The Lead Mine Men: The Enduring 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Engaging the Civil War
Autor Thomas B. Macken Limba Engleză Paperback – 18 sep 2024
The regiment that never ran
To destroy Confederate infrastructure, avenge the horrors of slavery, and shorten the war, the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry imposed the pillaging of hard-war philosophy upon Confederate lands. This comprehensive and engaging narrative explores the Civil War ordeals and triumphs of the “Lead Mine men” who hailed from eleven counties in northern Illinois. Thomas B. Mack uncovers the history on this unit of resilient midwesterners and how they brought hard-war to the Confederacy in 1862, earlier than other historians have previously suggested.
During their service the regiment compiled an exceptional record. The 45th fought under General Ulysses S. Grant in the war’s western theater, earning honors at Vicksburg and in Tennessee. The men later reenlisted as veterans and served in General William T. Sherman’s Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolina campaigns. Mack considers the soldiers’ community, discipline, and faith in Providence during their service in the Union Army of the Tennessee and how, despite the unit’s high casualties, they upheld the lowest rate of desertion due to their fervent patriotism.
Throughout The Lead Mine Men, Mack’s focus remains on the soldiers—their extensive training in Galena and Chicago and their time in camp and in combat. He follows their experiences from recruitment to their celebratory march in the 1865 Grand Review to their postwar lives in which many struggled to adjust, receive their government pensions, and protect the unit’s legacy. In this book, Mack broadens our understanding of the Union soldiers who saved their republic and ended slavery within its borders.
To destroy Confederate infrastructure, avenge the horrors of slavery, and shorten the war, the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry imposed the pillaging of hard-war philosophy upon Confederate lands. This comprehensive and engaging narrative explores the Civil War ordeals and triumphs of the “Lead Mine men” who hailed from eleven counties in northern Illinois. Thomas B. Mack uncovers the history on this unit of resilient midwesterners and how they brought hard-war to the Confederacy in 1862, earlier than other historians have previously suggested.
During their service the regiment compiled an exceptional record. The 45th fought under General Ulysses S. Grant in the war’s western theater, earning honors at Vicksburg and in Tennessee. The men later reenlisted as veterans and served in General William T. Sherman’s Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolina campaigns. Mack considers the soldiers’ community, discipline, and faith in Providence during their service in the Union Army of the Tennessee and how, despite the unit’s high casualties, they upheld the lowest rate of desertion due to their fervent patriotism.
Throughout The Lead Mine Men, Mack’s focus remains on the soldiers—their extensive training in Galena and Chicago and their time in camp and in combat. He follows their experiences from recruitment to their celebratory march in the 1865 Grand Review to their postwar lives in which many struggled to adjust, receive their government pensions, and protect the unit’s legacy. In this book, Mack broadens our understanding of the Union soldiers who saved their republic and ended slavery within its borders.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780809339143
ISBN-10: 0809339145
Pagini: 288
Ilustrații: 29
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 18 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: Southern Illinois University Press
Colecția Southern Illinois University Press
Seria Engaging the Civil War
ISBN-10: 0809339145
Pagini: 288
Ilustrații: 29
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 18 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: Southern Illinois University Press
Colecția Southern Illinois University Press
Seria Engaging the Civil War
Notă biografică
Thomas B. Mack taught for several years at Dallas College at El Centro. His research focus is the Civil War soldier, whether Union or Confederate, and he explores soldiers’ collective wartime and postwar experiences though writing modern regimental studies.
Extras
INTRODUCTION
Capt. John M. Adair wrote the first history of the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and delivered his account in 1869 at the unit’s second postwar reunion. The captain singled out the regiment for its fighting on June 25–26, 1863, during the siege of Vicksburg, noting that in being the first to attack after the mine explosion under the 3rd Louisiana Redan, the 45th experienced such horrific savagery in the fighting that it made the rest of the unit’s service in the American Civil War seem like “mere boy’s play in comparison.” The fighting on those two days earned the regiment a place of honor eight days later, as well as lasting renown.
