At the request of Union general Ulysses S. Grant; in 1864 Major General Frederick Steele stripped the Department of Arkansas of twelve thousand men--half its strength--to support an expedition in Louisiana. And while the depleted infantry remained largely in garrison; the 8th Missouri Cavalry and its counterparts were ordered to patrol central Arkansas under horrid conditions and protect the state from guerrilla Rebels. The regiment spent nine long months battling against Confederate general Jo Shelby's efforts to raid the White River Valley behind Union lines while simultaneously battling to secure Arkansas' borders. Join author David Casto as he explores the 8th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry's perilous excursion into enemy territory.
#236010 in Books 2014-09-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.90 x 1.40 x 5.90l; .0 #File Name: 1621572919444 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. VERY interesting; very well researched; very well writtenBy ordinaryjoeSo normally I don't write book reviews; but this book I enjoyed so much that I wrote to the author to thank him; and he suggested I share my opinion with other customers.Sometimes when I read a book; I'm kind of horrified by choices that the author makes. Or I start wondering if I could have written a better book. But with this book; I did not have that experience. It seems to be extremely well researched; I like the choices that the author makes; and the author also keeps himself out of the book - by that I mean he doesn't add lots of silly personal opinions in to clutter everything up; and just lets the story tell itself.Okay; let me give you an example. I liked this book so much that I started reading a biography of Patton by a different author. I'm going along; minding my own business; and the author says that Patton one day saw some men with guns loading a woman into the back of a van. He rushes over to see what's going on - turns out they all knew each other; and it was all good.Kind of embarrassing - reminds me of lots of stupid mistakes I've made in my own life; that I would prefer to forget. What's weird though is that the author - in imitation of the movie? - decides that one case of mistaken identity is grounds to compare Patton to don Quixote. hahahaha. I dunno. To me that's a very weird way of writing about another human being. If the author has never made any dumb mistakes in his life; bravo. He should feel very proud of himself. His mother could bake him a special cake; or we could get him a special group gift to congratulate him. However; if it were me; I would want to see more than one example of someone having poor judgment before I start comparing people to don Quixote. Where I come from; it's considered polite to give people the benefit of the doubt; at least for occasional; small mistakes.Anyway my point is that this book Target Patton is so well written; that when I went back and tried to read other books about Patton; I couldn't help noticing how bad some of them were.And I learned lots of things in this book that I was not taught in school; like about FDR's relationship to Joseph Stalin. So this book "Target Patton" seems to draw on recent research about Soviet activity during WW II; as well as a number of interviews that the author himself conducted. Really love this book. :)1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Good History LessonBy Mark SutterFirst; let me warn you that if you're looking for any definitive proof of how Patton died you won't find it in this book. Like other books before it; Target Patton is loaded with speculation. The author makes a compelling case for why Patton would have been assassinated but too much evidence has been destroyed or is not available to allow one to make the case. The book does; however; provide a pretty good picture of what was going on in WWII; both on the battlefield and in the government here at home. If you aren't already aware of it; Target Patton does a really good job of exposing the communist infiltration into all levels or our government as well as the utter complicity of FDR with the communists. Overall; the book is a good history lesson for those wanting to know more about the period before and just after the war.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Saw a movie first about this incident and was intrigued ...By CustomerSaw a movie first about this incident and was intrigued; but the book went much further into the theory than the movie did...I was convinced it happened the way the book said it did. Very interesting; I had trouble putting the book down to do anything else.
