Synopses & Reviews
In the Valley of the Shadow, they wrote their names in blood.From a daring Confederate raid that nearly seized Washington, D.C., to a stunning reversal on the bloody fields of Cedar Creek, the summer and autumn of 1864 witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of our Civil War—in mighty battles now all but forgotten.The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginias Shenandoah Valley, breadbasket of the Confederacy and the Souths key invasion route into the North, pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: runty, rough-hewn Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart, stubborn, raw-mouthed and deadly; the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon, a charismatic Georgian who lived one of the eras greatest love stories.From hungry, hard-bitten Rebel privates to a pair of Union officers destined to become presidents, from a neglected hero who saved our nations capital and went on to write one of his centurys greatest novels, to doomed Confederate leaders of incomparable valor, Ralph Peters brings to life yesteryears giants and their breathtaking battles with the same authenticity, skill and insight he offered readers in his prize-winning Civil War bestsellers, Cain at Gettysburg and Hell or Richmond.Sharp as a bayonet and piercing as a bullet, Valley of the Shadow is a great novel of our grandest, most-tragic war.
Review
"One of the great Civil War novels of our time...superbly researched and brought to life...[be] prepared to risk not being able to put it down."
—Booklist, starred review
"[A] landmark of historical fiction...the finest Civil War novelist writing today."
—The New York Journal of Books
"[Peters] writes with a fine balance of historical accuracy and drama" —Kirkus Reviews
"This is historical fiction with a capital ‘H to the point of being dramatized history in the grandest style…. You feel what they feel. You bleed with them—and you find yourself alternately cheering for both sides in this epic…. Highly recommended."—Historical Novel Society on Hell or Richmond
"Firmly grounded in the historical record, Hell or Richmond recounts the horrific bloodbaths of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor with the skill of an accomplished novelist. Peters narrative unfolds with gripping you-are-there urgency. This is enthralling historical fiction of the highest order."—Gordon C. Rhea, author of The Battle of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor
Synopsis
Winner of the 2015 Boyd Award for Literary Excellence in Military Fiction
In the Valley of the Shadow, they wrote their names in blood.
From a daring Confederate raid that nearly seized Washington, D.C., to a stunning reversal on the bloody fields of Cedar Creek, the summer and autumn of 1864 witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of our Civil War in mighty battles now all but forgotten.
The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, breadbasket of the Confederacy and the South's key invasion route into the North, pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: runty, rough-hewn Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart, stubborn, raw-mouthed and deadly; the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon, a charismatic Georgian who lived one of the era's greatest love stories.
From hungry, hard-bitten Rebel privates to a pair of Union officers destined to become presidents, from a neglected hero who saved our nation's capital and went on to write one of his century's greatest novels, to doomed Confederate leaders of incomparable valor, Ralph Peters brings to life yesteryear's giants and their breathtaking battles with the same authenticity, skill and insight he offered readers in his prize-winning Civil War bestsellers, Cain at Gettysburg and Hell or Richmond.
Sharp as a bayonet and piercing as a bullet, Valley of the Shadow is a great novel of our grandest, most-tragic war.
"
About the Author
RALPH PETERS, New York Times bestselling author of Cain at Gettysburg and Hell or Richmond, is a retired U.S. Army officer; a strategist and veteran of the intelligence world; a journalist who appears frequently in broadcast media; and a lifelong traveler with experience in over seventy countries on six continents. Combining years of walking Civil War fields and painstaking research with insight gleaned from his own military career, Ralph Peters tells great American tales in a masterful style.