From a daring Confederate raid that nearly seized Washington, D.C., to a stunning reversal on the bloody fields of Cedar Creek, the summer and autumn of 1864 witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War, in m...From a daring Confederate raid that nearly seized Washington, D.C., to a stunning reversal on the bloody fields of Cedar Creek, the summer and autumn of 1864 witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War, in mighty battles now all but forgotten. The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart; the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon.