Savas Beatie recently announced the release of a new book by award-winning author William J. Miller, Decision at Tom’s Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight, which tells the dramatic story of what one Confederate soldier called “the greatest disaster that ever befell our cavalry during the whole war.”
The story of Tom’s Brook centers on two young men who had risen to prominence as soldiers: George A. Custer and Thomas L. Rosser. They had been fast friends since their teenage days at West Point, but the war sent them down separate paths—Custer to the Union army and Rosser to the Confederacy. Each was a born warrior who took obvious joy in the exhilaration of battle. Each possessed almost all of the traits of the ideal cavalryman—courage, intelligence, physical strength, inner fire. Only their judgment was questionable.
When their two paths converged in the Shenandoah Valley in the summer of 1864, one capitalized on every advantage fate threw before him, while the other attempted to impose his will on unfavorable circumstances and tempted fate by inviting catastrophe. This long-overlooked cavalry action had a lasting effect on mounted operations and influenced the balance of the campaign in the Valley.
Based upon extensive research in primary documents and gracefully written, award-winning author William J. Miller’s Decision at Tom’s Brook presents significant new material on Thomas Rosser, and argues that his character was his destiny. Rosser’s decision-making that day changed his life and the lives of hundreds of other men. Miller’s new study is Civil War history and high personal drama at its finest.
“Miller is one of the finest historians at work, distinguished both for his thoughtfulness and his sprightly prose. In some important ways Tom’s Brook was a landmark event in 1864 cavalry operations. Its story, with its many tentacles of recrimination and controversy, will never receive a more measured and able treatment than this,” said Robert E. L. Krick, author of Staff Officers in Gray: A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia.
“The book is about triumph but also about failure and responsibility,” explained Miller. “The characters in this story of a cavalry battle more than 150 years ago have a lot to teach about knowing our own limits and accepting obligations to those who rely on us. It changed the way I think about leadership.”
About the Author: William J. Miller is a writer, teacher, and preservationist. A former editor of Civil War Magazine, his books include Mapping for Stonewall (recipient of the Fletcher Pratt Award for best work of Civil War nonfiction of the year), and the top selling Great Maps of the Civil War. Decision at Tom’s Brook is his ninth book of Civil War history.
About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie LLC is a leading military and general history publishing company. Read more about Decision at Tom’s Brook, including excerpts from the book: http://tinyurl.com/zxsqzpg.
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