The Blood-Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah

Decades after the Civil War’s end, Confederate veteran John Alexander Stikeleather reflected on his experiences as a soldier in the 4th North Carolina Infantry. He had served in many engagements during his four years of service, but there was one in particular that Stikeleather believed should “never be forgotten”: Cool Spring. While largely overlooked or treated as a footnote to Gen. Jubal A. Early’s raid on Washington in the summer of 1864, the fight at Cool Spring, which one soldier character