BLUE ACORN PRESS CATALOG OF CIVIL WAR BOOKS |
||||
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
As General George A. Custer's cavalry division filed up Washington's
Pennsylvania Avenue leading the Grand Review on May 23, 1865, his troopers
were met by excited cheers from thousands of onlookers lining the street.
Among the cavalrymen was 22-year-old Joseph J. Sutton, a private in Company
H, 2nd West Virginia Veteran Cavalry. His red necktie fluttered jauntily in
the morning breeze, as did hundreds of others worn by Custer and his
command. The effect on the crowd was electrifying. Sutton later called this
event "the crowning affair in our soldier lives." Suddenly thrust into the national limelight after 42 months of hard service, the 2nd West Virginia did most of its campaigning off the beaten pathways. Raised in late summer of 1861 in southeast Ohio, the regiment was rejected for muster after Ohio's cavalry quota was filled. So the disappointed but enterprising troopers applied across the Ohio River to the provisional governor of western Virginia, who quickly accepted them. In November 1861 they entered Federal service as the 2nd Regiment of Loyal Virginia Volunteer Cavalry. They carried this designation until June 20, 1863, when West Virginia became the nation's 35th state. Serving under Generals George Crook and William W. Averell from early 1862 until June 1864, the regiment saw dangerous and strenuous duty in the heavily wooded, mountainous terrain of southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia. Later in 1864, Sutton and his comrades transferred to the Shenandoah Valley and saw a different style of fighting under General Philip H. Sheridan in the battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. In December 1864 the 2nd West Virginia joined Custer's cavalry division and contributed to the last Confederate defeats at Five Forks, Sayler's Creek and Appomattox. First published in 1892, Sutton's history contained a full regimental roster and 28 line illustrations. This 363-page hardcover reprint edition also features an added section of 55 wartime photographs, showing regimental members and their commanders -- some sporting the famous "Custer ties" worn at the Grand Review. Hardcover with dust jacket, 363 total pages, 55 photographs, full regimental roster. ISBN 0-9628866-5-3 Price: $3 5 |
||||
|
|
||||
 |
||||
As the blue-coated horsemen trotted past an infantry column resting by the roadside, a tall sergeant, leaning on his rifle, remarked to his comrades, "Boys, there's going to be a fight. When them fellows are hurried to the front it means business." The officers and men of the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry regarded the comment as a high compliment, and for good reason were justifiably proud of their record and reputation. For much of its service during the Civil War the 7th was part of the Army of the Cumberland, belonging to Colonel Robert H.G. Minty's highly respected cavalry brigade composed of volunteers and U.S. Regulars, and deservedly earned the sobriquet "the Saber Regiment" for daring and deadly use of that weapon in the mounted charge. A successful assault on a Rebel battery at Shelbyville, Tennessee, in June 1863 (for which a 7th battalion commander was awarded the Medal of Honor), provided a noteworthy example of the Pennsylvanians' prowess with the saber. "There can hardly be instanced a finer display of gallantry than the charge made that day by the Seventh Pennsylvania Cavalry," wrote General David S. Stanley. "I have read of nothing more admirable." Recruited from the Keystone State's coal-producing counties and the Susquehanna, Schuylkill and Allegheny river valleys, the 7th participated in more than 30 battles and skirmishes in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Its Confederate adversaries included some of the best saddle soldiers the South possessed in the western theater: Forrest, Wheeler, Morgan, Duke, Ross, Dibrell, Armstrong and Martin. The first Union casualties suffered in the battle of Chickamauga were troopers of the 7th. During 1864's Georgia campaign the regiment was involved in a number of exhausting actions, sabering its way through enemy lines on two occasions near Kennesaw Mountain, and again with General Judson Kilpatrick south of Atlanta. Serving in General James H. Wilson's Cavalry Corps in 1865, the 7th gained additional laurels when one of its battalions was the first to penetrate Forrest's imposing defenses at Selma, Alabama. "They did not stop until the town was captured," recalled a Company E sergeant, "and Forrest's command completely routed." Colonel William B. Sipes, a pre-war newspaper editor and longtime commander of the 7th, finished writing the regiment's history less than a month before his sudden death. Sipes' work is a testament to the battle-hardened soldiers of one of Pennsylvania's premier cavalry organizations. This Blue Acorn Press edition features 48 photographic portraits of regimental members, a fully annotated roster and a new index.Hardcover with dust jacket, 436 total pages, photos, roster, index. ISBN 1-885033-27-3. Price: $35 |
