HISTORY:
** In July 1863, with the Confederacy still reeling from the defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Union forces pushed deep into Arkansas, capturing the capital of Little Rock. In response, Colonel Joseph O. Shelby launched a daring raid to disrupt the advance. Taking 600 men and a section of light artillery, he slipped behind enemy lines. Moving by night to confuse the enemy, Shelby captured a series of small outposts, collecting weapons and recruits as he went. As they continued their ride, the rebels tore up railroad tracks, burned bridges, and cut telegraph lines. Despite these successes, the Union troops slowly closed in on the raiders. Shelby fought a series of bitter skirmishes, until he found himself surrounded. Unwilling to surrender, Shelby led a charge through the Federal lines, bursting out into the open country and onto the road back to the Confederacy. While the results of this raid are still debated by historians, no one has ever doubted its boldness, and west of the Mississippi it became common to boast, “You've heard of Jeb Stuart's ride around McClellan? Hell, brother, Jo Shelby rode around MISSOURI!” **
** Quoted from the Osprey Publishing website.
THE BOOK:
Osprey Publications has released Ride Around Missouri, Shelby’s Great Raid 1863 as Number 25 in their Raid series. It is a soft cover book with 80 pages and is the standard Osprey Publishing size of 7 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches. Included with the text are black and white and color photographs, full color illustrations, color maps, detailed captions and more. It has a 2011 copyright, a publication date of October 20, 2011, and the ISBN is 978-1-8490-8429-1.
THE CONTENTS:
Introduction
Origins
Initial Strategy
The Plan
- The Men
The Raid
- Setting Out
- Union Confusion
- The Baxter Springs Massacre
- Mounting Resistance
- Ambush at Dug Ford
- Into the Trap
- The Battle of Marshall
- Breaking Free
Analysis
Aftermath
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
THE TEXT:
Author Sean McLachlan has written an excellent history about the actions to destroy railroads, telegraph lines and other targets of opportunity as part of the plan to disrupt and cause confusion and disruption in the Union forces military actions during the American Civil War in 1863. The text goes into very specific detail in all areas of the book as outlined on the contents page, please refer to the contents listing that I have provided for the subjects that are covered throughout the book. The author details and discusses every aspect of the mission from the initial planning and what the goal of the mission was to be, the preparation for the mission and what was involved and then it goes into the mission itself and the main encounters between Confederate and Union forces and the outcome of them as well as the end of the main mission itself. The author does an excellent job of discussing and detailing Shelby’s Raid by breaking it down into many separate events instead of discussing the raid as a whole and provides details of the various actions taken by both the Confederate and Union forces in a blow-by-blow type of narrative. Along with his own words, Sean McLachlan has also provided quotes from key individuals such as Confederate Brigadier-General Joseph Orville Shelby, Confederate Major John Newman Edwards, Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill, 15-year-old Confederate guerrilla Riley Crawford, Union Colonel J.F. Philips, Iron Brigade member Jake Stonestreet, Union Major General John Schofield, Union Captain George Grover and others. The text in the book is well written and very informative. As I read through the text, I didn’t notice any spelling or grammatical errors. Grammar and spelling might not be an important factor to everyone however it is something that I take notice of and pass on my findings. As a reader that knew nothing about Shelby’s Great Raid, I found myself to be well informed on the subject upon finishing the book. Anyone wanting to add an excellent reference and history book on the various events that took place during Shelby’s Great Raid, also known as “Shelby’s ride around Missouri”, in 1863 during the American Civil War to their personal library will be pleased with this very informative and interesting book.
THE PHOTOGRAPHS:
A total of 37 black and white photographs and 10 color photographs are included in this volume. Many of the photographs are period photographs, or photographs of drawings and artwork from the period. There are also photographs included of Civil War reenactors participating in reenactments of actions that had been taken by Shelby’s 5th Missouri Cavalry. The photographs range from wide angle photographs to close-up detailed photographs. Some of the photographs are profile studio portraits of the various individuals involved. Due to the photography methods of the period, the period photographs were staged for the photographer and not in-action photographs. Most of the photographs are clear and easily viewable; however, a few have an out-of-focus appearance, and some appear to be too dark, and others appear too light. This is typical for the discussed period of history, and the quality of a few of the photographs is no fault of the author and does not take anything away from the book. Author Sean McLachlan stuck to the title of the book and chose subject specific photographs and did not include photographs that strayed from the main subject. The majority, if not all, of the photographs will prove to be excellent reference material due to the details they contain. The American Civil War historian and enthusiast will benefit from the excellent photographs as will anyone that is interested in Shelby’s Great Raid, also known as his “Ride Around Missouri” in 1863 during the American Civil War.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS:
There are 3 full-color illustrations included in the volume. The illustrations are very well done, nicely detailed and are of:
Plate A
Shelby Raider
- A one-page full color illustration of a Confederate cavalryman, wearing a mixture of Confederate and Union uniform items, along with his weapons and equipment while serving as one of Shelby’s raiders.
Plate B
Surprise attack near Boonville.
- A two-page full color action illustration showing Union forces attacking the camp of Shelby and his men near Boonville, Missouri at dawn on October 12, 1863.
Plate C
Trap at Dug Ford.
- A two-page full color action illustration showing Shelby’s raiders ambushing Union forces in a well laid trap at the Lamine River crossing at Dug Ford in Missouri.
THE CAPTIONS:
The captions are well written and explain the accompanying photographs and illustrations in great detail, eliminating any doubt as to what is shown and some of them are basically mini-history lessons themselves. The captions go into very specific detail as to the specific individuals shown, their military rank, and their roles during and after the American Civil War, military units, weapon types, dates and locations and other such pertinent information. As I read through the captions, I didn’t notice any spelling or grammatical errors. Sean McLachlan’s captions are very helpful to the reader due to their detailed content as opposed to other captions that I have seen that are very brief and lacking in detail.
THE MAPS:
There are three full-colored maps by Bounford.com included in this volume. The maps come with detailed keys and the first and third maps come with map/cartographic distance scales. The maps are of:
- Marmaduke’s first and second raids. December 31, 1862, to January 25, 1863, and April 17 to May 2, 1863.
- The Battle of Marshall, October 13, 1863. A two-part two-page map that copes with detailed captions as well as specific points of interest marked for both Union and Confederate forces.
- Shelby’s raid of September 22 to October 26, 1863.
INDIVIDUAL PROFILE:
There is one individual profile included in this volume and it details:
- Confederate Major John Newman Edwards. A newspaper man that rode with the Iron Brigade right from the beginning and fought in every battle and skirmish and became Shelby’s adjutant and began writing Shelby’s official reports. After the war he went on to launch the fame of Frank and Jesse James while he was editor of the Kansas City Times.
CONCLUSION:
As with the other Osprey Publishing titles I was impressed with this book. This is a very nice reference book that contains a well written informative text, many subject specific photographs and illustrations, well detailed captions and more, all detailing Shelby’s Great Raid in 1863 during the American Civil War. As with the other Osprey Publishing titles, I have no hesitation recommending this book to others as it will be a welcome addition to one’s personal library.
Osprey Publishing also offers Ride Around Missouri, Shelby’s Great Raid 1863 as:
Ebook (Epub & Mobi) ISBN: 978-1-8490-8890-9
and
Ebook (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-8490-8430-7
Osprey Publishing’s, Ride Around Missouri, Shelby’s Great Raid 1863 is also available as a Kindle version through Amazon.
PRICE:
UK £15.99 / US $21.00 / CAN $30.00
This book was provided to me by Osprey Publishing. Please mention that you saw the book reviewed here on the KitMaker Network when making your purchase. Thank you.