month period. Coupled with original maps and outstanding photographs, this new study offers a significant contribution to Civil War literature.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: “General Meade … Let the Crop Go to Waste”
• Chapter 2: “Natural and Artificial Obstacles”
• Chapter 3: “No Field … For Battle”
• Chapter 4: “Elastic Spirits”
• Chapter 5: “If Meade Does Not Move I Wish To Attack Him”
• Chapter 6: “Firing Pistols, Flashing Sabers and Excited Men”
• Chapter 7: “What Can I Do With Such Generals?”
• Chapter 8: “One of the Very Fiercest Fights of the War”
• Chapter 9: “Matters Again Look a Little Complicated”
• Chapter 10: “The Long Glittering Hedge of Bayonets”
• Chapter 11: “They Came Near Bagging the Division”
• Chapter 12: “Meade Seems Unwilling to Attack”
• Chapter 13: “A Situation to Try the Stoutest Hearts”
• Chapter 14: “Almost Like Boys Chasing a Hare”
• Chapter 15: “A Bloody and Doubtful Contest”
• Chapter 16: “Move Immediately and With the Utmost Dispatch”
• Chapter 17: “A Spectacle Such As Few … Had Ever Beheld”
• Chapter 18: “A New and Decidedly Unpleasant Sensation”
• Chapter 19: “Never Was the Voice of A Mule So Harsh!”
• Chapter 20: “For God’s Sake Hold … Them for Ten Minutes Longer!”
• Chapter 21: “The Muskets Began to Crack”
• Chapter 22: “Wherever We Turned the Confederates Were Ready For Us”
• Chapter 23: “Everything Went With a Rush”
• Chapter 24: “I Expect We’d Better Charge”
• Chapter 25: “No Little Confusion”
• Chapter 26: “No Fires, No Supper and No Sleep”
• Chapter 27: “They Ought To Have Known Better”
• Chapter 28: “Lee Is Unquestionably Bullying You”
• Chapter 29: “I Desire To Be Relieved From Command”
• Chapter 30: “Arms Glittering in the Bright Autumn Sunshine”
• Chapter 31: “A Most Beautiful Trap”
• Chapter 32: “He Got the Advantage of Me”
• Epilogue: An Assessment of Command
• Bibliography