After Confederate lieutenant general John C. Pemberton surrendered the Confederate citadel of Vicksburg, Mississippi, at 10 a.m. on July 4, 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant led members of the Union’s Army of the Tennessee into the captured city. Following Grant, his staff, and the corps commanders marched the 45th Illinois, given this honor because of its service during Grant’s eight-month-long campaign to take Vicksburg and because it had volunteered to lead the June 25 attack. The regiment suffered a 33 percent casualty rate during the campaign, and in the assault on the Confederate bastion, it experienced severe losses, with the unit’s entire command staff either killed in action or mortally or severely wounded.
Adair’s remembrance of the regiment’s fighting on those two days in June 1863 in contrast with the rest of its experience in uniform should not detract from the stoic service the men of the 45th provided to their country throughout the war, from Camp Douglas in Chicago in 1861 to their mustering out of service in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1865. Although not all its members served honorably, the 45th Illinois as a unit never broke and ran during combat.
The 45th, called by its men the Lead Mine Regiment to honor the history of iron ore mining in Galena, Illinois, was organized in the latter half of 1861 and compiled an impressive record during the Civil War. In addition to the Vicksburg Campaign, the unit served in Grant’s 1862 Tennessee Campaign, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Meridian raid, and Sherman’s Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolinas Campaigns before marching in the postwar celebratory Grand Review in Washington, D.C., on May 24, 1865. The first phase of the regiment’s service encompassed its inception, raising, and extended training period from July 1861 to January 31, 1862. During the second phase, from early February 1862 to early July 1863, the 45th’s soldiers first experienced Civil War combat, fought in five major battles and minor skirmishes and actions, and served in the war’s first major siege, suffering catastrophic losses from disease, sickness, and battle. These pragmatic soldiers embraced their leaders’ new war goal and widening of the war’s destruction, regardless of the impact on them or the Confederacy’s citizenry. After the men of the Lead Mine Regiment completed their service, they reenlisted to become a veteran unit and then displayed their self-reliance, hardiness, and commitment to their republic by walking nearly two thousand miles in implementing the Union’s hard war on the Confederacy from July 1863 to July 1865.
While defending their republic, the Lead Mine men built an outstanding record. The regiment earned honors before entering the field and later at a corps inspection and received commendations for its fighting at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, during the Vicksburg Campaign, and later on General Sherman’s Meridian raid. Some in the regiment deserted, others suffered punishments for various transgressions, and still others shirked their responsibilities during battle. Overall, however, the regiment’s record is impressive. Yet despite this honored service, a study of the 45th Illinois does not exist.
In a 2008 article titled “Battling Stereotypes: A Taxonomy of Common Soldiers in Civil War History,” historian Jason Phillips calls for more unit studies to “retrieve some of the individuality” that the war had quashed. He pushes for these studies to counter stereotypes, especially that the “Civil War soldiers were God-fearing, independent, hard-working, family men.” According to Phillips, the studies should show these soldiers’ various backgrounds, social statuses, and incomes as citizens and that they were “not angels yet not brutes,” but men of their era, flawed yet fighting for their nations. Moreover, Phillips advocates for more works on the “crack regiments” of men who became outstanding soldiers and “merit more attention because of their exceptional influence” on “individual soldiers or groups.” Phillips argues that unit studies, unlike monographs, would “transcend historiographic debates that pigeonhole soldiers” and tell a story about “how men experienced the war” and “soldiering in the nineteenth century,” as well as how to write history today. Historian Peter Carmichael, in his 2018 work on Civil War soldiers, also calls for more studies of these pragmatic men so as to “fully recover the life of the rank and file as it was lived.”
This work answers Phillips’s and Carmichael’s calls in part, as it shows the soldiers of the “crack” 45th Illinois as they were, men of their time, who eventually accepted President Abraham Lincoln’s expansion of the Union’s war goals to include the emancipation of the Confederacy’s enslaved people. Pragmatically, they knew the policy hurt their enemy’s ability to wage war, and they empathized with those who were enslaved after seeing the brutal realities of chattel slavery.
