The Lightning Mule Brigade: Abel Streight's 1863 Raid into Alabama

by Robert L. Willett Jr., Edward G. Longacre (Foreword)

To pit the legendary Confederate cavalry leader Nathan Bedford Forrest and his veteran cavalry regiments against a rookie Union Infantry colonel and his four infantry regiments mounted on mules might seem laughable, but it turned out to be anything but. The Union Raid began with a 300 mile boat trip, then began its move toward Georgia from the Mississippi/Alabama border. Its goal was to disrupt the rail line supplying Confederate troops in Tennessee. In a textbook tactical campaign, Streight held off the veteran Forrest until exhaustion, bad luck, and poor equipment did him in. This book tells the details.

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2008

Reviews

[Shirli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just back from Crooked Creek Civil War Museum, and had to get this one... In depth and detail about the North Alabama chase... so far, I highly recommend it

[Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, extremely detailed account of Streight's raid and Forrest's pursuit. I've heard stories about the raid my whole life, but this book is full of stories and details that I have never read anywhere else. There are some very good biographies of Forrest that put the raid in a broader context, but this book does a great job of describing the adventure from Streight's perspective. It also explicitly points out the good and bad luck that helped determine the final outcome.

[Oat Soda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellently researched, but gets four stars instead of five simply because of a couple of wrong dates (such as a reference to something that happened after Streight's surrender occurring on April 16 instead of May 16).

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first rate work of scholarship. The narrative is sometimes jagged, but still an engaging read on one of the weirdest episodes in the war.