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Editorial Review Book Description
Gen. U.S. Grant's order to cripple the ability of the Shenandoah Valley to supply the CSA with food and fodder affected the civilian population as did no other act of war, including Sherman's march through Georgia. Packed with the firsthand accounts of victims and perpetrators alike, this book brings history alive. ... Read more Customer Reviews (6) 
Cut him some slack...
The author and I come from the same Mennonite decendant, buried just outside Harrisonburg, Va.I don't know if he is still a practicing Mennonite or not; I am not.But one should take into account the pacifist back ground of the Annabaptists may explain the underlying tone of the narrative.
I grew up with a lot of anecdotes too.Like my great great grand mother protesting over the taking of her hogs by Union troopers to a grizzled veteran of Sheridan's army who replied, "You should be glad we aren't taking you too..."The implication being obvious.The Edinburg Mill my father's home town, still bears scorch marks from the attempt to burn it.I agree that there was a lot more death and violence in the event, than one would be led to believe, but back then secrets were kept and certain things were kept buried.
Valley residents' perspective of Sheridan's devastation
Note:Unfortunately, the author passed away the day before Thanksgiving, 2006 at the age of 58.
This is an unusual perspective and subject for a civil war study.Author John Heatwole extensively recounts the folk stories and family accounts (including his own) of Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah resources.The author largely leaves it to the reader to determine what to accept and reject in the resulting mix of historical fact and tales.Overall, I think he did a reasonable job avoiding bias or partisanship and endeavored to put the burning in context.However, there are a number of places where his word choice gives an incorrect connotation.
For instance, removing consumables and goods of military value is several times referred to as looting.This is odd because the goods taken are listed afterwards and clearly are not loot.While taking silverware, women's/children's clothes, etc. would definitely constitute looting and did happen--particularly to the more ostentatious plantations/farms which suffered direct wrath--looting like this was not the norm as Heatwole's recounting shows.It is also interesting that Heatwole mentions extortion, but inappropriately in several instances.In fact, in reading the accounts presented, few show soldiers demanding payment to spare property.Instead, the most common thread is of property owners offering bribes.(Curiously, some rather sizeable bribes were refused.)Still, a reader should not let minor bias be of much concern, because the narrative is primarily from the residents' point of view, and a fascinating picture emerges.
In "The Burning" there are examples of deceit and treachery by both sides.There are also numerous examples of compassion and sympathy to be found.Many amusing tales emerge of people's ingenuity at preserving their property.One of the things I did not appreciate before is how systematic and organized the Burning was, and that orders were intended to regulate it rather than the unabashed plunder it is too often characterized as.This was not a matter of petty vengeance (for the most part) or inhumanity, but instead an organized effort to strip the Valley of military significance and the ability to support armies or guerrillas in the future.It was successful in that aim.
How was this accomplished?Homes were to be spared, as was the property of widows.These rules were not always obeyed or strictly observed.The biggest exception was the ordered retaliatory burning of homes in the vicinity where the popular Meigs was killed--yet even this turned out to be quite limited.Interestingly, for the whole campaign the county's own tallies, the number of homes burned was only about 1/15th that of the number of barns, and while some were intentional acts of arson, a number were the result of fire unintentionally spreading from nearby structures (as noted in the stories themselves.)Public and private property of value to the CSA war effort was systematically targeted and destroyed in total.This included food, cattle, grain, and forage of all kinds, plus the barns and warehouses in which they were stored.Industry was targeted wholesale, from flour mills, saw mills, cloth makers, coopers, blacksmiths, iron furnaces, to flat boat makers, and carriage makers.This of course created awful hardships and suffering for the Valley residents, but in theory it spared their homes and lives while accomplishing the strategic objective.The CSA lost this important source of sustenance and material.
The author also notes the activities as well as depredations of various Confederate guerrillas and Partisans as well.Al Lincoln, McNeil, Woodson, etc. are mentioned.
The author recounts many stories from those who rarely receive much attention: the many Unionists and conscientious objectors such as Dunkards and Mennonites who sought to avoid CSA service.In fact, Sheridan gave them transport out of the Valley as well as other refugees who could not subsist after the Burning.In some cases there property was spared, but for strategic considerations many Unionist and pacifist barns and mills also fell under the torch.