This is not to say all were patriotic Christian saints fighting for their republic. As men of their time, most likely did not see Black Americans as their equal; yet these everyday men became enthusiastic emancipators, knowing their service would aid in bringing an end to the institution of slavery. The 45th initially had a dim view of Lincoln’s decision to create Black regiments, but in time these sensible men saw that the president’s plan benefited them in several ways, notably by working to end the war sooner. The regiment’s views of the antiwar Northern Democrat Copperheads, however, never strayed from virulent hate and desire for retribution. From their first days in the field, the 45th enthusiastically joined in the pillaging that came with the Union’s increasingly hard war on the Confederacy and its citizenry, both out of opportunism, knowing it would help shorten the war, and because they had seen the horrors of slavery. Of note, the Lead Mine men’s and their comrades’ pillaging happened much earlier than what several historians have contended. While some men operated as Sherman’s bummers out of personal gain in implementing this hard war, the majority accepted their leaders’ policy change even though it caused them severe hunger and increased the possibility that they could be captured and die in an enemy prisoner-of-war camp.
Over 80 percent of the Lead Mine men came from eleven northern Illinois counties dominated by Republicans but with concentrations of pro-Union Democrats when war came. That the 45th’s members shared the same fervent patriotism is evident in the regiment’s battle record, its reenlistment in 1864, and the fact that the Copperheads’ treasonous antiwar work did not result in the demoralization or high numbers of desertions that occurred in other Union units. Compared with the Union army as a whole, the regiment had less than one-third the percentage of deserters, despite suffering greater losses as a percentage of the unit than the Union army (6.7 versus 4.7 percent). Fortunately for the Lead Mine men, they shared with Ulysses S. Grant the same benefactor, influential Republican congressman Elihu B. Washburne, who secured for the unit first-rate weapons and equipment, which few Illinois regiments had in 1861.
Several of the regiment’s officers and enlisted men had what was probably a unique prewar relationship with Grant, which continued during the war’s first two years. This perhaps gave its members a certain level of prestige during their service and almost certainly helped the 45th achieve its honored position on July 4, 1863. The regiment’s unblemished war record and many commendations and awards likely contributed to its members’ esprit de corps, with most serving nobly throughout the war. In a few cases, Confederate soldiers believed the unit to be regular army because of its performance, discipline, and appearance. Moreover, throughout its history, general officers consistently chose the 45th to lead attacks. That the 45th was an exceptional performing unit in the field and in combat was a result of several factors: the officers’ excellent work in learning their craft and drilling their men, the culture they developed, the men’s respect for their officers, the excellent character of both officers and men, and the unit’s integrity.
The 45th’s extensive training also helped bolster the soldiers’ indomitable character throughout the trials and sacrifices they experienced during their service. Unlike other Union regiments, such as the 16th Connecticut, which received scant training before entering the maelstrom of Civil War combat, the Lead Mine men had six months of training before entering battle. Besides the quality of the training provided by the unit’s excellent officers, the soldiers’ patriotism, fortitude, and stamina served them well as they became proficient in the art of war, even when lower-ranked officers replaced those lost to combat casualties, promotions, and resignations.
The Lead Mine men's general stamina and hardiness were in part because the unit's enlistees were generally younger than those in the Union army and because a much higher percentage had been involved in agriculture than in the army as a whole. The older average age of the unit’s officers, who had more life experience and thus likely greater wisdom, also made possible the regiment’s excellent service in its initial battles, especially in the chaos during the Battle of Shiloh. While not overly religious, the Lead Mine men used their faith in Providence to explain the war’s events, a faith that was shared by civilians and soldiers in both armies and helped sustain the men throughout the conflict. All these factors, plus the regiment’s untarnished combat record to date, are presumably what gave the Lead Mine men the courage to accept the mission to lead the attack on June 25, 1863, as well as to maintain their honor throughout the war.
Over the last fifty-plus years, historians have gone beyond the military and political aspects of the American Civil War to include its social, cultural, and economic aspects and beyond the study of the “great white men” to include the perspective from all its actors, including enslaved and free Black Americans and the soldiers’ families. Unfortunately, the story from the perspective of perhaps the key participant in the war—the soldier—is incomplete. By 1980 there existed works on only 20 percent of all Union and Confederate infantry, cavalry, and artillery units.
