Valley of the Shadow

In the Presence of Mine Enemies

  1. For a useful overview of the large literature on the Civil War, see James M. McPherson and William J. Cooper, eds., Writing the Civil War: The Quest to Understand (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1998).
  2. The following account is drawn from Robert J. Driver, The Staunton Artillery--McClanhan's Battery (Lynchburg, Va: H. E. Howard, 1988), pp. 6-13, and Harold R. Woodward, Jr., The Defender of the Valley: Brigadier General John Daniel Imboden, C.S.A. (Berryville, Va.: Rockbridge Publishing Company, 1996), pp. 32-43. See also Spencer C. Tucker, Brigadier General John D. Imboden: Confederate Commander in the Shenandoah (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003).
  3. Diary of Michael Hanger, entry dated July 21, 1861, Hanger Diary, Washington and Lee University.
  4. Diary of Michael Hanger, entry dated July 22, 1861.
  5. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated July 22, 1861, Joseph Addison Waddell Diary, University of Virginia.
  6. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated July 26, 1861.
  7. Staunton Spectator, July 27, 1861, page 1, column 5.
  8. Staunton Spectator, July 27, 1861, page 1, column 5.
  9. Staunton Spectator, August 27, 1861, page 1, column 5.
  10. Report of Brig. Gen. T.J. Jackson, C.S. Army, commanding 1st Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah, July 23, 1861, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, vol. 2, Serial No. 2, ch. 9; Report of Col. J. E. B. Stuart, First Manassas, 1st Va. Cavalry, July 26, 1861, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I. vol. 2. Serial No. 2, ch. 9..
  11. Staunton Spectator, August 20, 1861, page 1, column 3. Note: Correct date is August 20, 1861.
  12. Staunton Spectator, September 3, 1861, page 1, column 7.
  13. John Imboden, "Incidents of the Battle of Manassas," Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (May 1885), pp. 92-98.
  14. Alexander K. McClure to Eli Slifer, July 23, 1861, McClure Papers, Library of Congress.
  15. Valley Spirit, July 24, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  16. Letter from Robert Taggart to his brother John, dated July 26, 1861, John Taggart Papers, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
  17. Letter from Alex Cressler to Henry Bitner, dated July 30, 1861, Henry A. Bitner Papers, University of Virginia.
  18. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, July 26, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  19. Valley Spirit, July 27, 1861, page 2, column 4.
  20. Valley Spirit, July 31, 1861, page 2, column 2. For a good overview of this topic, see Mark E. Neely, The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
  21. Valley Spirit, August 3, 1861, page 2, column 5.
  22. Valley Spirit, August 21, 1861, page 1, column 5.
  23. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, July 26, 1861, page 2, column 2.
  24. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, August 27, 1861, page 2, column 2.
  25. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, July 30, 1861, page 3, column 1.
  26. Valley Spirit, July 31, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  27. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, August 20, 1861, page 3, column 2.
  28. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, August 23, 1861, page 3, column 2.
  29. Letter from Mary A. Smiley to Thomas M. Smiley, dated July 27, 1861, Smiley Family Papers, University of Virginia.
  30. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated August 3, 1861; August 4, 1861, Hotchkiss Family Papers, Library of Congress.
  31. For examples of Hotchkiss's maps and a compelling portrait of the man, see William J. Miller, Mapping for Stonewall: The Civil War Service of Jed Hotchkiss (Washington: Elliott and Clark, 1993). The Jackson quote appears on p. 52.
  32. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated August 4, 1861; August 11, 1861.
  33. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated August 3, 1861; August 11, 1861.
  34. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated July 30, 1861; August 11, 1861.
  35. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated August 16, 1861.
  36. War Diary of Jedediah Hotchkiss, 1861, in the Papers of Jedediah Hotchkiss, Library of Congress. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Nelson Hotchkiss, dated September 18, 1861.
  37. Letter from Adam W. Kersh to George P. Kersh, dated September 23, 1861, A. W. Kersh Letters, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Battlefield Park.
  38. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated October 4, 1861, Henry H. Dedrick Papers, Virginia Military Institute Archives.
  39. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated September 29, 1861.
  40. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated October 4, 1861.
  41. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated October 4, 1861.
  42. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated November 23, 1861.
  43. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated December 9, 1861.
  44. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated October 4, 1861.
  45. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated November 23, 1861.
  46. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated January 9, 1862.
  47. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated January 22, 1862.
  48. Letter from Henry Dedrick to his wife, Lissa, dated March 8, 1862.
  49. Staunton Spectator, June 4, 1861, page 2, column 2. For an overview, see Michael G. Mahon, The Shenandoah Valley, 1861-1865: The Destruction of the Granary of the Confederacy (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1999).
