Decision at Tom's Brook: George Custer, Thomas Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight

The Battle of Tom’s Brook, recalled one Confederate soldier, was “the greatest disaster that ever befell our cavalry during the whole war.” The fight took place during the last autumn of the Civil War, when the Union General Phil Sheridan vowed to turn the crop-rich Shenandoah Valley into “a desert.” Farms and homes were burned, livestock slaughtered, and Southern families suffered.

The story of the Tom’s Brook cavalry affair centers on two young men who had risen to
prominence as soldiers: G...