In recent years, historians have attempted to address this historiographic void. Mark Dunkelman tells the story of a New York regiment that had a strong esprit de corps, fought in the eastern and western theaters, and served in Sherman’s final three campaigns. Lesley Gordon focuses on an eastern regiment that was far from exceptional and, because of its scant training, had a disastrous experience in the war. Douglas Egerton examines the creation, war experience, and impact on the Union of three Black regiments, while Kelly Mezurek looks at one Black regiment and its members’ experiences during Reconstruction. Susannah Ural spotlights a famous Confederate brigade whose commitment stood strong throughout the war, despite suffering horrendous losses, as well as the soldiers’ families. David Mellott and Mark Snell consider an eastern calvary unit that kept its commitment to the Union despite suffering severe losses. Finally, Christopher Rein concentrates on a Union regiment that fought in a lightly focused theater far beyond the Mississippi River. Notably absent is a work on a unit of resilient midwesterners in the famed Army of the Tennessee. This undefeated army won at Shiloh, captured Vicksburg, aided in rescuing Chattanooga, was General Sherman’s force on his Meridian raid, helped capture Atlanta, and constituted half of the general’s army on his Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns, while instigating the Union’s hard war on the Confederacy. The Lead Mine Men fills this historiographic void.
This book is a comprehensive modern unit study of the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment’s service in the war, including the members’ postwar lives. Of prime importance are the soldiers’ experiences in camp, on the march, and in combat. Included is an analysis of the soldiers from demographic, social, political, and military perspectives, along with their views on slavery, emancipation, the arming of Black men, the South, Southerners, and key individuals in the war. By showing the men as they were, their good qualities as well as their human frailties and faults, this work on the Lead Mine men adds to our understanding of the Civil War soldiers, who by enlisting successfully saved their republic and ended slavery within its borders, and whose positive impact on their country lasts to this day.
The 45th’s creation in mid-1861 and its members' transformation into soldiers are detailed, followed by a demographic study of the men and a political study of their home counties. The book then provides a chronological narrative, from the regiment’s baptism into Civil War combat at Fort Donelson to its mustering out after the war’s end. It concludes by exploring how the surviving members went back to their civilian lives after the war and fought a war of words to secure their unit’s legacy.
[end of excerpt]
Capt. John M. Adair wrote the first history of the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and delivered his account in 1869 at the unit’s second postwar reunion. The captain singled out the regiment for its fighting on June 25–26, 1863, during the siege of Vicksburg, noting that in being the first to attack after the mine explosion under the 3rd Louisiana Redan, the 45th experienced such horrific savagery in the fighting that it made the rest of the unit’s service in the American Civil War seem like “mere boy’s play in comparison.” The fighting on those two days earned the regiment a place of honor eight days later, as well as lasting renown.
After Confederate lieutenant general John C. Pemberton surrendered the Confederate citadel of Vicksburg, Mississippi, at 10 a.m. on July 4, 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant led members of the Union’s Army of the Tennessee into the captured city. Following Grant, his staff, and the corps commanders marched the 45th Illinois, given this honor because of its service during Grant’s eight-month-long campaign to take Vicksburg and because it had volunteered to lead the June 25 attack. The regiment suffered a 33 percent casualty rate during the campaign, and in the assault on the Confederate bastion, it experienced severe losses, with the unit’s entire command staff either killed in action or mortally or severely wounded.
Adair’s remembrance of the regiment’s fighting on those two days in June 1863 in contrast with the rest of its experience in uniform should not detract from the stoic service the men of the 45th provided to their country throughout the war, from Camp Douglas in Chicago in 1861 to their mustering out of service in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1865. Although not all its members served honorably, the 45th Illinois as a unit never broke and ran during combat.
