A Narrative of the Campaign in the Valley of Shenandoah, in 1861.

PATTERSON, Robert.

Item Number: 132927

Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., Printers, 1865.

First edition of American Civil War Major General Robert Patterson’s account of the Campaign in the Valley of Shenandoah. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. In very good condition.

Major General Robert Patterson is chiefly remembered for inflicting an early defeat on Stonewall Jackson, but crucially failing to stop Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston from joining forces with P. G. T. Beauregard at the First Battle of Bull Run. He was appointed major general of Pennsylvania volunteers and commanded the Department of Pennsylvania and the Army of the Shenandoah. In 1861, Winfield Scott, now General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, gave Patterson vague orders to retake Harpers Ferry. Patterson failed to immediately act on these orders, was outmaneuvered after the Battle of Hoke's Run, and a Confederate army at Winchester, Virginia, under Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, was able to march without interference to reinforce the Confederates under P.G.T. Beauregard at the First Battle of Bull Run. Johnston did, however, declare that Patterson’s army had largely deterred him from pursuing the shattered and disorganized Union troops as they retreated back to Washington after the battle. Patterson, widely criticized for his failure to contain the enemy forces, was mustered out of the Army in late July 1861.