Brigadier General John D. Imboden: Confederate Commander in the Shenandoah.

Brigadier General John D. Imboden: Confederate Commander in the Shenandoah. By Spencer C. Tucker. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, c. 2003. Pp. xiv, 372. $32.00, ISBN 0-8131-2266-X.)

Spencer C. Tucker has written well about the career and record of John D. Imboden, a Confederate brigadier general assigned to the western districts of Virginia for most of the Civil War. This study takes its place alongside an emerging stream of other biographies examining the second tier of commanders in the war, exposing their strengths and weaknesses and exploring their relationships to their superiors.

A politician turned artillery officer, Imboden joined the war in 1861 and participated with distinction at First Manassas. Soon thereafter, he requested a transfer back to his native Shenandoah Valley and raised a command of partisan rangers. Although Imboden was involved with Confederate strikes into the North in 1862 and 1863, the real story of his career and this book is one of the under-war--of guerrilla actions and moonlit marches. Tucker is at his best in the central sections of the book describing bushwackers and "Swamp Dragoons" and raids on railroad bridges and oil fields, where Imboden's principal missions were typically expeditions to distract the enemy and gather supplies. Moreover, the simple drudgery of duty comes across in the narrative; periods of idleness, the constant problem of deserters, outbreaks of illness, issues of discipline, and the continual struggle with civilian authority all collide to create a compelling portrait.

Imboden had the good fortune of living a long life and recording his memories but had the misfortune of getting a lot of those memories wrong. As a result, Tucker engages the reader in an ongoing historiographical discussion throughout the biography, pitting Imboden's accounts of actions and conversations against his contemporaries' versions and those of historians. Tucker critically assesses each dispute with a careful eye and an objective viewpoint.

A more delicate issue in this biography is the difficulty of balancing the Civil War narrative with the focus on Imboden. For example, when Imboden was called to support Lee's invasion of Maryland in 1862 and again to Gettysburg the following summer, he was miles from the action. Tucker feels compelled to offer succinct if generic summaries of these major actions, but Imboden is often lost as a result.

While Tucker has reconstructed Imboden's career and record effectively, Imboden the man remains largely anonymous. The reader is left to struggle with the personal issues of motivation, dedication, and relationships to family and friends. Tucker suggests ego, determination, and concern for his men as three of Imboden's defining characteristics, but these are more introduced than integrated into the story. Analyses of his leadership and the loyalty of his men could have been taken further as well.

The biography has two particularly strong chapters, on the prewar situation in western Virginia and on Imboden's postwar experiences as a proponent of economic development and an iron and coal expert. An excellent set of maps accompanies the text.

MARK F. MILLER

Roanoke College