A Virginia Village Goes to War: Falls Church During the Civil War

by Bradley E. Gernand

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578641861
• ISBN13: 9781578641864
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Donning Company Publishers
• Length: 271 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Deep and interesting, despite the narrow subject.

I'm a history buff who recently moved to Falls Church, so finding this book was a real treasure, and it's brought the local history alive in ways that tours and historical markers rarely do. It's lavishly illustrated, and the text is engrossing.If there's one thing that I kept wishing for when reading this, it was for more maps. There are modern street maps of the greater Falls Church metro area, as well as some fascinating historical ones. A topographical map, showing what the area looked like at the time (especially because of later leveling of Munson's Hill), would have been useful. And the narrative would have been greatly improved by maps that showed the changes in camps, pickets, troop movements, and so forth, especially over time (such as in the back-and-forth during 1861). Perhaps this level of detail wouldn't be of much interest to non-locals, but I frequently had to turn to the Web or other books to look up where some of the mentioned places were. I don't think that the cost of adding maps would have been prohibitive, since there are already plates on almost every page.All told, this was a book of surprising depth and richness for a town that's not well-known outside of the D.C. area, and whose part in the Civil War warrants little more than a passing mention in more comprehensive books about the war.

Falls Church Virginia Civil War book a research treasure--

It is surprising to think a subject as well-covered as the Civil War could be brought to life with a treasure of facts and personalities as is uncovered in Falls Church, Virginia: A Virginia Village Goes to War. Authored by Falls Church historian and researcher Brad Gernand, the book is full of detailed stories, photographs, and other artwork revealing the difficulties faced by a northern Virginia community resulting from the competition between North and South for the hearts and minds of local residents, along with the back-and-forth of Union and Confederate troops competing for military control of geographic vantage points. As a potential gateway to Washington, the village of Falls Church has not received a great deal of focus in the Civil War context. Logically, as history has detailed the great battles of the War, this work moves into some of the intrigue that surrounded the Capital City. It is an entertaining read, based largely on the personal research of the author who I understand has written other books on the region.