Snyder, Timothy R. Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations

The Raids Against the C & O Canal and the Bath-Romney Campaign, December 1861 to February 1862

Timothy R. Snyder's Stonewall Jackson's Winter Operations offers a new perspective on the operations at the beginning of the war under the leadership of the famous Confederate general Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson. Detached from the Shenandoah Valley campaign, these earlier military activities paint a very different picture of the enigmatic general. Instead of lightning-fast manoeuvres and overwhelming victories, Snyder depicts a fallible Jackson who encountered considerable difficulties, made mistakes and misjudgements, and led a series of unsuccessful operations. As commander of the Valley District, Jackson organised raids on two dams belonging to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, an important coal transport company for Washington, D.C. This book offers the first comprehensive account of these important but little-researched events that helped shape the war along the Maryland-Virginia border. Although Jackson failed to breach either facility, his persistent efforts underscore the often-overlooked importance of the canal to the Union war effort. Snyder's extensive primary source researchincluding official reports, letters, diaries, and newspapersfundamentally changes perceptions of the legendary Confederate general and paints a more accurate historical picture of the man and his early military career. During the bitterly cold Bath-Romney campaign, Jackson led a small army into the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains and captured Bath, Virginia. While on guard duty in the town, several men from General William W. Loring's command froze to death, while officers from the Stonewall Brigade housed their men in a resort hotel. This inequality fuelled deep resentment within Loring's command and eventually led to a near mutiny. Although Jackson later captured Romney, Virginia, without a fight, the occupation of the town was not the general's original objective. When the Confederate Secretary of War ordered Jackson to withdraw Loring's command to Winchester, Jackson threatened to resign, citing interference from Richmond. Snyder's extensive primary source research shows that this order actually made strategic sense given Confederate intelligence and Union troop concentrations. Stonewall Jackson's Winter Operations fundamentally changes perceptions of the legendary Confederate general and paints a more accurate historical picture of the man and his military career.