Booknotes: Determined to Stand and Fight

New Arrival:
• Determined to Stand and Fight: The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864
by Ryan T. Quint (Savas Beatie, 2017).

This new volume from the Emerging Civil War series covers the Monocacy battle itself while also summarizing events in Virginia and Maryland that preceded it. At Monocacy, "Union and Confederate soldiers attacked and counter-attacked, filling the fields just south of Frederick, Maryland, with the dead and wounded. By the end of the day, Wallace’s men fell into retreat, but they had done their job: they had slowed Jubal Early. The fighting at Monocacy soon became known as the “Battle that Saved Washington.”" Like other books in the series, Quint's book is filled with photographs, maps (seven in this particular volume), a driving tour, and orders of battle. Footnotes for some of the titles (I don't see this one on the list at this time) will be made available online at the ECW website.

The frequently interesting appendix section has six entries. They include brief essays on the civilian experience of the battle, the ransoming of the city of Frederick, medical care at the battle, separate accounts of the Johnson-Gilmor and McCausland raids (the latter including the burning of Chambersburg), and a discussion of Lew Wallace's career in letters.

In terms of upcoming series titles, I see mention of Sumter, Gettysburg Day 2, Franklin, Shiloh, and Davis's Atlanta Part 2 on the near and distant horizons.