  50. Staunton Spectator, July 16, 1861, page 1, column 2. On the role of women in the war see Drew Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996); Catherine Winston and Nina Silber, eds., Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); and George Rable, Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989).
  51. Staunton Spectator, August 20, 1861, page 1, column 1; August 20, 1861, page 1, column 2. Note: The correct dates are August 20, 1861.
  52. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entries dated July 20, 1861 and July 24, 1861, in Joseph A. Waddell, Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871 (Staunton, Va.: C. R. Caldwell, 1901), pp. 285-86.
  53. Staunton Spectator, July 20, 1861, page 1, column 6.
  54. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated August 26, 1861 in Waddell, Annals, p. 288.
  55. Staunton Spectator, July 20, 1861, page 1, column 6.
  56. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated December 16, 1861, in Waddell, Annals, pp. 290-91.
  57. John B. Baldwin to Judah P. Benjamin, October 16, 1861, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, vol. 5, Serial 5, ch. 14.
  58. Staunton Spectator, November 12, 1861, page 1, column 3.
  59. Staunton Spectator, December 10, 1861, page 1, column 3.
  60. Staunton Spectator, December 10, 1861, page 1, column 3.
  61. Valley Spirit, September 4, 1861, page 4, column 2.
  62. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, September 10, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  63. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, September 13, 1861, page 2, column 1; column 3.
  64. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, September 24, 1861, page 2, column 2.
  65. Valley Spirit, October 2, 1861, page 4, column 1.
  66. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, October 15, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  67. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, October 15, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  68. Valley Spirit, October 16, 1861, page 4, column 1.
  69. Alexander K. McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: J. C. Winston Company, 1905), p. 496.
  70. McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, p. 496, pp. 500-04.
  71. Valley Spirit, September 11, 1861, page 3, column 1.
  72. Valley Spirit, September 11, 1861, page 3, column 1.
  73. Valley Spirit, November 27, 1861, page 1, column 6.
  74. Valley Spirit, December 4, 1861, page 5, column 2; October 30, 1861, page 4, column 5.
  75. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, December 6, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  76. Valley Spirit, December 11, 1861, page 4, column 1.
  77. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, December 31, 1861, page 1, column 5.
  78. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, December 31, 1861, page 3, column 1.
  79. Douglass quoted in James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 354.
  80. Staunton Spectator, October 8, 1861, page 1, column 1.
  81. Staunton Spectator, September 10, 1861, page 1, column 1. Portions reprinted from the Richmond Whig. For similar comments see also: Staunton Spectator, September 3, 1861, page 1, column 1; September 10, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  82. Staunton Spectator, October 1, 1861, page 1, column 4.
  83. Staunton Spectator, November 5, 1861, page 1, column 2. Reprinted from the Richmond Whig.
  84. Staunton Spectator, September 3, 1861, page 1, column 1.
  85. Staunton Spectator, December 17, 1861, page 1, column 1.
  86. Staunton Spectator, October 1, 1861, page 1, column 2.
  87. Staunton Spectator, October 8, 1861, page 1, column 5.
  88. Staunton Spectator, October 1, 1861, page 2, column 1.
  89. Letters of Clinton Hatcher to Mary Ann Sibert, May 29, July 7, and September 24, 1861; Letter from Thaddeus Hatcher to Mary Ann Sibert, December 24, 1861. Evans-Sibert Papers at the Library of Virginia.
  90. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, October 22, 1861, page 4, column 1. Information reprinted from the Evening Journal.
  91. Valley Spirit, October 30, 1861, page 4, column 4.
  92. Valley Spirit, October 30, 1861, page 4, column 4.
  93. Valley Spirit, September 4, 1861, page 5, column 1; Semi-Weekly Dispatch, November 15, 1861, page 3, column 1.
  94. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, November 26, 1861, page 3, column 2.
  95. Valley Spirit, November 27, 1861, page 2, column 4; Semi-Weekly Dispatch, September 24, 1861, page 3, column 2; Valley Spirit, September 25, 1861, page 5, column 2.
  96. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, September 24, 1861, page 3, column 2.
  97. Diary of Reverend Abraham Essick, entry dated September 26, 1861, Kittochtinny Historical Society.
  98. The following paragraphs are drawn from the diary of Reverend Abraham Essick, entry dated December 31, 1861.
  99. Staunton Spectator, January 7, 1862, page 1, column 4.
  100. Letter from George P. Kersh to Adam W. Kersh, dated January 29, 1862.
  101. Letter from Thomas Smiley to Mary Smiley, dated January 10, 1862.
  102. Staunton Spectator, January 21, 1862, page 1, column 2.
  103. Staunton Spectator, January 28, 1862, page 1, column 3.
  104. Staunton Spectator, January 28, 1862, page 1, column 3.
  105. Valley Spirit, January 8, 1862, page 4, column 1.
  106. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, January 10, 1862, page 2, column 1.
