Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A., director of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University, has released a new book that takes an in-depth look at one of the Shenandoah Valley’s lesser known Civil War battles.
“The Blood-Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah: The 1864 Valley Campaign’s Battle of Cool Spring” examines what ultimately became the war’s largest and bloodiest engagement in Clarke County, Virginia. Though the Battle of Cool Spring – fought on July 17-18, 1864 – frequently is treated as a footnote to Gen. Jubal A. Early’s raid on Washington, D.C., and Union Gen. Horatio Wright’s subsequent pursuit of the Confederates as they withdrew to the Shenandoah Valley, Noyalas explores how the fight proved critical to the Union capital’s immediate safety.
In the book, Noyalas analyzes the decisions of leaders on both sides during the Battle of Cool Spring and explores the environment’s impact on the battle. But most importantly, he investigates how the battle became a transformative moment for the soldiers involved – and their families – in the immediate aftermath and for decades after.
Noyalas spent years performing archival research for the book and delved into the backgrounds of all Union and Confederate soldiers who perished during the battle with the aid of some of his students at Shenandoah. He also has intimate knowledge of the battlefield – Shenandoah University acquired the 195 acres of land along the Shenandoah River just east of Berryville, Virginia, from the Civil War Trust in 2012, transforming a former golf course into a living, outdoor classroom now known as the Shenandoah River Campus at Cool Spring Battlefield.
Historian Brian Matthew Jordan, a 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer in History, noted of Noyalas’ study in the book’s foreword: “This book … is an act of historical recovery – skillfully narrating the details of a battle that many histories have misplaced. But it is substantially more, because historian Jonathan Noyalas … has rendered exquisitely legible the gap that yawns between messy human experiences and tidy historical narratives… With this … volume, Noyalas supplies both a template for future writers and a keen reminder that Civil War battles are rich laboratories in which to observe the human experience in all its complexity.”
The release of “The Blood-Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah,” published by Savas Beatie, coincides with the 160th anniversary of the battle.
It is my hope that this book will not only inform readers about what happened at the Battle of Cool Spring, but offer broader insight into how what occurred on a Civil War battlefield had consequences that extended far beyond the battlefield. While Cool Spring is largely overlooked because the battle did not result in any significant strategic gains or political outcomes, the battle meant a great deal to those who fought along the Shenandoah River’s banks in mid-July 1864 and to the family members whose loved ones perished at the battle. For the soldier who was wounded, for the wife transformed into a widow, or the child made fatherless, the Battle of Cool Spring proved the war’s most significant moment. The experiences of soldiers and their families and how they coped with the battle’s aftermath, what is really at this book’s core, offer powerful reminders of the multifarious and tragic consequences of the battlefield – lessons that transcend time and place.”
Jonathan Noyalas, director of the McCormick Civil War Institute
“The Blood-Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah” is available for purchase directly from the publisher at savasbeatie.com, or from online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. All proceeds from the book will support the interpretive and educational programs of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Cool Spring.
