The Battle of Lewisburg

I like what 35th Star Publishing has been doing lately, in particular their full-length treatments of underexplored yet significant Civil War West Virginia military events. Last year, they released the first book to fully address the 1862 campaign in the Kanawha Valley. Its author, Terry Lowry, has contributed a great number of original (and still unsurpassed) military volumes to the literature of Civil War West Virginia, and The Battle of Charleston and the 1862 Kanawha Valley Campaign impressed me with its depth and expansive range.

Within the past week, 35th Star has released another study of a little-known West Virginia campaign and battle titled The Battle of Lewisburg: May 23, 1862. Readers of the H.E. Howard series of Virginia unit roster-histories and battles will recognize Lewisburg author Richard L. Armstrong as the man behind several volumes. Of them, I've only read his Battle of McDowell book, but it was long ago and I don't recall much about the experience. The link above does offer a little taste of what's inside the Lewisburg book, and it looks quite promising. Hopefully, my copy is the mail already or will be sometime soon. It will definitely get reviewed on the site. I've long hoped that someone would come along and write about this battle. If I recall correctly, years and years ago Eric Wittenberg announced his intention to do a Lewisburg study but nothing came of it.

For those not familiar with the battle, here's a link to a summary article originally published in the journal West Virginia History (Oct 1958), and you can go [here] to sift through a collection of O.R. reports related to the battle. For a really short overview, go here.