Bull Runnings: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Bob O’Neill: My wife and I live in King George, VA. I am a retired police officer, and law enforcement instructor. Virginia Country’s Civil War published my first article in 1984. I have also published articles in Blue & Gray, Gettysburg Magazine, America’s Civil War, and the Little Big Horn Associates, Research Review. In addition to the 1993 H. E. Howard edition of The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, I published Chasing Jeb Stuart and John Mosby, The Union Cavalry in Northern Virginia from Second Manassas to Gettysburg in 2012. The latter study follows Maj. Gen. Julius Stahel’s Union cavalry, attached to the Defenses of Washington, and examines John Mosby’s first six months as a partisan commander from the viewpoint of Stahel’s troopers, using previously unpublished contemporary documents.
Dave Roth, owner, and editor of Blue & Gray, and I became good friends while working together on several Civil War articles. He had long wanted to publish an issue on the Little Big Horn, and in the early 2000’s we made two trips to the battlefield and several other nearby battlefields. Those trips and numerous related discussions led to my article in a later issue on the 1876 fights at Powder River and Rosebud. My work with Dave also resulted in my guiding two Custer related tours for Bruce Venter and America’s History, LLC.
Lastly, I publish a cavalry related blog, (Small But Important Riots), and several appendices not published in the new edition may be found on that site.
BR: What got you interested in history in general, and the Civil War in particular? Who/what were your early influences?
B’ON: Beyond grade-school classes, I learned to read and to enjoy reading by reading the books in my parent’s library. My dad, a naval officer in WW2 and Korea, had an extensive military library, including naval studies, Lincoln biographies, and Civil War histories. I began reading during the Civil War Centennial and studies such as Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy sparked my interest, as well as heavily illustrated books from American Heritage and similar publications. An early family trip to Gettysburg when I was nine or ten also left an indelible impression that continues to this day.
BR: Why Civil War cavalry, in particular?
BO’N: A couple of reasons: At Gettysburg, my parents hired a Licensed Battlefield Guide for the day, and while I do not remember much of the visit, I have never forgotten our first stop at the John Buford Memorial. I do not recall the guide’s description of the stand made by Buford’s cavalry, but the regimental markers and the Buford statue provided an early spark. I had also received by then a Landmark Series account of George Custer and his fight at the Little Big Horn. I loved the book, and my parents soon bought me more accurate studies of Custer and his demise. My interest in Buford and Custer has never waned. Finally, I have to credit Hollywood depictions of the cavalry and cavalry uniforms. Inaccurate though they often are, the bold colors caught my eye and sparked my interest in both the cavalry and the American West.
BR: You published The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville with H. E. Howard 30 years ago. What has happened in the interim?
BO’N: A lot. The book was very well received and sold very well but has been long out of print. Used copies commanded very high prices and remained out of reach for most folks who may have wanted to purchase a copy. The towns of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, the battlefields, and other historic landmarks throughout the Loudoun Valley faced intense pressure from developers in 1993 when Harold Howard published the book. The book brought attention to the history of the Loudoun Valley at an opportune time, just as citizens were organizing preservation efforts to save historic sites, including the battlefields. The efforts of many dedicated residents have resulted in hundreds of acres of land protected by preservation easements, several battlefield sites are now under the protection of the Northern Virginia Park Authority, roads retain their historic integrity and structures once on the verge of collapse have been saved. The battlefields have been mapped, with core and study areas defined, while opportunities to view and understand the battlefields, most of which remain in private hands, have been improved by construction of paved roadside pull-offs, and placement of Civil War Trails interpretive markers.
The first edition opened many doors, and I have met many residents of the area who have shared their time and knowledge and who remain friends.
BR: So, what have you turned up since the publication of the first version in 1993?
BO’N: No author had attempted a book-length study of the fighting in the Loudoun Valley prior to my effort. In his 1965 book Here Come the Rebels!, Wilbur Nye dedicated two chapters to the cavalry actions in the Loudoun Valley. Likewise, Ed Longacre discussed the events around Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville in two chapters of his 1986 book, The Cavalry at Gettysburg. All of the battlefields remained largely inaccessible in private hands, and only one monument and a couple highway markers marked the fields. Interpretation of the fighting remained in its infancy. Likewise, my own abilities, or lack thereof, as a researcher, as well as a deadline and format imposed by the publisher hampered by work. Publication and positive reviews, however, opened many doors for me, and the late John Divine, who had guided me over the fields, as he had guided Wilbur Nye, introduced me to many historians who have continued to offer assistance. Most importantly, John introduced me to Mike Musick, then the dean of Civil War archivists at the National Archives. I had made a couple brief forays into the archives for the first edition, but a combination of factors limited my work there. Mike, as the late Horace Mewborn used to say, broke the code for us at the archives. With Mike’s patient guidance, I grew comfortable there and learned to accept the time one needs to put in, in order to realize the real rewards the archives offers. Those rewards, as I will discuss below, convinced me that I, as well as all who came before me and after me, had erred in our interpretation of the events. The importance of one of those errors convinced me to re-write the book.