Excellent and simple maps illustrate the Valley counties and towns, as well as the progress of the destruction and movement of the forces responsible for it.A number of sketches and photographs of citizens, soldiers, and landscape are included.The forces involved in carrying out the order are detailed in an appendix at the end.
I recommend this work as a way to appreciate the importance of the Shenandoah, and to understand the horror that the residents felt at this destruction, as well as understanding the reasons for it.A quote at the end of the work by Confederate cavalryman and Valley resident Capt. John Opie summarizes the situation best with a question, "Which is the worst in war, to burn a barn, or kill a fellow-man?"
A People's History Extraordinaire
About 15 years ago I traveled to Shenandoah County to learn about my ancestors and what had happened to them during the Civil War. No lover of history or ancestor hunter could have had better fortune than I: I found friendly and helpful relatives and I found structures - including a pre-Civil War mill formerly owned by my ancestors - that helped me gain an understanding about who I am.
Ten years after my first sojourn, author John Heatwole published The Burning and I purchased a signed copy at an antique shop in Mt. Jackson. This book is a chronicle of the two weeks in the Fall of 1864 that thousands of Union soldiers carried out their orders to devastate the Shenandoah Valley, to rid it of its freshly harvested bounty, burning crops and killing or driving away livestock. It was a sad task that left people without food and often without shelter from the coming winter, but it was a strategy to win the war by finally breaking the spirit of the Confederacy. Thousands of barns were burned and, occasionally, fine homes. Some enterprising folks managed to hide their most prized livestock in the hills.
Heatwole conducted dozens of interviews to gather the oral history of Valley families to supplement the stories he found in published and unpublished sources and private collections. He has produced a well-organized chronicle that captures the drama and atmosphere of this period. This is a "people's history" extraordinaire that tells the story of the Union army's orders, the leaders involved, and the farming and milling families and townspeople who were terrified and devastated by the fires that filled the Valley with thick black smoke for days.
By the way, the mill my ancestors owned was saved in October 1864 when the owner, learning that the Union burners were on their way, climbed to the top of the mill and hung the United States flag from the roof.
Survey of destruction...
Healtwole presents a county-by-county account of Sheridan's movements in the Valley. The "witness" to the destruction is the use of "facts", legends, interviews, family letters, etc. A flaw is the generalized sameness of each chapter - "these" troops, led by "this" guy did "that" to "those" peoples barn, house, etc. While there is certainly many interesting anecdotes and sidebars without, the format becomes repetitive. Indeed, if you read three or four chapters, you get the full gist. The abundance of maps helps.
Folk History
Heatwole is described as compiler of Shenandoah Valley folk tales and he uses them to try to describe the destruction of the supplies in the Valley by Sheridan's troops in September and October 1864.He is not interested in primary sources other than what he has learned in the Valley and what has been printed during the past 140 years. He makes no attempt to tell the full history of the Vallry's destruction, but rather to see it through remembered folk tales.He does not evaluate these tales, but includes them as he heard them.Among my favorites is the killing of a Union trooper by a woman who smashes a crock of apple butter on his head (surely a likely happening in the Shenandoah Valley apple-rich region) and then who manages to hide the sticky body in tall grass without the rest of the Union troops noticing, and, best of all, the farmer who shoots a Union lieutenant and dumps his body in the burning barn that the officer just lit.It seems the farmer had to get off his porch, go upstairs, grab his rifle, open the window and shoot the lieutenant, while the officer stood by the flaming barn allowing this to happen. Again, no Union troops were nearby to intervene and presumably the fire was so hot that the lieutenant's body was completely reduced to ashes and nobody in his regiment missed him enough to go looking for him.
The two week Burning was actually a lot more violent and deadly to both sides than even Heatwole makes out. Both sides murdered prisoners, but the Burning generally was confined to barns, mills and cribs, not houses. That the people of the Shenandoah Valley suffered is undeniable. So is Lee's surrender six months later. The grandsons of the victims also seem not to have many qualms about dropping fire on Germans and Japanese. The Burning needs a better book than this, one that includes more sources that those from Virginia. Heatwole could have done much better, but, frankly, he has produced a book of only limited usefulness.
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