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Interview

Colonel E.G.Keogh p2

Shenandoah 1861-62 is written in a concise and clear manner, and it’s reliable, with plenty of facts and details, the way the military trains officers to write.

The author, Colonel E. G. Keogh, stressed that the Confederates Jackson and Lee had studied a lot of military history, which had complemented their professional experience.

In that spirit, the book Shenandoah 1861-62 was written for the training of officers in the Australian Army. It was published in January 1954 for the Australian Army Journal. The book trains officers to handle a crisis, ie how to make a decision.  

The author, Colonel Keogh, advises the students: Read the text until you come to a point where an appreciation is called for by one or both of the opposing commanders. For example, take the situation early in June before the battle of Bull Run, or the situation in the Shenandoah Valley when Jackson received Lee’s orders on 21 April while his army was at Elk Run. (That is, the situation prior to the battle of McDowell.) Set up the opposing forces on your overlay. Then, using only the information which was available to each of the opposing commanders, make two appreciations, one from each side. In other words, put yourself in the place of each of the commanders and decide what you would have done. Then read on and see what actually happened. Would the vanquished have fared so badly if he had followed your plan, and would the victor have been so successful?

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