The 45th, called by its men the Lead Mine Regiment to honor the history of iron ore mining in Galena, Illinois, was organized in the latter half of 1861 and compiled an impressive record during the Civil War. In addition to the Vicksburg Campaign, the unit served in Grant’s 1862 Tennessee Campaign, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Meridian raid, and Sherman’s Atlanta, Savannah, and Carolinas Campaigns before marching in the postwar celebratory Grand Review in Washington, D.C., on May 24, 1865. The first phase of the regiment’s service encompassed its inception, raising, and extended training period from July 1861 to January 31, 1862. During the second phase, from early February 1862 to early July 1863, the 45th’s soldiers first experienced Civil War combat, fought in five major battles and minor skirmishes and actions, and served in the war’s first major siege, suffering catastrophic losses from disease, sickness, and battle. These pragmatic soldiers embraced their leaders’ new war goal and widening of the war’s destruction, regardless of the impact on them or the Confederacy’s citizenry. After the men of the Lead Mine Regiment completed their service, they reenlisted to become a veteran unit and then displayed their self-reliance, hardiness, and commitment to their republic by walking nearly two thousand miles in implementing the Union’s hard war on the Confederacy from July 1863 to July 1865.
While defending their republic, the Lead Mine men built an outstanding record. The regiment earned honors before entering the field and later at a corps inspection and received commendations for its fighting at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, during the Vicksburg Campaign, and later on General Sherman’s Meridian raid. Some in the regiment deserted, others suffered punishments for various transgressions, and still others shirked their responsibilities during battle. Overall, however, the regiment’s record is impressive. Yet despite this honored service, a study of the 45th Illinois does not exist.
In a 2008 article titled “Battling Stereotypes: A Taxonomy of Common Soldiers in Civil War History,” historian Jason Phillips calls for more unit studies to “retrieve some of the individuality” that the war had quashed. He pushes for these studies to counter stereotypes, especially that the “Civil War soldiers were God-fearing, independent, hard-working, family men.” According to Phillips, the studies should show these soldiers’ various backgrounds, social statuses, and incomes as citizens and that they were “not angels yet not brutes,” but men of their era, flawed yet fighting for their nations. Moreover, Phillips advocates for more works on the “crack regiments” of men who became outstanding soldiers and “merit more attention because of their exceptional influence” on “individual soldiers or groups.” Phillips argues that unit studies, unlike monographs, would “transcend historiographic debates that pigeonhole soldiers” and tell a story about “how men experienced the war” and “soldiering in the nineteenth century,” as well as how to write history today. Historian Peter Carmichael, in his 2018 work on Civil War soldiers, also calls for more studies of these pragmatic men so as to “fully recover the life of the rank and file as it was lived.”
This work answers Phillips’s and Carmichael’s calls in part, as it shows the soldiers of the “crack” 45th Illinois as they were, men of their time, who eventually accepted President Abraham Lincoln’s expansion of the Union’s war goals to include the emancipation of the Confederacy’s enslaved people. Pragmatically, they knew the policy hurt their enemy’s ability to wage war, and they empathized with those who were enslaved after seeing the brutal realities of chattel slavery.
This is not to say all were patriotic Christian saints fighting for their republic. As men of their time, most likely did not see Black Americans as their equal; yet these everyday men became enthusiastic emancipators, knowing their service would aid in bringing an end to the institution of slavery. The 45th initially had a dim view of Lincoln’s decision to create Black regiments, but in time these sensible men saw that the president’s plan benefited them in several ways, notably by working to end the war sooner. The regiment’s views of the antiwar Northern Democrat Copperheads, however, never strayed from virulent hate and desire for retribution. From their first days in the field, the 45th enthusiastically joined in the pillaging that came with the Union’s increasingly hard war on the Confederacy and its citizenry, both out of opportunism, knowing it would help shorten the war, and because they had seen the horrors of slavery. Of note, the Lead Mine men’s and their comrades’ pillaging happened much earlier than what several historians have contended. While some men operated as Sherman’s bummers out of personal gain in implementing this hard war, the majority accepted their leaders’ policy change even though it caused them severe hunger and increased the possibility that they could be captured and die in an enemy prisoner-of-war camp.
