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Ride Around Missouri: Shelby’s Great Raid 1863

 Sean McLachlan; Osprey Publishing

A childhood friend of John Hunt Morgan’s, Joseph O. Shelby gained a reputation in Missouri as a daring Confederate raider similar to Morgan. Shelby’s most audacious foray occurred in July 1863, when he led 600 men and some artillery into the nominally Union state, hoping to recruit troops from Missouri’s proRebel populace. Shelby scored a propaganda coup when he captured the capital at Jefferson City, while Union Maj. Gen. John Schofield was transferring soldiers to reinforce Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans against General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Ride Around Missouri gives a day-by-day account of a campaign that has received relatively short shrift in history books. The fact that “Jo” Shelby’s “Iron Brigade” rode 1,500 miles through Union-controlled territory in 41 days and extricated itself from the cordon of enemy units closing around it had much to do with Union Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, who, having faced the likes of J.E.B. Stuart, declared Shelby the greatest Confederate cavalry officer of them all.

Author Sean McLachlan’s achievement is to weigh the raid on its own merits. Civil War buffs fixated on the “big leagues” in the East will find the book a revelation, while those in and around Missouri might get some fresh insights into a local legend.

 

Originally published in the October 2012 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.