"The months after Gettysburg had hardly been quiet--filled with
skirmishes, cavalry clashes, and plenty of marching. Nonetheless, Union
commander Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade had yet to come to serious blows
with his Confederate counterpart, Gen. Robert E. Lee.
"Lee is undoubtedly bullying you," one of Meade's superiors goaded.
Lee's army--severely bloodied at Gettysburg--did not have quite the
offensive capability it once possessed, yet Lee's aggressive nature
could not be quelled. He looked for the chance to strike out at Meade.
In mid-October, 1863, both men shifted their armies into motion. Each
surprised the other. Quickly, Meade found himself racing northward for
safety along the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, with Lee charging up the
rail line behind him.
Last stop: Bristoe Station.
Authors Robert Orrison and Bill Backus have worked at the Bristoe
Station battlefield, which is now surrounded by one of the
fastest-growing parts of Virginia. In A Want of Vigilance, they trace
the campaign from the armies' camps around Orange and Culpeper northwest
through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the vital
railroad--to Centreville and back--in a back-and-forth game of cat and
mouse: the "goggle-eyed snapping turtle" versus "the old gray fox"
pitted against each other in one of the most overlooked periods of the
war."