BR: Can you describe how long it took to write the book, what the stumbling blocks were, what you discovered along the way that surprised you or went against the grain, what firmed up what you already knew? When did you know you were “done”?
BO’N: The author of one online review site has declined to review Small but Important Riots, because he sees the book as a revised edition of my previous work, and he maintains a policy of not reviewing revised editions. And I cannot argue with him too strongly, as most revised editions contain very little new material. However, this edition is completely new from the first page to the last page. I spent nine years looking at every aspect of the study, taking advantage of improved access to the battlefields, my familiarity with the National Archives, the advent of online resources and a wealth of material gathered over the preceding thirty years, as well as the wise counsel of many knowledgeable friends. Not wishing to give everything away, I will offer, by way of example, the change that convinced to redo the book.
Every preceding study, to include my own, has been based around one over-riding theme, that Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, commander of the Union Cavalry Corps, had disobeyed his orders from army commander, Joseph Hooker, to take his cavalry and find Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, regardless of the cost. The editors of the Official Records defined that premise, by the communications they chose to include in Volume 27. The editors included thirteen messages between Hooker and his superiors, including President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Gen. Henry Halleck from the night of June 16-17, 1863, in which they emphatically told Hooker to send his cavalry to find the enemy and Hooker appears to agree with them. But thirty years of experience has convinced me that the editors, faced with a monumental task, left out more information than they included.
Thirty years ago, as a novice researcher, I drank all the anti-Pleasonton Kool-Aid and ignored evidence to the contrary, including his testimony before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. But I went away from the process convinced that I and others painted Pleasonton with a very broad brush, being too lazy to parse the truth from the fiction. Over time, I found the evidence that Pleasonton had told the truth: Hooker had told his superiors one thing and told Pleasonton another. Hooker’s orders were emphatic, Pleasonton was not to send his corps in search of Lee. Rather, Hooker granted him permission to send only one regiment to do so. But Pleasonton disobeyed his orders. He disobeyed that he might find Lee and in doing so he precipitated the fighting.
I have also corrected many lesser, though still embarrassing, errors of fact or interpretation. Some errors had lingered the entire time. That is, I knew there was a problem but I did not have a solution. Others had gone unrecognized until I began the writing process.
Covid told me I was done, and, as odd as it may sound, I am grateful for the events that forced me to move on.
BR: Can you describe your research and writing process? What online and brick and mortar sources did you rely on most?
BO’N: I enjoy researching much more than writing and never considered myself much of a writer. I often described my style as police report writing 101. Luckily, a friend with a deep well of patience convinced me during the last nine years to change my style and I believe, with his help, Small But Important Riots is, by far, the best narrative I have produced. I spent nine years working on the book, re-examining every facet of the events covered.
One challenge in writing of these events is that they fall between the larger battles at Brandy Station and Gettysburg. Many soldiers did not have time to write accounts of the Loudoun Valley fighting before being engulfed by events in Pennsylvania. Thirty years ago, I chased down letters and diaries as primary sources of information. As often as not the efforts proved unrewarding, but I never ceased to gather such accounts, and several proved vital in correcting errors. Rather than focusing my efforts again on letters and diaries, I determined to focus on documents in the National Archives, including pension and service records, regimental records, unpublished reports and communications, ordnance records and quartermaster records. The first edition included just three entries from the archives, whereas the new edition includes thirty-five.
The advent of online digital newspaper databases proved extremely beneficial. Thirty years ago, my bibliography included accounts from nineteen newspapers. I cite eighty-nine in the new edition. The online Fold3 database has also accelerated the process of reviewing service records and pension files. Whereas I examined maybe a dozen pension files in the first edition, I checked more than three hundred for the new edition.
Ancestry.com also proved invaluable. The combination of online newspapers, online ancestry records and my wife’s investigative skills with family and property records, as well as Wynne Saffer’s invaluable work on 1860 property boundaries, helped me to pinpoint the property where the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry met near total ruin on June 18, 1863.
BR: How has the book been received so far?
BO’N: The reviews so far, both in print and online, have been very positive. I am grateful for all who have published their thoughts and comments and I encourage everyone who reads the book to do so.
BR: What’s next for you?
BO’N: I work very slowly. Nine years spent re-writing a book I had already written may seem a bit extreme to some. But I had started almost from scratch thirty years ago. There was simply no template for these events. I have expanded the narrative and corrected many errors of interpretation, but much remains to be done. But for Covid, I might still be researching the book. I hope that someone will continue to expand our knowledge of these events in the not-too-distant future.
At the pace I work, I doubt I have another book in me. At present, and with the National Archives again open, I am helping some friends research their own projects and enjoy doing so. I am currently working on a presentation involving the Michigan Cavalry Brigade on the Plains, following the end of the Civil War. That study continues to expand and intrigue me and who knows what might follow.
Harry Smeltzer
Bull Runnings 
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