"History of Company K. 1st (Inft,) Penn'a Reserves" by H. N. Minnigh is a collection of events that took place within the Company K's history. As a sort of preservation of history, the book offers brief insights to keep them from being forgotten. Due to the goal of the initial book's publication, it is fortunate that literature conservation efforts have kept this collection from being lost to time.

Until its soldiers mustered out of service in mid-1864, the Pennsylvania Reserve Division was one of only a few one-state divisions in the Union army. Known as the Pennsylvania Reserves, or simply the Reserves, the division saw action in most of the major battles of the Civil War, including Mechanicsville, New Market Crossroads, Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House. This history chronicles the division's service from its organization in May 1861 through June 1864, when most of its soldiers reached the end of their service commitment. The book includes short biographical sketches, most with photographs, of the Reserves leadership. Throughout, excerpts from letters, journals, diaries, and books from more than 150 members of the Reserves provide a personal perspective on the action and reveal the human side of battle.

The focus of the book is a biographical telling of the civil war career of Colonel Tobias B. Kaufman. Colonel Kaufman has rightly been called one of the most illustrious of the civil war heroes of Central Pennsylvania by the well-known Pennsylvania civil war soldier and author J. Howard Wert. Kaufman rose from a private to a colonel during the war. Kaufman was a natural leader and a tough and courageous fighter. Kaufman fought in some fifteen major battles including Glendale, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. This biography features not only the career of Colonel Kaufman but also a summary history of his first regiment, the First Pennsylvania Reserves. Of particular interest in his personal career was his dramatic capture on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula and the heartwarming story of the return of his pistol by his Confederate captor some thirty years after the war.

The focus of the book is a biographical telling of the Civil War career of Colonel Tobias B. Kaufman. Colonel Kaufman has rightly been called "one of the most illustrious of the Civil War heroes of Central Pennsylvania" by the well-known Pennsylvania Civil War soldier and author, J. Howard Wert. Kaufman rose from a Private to a Colonel during the war. Kaufman was a natural leader and a tough and courageous fighter. Kaufman fought in some fifteen major battles including Glendale, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. This biography features not only the career of Colonel Kaufman, but also a summary history of his first regiment, the First Pennsylvania Reserves. Of particular interest in his personal career was his dramatic capture on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula and the heart-warming story of the return of his pistol by his Confederate captor some thirty years after the war.

After the guns of Manassas fell silent, the opposing armies grappled for position wondering what would come next. Popular history has us believe it was “All quiet along the Potomac.” Reality was altogether different. The fall and early winter of 1861 was a hotbed of activity that culminated in the December combat at Dranesville. The Union victory, although small when measured against what was to come, was sorely needed after the string of defeats at Bull Run, Wilson’s Creek, and Ball’s Bluff; it also helped shape many of the players in the bloody years to come. Ryan Quint’s Dranesville: A Northern Virginia Town in the Crossfire of a Forgotten Battle, December 20, 1861, is the first full history of that narrow but critically important slice of the war. No one knew what was coming, but soon civilians (sympathetic to both sides) were thrown into a spreading civil war of their own as neighbor turned on neighbor. In time, this style of warfare, on the home front and on the battlefield, reached the town of Dranesville in Fairfax County. This mostly forgotten story uses overlooked or underused sources to sweep readers along from the White House and Charleston’s Secession Hall to midnight ambushes and the climactic Dranesville action. A host of characters and commanders that would become household names cut their teeth during these months, including Generals J. E. B. Stuart and Edward Ord. The men of the Pennsylvania Reserves saw their baptism of fire at Dranesville, setting the Keystone State soldiers on a path to becoming one of the best combat units of the entire war. Though eclipsed by larger and bloodier battles, Dranesville remained a defining moment for many of its participants—soldiers and civilians alike—for the rest of their lives. Here for the first time, shared through the eyes of those who lived it, is the story of Dranesville and the early war in Northern Virginia.

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted only three days but involved more than 160,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. Seven thousand died outright on the battlefield; hundreds more later succumbed to their wounds. For each of these soldiers, family members somewhere waited anxiously. Some went to Gettysburg themselves in search of their wounded loved ones. Some were already present as soldiers themselves. In this book are extraordinary--and sometimes heartbreaking--stories of the strength of family ties during the Battle of Gettysburg. Excerpts from diaries, letters and other correspondence provide a firsthand account of the human drama of Gettsyburg on the battlefield and the home front.