COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

THE CAVALRY BATTLES OF ALDIE, MIDDLEBURG AND UPPERVILLE:
Small But Important Riots,
June 10-27, 1863
by Robert F. O'Neill
Lynchburg, Virginia: H.E. Howard, 1993.

"Sandwiched between and overshadowed by the larger battles of Brandy Station and Gettysburg, the battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville were forgotten even by the veterans." So begins the introduction to The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville, by Robert F. O'Neill Jr..

O'Neill's is a vividly detailed account of the fighting that took place here just days before the battle of Gettysburg. In fact, these engagements were indeed a prelude to Gettysburg, which took place July 1-3, 1863. Following a momentous victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia slipped out of its entrenchments near Fredericksburg, through the gaps in the Blue Ridge to block the mountain passes and screen the army's movements from the prying eyes of Federal cavalry. It wasn't long before the Confederate cavalrymen met their adversaries who were probing west in an effort to locate Lee and discern his intentions. What followed were five days of exhausting combat over rolling hills and stone fences in the sweltering Virginia summer.

John Devine writes in the foreword: "Five days of movement and countermovement drew nearly twenty thousand troops into an area of less than twenty miles along U.S. Route 50 from Aldie to the Blue Ridge. Cavalry, both Blue and Gray, were now fighting as cavalry should fight. The battle of Middleburg on June 19th has never been given the detailed study which this book offers."

Part of The Virginia Civil War Battles and Leader Series, this book offers engaging reading to anyone interested in the American Civil War, the history of cavalry, or local history. And it holds particular significance for the NSL since it was his reading of this book that inspired the late Paul Mellon to commission the bronze war horse statue that stands in front of the Library and memorializes the 1.5 million horses and mules killed or wounded during the war.

Acquired in 1994, O'Neill's book is part of a cavalry collection at the NSL that offers a number of works on the Civil War, as well as those concerning cavalry from ancient times to World War II.