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Book Review
| Contested Borderlands: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia. By Brian D. McKnight. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006. xii, 312 pp. $40.00, ISBN 0-8131-2389-5.)The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. Ed. by Gary W. Gallagher. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. xxii, 392 pp. $45.00, ISBN 0-8078-3005-4.)
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| These two very different books offer wonderful insights into aspects of the Civil War that frequently receive little attention: Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. Contested Borderlands, Brian D. McKnight's well-researched narrative, represents one of the best recent, comprehensive examinations of the Civil War era in the mountain highlands of Kentucky and Virginia. Gary W. Gallagher's book, The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, is a fine collection of essays, all well written and researched, about commanders and their troops, as well as a number of battles fought by Gens. Philip H. Sheridan and Jubal A. Early in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. |
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Unlike McKnight, the authors in Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 do not include comprehensive descriptions of the campaign or discussions of all the individual battles or significant commanders. Similar to other volumes in Gallagher's Military Campaigns of the Civil War series, the scholarship here explores a few key characters and notable tactical operations of the campaign. The eleven essays generally draw on a marvelous array of primary sources. Although not a book for the novice, it does contain fine illustrations, photographs, and maps that convey new and enlightening scholarship, adding to our understanding of the campaign in the latter stages of the Civil War. |
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McKnight, on the other hand, does not invoke images of flamboyant military leaders, notable tactical confrontations, or lengthy, complex military campaigns. Civil War historiography often views Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia as a "backwater," meriting little examination. McKnight succeeds in rescuing this aspect of the war in Contested Borderlands. Like the authors in Gallagher's book, McKnight has mined a wealth of new or rarely used manuscripts to explore the social, political, and military complexities of the Civil War in a remote region that was not subject to political or social definition. |
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As McKnight amply demonstrates, the people of the Appalachian highland were "trapped between two armies, both of which insisted on their loyalty" (p. 39). One of those armies "would drive the other out of the region," then there would be "retribution on those who had guessed incorrectly" (ibid.). In a state of fear, the mountaineers, whose loyalties to any particular institution were questionable in times of peace, struggled to survive as the conflict grew increasingly bitter. |
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A vastly different understanding of the plight of the indigenous population in the Shenandoah Valley emerges, particularly from William G. Thomas's essay, "Nothing Ought to Astonish Us: Confederate Civilians in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign." There, early expressions of Confederate loyalty from most (but not all) of the people were followed by occupation and a stout defense of the region, seen as a military necessity by Confederate forces. Aaron Sheehan-Dean's essay on Virginia soldiers in the valley presents a similar picture of local loyalties that sharply contrasted with those present in the Appalachian mountains. |
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