W. Va. Soldiers Cited in New Book Highlighted by Trade Group
Independent Publisher, a twenty-seven-year-old trade organization, just selected Angle Valley Press’ newly released Civil War book The Confederate Alamo as one of their August 2010 Online Magazine’s Highlighted Titles. The group has an extensive website that promotes the work of independent publishers and writers.
The Confederate Alamo was selected out of hundreds of submissions due to its attractive dust jacket, interior design and unique story. This narrative history researched and written by John J. Fox reveals the drama of the little known Battle of Fort Gregg, which closed out the Petersburg campaign in April 1865. Soldiers from four West Virginia Union regiments helped storm the fort. Three soldiers from the 12thWest Virginia in Colonel William B. Curtis’ brigade received the Medal of Honor for their heroism in saving their unit flag during the bloody melee.
On April 2, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant’s men had tightened their noose around the vital town of Petersburg, Virginia. Federal soldiers pierced the thin lines of General Robert E. Lee’s beleaguered Army of Northern Virginia. Trapped on three sides with a river at their back, Lee’s men had never faced such dire circumstances. To allow time to craft an escape, Lee called on a small motley group of Southerners to make a suicidal last stand at Fort Gregg. As the long battle lines of Union troops approached Petersburg, only 334 Confederates stood in their way. For the next two hours, some 4,400 blue-clad soldiers slammed against the walls of Fort Gregg. The fort’s defenders eventually ran out of time, ammunition and men but they enabled Lee’s army to escape.
Fox will make a presentation on this brutal battle as a sponsored author for the 10th Annual West Virginia Book Festival on October 16 at Charleston. During his research he discovered numerous veterans’ letters, diaries and newspaper articles which showed that many of them considered Fort Gregg the nastiest fight of their war experience. Some of these soldiers could not shake the ugly memories of that day, yet when they passed away, this battle mysteriously faded with them.The Confederate Alamo is the first book ever written about this strategic battle that changed the war’s end in Virginia.
John J. Fox was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia and he later received a U. S. History degree from Washington & Lee University. He is the author or editor of several books and articles about the Civil War. His first book, Red Clay to Richmond, won two book awards. He now lives in Winchester, Virginia.
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