Meade and Lee After Gettysburg: The Forgotten Final Stage of the Gettysburg Campaign, from Falling Waters to Culpeper Court House, July 14-31, 1863

By: Jeffrey Wm Hunt

Narrated by: Colonel Ralph Henning

Jeffrey Hunt’s Meade and Lee After Gettysburg: The Forgotten Final Stage of the Gettysburg Campaign, from Falling Waters to Culpeper Court House, July 14-31, 1863 exposes what has been hiding in plain sight for 150 years: The Gettysburg Campaign did not end at the banks of the Potomac on July 14, but two weeks later, deep in central Virginia along the line of the Rappahannock.

Contrary to popular belief, once Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slipped across the swollen Potomac back to Virginia, the Lincoln administration pressed George Meade to cross quickly in pursuit - and he did. Rather than follow in Lee’s wake, however, Meade moved south on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a cat-and-mouse game to outthink his enemy and capture the strategic gaps penetrating the high, wooded terrain. Doing so would trap Lee in the northern reaches of the Shenandoah Valley and potentially bring about the decisive victory that had eluded Union arms north of the Potomac.

The two weeks that followed was a grand chess match with everything at stake - high drama filled with hard marching, cavalry charges, heavy skirmishing, and set-piece fighting that threatened to escalate into a major engagement with the potential to end the war in the Eastern Theater. Throughout, one thing remains clear: Union soldiers from private to general continued to fear the lethality of Lee’s army.

Meade and Lee After Gettysburg, the first of three volumes on the campaigns waged between the two adversaries from July 14, 1863 through the end of 1863, relies on the official records, regimental histories, letters, newspapers, and other sources to provide a day-by-day account of this fascinating high-stakes affair. The vivid prose offers a significant contribution to Civil War literature.

Thanks to Hunt these important two weeks - until now overshadowed by the battle of Gettysburg and almost completely ignored by writers of Civil War history - have finally gotten the attention they have long deserved. Listeners will never view the Gettysburg Campaign the same way.

©2017 Savas Beatie (P)2019 Savas Beatie

Critic reviews

Eastern Theater Book of The Year, 2017 (Eastern Theater)

Needs maps

The book covers a period when the war was one of maneuver more than major battles. Following the narrative requires the listener to visualize the area. The author thanks his wife for the “outstanding maps” that accompany the book, but they’re not available in the audiobook. This is a major gap. The maps available from other sources are a poor substitute.

The TL;DR version of the book is that, in the first few weeks after Gettysburg, Meade guessed wrong about what Lee would do. As a result, there was no decisive defeat of the Army of Northern Virginia. The book is a very detailed account of that short period. It acquaints us with the experiences of lower-level officers and common soldiers. If you haven’t read a fair number of other books about the Civil War, however, the detail here may be more than you want.

A True Original.

Goes far in answering question how did Marse Robert get away after his pummeling at Gettysburg. Too bad Grant wasn't in command.

great story, poor preformance

being as I have listened to countless books in this period, this is the first to address this exact time period. for that the book is great. this being said, the orator mis pronounces many words, names, and places. I didn't find this too distracting, I just wonder if anyone reviews the performance before they publish. it's not as bad as some and worse than others.
overall, as a fan of this time in our history, I think this is a great addition to anyone's knowledge.

Pronunciation

An historical study of this short period of time is critical. The work demonstrates that Meades army was not sitting on its hands, but wisely attempting to gain an advantage on Less army, which never was an easy thing to do. Please research the pronunciation of key individuals and geographic features.

Mispronunciations Abound

I loved the content of the book, but was frequently distracted by the narrator’s mispronunciation of words that should be common on this topic, like Susquehanna, Rappahannock, and Chapultepec. He also frequently mispronounced General Ewell’s last name (E-Well), General Wofford’s name (woof-ford), and Berdan’s whole name (herum burr-done). He even mispronounced the word “beleaguered” twice (blackerd)! Seriously? Didn’t anyone coach him?!

A Texan writes about Meade

This is a standard dismissal of George Gordon Meade’s generalship that ruins an otherwise fine telling of the movements and challenges of pursuing an army through mountain passes. Like a Monday night quarter back he sees only the possibilities of some grand strategic offensive that he concludes Meade was incapable of navigating. Easy to contend since Lee did get away but so simplistic a mindset and poorly supported by the facts that it’s distracting.
The premise that Meade was ineffective rests first on the fact that he did not bring Lee to battle at Williamsport. He thanks Kent Masterson Brown in his acknowledgments but one wonders if he read his book. The author concludes: “A potential (and it is important to stress that word) opportunity to destroy Lee at Williamsport had been squandered, and the chance to potentially cut off and wreck a portion of his army in the Valley was also missed. An even greater and more realistic chance to beat the Rebels to the Rappahannock or Rapidan was lost as well.”
The author simply ignores recent scholarship by both Kent Masterson Brown (read his description of entrenchments pg. 310-312) and Eric Wittenberg on the pursuit after Gettysburg. Starting with the erroneous and tired premise that Meade “squandered” an opportunity to defeat Lee at Williamsport is a poor place to start the narrative and he keep using this to bolster his argument that Meade was a cautious, General who “took counsel of his fears” and had no strategic vision. I was very disappointed with the author’s intrusive assessment of a general in command of his army for just three days, who then fought and won a bloody victory over the Civil War’s most audacious and aggressive general that even with Grant at the helm was not defeated until eighteen months later. There is very little military appreciation for the comparative ease of escaping in general. One could ask why Grant and Sherman did not pursue the Confederates immediately after Shiloh having been reinforced by Buell or for that matter, why stop pursuing Bragg after Chattanooga.
Let the reader come to our own conclusions based on the facts presented, that is all I’m asking. I respectfully recognize the author’s research and skill of presentation but I submit his assessments were too heavy handed.

Horrible reading of a potentially good book

This is an interesting topic and seems to be a thorough coverage of the events. I say "Seems to be" because, frankly, I was only able to endure about the first 1/2 of the book due to the absolutely horrific reader. He mispronounces so many words, both common words and specific places, that it becomes too distracting to follow the book. Mispronouncing an obscure name such as Monocacy (which is Mon-OC-a-cy, NOT MONO-casey) can be forgiven, But to do so with the names of otherwise notable figures (Ewell pronounced EE-wool) and many common words is just too much. Add to this the narrator's attempt to use other "voices" when reading quotes (and his "British" accent for Arthur Freemantle sounds something like a Monty Phyton routine), and you get the idea of just how awful this is.

Based on a search, this narrator has no other titles from Audible, and in my opinion it should remain this way. If I were Jeffrey Wm Hunt, or Ted Savas, the publisher, I would demand a re-recording. As for me, I am going to have to buy the printed book just to finish the thing and see how it ends!