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Phantoms of the South Fork : Captain McNeill and his Rangers

Title: Phantoms of the South Fork : Captain McNeill and his Rangers / Steve French.
Author: French, Steve
Publication: Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, [2017]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 18-9211	Schwarzman Building - Milstein Division Room 121

Details

Additional Authors

Kent State University. Press, publisher.

Description

xvi, 294 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm.

Summary

At 3 A.M. on February 21, 1865, a band of 65 Confederate horsemen slowly made its way down Greene Street in Cumberland, Maryland. Thinking the riders were disguised Union scouts, the few Union soldiers out that bitterly cold morning paid little attention to them. In the meantime, over 3,500 Yankee soldiers peacefully slept. Within thirty minutes McNeill's Rangers had kidnapped Union generals George Crook and Benjamin Kelley from their hotels and spirited them out of town. Despite a determined effort by Union pursuers to intercept the kidnappers, the Rangers reached safety deep in the South Fork River Valley, over fifty miles away. Not long afterward, the generals were shipped to Richmond's Libby Prison. Southern general John B. Gordon later called the mission "one of the most thrilling incidents of the war." In September 1862, John Hanson McNeill recruited a company of troopers for Col. John D. Imboden's 1st Virginia Partisan Rangers. In early 1863, Imboden took most of his men into the regular army, but McNeill and his son Jesse offered their men an opportunity to continue in independent service; seventeen soldiers joined them. In the coming months, other young hotspurs enlisted in McNeill's Rangers. Operating mostly in the Potomac Highlands of what is now eastern West Virginia, the rangers bedeviled the Union troops guarding the B&O Railroad line. Favoring American Indian battle tactics, they ambushed patrols, attacked wagon trains, and heavily damaged railroad property and rolling stock. Phantoms of the South Fork is the exciting result of Steve French's carefully researched study of primary source material, including diaries, memoirs, letters, and period newspaper articles. Additionally, French traveled throughout West Virginia, western Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and the Shenandoah Valley following the trail of Captain McNeill and his "Phantoms of the South Fork."

Series Statement

Civil War soldiers and strategies

Uniform Title

Civil War soldiers and strategies.

Subjects

Genre/Form

Biographies.
Biography.
History.
Military history.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Prologue: Partisan Rangers -- The Missouri State Guard -- 1st Virginia Partisan Rangers -- Early exploits -- Capture of a hay train -- The Jones-Imboden Raid -- The Gettysburg Campaign -- Fight in a graveyard -- The Charlestown Raid and a wagon train fight -- Trouble with Rosser -- Bloomington and Piedmont -- The Timber Ridge Fight -- Johnson's Run and Springfield -- To the gates of Washington -- Helping McCausland -- Meems Bottom -- Kelley's Tigers -- Old Maid's Lane -- Punishing the Swamp Dragons -- Capture of a cavalier -- The kidnapping of the generals -- The getaway -- The Baker Place Fight and a train robbery -- End of the line -- Epilogue: after the war.

Call Number

JFE 18-9211

ISBN

9781606353097
1606353098

LCCN

2017016117
40027779500

OCLC

969829957

Author

French, Steve, author.

Title

Phantoms of the South Fork : Captain McNeill and his Rangers / Steve French.

Publisher

Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, [2017]

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Civil War soldiers and strategies

Civil War soldiers and strategies.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Added Author

Kent State University. Press, publisher.

Other Form:

Online version: French, Steve. Phantoms of the South Fork. Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, 2017 9781631012662 (DLC) 2017025154

Other Standard Identifier

40027779500

Research Call Number

JFE 18-9211

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