Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863, by Scott Mingus

New York: Savas Beatie, 2011. Pp. xii, 396. Illus., maps, appends., notes, biblio., index. $18.95 paper. ISBN: 1611210720.

Flames Beyond Gettysburg deals with what might be termed the “forgotten” side of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Accounts of the Gettysburg Campaign focus almost entirely on the great three-day battle in early July, with onlly a little coverage of the days that preceeded it or those that followed.  Yet in the weeks before the battle, there was a very real Rebel threat to Harrisburg, which sparked great concern among Union leaders.   Flames Beyond Gettysburg takes a look at this threat.  Mingus, author of Human Interest Stories of the Civil War and other works, shifts easly back and forth between Union and Confederate operations, and from the concerns and plans, and sometimes panic of senior military and political figures, to the troops in the field.  In this way, he tells of often complex military movements, and many small, often important, albeit now forgotten, battles and skirmishes which helped shape the campaign.  Nor does he ignore the impact of these events on civilians, within the social, political, cultural, and economic environment. 

A valuable read for those interested in Gettysburg in particular, and the history of the Civil War in general.

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