Review - "The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864" by Eric Wittenberg

[The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864 by Eric J. Wittenberg (Savas Beatie, 2025). Hardcover, 5 maps, photos, illustrations, appendix section, footnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:ix,127/173. ISBN:978-1-61121-619-6. $29.95]

After the Dix-Hill exchange cartel dissolved amid mutual recriminations and irresolvable differences, the prisoner of war camps of both sides, which were unprepared for that eventuality, rapidly filled to overcrowding. Some of the worst conditions on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line were found at Point Lookout, Maryland, which held captive roughly 15,000 Confederates by the summer of 1864. If there was a chance that those prisoners could somehow be freed and reintroduced into the depleted ranks of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, any risks involved in the process would be well worth it. Timed to coincide with, and branch off from, Confederate general Jubal Early's raid on Washington by way of the lower Shenandoah Valley, just such a daring scheme was put into play by Confederate authorities. Its history is recounted in Eric Wittenberg's The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864.

With Point Lookout's military prison and hospital complex separated from Confederate lines by a wide body of water, the camp was to be liberated through the tandem efforts of cavalry raiders moving down the peninsula from above and an amphibious force landing directly at the point from below. Unfortunately for its Confederate planners, all-important operational secrecy was lost right off the bat. With public discussion of the naval raid (which would have been led by one of the Confederate Navy's most competent and highly respected officers, John Taylor Wood) overheard on city streets, the waterborne component was abruptly cancelled. Though doing so basically wrecked the entire plan, cancellation was necessary given U.S. naval supremacy in the Chesapeake and all along the coastal approaches to the bay.

The ground component of the operation, however, went ahead as planned. On July 9, Confederate Brigadier General, and Marylander himself, Bradley Johnson left the main body of Early's army at Frederick and initiated his part of the Point Lookout operation. Ranging in a wide arc across central Maryland and zig-zagging down toward Washington (and, along the way, burning the country home of Maryland Governor Augustus Bradford in retaliation for Union general David Hunter's firing of Virginia Governor John Letcher's Lexington house), Johnson slipped past Washington to the northeast and continued on toward his goal. The expedition was operating under a very tight timetable (made even more unyielding by a two-day delay in receipt of orders for its launch), however, and Johnson was forced to turn back one-hundred miles from the POW camp. How much closer he might have gotten had all extraneous activities been ruthlessly excised is difficult to assess.

On the other hand, while Johnson was ordered back well before reaching his destination, Major Harry Gilmor's side raid (July 10-14), aimed toward threatening Baltimore, disrupting its rail and telegraph communications with the North, and destroying key bridges, achieved quite a bit for its size (only 150 troopers were assigned to it). Fanning out north of Baltimore, Gilmor applied the torch to what infrastructure he could and caused the enemy general consternation. A particularly interesting episode involved his capture of William B. Franklin, one of the Union Army's highest ranking generals. The book's account of that event, along with the hobbled officer's escape and trek to restored freedom, is an engrossing tale told well. While the damage inflicted by Gilmor's men was restored quickly, the raid went about as well as could be expected, and the author offers high praise for what was accomplished by so few and at comparative negligible loss.

Civil War mounted operations and military biography are Wittenberg's forte, and this slim volume exhibits all the best characteristics of the author's previous works. The background and wider context of the raid are fully explained, and the operations themselves revealed to the reader in a blow-by-blow fashion that makes for a reading experience that is both engaging and easy to follow. The steadily mounting tension and fatigue that went hand in hand with long-range cavalry raiding ooze out of every paragraph, as do the many possible dangers that lurked around every crossroads and fence corner. The volume's fine collection of maps further enhance reader knowledge and understanding of the paths of Johnson and Gilmor's raiders.

The author's lucid descriptive account of the Johnson-Gilmor raid is accompanied by his equally typical clear-eyed analysis and sound conclusions. In line with the general consensus (Jack Shairer's 2008 book Lee’s Bold Plan for Point Lookout is likely the only study to insist that the plan should have succeeded), it is Wittenberg's studied viewpoint that the original plan clearly constituted an act of extreme desperation. As Wittenberg explains, the combined land and seaborne operation was already highly unlikely to accomplish its designed goal of freeing the prisoners en masse. Dropping the naval component then rendered the meeting of that goal nearly impossible, with the slashed timetable finally excluding even reaching Point Lookout from the realm of possibility. While the ultimate objective may have been beyond reach from the start, as Wittenberg maintains, the mounted raid as it unfolded was "bold and well-executed" (pg. 126), a credit to the leadership abilities of both Johnson and Gilmor.

Material found in the appendix section includes an order of battle, insights into equine care during raiding operations, brief discussions of Point Lookout POW burials and the state of the site today, and a new look into the "strange case" of Maryland Agricultural College president Henry Onderdonk's actions during the raiders' visit to his campus. Another appendix examines the Point Lookout operation in the context of two other long-range raids aimed toward freeing prisoners, the piece focusing in particular on shared reasons as to why they failed.

With the publication of Eric Wittenberg's The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864, the Savas Beatie Battles & Leaders series now sits at four volumes. Those campaigns, battles, and raids that can be fully addressed through mid-size publications seem to be primary targets for the series, and this volume fits very well within that range. With the quality already displayed, future titles should be regarded with eager anticipation.

************************** Finally, on a more personal note, I am sure I join everyone in wishing Eric the best on his long road to recovery from a recent series of serious health setbacks. According to what I've read, it's been a bumpy road filled with ups and downs, and here's to a future filled with much more of the former and much less of the latter.