Member Review Holding the Line on the River of Death: Union Mounted Forces at Chickamauga by Eric J. Wittenberg

Conclusion:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While I had done research on Minty, I still learned more about this fascinating character from Wittenberg. I also got a thorough lesson about the effective use of mounted troops against much large combined arms forces.

The book is well-written and quite lively. Those with a deeper interest in the subject should definitely consult the copious footnotes which, as I have already pointed out, are more than just bibliographic. The volume also contains photographs, illustrations, maps, and charts to help the reader understand and visualize the people and events discussed.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in cavalry, the Chickamauga Campaign, the War in the West, and immigrant involvement in the Civil War. I also recommend it to anyone who just wants a good read.
 
You need to bring some when you do you talk at the Ann Arbor Round Table, I expect some members will want one. I drive to Jackson Michigan often and was wondering in Minty's house still stood. I will have to look into that.
Is that talk scheduled?
 
Conclusion:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While I had done research on Minty, I still learned more about this fascinating character from Wittenberg. I also got a thorough lesson about the effective use of mounted troops against much large combined arms forces.

The book is well-written and quite lively. Those with a deeper interest in the subject should definitely consult the copious footnotes which, as I have already pointed out, are more than just bibliographic. The volume also contains photographs, illustrations, maps, and charts to help the reader understand and visualize the people and events discussed.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in cavalry, the Chickamauga Campaign, the War in the West, and immigrant involvement in the Civil War. I also recommend it to anyone who just wants a good read.

Pat, thank you very much for the kind words--they are greatly appreciated. And I am very pleased that you found merit in the book and that you enjoyed it.
 
I had a couple of questions for @Eric Wittenberg. Here is the first:

Minty is referred to early in the book as a "soldier of fortune." I did not see that as an appropriate description. What did you mean by it?
 
Here is the review of the book at Civil War Books and Authors:

https://cwba.blogspot.com/2019/01/review-holding-line-on-river-of-death.html

From the review:

Now having authored Gettysburg* and Chickamauga companion studies, Wittenberg has firmly documented his earnest belief that the mounted operations that opened both battles represent two of the war's finest examples of a cavalry versus infantry delaying action. As the more eastern theater focused Wittenberg admits, one might even regard Minty and Wilder's feats of arms on September 18 as more impressive than Buford's far better known and much more widely celebrated July 1 cavalry fight...A product of sound research and finely-tuned reasoning and analysis, Holding the Line on the River of Death is a superbly constructed Civil War cavalry study that is richly deserving of top-shelf placement within the modern literature's rapidly expanding Chickamauga Campaign library.
 
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