"I do not think that there was ever an army so badly routed," announced Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan in a message to Lt. Gen. U. S. Grant on the morning after the decisive victory at Fisher's Hill, Virginia, on September 22, 1864. The battlefield triumph was the result of Sheridan's elaborate plan to destroy Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederate Valley army, deployed on a supposedly impregnable position along an aptly named stream called Tumbling Run, south of Strasburg in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. This engagement was Early's last chance to prevent the wholesale destruction of the Valley during the autumn of 1864. So Badly Routed: The Battle of Fisher's Hill in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, September 22–24, 1864, is the first book-length treatment of the battle.
After several unsuccessful Union attempts to control the valley (known as the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy"), Grant directed Sheridan and the Army of the Shenandoah to rid the region of enemy troops and to strip it clean. Grant was tired of Early's persistent threats to Washington, D.C., and his presence in the Valley helped feed Robert E. Lee's struggling Army of Northern Virginia.
The authors draw on extensive firsthand archival research to explore the military operations from the days following the Third Battle of Winchester through Sheridan's attack at Fisher's Hill. Their descriptions of the fighting-supported by informative maps and firsthand accounts-provide a complete treatment of the decisive battle and related military actions in Warren and Page counties, and of the Mosby Affair at Front Royal. Students and genealogists will welcome the extensive original muster-roll data used to create the Order of Battle, which, for the first time, identifies the actual unit commanders present on the field that day.
In addition to significant new material published here for the first time, So Badly Routed includes pertinent illustrations, complete casualty listings, and a self-guided tour. This study is an important addition to the libraries of Civil War scholars, enthusiasts, and genealogists.
