Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions

Rating:
Summary: Important new Gettysburg book.
Review: "Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions", by Eric J. Wittenberg, is an important new book on the Gettysburg Campaign. It covers, in much detail and under one cover, the vital cavalry actions which occurred on the southern fields of that battle which so long have remained obscure to most Civil war enthusiasts.

This isn't more Gettysburg "fluff" or rehashed stories to sell a book; far from it. "Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions" is a riveting, well-researched narrative of the heroic operations of several of the Union's fastest rising cavalry "stars" at that monumental conflict.

While Custer fought on the more well-known "East Cavalry Field" against JEB Stuart, Wesley Merritt and Elon Farnsworth performed no less brilliantly against Southern forces south and west of Little Round Top.

In a number of vicious clashes between cavalry and Rebel infantry, Farnsworth displayed unmatched heroism while Merritt gave Mea! de a possible yet fleeting opportunity to damage Lee's army severely after the repulse of Pickett's Charge.

Any Civil War cavalry buff will want to read this story. But, for all Gettysburg enthusiasts, it should be considered "required reading" as it fills-in nicely an area of battle historiography which has long been neglected. You can't lose on this one!

Theodore C. Mahr. Former National Park Service Historian. Author of: "The Battle of Cedar Creek: Showdown in the Shenandoah..." and forthcoming works on the Cavalry Battles of the Overland Campaign.

Rating:
Summary: Gettysburg Students Need This!
Review: A great book that dispels the notion that the heroes at Gettysburg are all remembered today. The reader will never forget the description of the ill fated charge led by Farnsworth at the insistence of Justin Kilpatrick. Very easy to read and engrossing.

Rating:
Summary: They fought here?
Review: Coming into Gettysburg from the south you will find cavalry markers on the roadside, most will drive by eager to get to the "good stuff" on Cemetery Hill. Very few that stop know about or understand the nasty little action fought in the fields in front of them. On July third, the Union Cavalry face Longstreet's regulars under command of Evander Law. The Union Cavalry probed, pushed and finally attacked the AoNV's right flank in the ill-advised Farnsworth's Charge. This small book covers the almost forgotten battles in this area. Eric J. Wittenberg has given as a readable and informative book on this aspect of the Battle of Gettysburg. Coupled with "Protecting the Flank: The Battles for Brinkerhoff' Ridge and East Cavalry Field" this book gives one of the most detailed accounts of the Union Cavalry on July 2 - 3, 1863.


Rating:
Summary: Squandered Opportunity
Review: I picked up Eric Wittenberg's "Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions" half expecting a rehash of the epic fight between George Custer and Jeb Stuart at Rummel's Farm on the 3rd Day of the Battle. Indeed I was humming "Garry Owen" to myself until I opened the book.

Witrenberg gives the reader a fascinating account of the Union cavalry assaults led by Wesley Merritt and Judson "Kilcavalry" Kilpatrick on the Confederate Left flank at the time of the repulse of Pickett's Charge, and culminating in Kilpatrick's insane decision to send Elon Farnsworth and his brigade to charge across a fenced-in, rocky terrain on the slopes of the Round Tops, a charge that ended in the decimation of the Union cavalry and the heroic death of Farnsworth.

The new ground covered here is Wittenberg's strong assertion that if the cavalry had not been sent in piecemeal, Merritt's men charging on foot just west of the Emmitsburg Road, and the doomed charge of Farnsworth towards the Confederates entrenched by the Round Tops, but had been sent in together, the Confederate line would have been turned, and with Union cavalry pouring through, Pickett's retreat might have turned into a full rout of the Army of Northern Virginia - and even the surrender of Lee on the Gettysburg Battlefield. Indeed, as Wittenberg points out, Merritt's charge actually did turn the flank of the Confederate line for a short time, but without support either from Kilpatrick or Union Infantry on the Round Tops it was doomed to fail.

Whether or not one buys Wittenberg's premise, he provides the Civil War and particularly Gettysburg student with new insights and food for thought. While Custer's battle with Stuart is very well known, and even Farnsworth's charge merits a few sentences in most Gettysburg histories, the details of Merritt's operations are almost completely unknown.

To be sure, this is a slim volume that did not run in a precise chronological narrative. The reader has to switch chapters back and forth to see what Merritt was doing at a particular time, or what Kilpatrick was doing at that same time. Instead Wittenberg had Farnsworth's charge, the climax of the cavalry operations near the beginning of the book, while Merritt's assault, which took place a few hours earlier, is near the end of the book. Good maps, again not in chronological order, and many illustrations hitherto not seen by this reader. Also Wittenberg casts light on the bloody sideshow at Fairfield between the 6th U.S. Cavalry and Confederate cavalry under the irascible "Grumble" Jones, an affair that ended the killing and capture of the majority of this elite Union unit. Merritt had diluted the potency of his force by sending these men, whose services would have been much more valuable on South Cavalry field, on a foolhardy search for Confederate supply wagons, and instead they ended up running into a Rebel beehive.

Rating:
Summary: A bit flimsy
Review: This book is lacking in length and in depth of analysis. To say this book is 144 pages long is stretching things. The Epilogue ends on page 104; at least 20 pages (a conservative estimate, I think) before this are occupied by maps and/or photos. This leaves only about 85 pages of text. In reality, GETTYSBURG'S FORGOTTEN CAVALRY ACTIONS resembles a lengthy article more than it does a book. One stylistic criticism is the author's excessive use of long block quotes, which often disrupt his narrative.