Decision at Tom’s Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and

Decision at Tom’s Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight

The Battle of Tomâ€™s Brook, recalled one Confederate soldier, was â€œthe greatest disaster that ever befell our cavalry during the whole war.â€ The fight took place during the last autumn of the Civil War, when the Union General Phil Sheridan vowed to turn the crop-rich Shenandoah Valley into â€œa desert.â€ Farms and homes were burned, livestock slaughtered, and Southern families suffered.

The story of the Tomâ€™s Brook cavalry affair centers on two young men who had risen to
prominence as soldiers: George A. Custer and Thomas L. Rosser. They had been friends since their teenage days at West Point, but the war sent them down separate pathsâ€”Custer to the Union army and Rosser to the Confederacy. Each was a born warrior who took obvious joy in the exhilaration of battle. Each possessed almost all of the traits of the ideal cavalrymanâ€”courage, intelligence, physical strength, inner fire. Only their judgment was questionable.

Their separate paths converged in the Shenandoah Valley in the autumn of 1864, when Custer was ordered to destroy, and Rosser was ordered to stop him. For three days, Rosserâ€™s gray troopers pursued and attacked the Federals. On the fourth day, October 9, the tables turned in the open fields above Tomâ€™s Brook, where each ambitious friend sought his own advancement at the expense of the other. One capitalized upon every advantage fate threw before him, while the other, sure of his abilities in battle and eager to fight, tried to impose his will on unfavorable circumstances and tempted fate by inviting catastrophe. This long-overlooked cavalry action had a lasting effect on mounted
operations and influenced the balance of the campaign in the Valley.

Based upon extensive research in primary documents and gracefully written, award-winning author William J. Millerâ€™s Decision at Tomâ€™s Brook presents significant new material on Thomas Rosser and argues that his character was his destiny. Rosserâ€™s decisions that day changed his life and the lives of hundreds of other men. Millerâ€™s new study is Civil War history and high personal drama at its finest.
Country USA
Brand Savas Beatie
Manufacturer Savas Beatie
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2016-07-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781611213089

Country	USA
Brand	Savas Beatie
Manufacturer	Savas Beatie
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2016-07-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781611213089

Decision at Tom’s Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight

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