  107. Valley Spirit, January 1, 1862, page 4, column 2.
  108. Valley Spirit, January 15, 1862, page 4, column 2.
  109. Valley Spirit, January 15, 1862, page 4, column 2.
  110. Valley Spirit, January 15, 1862, page 4, column 2.
  111. Valley Spirit, January 15, 1862, page 4, column 2.
  112. Valley Spirit, January 29, 1862, page 4, column 1.
  113. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, January 24, 1862, page 2, column 1.
  114. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, January 24, 1862, page 2, column 1.
  115. See two fascinating books: Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri during the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989) and Charles S. Royster, The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans (New York: Knopf, 1991).
  116. "In Diesem Jahr. . . Deacon Michael Hege's Church Record Book, 1850-1896," translated by Peter Hoover and Edsel Burge, Jr., Mennonite Historical Association of the Cumberland Valley, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
  117. Valley Spirit, February 19, 1862, page 5, column 3.
  118. Letter from Henry Erisman to his brother, dated March 12, 1862, U. S. Army Military History Institute.
  119. Valley Spirit, April 16, 1862, page 5, column 3.
  120. Valley Spirit, April 23, 1862, page 5, column 1. Reprinted from the Pittsburg Chronicle.
  121. Valley Spirit, April 23, 1862, page 5, column 1. Reprint of Letter from F. S. Stumbaugh, colonel, 77th Pennsylvania Regiment, dated April 9, 1862.
  122. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, April 11, 1862, page 3, column 2.
  123. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, May 2, 1862, page 3, column 2.
  124. Valley Spirit, April 16, 1862, page 5, column 1.
  125. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, March 11, 1862, page 4, column 1.
  126. Valley Spirit, March 12, 1862, page 4, column 1.
  127. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, April 15, 1862, page 2, column 2.
  128. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, April 18, 1862, page 2, column 2.
  129. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, May 6, 1862, page 2, column 2.
  130. Letter from John J. Miller to George Miller, dated May 15, 1862, Miller Family Papers, York County Heritage Trust.
  131. Letter from Bob Taggart to Sam Taggart, dated June 24, 1862, John Taggart Papers, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
  132. Valley Spirit, April 9, 1862, page 4, column 1.
  133. Valley Spirit, April 30, 1862, page 5, column 4.
  134. Valley Spirit, August 6, 1862, page 5, column 1. "F.F.V." refers to the First Families of Virginia, a title that linked contemporary white Virginians to the first settlers of the colony.
  135. Valley Spirit, May 21, 1862, page 5, column 1.
  136. Staunton Spectator, February 18, 1862, page 1, column 1.
  137. Staunton Spectator, February 18, 1862, page 1, column 1.
  138. Diary of Harvey Bear, entry dated March 15, 1862, Harvey Bear Diary, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
  139. Staunton Spectator, February 25, 1862, page 1, column 1.
  140. Letter from James McCutchan to Kate McCutchan, dated February 20, 1862, James B. McCutchan Papers, Washington and Lee University.
  141. Letter from James McCutchan to Kate McCutchan, dated March 13, 1862.
  142. Letter from Adam W. Kersh to George P. Kersh, dated March 1, 1862.
  143. Letter from Mary Dedrick to Henry Dedrick, dated February 1, 1862.
  144. Letter from Henry Dedrick to Mary Dedrick, dated April 7, 1862.
  145. Letter from Mary Dedrick to Henry Dedrick, dated April 15, 1862.
  146. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entries dated February 10, 1862, February 22, 1862, February 24, 1862.
  147. Staunton Spectator, March 25, 1862, page 1, column 1.
  148. Staunton Spectator, April 8, 1862, page 1, column 1.
  149. Staunton Spectator, April 15, 1862, page 1, column 2.
  150. Staunton Spectator, April 1, 1862, page 1, column 7.
  151. Staunton Spectator, February 18, 1862, page 1, column 3.
  152. Staunton Spectator, March 11, 1862, page 1, column 4.
  153. Staunton Spectator, February 25, 1862, page 1, column 6.
  154. Letter from Adam W. Kersh to George P. Kersh, dated January 29, 1862.
  155. This account is drawn from Woodward, Defender of the Valley, pp. 50-52.
  156. Col John Imboden to G. W. Randolph, June 23, 1862, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, vol. 51, Serial 108, ch. 63.
  157. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated April 11, 1862, in John R. Hildebrand, ed., A Mennonite Journal, 1862-1865: A Father's Account of the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley (Shippensburg, Pa.: Burd Street Press, 1996).
