Clash of cavalry: The battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863

by Fairfax Davis Downey

Book by Downey, Fairfax Davis

Genres: American Civil War, Gettysburg Campaign, Civil War Eastern Theater, Civil War

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for a tour of the battlefield next month. I found the description of the battle short, but detailed enough for an introduction. There is a lot of filler in the appendices that appear to have no purpose other than increasing the size of the book. Do you really need to read poetry about cavalry? If so, it's here! To be fair, this particular battle is not long on tactics. It was pretty much straight ahead charges and counter charges, which do not prompt a lot of analysis. As one of the few books dedicated to this battle, the coverage is adequate. If interested specifically in the life of a cavalryman, including a manual of arms and how to conduct oneself in hand to hand combat on horseback, this is certainly a worthwhile read.

[Jimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The parts covering the battle itself were pretty good; however, less than half of the book is actually about the battle. Much of the book is about Civil War cavalry in general, including an entire chapter about music, a brief history of the U.S. cavalry branch, a large extract from Cooke's Cavalry Tactics, etc., rather than concentrating on Brandy Station. The volume as a whole seems more like a disjointed (and disorganized) collection of short magazine articles than a coherent book.