The Battle of Tom's Brook, recalled one Confederate soldier, was "the greatest disaster that ever befell our cavalry during the whole war." The fight took place during the last autumn of the Civil War, when the Union General Phil Sheridan vowed to turn the crop-rich Shenandoah Valley into "a desert." Farms and homes were burned, livestock slaughtered, and Southern families suffered.The story of the Tom's Brook cavalry affair centers on two young men who had risen toprominence as soldiers: George A. Custer and Thomas L. Rosser. They had been 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.Their separate paths converged in the Shenandoah Valley in the autumn of 1864, when Custer was ordered to destroy, and Rosser was ordered to stop him. For three days, Rosser's gray troopers pursued and attacked the Federals. On the fourth day, October 9, the tables turned in the open fields above Tom's Brook, where each ambitious friend sought his own advancement at the expense of the other. One capitalized upon every advantage fate threw before him, while the other, sure of his abilities in battle and eager to fight, tried to impose his will on unfavorable circumstances and tempted fate by inviting catastrophe. This long-overlooked cavalry action had a lasting effect on mountedoperations 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 decisions 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.
By her own account, Peggy O'Neale Timberlake was “frivolous, wayward, [and] passionate.” While still married to a naval oflicer away on duty ...
... had married the widowed daughter of a Washington tavern keeper. By her own account, Peggy O'Neale Timberlake was “frivolous, wayward, [and] passionate.
... Bill, Kennedy, Jacqueline, Kennedy, John F., Kidd, Albert and Elizabeth, Kieran Timberlake (architects), Kilpatrick, John, Kirkland, William, Kissinger, ...
... 195–196, 361; abolishing of, 257 Ticonderoga fort, 157, 169 Tilden, Samuel J., 524 Timberlake, Peggy O'Neale, 301 Timbuktu, Mali, Sankore Mosque in, ...
By her own account, Peggy O'Neale Timberlake was “frivolous, wayward, [and] passionate.” While still married to a naval officer away on duty, ...
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Timberlake, S. 2002. 'Ancient prospection for metals and modern prospection for ancient mines: the evidence for Bronze Age mining within the British Isles', ...
hadn't known Timberlake until the two moved in together. Kathy had worked at a series of jobs, including electronics assembler and a dancer in a bar, ...
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As the caretaker of the clubhouse, Timberlake was furnished living quarters on the second floor. Around 8:00 p.m., he descended into the basement for the ...