||||
History of the 126th Ohio Volunteers By John H. Gilson |
||||
 |
||||
Dogwood blossoms scented the warm air as blue columns threaded through the Virginia countryside early in May 1864. Among the marching soldiers was a 23-year-old private named John H. Gilson. His regiment, the 126th Ohio Volunteers, wore the blue 6th Corps cross of Gen. James B. Ricketts' division, but had seen little fighting during the previous year and a half. As the Ohioans deployed into line through thickly tangled underbrush south of the Rapidan River, their fortunes quickly changed. The following fortnight was simply remembered as "an awful experience" of hellish hardship and bloody sacrifice. Two days of vicious combat in the Wilderness reduced the regiment's ranks by 40 percent. Four more days of incessant fire at Spotsylvania whittled away another 23 percent. Gilson himself became a casualty on May 12 when he was struck in the face by a spent ball, which destroyed his left eye. Despite the severe injury, he eventually returned to the regiment in time to witness the final days of trench warfare at Petersburg and Confederate surrender at Appomattox. Eighteen years later Gilson published this account, using his wartime diary and the letters, journals, official reports and reminiscences of a dozen other comrades. The narrative chronicles 34 months of active service, encompassing 26 battles and skirmishes. After the nightmarish ordeal of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, the 126th moved with its division to repel Rebel Gen. Jubal Early's Maryland invasion in July 1864. At the Monocacy River 35 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., the Buckeyes lost 74 officers and men, before joining Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's forces in the Shenandoah Valley. They played important roles in the successive battles of Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek --- at a cost of 111 casualties, including regimental commander Lt. Col. Aaron W. Ebright, killed on September 19, 1864. Gilson's work features an annotated roster and nine biographical sketches of officers who lost their lives in battle. A new index and 52 photo portraits, most of them recently discovered, further enhance Blue Acorn Press' edition of this rare Ohio regimental history. Hardcover with dust jacket, 330 pages illustrated with 58 photographic and engraved portraits, roster, index. ISBN 1-885033-26-5 Price: $33.50 |
||||
|
||||
|
||||
From Shiloh in April 1862 to the decisive victory at Nashville in December 1864, few Union regiments in the Civil War's western theater forged better service records than the 41st Ohio. Often utilized in battle as shock troops, the fighting men of the 41st were imbued with discipline and spirit emanating from unusually high standards expected of the regiment's officers. Its first colonel, William B. Hazen, was a West Pointer who uncompromisingly used his pre-war experience as a Texas Indian fighter to transform raw recruits into competent, reliable soldiers. Along with strict adherence to personal hygiene, everyone was thoroughly drilled in squad, company and battalion evolutions, while officers and non-commissioned officers alike were required to attend daily recitations. His successor, Aquila Wiley, embraced such no-nonsense methods and became, as Hazen believed, "the most efficient regimental commander, regular or volunteer, I ever knew." After the youthful Wiley lost a leg in the dramatic November 1863 assault of Missionary Ridge outside Chattanooga, the 41st was ably led in turn by lieutenant colonels Robert L. Kimberly and Ephraim S. Holloway --- both of whom were brevetted brigadier generals and later collaborated to write this regimental history. The 41st Ohio saw action in most of the major western battles and campaigns: Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Brown's Ferry, Orchard Knob, Missionary Ridge, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Pickett's Mill, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville. And it acquired a place among William F. Fox's "fighting 300 regiments" of the Union Army. Of 1,423 officers and men who belonged to the 41st throughout the war, 667 became casualties, including 176 killed or mortally wounded. The heaviest losses occurred at Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Pickett's Mill in Georgia, where an ill-advised attack on May 27, 1864 cost the regiment 102 men out of 271 engaged. At Nashville, two enlisted men earned Medals of Honor in the 41st's last battle. Hardcover with dust jacket, 330 total pages, 30 photographs, full regimental roster, index. ISBN 1-885033-23-0 Price: $32.50 |
