" John D. Imboden is an important but often overlooked figure in Civil War history. With only limited militia training, the Virginia lawyer and politician rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate Army and commanded the Shenandoah Valley District, which had been created for Stonewall Jackson. Imboden organized and led the Staunton Artillery in the capture of the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. He participated in the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas and organized a cavalry command that fought alongside Stonewall Jackson in his Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The Jones/Imboden Raid into West Virginia cut the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and ravaged the Kanawha Valley petroleum fields. Imboden covered the Confederate withdrawal from Gettysburg and later led cavalry accompanying Jubal Early in his operations against Philip Sheridan in Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Imboden completed his war service in command of Confederate prisons in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Spencer C. Tucker fully examines the life of this Confederate cavalry commander, including analysis of Imboden’s own post-war writing, and explores overlooked facets of his life, such as his involvement in the Confederate prison system, his later efforts to restore the economic life of his home state of Virginia by developing its natural resources, and his founding of the city of Damascus, which he hoped to make into a new iron and steel center. Spencer C. Tucker, John Biggs Professor of Military History at the Virginia Military Institute, is the author of Vietnam and the author or editor of several other books on military and naval history. He lives in Lexington, Virginia.

Details the participation of Imboden's brigade, the 18th Virginia Cavalry Regiment, in General Lee's Gettysburg campaign into Pennsylvania. Led by Brigadier General John D. Imboden and supported by General William E. Jones, Imboden's brigade began a career in guerrilla warfare participating in raids in Northwest Virginia. For the Gettysburg Campaign, he served under Major General J.E.B. Stuart as a rear guard into the Shenandoah Valley following General Robert E. Lee. He led raids against the countryside in Pennsylvania guarding ammunition and supply wagons in and around Chambersburg while Lee lost at Gettysburg. Imboden and his brigade were in charge of escorting the wagons that carried the wounded back into Virginia. When trapped by the flooding Potomac at Williamsport, he set up a defensive force of wounded men firing muskets and an artillery battery to fend off a Union cavalry attack led by General Buford and Kilpatrick.

Biography of John Daniel Imboden (Brig. Gen., CSA) and his operations during the Civil War.

Contains more than 20 maps, diagrams and illustrations Although "Fighting Joe" Hooker skillfully executes a well-conceived plan and out-flanks his adversary, months of offensive planning are shelved as he suddenly orders his army on the defensive. Lee seizes the initiative and achieves what has often been called his most brilliant victory. How could this happen when Hooker's army outnumbers that of Lee 2 to 1 and is far superior in artillery and logistics? Answers to these and other questions concerning leadership, communications, use of terrain, and the psychology of men in battle, are often found by personal reconnaissance of the battlefield. This book offers a staff ride briefing of Chancellorsville. Since 1906 staff rides have been used to in the education of U.S. Army officers to narrow the gap between peacetime training and war.

"The western counties of Virginia (later WV) housed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which connected Washington with the Midwest's vast wealth of manpower and supplies. This work covers the Confederacy's 1863 attempt to invade WV and destroy the B&O line. Rich with oral history, gives a detailed, personal account of the unsuccessful Jones-Imboden Raid"--Provided by publisher.