Scott L. Mingus Sr. and Eric J. Wittenberg, the authors of more than
forty Civil War books, have once again teamed up to present a history of
the opening moves of the Gettysburg Campaign in the two-volume study
"If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania" The Army of Northern Virginia and
the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg. This compelling study is
one of the first to integrate the military, media, political, social,
economic, and civilian perspectives with rank-and-file accounts from the
soldiers of both armies as they inexorably march toward their destiny at
Gettysburg. This first installment covers June 3-21, 1863, while the
second, spanning June 22-30, completes the march and carries the armies
to the eve of the fighting.
Gen. Robert E. Lee began moving part of his Army of Northern Virginia
from the Old Dominion toward Pennsylvania on June 3, 1863. Lee believed
his army needed to win a major victory on Northern soil if the South was
to have a chance at winning the war. Transferring the fighting out of
war-torn Virginia would allow the state time to heal while he supplied
his army from untapped farms and stores in Maryland and the Keystone
State. Lee had also convinced Pres. Jefferson Davis that his offensive
would interfere with the Union effort to take Vicksburg in Mississippi.
The bold movement would trigger extensive cavalry fighting and a major
battle at Winchester before culminating in the bloody three-day battle
at Gettysburg.
As the Virginia army moved north, the Army of the Potomac responded by
protecting the vital roads to Washington, D.C., in case Lee turned to
threaten the capital. Opposing presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson
Davis, meanwhile, kept a close watch on the latest and often conflicting
military intelligence gathered in the field. Throughout northern
Virginia, central Maryland, and south-central Pennsylvania, meanwhile,
civilians and soldiers alike struggled with the reality of a mobile
campaign and the massive logistical needs of the armies. Thousands left
written accounts of the passage of the long martial columns.
Mingus and Wittenberg mined hundreds of primary accounts, newspapers,
and other sources to produce this powerful and gripping account. As
readers will quickly learn, much of it is glossed over in other studies
of the campaign, which cannot be fully understood without a firm
appreciation of what the armies (and civilians) did on their way to the
small crossroads town in Pennsylvania.