  158. The following account is drawn from Samuel L. Horst, Mennonites in the Confederacy: A Study of Civil War Pacifism (Scottsdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1967), pp. 15-17.
  159. Staunton Spectator, March 25, 1862, page 1, column 2.
  160. Horst, Mennonites, pp. 49-56.
  161. Diary of Jacob R. Hildebrand, entry dated March 14, 1862.
  162. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated March 17, 1862.
  163. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entries dated March 19, 1862, and March 20, 1862.
  164. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entries dated, March 26, 1862, March 27, 1862, and April 6, 1862.
  165. Alexander H. H. Stuart to George W. Randolph, April 29, 1862, Stuart Family Papers, University of Virginia.
  166. Quoted in James I. Robertson, Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend (New York: Macmillan, 1997), p. 330.
  167. Quoted in Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, p. 421.
  168. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated March 25, 1862.
  169. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated March 21, 1862.
  170. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated March 23, 1862.
  171. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated March 27, 1862.
  172. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated April 17, 1862.
  173. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated April 6, 1862.
  174. Diary of Joseph Hildebrand, entry dated April 19, 1862.
  175. Diary of Joseph Hildebrand, entry dated May 2, 1862.
  176. Letter from William Hanger Smith Baylor to Mary Baylor, dated April 22, 1862.
  177. Letter from William Hanger Smith Baylor to Mary Baylor, dated April 22, 1862, William S. H. Baylor Letters, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
  178. Letter from William Hanger Smith Baylor to Mary Baylor, dated April 22, 1862.
  179. Hotchkiss quoted in Miller, Mapping for Stonewall, p. 47.
  180. Letter from William Hanger Smith Baylor to Mary Baylor, dated April 22, 1862.
  181. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 3, 1862.
  182. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 4, 1862.
  183. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry date May 5, 1862.
  184. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 5, 1862.
  185. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 5, 1862.
  186. Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, pp. 363-72.
  187. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 7, 1862.
  188. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entries dated May 7 and May 8, 1862.
  189. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 9, 1862.
  190. Quoted in Archie McDonald, ed., Make Me a Map of the Valley: The Civil War Journal of Stonewall Jackson's Topographer (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1973), p. 40.
  191. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated May 9, 1862.
  192. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated May 10, 1862.
  193. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 10, 1862.
  194. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 10, 1862.
  195. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 11, 1862.
  196. McDonald, ed., Make Me a Map, pp. 42-46.
  197. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 14, 1862.
  198. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 16, 1862.
  199. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 18, 1862.
  200. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated May 20, 1862.
  201. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated May 25, 1862.
  202. Letter from Jedediah Hotchkiss to Sara Hotchkiss, dated May 26, 1862. The following account is drawn from this letter.
  203. Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, pp. 411, 413.
  204. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated May 28, 1862.
  205. Diary of Harvey Bear, May 29, 1862.
  206. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entries dated May 28 and May 30, 1862.
  207. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated June 2, 1862.
  208. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entries dated May 29, 1862 and May 30, 1862.
  209. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated June 1, 1862.
  210. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated June 6, 1862.
  211. Diary of Jacob Hildebrand, entry dated June 10 and June 11, 1862.
  212. Diary of Joseph Waddell, entry dated June 17, 1862.
  213. Valley Spirit, May 28, 1862, pg. 5, column 1.
  214. Valley Spirit, May 28, 1862, pg. 5, column 1.
  215. Valley Spirit, June 11, 1862, pg. 5, column 1.
  216. Valley Spirit, May 28, 1862, pg. 4, column 1.
  217. Valley Spirit, May 28, 1862, pg. 4, column 1.
  218. Valley Spirit, May 28, 1862, pg. 4, column 1.
  219. Letter from Christian Geisel to his sister, dated April 22, 1862.
  220. Letter from Nathaniel Dunn to his brother, dated May 4, 1862.
  221. Letter from Bob Taggart to John Taggart, dated May 30, 1862.
  222. Semi-Weekly Dispatch, May 6, 1862, page 2, column 1; May 2, 1862, page 3, column 2.
  223. Valley Spirit, June 18, 1862, page 3, column 1.
  224. Valley Spirit, June 18, 1862, page 3, column 1.
  225. Valley Spirit, June 18, 1862, page 5, column 1.
  226. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 858.
  227. Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989), pp. 283-85.
  228. For a fascinating counterfactual essay, see William Freehling, "'Absurd' Issues and the Causes of the Civil War: Colonization as a Test Case," in Freehling, The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 138-157.

Text and images Copyright 2003 by Edward L. Ayers. All rights reserved. A part of the Valley of the Shadow Project