Over 80 percent of the Lead Mine men came from eleven northern Illinois counties dominated by Republicans but with concentrations of pro-Union Democrats when war came. That the 45th’s members shared the same fervent patriotism is evident in the regiment’s battle record, its reenlistment in 1864, and the fact that the Copperheads’ treasonous antiwar work did not result in the demoralization or high numbers of desertions that occurred in other Union units. Compared with the Union army as a whole, the regiment had less than one-third the percentage of deserters, despite suffering greater losses as a percentage of the unit than the Union army (6.7 versus 4.7 percent). Fortunately for the Lead Mine men, they shared with Ulysses S. Grant the same benefactor, influential Republican congressman Elihu B. Washburne, who secured for the unit first-rate weapons and equipment, which few Illinois regiments had in 1861.
Several of the regiment’s officers and enlisted men had what was probably a unique prewar relationship with Grant, which continued during the war’s first two years. This perhaps gave its members a certain level of prestige during their service and almost certainly helped the 45th achieve its honored position on July 4, 1863. The regiment’s unblemished war record and many commendations and awards likely contributed to its members’ esprit de corps, with most serving nobly throughout the war. In a few cases, Confederate soldiers believed the unit to be regular army because of its performance, discipline, and appearance. Moreover, throughout its history, general officers consistently chose the 45th to lead attacks. That the 45th was an exceptional performing unit in the field and in combat was a result of several factors: the officers’ excellent work in learning their craft and drilling their men, the culture they developed, the men’s respect for their officers, the excellent character of both officers and men, and the unit’s integrity.
The 45th’s extensive training also helped bolster the soldiers’ indomitable character throughout the trials and sacrifices they experienced during their service. Unlike other Union regiments, such as the 16th Connecticut, which received scant training before entering the maelstrom of Civil War combat, the Lead Mine men had six months of training before entering battle. Besides the quality of the training provided by the unit’s excellent officers, the soldiers’ patriotism, fortitude, and stamina served them well as they became proficient in the art of war, even when lower-ranked officers replaced those lost to combat casualties, promotions, and resignations.
The Lead Mine men's general stamina and hardiness were in part because the unit's enlistees were generally younger than those in the Union army and because a much higher percentage had been involved in agriculture than in the army as a whole. The older average age of the unit’s officers, who had more life experience and thus likely greater wisdom, also made possible the regiment’s excellent service in its initial battles, especially in the chaos during the Battle of Shiloh. While not overly religious, the Lead Mine men used their faith in Providence to explain the war’s events, a faith that was shared by civilians and soldiers in both armies and helped sustain the men throughout the conflict. All these factors, plus the regiment’s untarnished combat record to date, are presumably what gave the Lead Mine men the courage to accept the mission to lead the attack on June 25, 1863, as well as to maintain their honor throughout the war.
Over the last fifty-plus years, historians have gone beyond the military and political aspects of the American Civil War to include its social, cultural, and economic aspects and beyond the study of the “great white men” to include the perspective from all its actors, including enslaved and free Black Americans and the soldiers’ families. Unfortunately, the story from the perspective of perhaps the key participant in the war—the soldier—is incomplete. By 1980 there existed works on only 20 percent of all Union and Confederate infantry, cavalry, and artillery units.
In recent years, historians have attempted to address this historiographic void. Mark Dunkelman tells the story of a New York regiment that had a strong esprit de corps, fought in the eastern and western theaters, and served in Sherman’s final three campaigns. Lesley Gordon focuses on an eastern regiment that was far from exceptional and, because of its scant training, had a disastrous experience in the war. Douglas Egerton examines the creation, war experience, and impact on the Union of three Black regiments, while Kelly Mezurek looks at one Black regiment and its members’ experiences during Reconstruction. Susannah Ural spotlights a famous Confederate brigade whose commitment stood strong throughout the war, despite suffering horrendous losses, as well as the soldiers’ families. David Mellott and Mark Snell consider an eastern calvary unit that kept its commitment to the Union despite suffering severe losses. Finally, Christopher Rein concentrates on a Union regiment that fought in a lightly focused theater far beyond the Mississippi River. Notably absent is a work on a unit of resilient midwesterners in the famed Army of the Tennessee. This undefeated army won at Shiloh, captured Vicksburg, aided in rescuing Chattanooga, was General Sherman’s force on his Meridian raid, helped capture Atlanta, and constituted half of the general’s army on his Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns, while instigating the Union’s hard war on the Confederacy. The Lead Mine Men fills this historiographic void.
