Description

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This combined narrative and documentary collection is the most complete account yet published of the greatest battle that cavalry fought without infantry or artillery support in the Civil War. That intense struggle between approximately 5,000 Confederate and 8,000 Union cavalrymen, who fought mostly dismounted, comes alive through the many eyewitness accounts included in this study. On two hot days in June 1864, Major General Wade Hampton prevented Major General Philip Sheridan and his numerically superior, better-equipped troops from damaging the Virginia Central Railroad which carried provisions and war material from the Shenandoah Valley to General Robert E. Lee's army around Richmond. Hampton also kept Sheridan from joining other forces that could have attacked Richmond from the west. In turn, Sheridan kept Hampton from harassing the Army of the Potomac as it crossed the James River. Important for both sides, this battle of June 11-12, 1864, here receives the attention it has deserved for so long.