149th Pennsylvania Infantry

The 149th Pennsylvania saw its one day of glory on July 1, 1863, when this young and untried regiment staged a magnificent defense at McPherson's farm. Although this bright promise quickly faded into more typical regimental experience, the story of the regiment's service under the indomitable Joshua Chamberlain remains worth telling. Drawing on the service records of more than 800 soldiers as well as diaries, letters, and other primary souces, this book details the 149th's battles from brigade to company level, from the charges at Gettsyburg to the assault at Petersburg. Focus is on the development, mood and character of a regiment as it undergoes changes in leadership, loss of reliable veterans and the increased individual desire for survival as brutal battles take their toll on mind and body. More than 50 photographs enhance the text.

At 12:00 a.m. on May 4, 1864, Ulysses s. Grant and George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac began crossing the Rapidan River in an effort to turn the strategic right flank of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Confederate reaction was swift. Richard E. Ewell’s Second Corps and Ambrose P. Hill’s Third Corps moved to meet the advancing Union infantry, artillery, and cavalry in the heavy terrain known simply as “The Wilderness,” a sprawling area of second growth scrub oak, brush, and gullies, interspersed with meandering creeks. Inside this difficult terrain one of the largest and bloodiest battles would consume two days and thousands of men. Nowhere to Run is the story of the men and their officers who fought and died in the horrific fighting. With John Michael Priest’s customary thoroughness, specially drawn maps, and extensive documentation, the reader will experience the battles just as the men themselves saw it, and wrote about it, from their own eyes and their own pens. “Farther to the rear, and closer to Germanna Ford, [Ambrose Burnside’s Federal] IX Corps band serenaded the troops whit patriotic airs while the soldiers waited for their coffee to boil. The veterans did not want to hear the selections the musicians had chosen. They insisted on ‘Home Sweet Home.’ The sight of so many playing cards strewn along the roadside led many of the men in the 45th Pennsylvania (Potter’s division) to think of their souls. Private William A. Roberts (Company K) listened to the melancholy strains of the John H. Payne favorite and solemnly observed veterans, like himself, crying unashamedly.”

Includes catalogs of accessions and special bibliographical supplements.

At least 107 men from the Bridgeville and South Fayette area perished while serving our country in the military as early as the Civil War and as recently as the Vietnam War. The book documents who they were, where they lived, who their parents and siblings were, the conflict in which they served, their branch of service, when and where they perished, and where they are buried or memorialized. However, it goes beyond these details by relating anecdotes and human interest stories concerning the casualties, their friends, and their families. The author shares his memories of the men who perished, the conflicts in which they served, and his family's connection to the various conflicts. Hundreds of men and women who contributed information to the author are acknowledged. The book unveils many interesting findings. For example, Alexander Asti perished with the Five Sullivan Brothers when the Japanese sank the light cruiser USS Juneau at Guadacanal during World War 2. Most importantly, it resurrects the memory of these men who sacrificed their lives to preserve our liberty and freedom!

The Civil War brought many forms of upheaval to America, not only in waking hours but also in the dark of night. Sleeplessness plagued the Union and Confederate armies, and dreams of war glided through the minds of Americans in both the North and South. Sometimes their nightly visions brought the horrors of the conflict vividly to life. But for others, nighttime was an escape from the hard realities of life and death in wartime. In this innovative new study, Jonathan W. White explores what dreams meant to Civil War–era Americans and what their dreams reveal about their experiences during the war. He shows how Americans grappled with their fears, desires, and struggles while they slept, and how their dreams helped them make sense of the confusion, despair, and loneliness that engulfed them. White takes readers into the deepest, darkest, and most intimate places of the Civil War, connecting the emotional experiences of soldiers and civilians to the broader history of the conflict, confirming what poets have known for centuries: there are some truths that are only revealed in the world of darkness.