This book is a comprehensive modern unit study of the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment’s service in the war, including the members’ postwar lives. Of prime importance are the soldiers’ experiences in camp, on the march, and in combat. Included is an analysis of the soldiers from demographic, social, political, and military perspectives, along with their views on slavery, emancipation, the arming of Black men, the South, Southerners, and key individuals in the war. By showing the men as they were, their good qualities as well as their human frailties and faults, this work on the Lead Mine men adds to our understanding of the Civil War soldiers, who by enlisting successfully saved their republic and ended slavery within its borders, and whose positive impact on their country lasts to this day.
The 45th’s creation in mid-1861 and its members' transformation into soldiers are detailed, followed by a demographic study of the men and a political study of their home counties. The book then provides a chronological narrative, from the regiment’s baptism into Civil War combat at Fort Donelson to its mustering out after the war’s end. It concludes by exploring how the surviving members went back to their civilian lives after the war and fought a war of words to secure their unit’s legacy.
[end of excerpt]
Cuprins
CONTENTS
List of Tables and Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Citizen to Soldier
2. The Men of the 45th
3. Down among the Secesh
4. Bloodied yet Unbroken
5. Willing Emancipators
6. On to Vicksburg
7. Sacrifice in the “Death Hole”
8. Veterans to Meridian, Home, and On to Atlanta
9. The End of a Hard War
10. Civilians Fighting with Words
Appendix A: The War’s Toll and Soldiers’ Misbehavior
Appendix B: Regimental Demographic Statistics
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Tables and Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Citizen to Soldier
2. The Men of the 45th
3. Down among the Secesh
4. Bloodied yet Unbroken
5. Willing Emancipators
6. On to Vicksburg
7. Sacrifice in the “Death Hole”
8. Veterans to Meridian, Home, and On to Atlanta
9. The End of a Hard War
10. Civilians Fighting with Words
Appendix A: The War’s Toll and Soldiers’ Misbehavior
Appendix B: Regimental Demographic Statistics
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Recenzii
"Mack has produced a comprehensive look at one of the hard-fighting and most celebrated regiments that served under Grant and Sherman in the Western Theater. He weaves a captivating and compelling story of these rugged soldiers—largely in their own words, from enlistment through four years of grueling war. He chronicles their experiences in battle, on the march, and camp life, and includes their transition back to civilian life at war’s end. In presenting these men in their patriotic fervor, faith, fears, and human frailties, he has produced an exemplary modern regimental study."—Terrence J. Winschel, author of Triumph Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, Vols. 1-2
"Often lost in the scholarship of generals and battles are the lives of everyday soldiers. Thomas Mack takes what at first appears to be just another northern regiment, and with clear prose and keen insight reminds us of how very diverse Civil War units often were. Because the Illinois Forty-fifth hailed from Republican counties, its young farmers supported emancipation, reenlisted in large numbers, and demonstrated astonishing courage at bloody battles like Shiloh. Elegantly written and deeply researched."—Douglas R. Egerton, author of Thunder At the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America
"Often lost in the scholarship of generals and battles are the lives of everyday soldiers. Thomas Mack takes what at first appears to be just another northern regiment, and with clear prose and keen insight reminds us of how very diverse Civil War units often were. Because the Illinois Forty-fifth hailed from Republican counties, its young farmers supported emancipation, reenlisted in large numbers, and demonstrated astonishing courage at bloody battles like Shiloh. Elegantly written and deeply researched."—Douglas R. Egerton, author of Thunder At the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America
Descriere
This comprehensive and engaging narrative explores the Civil War ordeals and triumphs of the “Lead Mine men,” the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, who hailed from eleven counties in northern Illinois. Thomas B. Mack uncovers the history on this unit of resilient midwesterners and how they brought hard-war to the Confederacy in 1862.