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92 books match the query 'Regimental histories' and 4 start with o

cover of Oh, What a Loansome Time I Had: The Civil War Letters of Major William Morel Moxley, Eighteenth Alabama Infantry, and Emily Beck Moxley

Oh, What a Loansome Time I Had

The Civil War Letters of Major William Morel Moxley, Eighteenth Alabama Infantry, and Emily Beck Moxley

Emily Beck Moxley

University of Alabama Press, 2002

This rare correspondence between a soldier and his wife relates in poignant detail the struggle for survival on the battlefield as well as on the home front and gives voice to the underrepresented class of small farmers

Most surviving correspondence of the Civil War period was written by members of a literate, elite class; few collections exist in which the woman's letters to her soldier husband have been preserved. Here, in the exchange between William and Emily Moxley, a working-class farm couple from Coffee County, Alabama, we see vividly an often-neglected aspect of the Civil War experience: the hardships of civilian life on the home front.

Emily's moving letters to her husband, startling in their immediacy and detail, chronicle such difficulties as a desperate lack of food and clothing for her family, the frustration of depending on others in the community, and her growing terror at facing childbirth without her husband, at the mercy of a doctor with questionable skills. Major Moxley's letters to his wife reveal a decidedly unromantic side of the war, describing his frequent encounters with starvation, disease, and bloody slaughter.

To supplement this revealing correspondence, the editor has provided ample documentation and research; a genealogical chart of the Moxley family; detailed maps of Alabama and Florida that allow the reader to trace the progress of Major Moxley's division; and thorough footnotes to document and elucidate events and people mentioned in the letters. Readers interested in the Civil War and Alabama history will find these letters immensely appealing while scholars of 19th-century domestic life will find much of value in Emily Moxley's rare descriptions of her homefront experiences.
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cover of Ohio Volunteer: The Childhood and Civil War Memoirs of Captain John Calvin Hartzell, OVI

Ohio Volunteer

The Childhood and Civil War Memoirs of Captain John Calvin Hartzell, OVI

Charles I. Switzer

Ohio University Press, 2005

When his captain was killed during the Battle of Perryville, John Calvin Hartzell was made commander of Company H, 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He led his men during the Battle of Chickamauga, the siege of Chattanooga, and the Battle of Missionary Ridge.

Edited and introduced by Charles Switzer, Ohio Volunteer: The Childhood and Civil War Memoirs of Captain John Calvin Hartzell, OVI documents military strategy, the life of the common soldier, the intense excitement and terror of battle, and the wretchedness of the wounded.

Hartzell’s family implored him to set down his life story, including his experiences in the Civil War from 1862 to 1866. Hartzell did so diligently, taking more than two years to complete his manuscript. The memoir reveals a remarkable memory for vivid details, the ability to see larger and more philosophical perspectives, and a humorous outlook that helped him bear the unbearable.

He also depicted the changing rural economy, the assimilation of the Pennsylvania Dutch, and the transformations wrought by coal mining and the iron industry. Hartzell felt individualism was threatened by the Industrial Revolution and the cruelties of the war. He found his faith in humanity affirmed—and the dramatic tension in his memoir resolved—when 136,000 Union soldiers reenlisted and assured victory for the North. The common soldier, he wrote, was “loyal to the core.”
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cover of Old Abe the War Eagle: A True Story of the Civil War And Reconstruction

Old Abe the War Eagle

A True Story of the Civil War And Reconstruction

Richard Zeitlin

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 1986

The story of Old Abe, the bald eagle that became the mascot of the Eighth Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. It is also the story of the men among whom Old Abe lived: the farmers, loggers, clerks, and immigrants who flocked to the colors in 1861.

Reissued in 2012 with a new cover.

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cover of Outpost Kelly: A Tanker's Story

Outpost Kelly

A Tanker's Story

Jack R. Siewert, with a foreword by Paul M Edwards

University of Alabama Press, 2006

In July 1952, Jack Siewert commanded a platoon of five M-46 tanks in Korea. In four days of battle against Chinese forces, Siewart was tasked with providing fire support for advancing infantry attempting to retake Outpost Kelly. Outpost Kelly: A Tanker's Story his a harrowing account of the success of that mission in the face of catastrophic obstacles.
 
Heavy rains turned the mountainous terrain around Outpost Kelly into shin-deep mud and muck. At the height of the fighting, Siewert was able to bring to bear the guns of only one of his five tanks against the enemy. Forced to abandon traditional tank warfare doctrine, he improvised. Allowing members of the 15th Infantry to retake Outpost Kelly, Siewert offers an excellent analysis of how theory and experience come together in a point-of-the-spear military situation.
 
Outpost Kelly also paints a fascinating picture of the type of fighting, often overlooked, that characterized the second and third years of the Korean War. With truce talks proceeding in Panmunjom, both sides fought to claim incremental pieces of real estate along the demarcation line between North and South.
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