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The horsemen of the Seventh were organized at Grand Rapids, Mich., in the fall of 1862 from enlistees statewide. Representative towns included Kalamazoo, Detroit, Hastings, Battle Creek, Tecumseh, Owosso, Port Huron, Saginaw and many more. By April 1863 they belonged to the hard-campaigning Michigan Cavalry Brigade, soon made famous in large measure by the flamboyant leadership of the Wolverines' longtime commander, Gen. Custer. Armed with sabers, Colt's revolvers and Burnside carbines (eventually replaced by Spencer repeating carbines), the Seventh participated in scores of engagements following Gettysburg. Among them were Yellow Tavern (where Jeb Stuart was mortally wounded, possibly by a Seventh pistol shot), Haw's Shop, Trevilian Station, Opequan and Tom's Brook. At Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, the regiment captured more prisoners than it had troopers in its ranks. It also distinguished itself at Five Forks, Sayler's Creek and Appomattox. After the Grand Review in May 1865, the Seventh was transferred west to campaign nine months against hostile Indians. This Blue Acorn Press edition of Lieutenant Asa B. Isham's extremely rare 1893 history of the Seventh Michigan Cavalry features the addition of four appendices (including a photo gallery of 29 wartime portraits), and a new index. Hardcover with dust jacket, 203 pages, illustrated with 62 photographs and engravings. Officers' register and roll of honor. ISBN 1-885033-24-9 Price: $25 |
||||
Nixon B. Stewart |
||||
|
|
|
||
Between August 1862 and May 1864, the 52nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry enjoyed a charmed existence. All that changed when General William T. Sherman's Federal columns embarked May 7 for Atlanta, the 52nd leading the advance south at the head of its army corps. During the next four months of exhaustive campaigning the Buckeyes' discipline, courage and endurance were tested as never before, their ranks reduced by 253 casualties - the highest total of any regiment then serving in the 14th Corps, Army of the Cumberland. Recruited in Jefferson, Belmont, Tuscarawas and Van Wert counties, as well as Cincinnati, Cleveland and the state's Western Reserve, the 52nd was led to the front by Colonel Daniel McCook Jr., a scion of Ohio's famous fighting McCook family. "Colonel Dan," as his men universally called him, was a pre-war law partner of Sherman, a lover of poetry and student of military history. Soon elevated to brigade command, McCook performed valuable service in the Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns, although his Ohioans experienced limited combat. When the rough slopes of Kennesaw Mountain were reached in June 1864 the 52nd met the grim face of war head on. In a desperate uphill assault against entrenched Confederates on June 27 at what became known as the "Dead Angle," McCook's brigade was repulsed, losing 35% of its strength. More than 135 Buckeyes were shot down, 45 of them killed or mortally wounded, including McCook. A member of the 52nd described Kennesaw as "our golgotha and our Waterloo." The regiment's major, J. Taylor Holmes, wrote soon afterward: "Men gave up their lives everywhere, it seemed. You could not say or think who would die or be maimed the next instant. [Our] point of assault was the key to the mountain, but human flesh could not do more than we did and a failure was the result." Eleven weeks later, after additional fighting at Peachtree Creek, Atlanta and Jonesboro, Holmes reflected, "No Ohio regiment has made a bloodier mark during the past four months." The narrative history of "Colonel Dan" McCook's regiment was published in 1900 by former Company E sergeant Nixon B. Stewart. Blue Acorn's reprint features the addition of an index as well as 52 photo portraits, 11 of them new to this edition. Hardcover with dust jacket, 245 pages, photos, index. ISBN 1-885033-21-4. $25 "[Stewart] gives the history of his regiment from Camp Dennison to the Grand Review in graphic style. It is emphatically a picture of war from the personal view-point of a private soldier." - Daniel J. Ryan, The Civil War Literature of Ohio
|
||||
