Why read At the Forefront of Lee's Invasion?

Book cover of At the Forefront of Lee's Invasion: Retribution, Plunder, and Clashing Cultures on Richard S. Ewell's Road to Gettysburg

Book description

After clearing Virginia's Shenandoah Valley of Federal troops, Gen. Robert E. Lee's bold invasion into the North reached the Maryland shore of the Potomac River on June 15, 1863. A week later, the Confederate infantry crossed into lower Pennsylvania, where they had their first sustained interactions with the civilian population…

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Why read it?

1 author picked At the Forefront of Lee's Invasion as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Cooper H. Wingert

Author

Confederate soldiers spent much of their brief time in the Keystone State antagonizing Pennsylvania civilians.

I find Wynstra’s book particularly powerful because he shows how senior Confederate generals struggled to rein in their enlisted men’s overwhelming desire for revenge. Furious over what they perceived as Northern abuses on the Southern homefront, rank-and-file Confederates wanted Northern civilians to feel the brunt of the war.

As Wynstra also shows, African American civilians fared far worse than their white counterparts. Confederate soldiers, furious over years of Underground Railroad activity, seized free Blacks and carried them back south into enslavement.

From Cooper's list on the Gettysburg Campaign.